The life of the Mayans was regulated by the cosmos and the movements of the celestial bodies. The Mayan astronomy it tends to connect the energies of the earth with the energies of the cosmos. The studies and discoveries made by the Mayans on the stars continue to surprise both scientists and laymen today.
Mayan astronomy
The Mayans studied the cosmos and the movements of the celestial bodies with the help of sundials, for this they built observatories whose openings directed the orbit of the planets. Being great astronomers and brilliant mathematicians, they captured their calculations and discoveries in "codices" of which only three remain since most were destroyed during the Spanish invasion. Based on their observations, they developed several calendars, some of which were very complex and extremely precise.
Thanks to this knowledge they were able to count the time to determine both the phases of the moon, the position of the sun at the time of eclipses, solstices and equinoxes, as well as the cycles of nature. They took advantage of these calculations to fix the dates of their most important ceremonies. His observations were directed primarily at Venus, but also at Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Pleiades, from which they say the cosmic Maya originated.
The Milky Way was of great importance to Mayan astronomy. According to the mythology of the Mayans, the Milky Way is the path that the souls take when they travel from the subterranean depths to the heavens beyond. Based on their astronomical calculations, taking into account the position of the planets, they discovered the point of intersection of the ecliptic with the Milky Way.
They called this point the Sacred Tree because of its shape. This led them to see that the moment the sun conjuncts this Sacred Tree represents an opening to a level of spiritual consciousness development, another dimension. The last conjunction occurred on the winter solstice of 2012, that is, December twenty-first, this date is the first day of a new cycle of five thousand two hundred years.
Mayan Cosmogony
According to the beliefs of the Mayans, there are thirteen heavens that are arranged in layers on earth and that are ruled by thirteen gods called Oxlahuntiku or the thirteen lords of the overworld. The earth is supported by a huge crocodile or a huge reptile that floats on the ocean. There are nine subterranean worlds, also layered, and ruled by nine gods, the Bolon Tiku, the nine lords of time and destiny, who rule in endless succession over a "cycle" or "week" of nine nights.
The Mayans consider time as a series of cycles that have neither beginning nor end, which are interrupted by catastrophes or cataclysms that represent the return to primordial chaos. These cycles, as well as the world will never end, because the Mayans also believe in palingenesis, the cyclical rebirth or regeneration of the universe. These cycles of destruction and rebirth are exposed in the predictions found in the books that make up the Chilam Balam.
In the Chilam Balam is the prediction, for example, that recounts the revolt of the nine gods against the thirteen heavenly gods, the theft of the great Serpent, the collapse of the firmament and the sinking of the earth. Also in the Chilam Balam it is said that in 1541 the dzules, the foreigners, arrived.
Until then, "the time of the goodness of the sun, of the lattice formed by the stars, from where the gods contemplate us" had been measured, but the dzules arrived and put an end to everything. "They taught fear, they withered the flowers, they sucked until they killed the flower of others so that their own might live": they had come "to castrate the Sun."
For the Mayans, the cosmos is divided into three levels and these levels in turn are divided into four corners. At the highest level is the celestial dome, which is supported by four deities called bacab, at this level the main astronomical phenomena occur, especially the daily path of the sun during the day. The life of men occurs at the next level on earth, which is a large square surface with each corner directed to a cardinal point supported by Pauahtun, the fourfold nature god.
The lowest level is Xibalbá, which is the subterranean world ruled by the divinities of illness and death: Hun Camé and Vucub Camé. There, every day the sun, after its tour of the celestial dome, wages a formidable battle with the infernal deities and other beings of the underworld until it defeats them and resumes its celestial journey.
European Calendar and Mayan Calendar
The Julian calendar, decreed by the Roman emperor Julius Caesar in the forty-sixth year before Christ, divided the year into twelve months with approximately thirty days each to reach 365, plus a leap year with 366, thus the calendar year would contain 365,25 days. But the solar year has 365,2422 days, so the year 1582 saw a big difference between the winter solstice and Christmas and the spring equinox and Easter.
To remedy this discrepancy, Pope Gregory XIII, with the advice of the Italian astronomer Luis Lilio, established what is known as the Gregorian calendar, abolishing the days between October 1582 and 1700, 1800 and thereby also reinstated leap years to the calendar. . He also lost three days every four centuries by decreeing that centuries are only leap years if they are divisible by four hundred. So, for example, 1900, 1600, and 2000 are not leap years, but XNUMX and XNUMX are.
Currently the dates before the year forty-six a. C. converted to the Julian calendar. This is the proleptic Julian calendar. Astronomical calculations return a year zero, and years before that year are negative numbers. This is astronomical dating. There is no year zero in historical dating. In historical dating, the year one BC is followed by the year one after Christ, for example, the year −3113 (astronomical dating) is the same as 3114 BC (historical dating).
The cult of time and calendars was a constant within the Mayan society, the passage of time was conceived as a matter of the gods, they would have invented the calendar and later they would have given it to the human being to organize all activity in the community . In classical times, many calendars were used, such as the lunar, the Venusian, two solar, the Haab, Tzolk'in and the Long Count.
The calendars not only tell us about their impeccable scientific precision but also about their religious traditions and beliefs. The reference to a specific date within cosmic time, including information about the lunar phase, celestial phenomena and the Lord of the night that reigned at that precise moment.
In the cosmogram of the Madrid Codex it is observed how the calendar is intrinsically related to the creation of life. In the center there are two divinities that represent the God of the Moon and the Sun (divine duality). For the Mayans, time itself is a sacred energy, responsible for the balance of the world, where everything originates and where everything flows (Craveri, 2013). Time is the original source of the cosmic flow, therefore the calendar is also sacred, as it is responsible for and bearer of time.
This allows us to affirm that the calendar is a bridge built for the historical record between the time of men and cosmic time. This is how the creation of the world is recounted in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel:
“Nopuc Tun, Great Solar Priest, recounted that, when the world had not awakened in the past, the month was born and began to walk alone. He was born the month, was also born the name of the day and created the sky and the earth, in stages: water, earth, stones and trees. And he created the things of the sea and the Earth.”
Within the Mayan conception, time arose before the world and before people. Time was born, it was not created by the divinities, as the rest of the things on Earth were. This difference reflects that time itself is divine, since no one creates it, but rather makes itself.
The calendar also had a divinatory or prediction function, and was used by the augural priests to carry out different rituals. The most important decisions were made based on the favorable energies or not of the Tzolk'in, for that reason the influence of the calendar within the life of the population was unquestionable: to celebrate a marriage bond, to build a home or a monument in honor to the ruler, to sow and harvest or when a child came into the world, the sacred calendar was used.
The creation of the calendar governs the civil time of men, it is the one that regulates social activities. The Haab, approaching the tropical year of three hundred and sixty-five days, was linked to seasonal cycles, to dry periods and rainy periods. Therefore, through this calendrical system, the priests regulated the agricultural activities that depended on the energy of the Sun to complete their own cycle. This implies a cycle of birth, growth and death, which in turn symbolizes life and change (Craveri, 2013).
The role played by any civil calendar is limited to official and administrative purposes, through which the most relevant historical dates are commemorated. An example of this is Stela A of Copán, where the date of the ascension to power of the ruler is engraved. Through the interweaving of the signaling of historical events, the collective memory of the community is created.
The civil calendar indicated any social event that should be celebrated, whether they were sacred rites to venerate the gods, celebrations in honor of the rulers of the city, commemorations of the battles that took place in the days gone by of their ancestors or other local festivals. But above all it was useful for programming agricultural activities within the annual cycle.
The difference between the ritual calendar and the civil calendar is that the latter does not work on the possibilities according to divine or astral designs, but rather marks the exact beginning and end of specific dates. Fixing them will depend on celestial phenomena —those that influence environmental changes— and the will and interests of the ruling elite.
The calendar developed by the Mayans was very sophisticated. The Mayan calendar was developed in Mesoamerica and had two hundred and sixty days. In this calendar, each day was given a name, just as we give each day of the week a name. There was a name for one of the twenty days and each day was assigned a unique symbol. The days were numbered from one to thirteen, as there were twenty days and the numbering reached up to thirteen, upon reaching the thirteenth day, the next day was numbered one.
Throughout Mesoamerica the sacred calendar of counting two hundred and sixty days was in use for many centuries, it is very likely that it was used even before the invention of writing.
Mayan day names and their probable meanings are: Imix (Water Lily), Chuwen (Frog), Ik (Wind), Eb (Skull), Ak'bal (Night), Ben (Corn Stalk), K' an (Corn), Ix (Jaguar), Chicchan (Snake). Men (Eagle), Kimi (Death's Head), Kib (Shell), Manik (Hand), Kaban (Earth), Lamat (Venus), Etz'nab (Flint), Muluk (Water), Kawak (Storm Cloud ), Okay (Dog), Ahaw (Sir).
The Mayans also worked out an approximate solar year that lasted three hundred and sixty-five days each year. Because they did not know the use of fractions, the remaining quarter of a day each year caused their calendar to deviate from the actual solar year. In this year of three hundred and sixty-five days there were eighteen months with a count that with the numbers from zero to nineteen, so that the count goes from zero pohp (name of the first month) to nineteen pohp, then continues with zero wo (name of the second month).
The names of the months and their probable meanings that could be deduced) are: Pohp (Mat), Yax (Green), Wo (?), Zak (White), Sip (??), Keh (Red), Sotz (Bat ), Mak (??), Sek (??), K'ank'in (??), Xul (Dog), Muwan (Owl), Yaxk'in (New Sun), Pax (??), Mol ( Water), K'ayab (Turtle), Ch'en (Black), Kumk'u (??). To the eighteen regular months, the Mayans added a special five-day month called Wayeb made up of five days that had no assigned name.
The Mayans also used special glyphs that indicate periods of time. A Kin represented a day; The Winans represent a period of twenty days, similar to what we call a month; a Tun corresponds to a period of one year of three hundred and sixty days and the K'atun which is a period of twenty years of three hundred and sixty days each. The end of K'atun was a special period of time celebrated by the Mayans. It has its parallel in the modern world to the period of time we call a decade.
The Mayans also counted 400-year periods called Baktuns. The Mayans used these time periods in a special day count now called a long count.
Today a typical Long Count date is written like this: 9.14.12.2.17. This represents nine baktuns, fourteen katuns, twelve tuns, two winals, and seventeen k'ins.
Peculiarities of Mayan Astronomy
The Mayan solar calendar was more precise than the one we use today. All the cities of the classical period are oriented with respect to the movement of the celestial dome. Many buildings were built for the purpose of witnessing celestial phenomena from Earth.
This is how the Castle of Chichén Itzá, where the descent of Kukulkan, a snake formed by the shadows that are created at the vertices of the building during the solstices, is observed.
The four stairs of the building total three hundred and sixty-five steps, each step represents a day of the year. In the Dresden Codex and in numerous stelae are the calculations of the lunar, solar, Venusian cycles and the periodicity tables of the eclipses.
The Mayans determined the order and dates of historical events using a complex calendrical system. For the Mayans, the beginning of the year was when the sun crossed the zenith, that is, on July XNUMX, and it lasted three hundred and sixty-five days; of these three hundred and sixty-four were grouped into twenty-eight weeks that each had thirteen days and the year began on day three hundred and sixty-five.
In addition to the above, three hundred and sixty days were divided into eighteen months that each had twenty days. The weeks and months passed sequentially and independently of each other. Even so, they always started on exactly the same day, that is, once every two hundred and sixty days, a figure that is a multiple of both thirteen (for the week) and twenty (for the month). The Mayan calendar, although very complex, was the most accurate known until the appearance of the Gregorian calendar in the XNUMXth century.
Mayan astronomy was fully realized. Unlike European astronomers, Mayan astronomy focused its interest on the study of the movement of the sun above its latitude. Every year the sun travels to its summer solstice point, or the latitude of 23-1/3 degrees north, and south of that latitude most of the Mayan cities were located, meaning they had the advantage of see the sun directly above them for as long as it was above their latitude, which was twice a year.
Since there was no shadow at midday, Mayan astronomy could very easily determine those days. Observations of the passage through the zenith are possible only in the tropics and were completely unknown to the Spanish conquerors who descended on the Yucatan peninsula in the sixteenth century. The Mayans had a god that represented this position of the sun, called the god of the jump.
The Mayans were great scholars of the sky, they calculated the movement of the stars and measured time. The calendrical computations and the planetary movements in Mayan astronomy were more precise than the European ones of the time before the Spanish conquest. Copán, Palenque and Quiriguá were important centers dedicated to astronomy. In the 365th century in Copán, they managed to determine the real year to which they attribute a duration of 2420 days, the current calculation places the year at 365,2422 days.
The inscription corresponding to these calculations is found on Altar Q, which indicates the date corresponding to the year 776 AD On Stela M, the base of the stairs of temple 26 of Copán, the date 9.16.5.0.0 is found, which corresponds to 756 AD. more relevant was the determination of the movement of Venus, obtaining an average of five hundred and eighty-four days for the synodic period.
In about the XNUMXth century, the Mayans made much the same calculations on the length of the year. In Copan, to determine the length of the tropical year, the Maya used lunar formulas and corrections from the fifteen katun.
Copan Stela A contains a Metonic cycle of two hundred and thirty-five moons in nineteen years, similar to the one described in the lunar eclipse table of the Dresden Codex. According to lunar formulas, 149 moons equals 4400 days and 235 moons equals 19 years, so one moon equals 29 days, 53020134 moons equals 235 days equals nineteen years. So a year would be equal to 6.939,597315 or 365,241964 days.
Venus
In Mayan astronomy Venus was the object of greatest interest, surpassing even the sun. Mayan astronomy studied the movements of Venus very carefully as it moved through the seasons. Thanks to these observations they discovered that the Earth and Venus took 584 days to coincide in the same position with respect to the sun. They also found that it takes approximately 2.922 days for the Earth, Sun, Venus, and stars to coincide.
In Mayan astronomy they noted that Venus could not be seen from Earth at the time when the pattern of Venus is considered inferior conjunction, when it passes between Earth and the Sun. Venus disappears for a short period of time of approximately eight days. Then Venus appears again in the morning sky together with the Sun as it leaves inferior conjunction. This position, because it rises together with the sun, is called heliacal ortho and for Mayan astronomy it was the most important position of Venus.
Just after rising Venus achieves its most intense brightness. It will then move rapidly westward away from the Sun in a retrograde motion. Later it will be possible to continue observing it in the dawn sky for about two hundred and sixty days until it reaches the superior conjunction. At this point Venus will be on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth, becoming dim, until it dips below the horizon, only to appear on the opposite side of the Sun an average of fifty days later.+
Venus then rises as an evening star and remains in the night sky for about XNUMX days until it passes through its eastern elongation point and attains its brightest before reaching inferior conjunction again, starting the cycle all over again.
Mayan astronomy had Venus under constant observation and they considered its position very seriously for making big decisions. It has been shown that the Mayans programmed their wars based on the stationary points of Venus and Jupiter. Human sacrifices were made after superior conjunction when Venus was at its lowest magnitude, because they feared the first heliacal rising after inferior conjunction.
In a Mayan calendar that appears in the Dresden Code the cycle of Venus is fully detailed. In Mayan astronomy, they calculated five series of five hundred and eighty-four days, that is, 2.920 days that are close to eight years or, what is the same, five repetitions of the cycle of Venus.
Venus is Quetzalcóatl, the Lord of the Dawn, as it is shown in the Teotihuacán frescoes, and in the Dresden Codex, whose glyph is observed on the head of the descending god. Many specialists agree that in the Dresden Codex there is evidence that the sidereal periods of the planets were known in Mayan astronomy. If so, this would imply that heliocentric motions in the Solar System were known.
Venus was known in Mayan astronomy as Nok Ek (the great star) and was also known as Xux Ek (the wasp star). The synodic revolution of Venus, that is, the time that elapses between two passages of the planet in front of or behind the Sun, from the point of view of the Earth) has an oscillation that varies from 580 to 588 days (583.92 days). The calculations carried out by the Mayans placed it in 584 days on average. In other words, this means that the alignments between the Sun, the Earth and Venus are repeated every five hundred and eighty-four days.
In Mayan astronomy, adjustments were made to their calculations of many years, thus achieving great precision, as can be seen in the Dresden Codex.
The study of Venus was the key to the Mayan mathematical system and astronomy. Synodic revolution of Venus was a reference for all calendars. In the Venus-Sun correlation of 2.920 days, five Venusian years equaled eight solar years of 365 days. The number thirteen is closely related to the Venus count. Thirteen is the sacred week, it is the sum of five plus eight that corresponds to the Venus correlation with the Sun, also multiplied by twenty is the calendar of two hundred and sixty days.
The number twenty in the Mayan numerical system is related to the synodic revolution of Venus, twenty times the correlation between Venus and the Sun gives exactly one hundred synodic revolutions of Venus. The Venus tables indicated in the Dresden Codex show four sections referring to the appearance and disappearance of Venus, as well as its superior and inferior conjunction. The calendar of Venus is also displayed in three different ones, each one of sixty-five synodic revolutions or equal to one hundred and four calendar years of three hundred and sixty-five days.
The cycles of Venus through the celestial dome were very well documented in Mayan astronomy. The cycle is two hundred and forty-three years in which the planet performs four steps. The last one occurred on June 2012, 1040. There are two records, one corresponding to the year 1145 in Cotzumalhuapa, Guatemala and the other, in XNUMX painted in the Temple of the Owl in Chichén Itzá.
The Sun
Mayan astronomy also placed great importance on the Sun. The Mayans closely watched the Sun throughout the year as it made its way along the horizon. At Chichen Itza, on the Yucatan Peninsula, at sunset, a serpent of the stars rises up the side of the pyramid stairway called El Castillo on the day of the spring and fall equinoxes. This indicates that the Mayans noted not only the extremes of the sun at the solstices, but also the equinoxes when the sun appeared to rise in the east or west.
La Luna
The moon was also present in the calendar inscriptions belonging to Mayan astronomy. The lunar count was based on twenty-nine or thirty days. After obtaining the pertinent information on the date according to the Mayan calendar, it is noted that the typical Mayan inscriptions contain a lunar reckoning.
The moon's orbital period is close to 29,5 days, so by alternating its count between these two numbers, the moon also blended neatly into the calendar sequence. Their lunar knowledge was impressive because they also made predictions of eclipses, an almanac to predict them is contained in the Dresden Codex.
The current duration of the orbital period of the moon is 29,53059 days, although there are discrepancies due to the fact that there is no uniformity in the apparent movements of the Sun and the Moon. The Mayans did not know the use of numerical fractions. After long periods of calculation they found an approximate relationship, three moons almost giving 59 days; six moons almost give 177 days; seventeen moons almost give 502 days; twenty-one moons almost give 620 days.
In the inscription on the staircase of House C of the Palace of Palenque, there is an inscription from 603 AD that adds the amount of 4.193 days, equivalent to almost one hundred and forty-two moons, for a mean orbital period of the moon of 29,528 days. Palenque developed the factor of eighty-one moons corresponding to 2.392 days, so that one moon was equivalent to 29.533086.
The formula developed by Copán allowed the moons to be grouped into groups of six, a change made in 692 AD that was generalized in Motagua, Petén and Usumacinta. A group of six moons forms half of a natural lunar year of 254 or 355 days. Every lunar count begins with the new Moon. The count of natural lunar years was widely used by the Maya in extensive astronomical calculations.
In AD 756 Copán introduced another important change. On Stela M, five moons were noted for a date when the other cities had recorded six. This represented the change from the lunar year of twelve moons to a system of lunar eclipses beginning every half year, and thus must use a group of five moons instead of six.
The Dresden Codex gives a table of five moons and six arranged so that each group begins and ends near an ecliptic conjunction. The table covers a period of thirty-three years. It is considered probable that around 756 AD the knowledge of eclipses allowed the construction of lunar tables.
the ecliptic
The ecliptic is the curved line through which the Sun travels around the Earth, in its apparent motion as seen from Earth. In Mayan astronomy, the ecliptic is represented as a two-headed serpent. The path of the Sun in the sky that is marked by the constellations of fixed stars. Here you can find the moon and the planets because they are linked, like the Earth, to the sun. The constellations of the ecliptic are also called the zodiac.
In the constellations of Mayan astronomy there is a scorpion, which could be equated with the constellation of Scorpio, to form the scorpion the claws of Libra were used. Gemini is presented by the Mayans as a pig or a peccary. Some other constellations of the ecliptic are identified as a jaguar, at least a snake, a bat, a turtle, a xoc monster, which in Mayan mythology was a shark or a sea monster. The Pleiades was seen as the tail of the rattlesnake and is called "Tz'ab".
The Pleiades
The Pleiades are a group of stars that had outstanding importance for all of Mesoamerica. With the naked eye they could observe its appearance and disappearance with special interest because it was decisive to start certain agricultural tasks. The Mayans called them tzab “rattlesnake tail”, because of their group formation.
The first appearance in the sky of this astronomical set signaled the beginning of the rainy season and the migration of birds and therefore determines abundance or scarcity. Thus, for example, hunters could learn about the migrations of their prey based on changes in weather.
The Milky Way
In Mayan astronomy they knew the Milky Way by the name of Wakah Chan, where Wakah means "upright" and Chan "serpent". The Milky Way was also represented as a lush, tall and majestic Ceiba tree called The World Tree. When Sagittarius was high above the horizon the World Tree stood erect, then it rose above the horizon and rose to the north. The World Tree was at the zenith at that time, when Sagittarius is above the horizon and crosses the meridian.
Wakah Chan was fundamental in his mythology of creation, and also in his conception of the origin of the universe; the cycles of the Milky Way were an axis, both to measure time, and to celebrate the preservation of life; somehow it was a compass of his own appearance and preservation on Earth.
eclipses
The tables found on page fifty-one and page fifty-eight of the Dresden Codex report all solar eclipses and many of the lunar eclipses without specifying which ones will be seen in the area occupied by the Maya. The codex tables cover approximately thirty-three years, that is, about four hundred and five lunations. These tables were specially designed to be reused and contain a periodic correction scheme.
The tables referring to eclipses found in the Dresden Codex start from the XNUMXth century and thanks to their design they could be used until the XNUMXth century. The table also relates eclipses and lunar phenomena to the cycles of Venus and possibly Mercury and other celestial and seasonal phenomena.
On pages fifty-one and fifty-eight of the Dresden Codex there are listed four hundred and five consecutive lunations grouped into sixty-nine separate groups, sixty of which are made up of six lunations each and nine of five lunations. The first lunations add up to one hundred and seventy-seven or one hundred and seventy-nine days, due to the interpolations of months of thirty days between those of twenty-nine). In the last days of each group an eclipse of the Sun occurred.
British archaeologist John Eric Sidney Thompson indicated that the dates of the beginning and the end of the eclipse tables are possibly 10.12.16.14.8, that is, 1083 AD and 16.14.10.0.8, which would be 1116 AD, therefore, it could be dated to the first version of the Dresden Codex around the XNUMXth century.
Mayan astronomy, according to Noriega, managed to arrive at five formulas for the prediction of eclipses, expressed in the Dresden Codex. Such formulas are:
The first formula would be El Saros, a cycle of repetition of eclipses of the Sun and Moon in a period of eighteen years plus ten or eleven days, known in the old world and attributed to the Chaldeans. This cycle corresponds to two hundred and twenty-three lunations in a period of 6585.32 days and is inscribed on page number fifty-two, section B of the Dresden Codex and also appears in the fourth circle of the "Sun Stone".
The second formula refers to the cycle of alternate eclipses of the Sun and the Moon that take place in periods of thirty years of three hundred and sixty 360 days each. This period corresponds to 158.5 lunations occurring in 4680 days and is recorded on page fifty-eight of the Dresden Codex. In this number of days, six synodic revolutions of Venus, 158.5 lunations and seven consecutive eclipses of the Sun and Moon occur in the same place.
The third formula is based on the alternate cycles of Sun and Moon that take place in periods of 7280 days and that correspond to 246.5 lunations, also shown on page number fifty-eight of the Dresden Codex. The fourth formula refers to a cycle of repetition of eclipses that has a period of 450 lunations and is the sum of the two previous ones. This cycle made in 11,958 days is also recorded in the Dresden Codex.
Finally, the fifth formula is based on the triple Saros cycle, formed over the course of six hundred and sixty-nine lunations, observed in the second circle of the Stone of the Sun. This triple Saros of fifty-four years was also known to the Maya. In the Madrid Codex it is related how eclipses affect the cycles of rain and drought in the agricultural field. Almanacs similar to the Dresden Codex tables appear on page ten and page thirteen.
Other Observations
The rites and ceremonies of Mayan astronomy received a great influence from the different celestial bodies. In the different texts and inscriptions available, references have been found to Venus, the Moon, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Scorpio, Orion and the Milky Way. It is not known with precision that the Mayans have observed other stars, some researchers deny that they have been able to calculate the movement of other planets and even deny that some of the Dresden Codex tables refer to Mars.
Others think differently based on the Codex's references to planetary symbols and scenes that appear in the manuscript. In fact, due to its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is difficult to observe, although other civilizations managed to do so. The German historian Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann found in the Dresden Codex the correlation of the synodic revolution of Mercury calculated at a rate of one hundred fifty-five days with the sacred calendar, through the number 11.960 on pages 24, 25 and 52 of the Dresden Codex. Dresden.
This number also correlates to the count of four hundred and five moons. On page fifty-nine there is a count that represents five times the number 11.960. So Mercury's calculations correlate with those of other planets. Förstemann himself points out that references to Mars are indicated on pages 24, 38, 41, 43, 59 and 64 of the Dresden Codex.
In addition, on page fifty-nine there are two large numbers: 1.426.360 and 1.386.580 whose difference of 39.780 is equivalent to fifty-one synodic revolutions of Mars, each of seven hundred and eighty days.
The three hundred and ninety-nine days of the synodic revolutions of Jupiter and the three hundred and seventy-eight of Saturn are cited several times in the accounts of the Dresden Codex. On page seventy there is a calculated number of 4914 days corresponding to thirteen Saturn returns. On page seventy-two is the count of this planet with 378 days. Other references are indicated from page fifty-two to page fifty-eight of the Codex.
Regarding the observation of constellations and stars, there is a lack of sufficient information. It is known, however, that the Pleiades, known as the Tzab (rattlesnake) were observed according to various existing records. The Gemini constellation was known as the tortoise. In the codices there are several representations of the Polar star.
The Cassiopeia constellation was surely observed as it is considered the guide of walkers. With all certainty, the Milky Way was observed, as well as the constellations of Orion and the Big Dipper, as well as the stars Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius, visible to the naked eye.
Mayan codices
The Mayan codices are sets of sheets or notebooks written in Mayan script by the scribes of the pre-Columbian Mayan civilization. These codices were given the names of the cities in which they are now kept: Dresden, Madrid, Paris, and Mexico. The Dresden Codex is generally considered the most important of the four.
During the Spanish conquest of Yucatán in the 1562th century, there were many similar books that were later destroyed on a large scale by the conquistadors and priests. Thus, the destruction of all the books present in Yucatan was ordered by Bishop Diego de Landa in July XNUMX. These codices, as well as the numerous inscriptions on monuments and stelae that are still preserved today, constituted the written archives of the Mayan civilization.
On the other hand, it is very likely that the variety of themes they treated differed significantly from the themes preserved in stone and in buildings; With its destruction, the possibility of glimpses of key areas of Mayan life has been lost. Only four codices have survived: the Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex, the Paris Codex, and the Grolier Codex (fragment).
The Dresden Codex
The Dresden Codex is the most advanced of the four extant codices. This codex is a calendar where all the days of the year and the gods with which they are related are presented. It details the Mayan calendar and its numbering system. The codex is written on a long strip of amate paper folded like an accordion to make up a book of thirty-nine double-sided sheets.
It is estimated that it was written by several scribes, five or eight according to the specialists who examined it, shortly before the Spanish conquest. It reappears in Europe where the Royal Court Library of Saxony acquired it in 1739. It is kept in the State and University Library of Saxony in Dresden
The Madrid Codex
The Madrid codex deals with the horoscope and astrology tables. According to history, it was Hernán Cortes himself who sent him to the royal court of Spain. It has one hundred and twelve pages, which are separated into two sections, known as the Codex Troano and the Codex Cortesiano. Both sections were reunited in 1888. It is preserved in the Museo de América in Madrid, Spain.
The Paris Codex
The Paris codex was found in the National Library of France in 1859 by Léon de Rosny in a very sorry state. It is still preserved in the Mexican Fund (Fonds Mexicain) of the National Library of France and is jealously guarded without public display, however it has been possible to study thanks to copies of the document. The Paris codex is made up of eleven pages, of which the details have been completely erased from two and the central glyphs from the rest have been preserved but those from the margins have been erased.
According to Bruce Love's work entitled "The Paris Codex: Manual for a Mayan Priest" published in 1994, its theme refers to ritual issues, corresponding to the gods and their ceremonies, prophecies, calendar of ceremonies and a zodiac divided into three hundred sixty-four days.
The Grolier Codex
The Grolier Codex is now known as the Mayan Codex of Mexico, it emerged in the 1970s when scholars already knew, since the 2016th century, about the existence of the previous three. The authenticity of this fourth Mayan codex was initially questioned. It was not formally authenticated until XNUMX by Professor Stephen Houston of Brown University and his team.
This is an eleven-page fragment believed to have been found in a cave in the Chiapas highlands in 1965. Its pages are much less complex than those of other codices. Each features a god facing left. The top of each page is marked with a number, while the bottom left apparently has a list of dates. It is kept in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City which does not exhibit it to the public, but photos can be found on the internet.
mayan stelae
Mayan stelae are monuments that have been carved by artists from the Mayan civilization of Mesoamerica. These stelae are elongated stones, often wider than thick, that have been carved and placed vertically, they have been carved most of the time in low relief, but we also find some in high relief, and even some inscriptions in white. They are often associated with circular stones called altars, although their actual function is uncertain.
The stelae that the Mayans erected in large numbers had a long count date carved on them and usually used to have a complementary series that contained data referring to the moon, such as the number of days in the specific lunar period, the length of the lunation and the number of lunations in series of six. Some included a count of eight hundred and nineteen days that could be associated with the count of days in a cycle associated with Jupiter.
Some other astronomical events were recorded, for example, the eclipse warning at Quiriguá Stela E – 9.17.0.0.0. A partial solar eclipse was visible in Mesoamerica two days later on 17.17.0.0.2, that is, on Friday, January 771, XNUMX.
Observatories in Mayan Astronomy
The Mayan astronomical observatories were above all a kind of oracle, place of prayer and temple. For the Mayans, recording the movements of celestial objects was a way of expressing the will of the gods. By studying the movements of the stars, the Mayans were able to develop their calendars and the alignment of a space body with a building was a warning that an important date was approaching.
The importance and social role it had in Mesoamerica was reflected in architecture and, especially in the area of Mayan astronomy, the observation of the sky. The architectural constructions associated with sacred and civil structures, in addition to underlining the advanced knowledge of the master builders of the community, constituted the palpable demonstration of power by the ruler. These buildings were intentionally oriented based on astronomical criteria and previous topographical studies.
The Mayans built buildings in the form of pyramids and platforms were used to carry out political and religious activities but also served as markers or reference points that indicate the sunrise and sunset, as well as the movements of stars such as the Moon and Venus. As the archaeologist specializing in Mayan archeology and astronomy Orlando Casares Contreras explains:
«A point to observe the movement of the Sun can be an entrance to a temple, an alfarda. Lights and shadows produced by the movement of the Sun, Venus or the Moon are projected on walls, stairways, niches, paths and even wall paintings of hundreds of Mayan buildings. With these ephemeral marks this ancient civilization made time visible and identify when to sow and harvest»
Jesús Galindo, archaeoastronomer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), explained «The alignments of light on the buildings occur not to indicate a phenomenon in the sky, they are scenographies to signal to men that some significant date is approaching; in this way they organized their activities and their economic, social and religious life».
As an example of this statement, Jesús Galindo says that plays of light and shadow projected on the buildings of various places in Mesoamerica have been identified on the dates of April twenty-ninth and August thirteenth. Although no relevant solar phenomenon is recorded on those days, the sun is aligned in the different structures. The function of these dates is to divide the year of three hundred and sixty-five days into two parts.
He indicated that such a case can be seen in the upper Temple of the Jaguars of the Great Ball Court of Chichen Itza and the central window of the Caracol (the Observatory) of the same Mayan city of Yucatan; the Building of the Five Floors of Edzná, in Campeche and, outside the Mayan area, the Pyramid of the Sun, in Teotihuacán, State of Mexico.
For Galindo Trejo, the astronomically oriented buildings were invested with ritual symbolism, since, when aligned, it was shown that they were related to the basic principles of the calendar and harmonized with the will of the divinities. It was a kind of cosmic clocks. In addition, the ruler who ordered the monumental construction to be carried out appeared before his people showing that both the building and himself received the favor of the gods.
Mayan astronomy observations were made with the naked eye or with precarious instruments now unknown. Something similar happened with other civilizations. It was not until the XNUMXth century, with Galileo Galilei, that the telescope began to be used for observations of the sky. Even so, the people of Mesoamerica had astronomical observatories such as the so-called "horizon structure". Such is the case of group E of Uaxactún or the so-called "Caracol" of Chichén Itzá. The existence of observatories is revealed in various Mayan codices.
Among the various orientations, there are very numerous throughout Mesoamerica and in the Mayan area in particular, those that point towards the heliacal sunset on October 1986 and February 2012, a clear example of which is the Preclassic site of El Mirador (Guatemala). ), House E of the Palace of Palenque (Chiapas), the Superior Temple of the Jaguars of the Great Game Court of Chichén Itzá, in the Observatory of El Caracol, and in the Casa Colorada of Chichén Itzá (Aveni and Hartung, 2016 ; Sprajc and Sánchez Nava, XNUMX; Galindo Trejo, XNUMX).
The first date, October twenty-ninth, marks the fifty-two days until the Sun reaches its extreme position in the south, during the winter solstice. Once this event is celebrated, fifty-two more days have to pass to reach the date of February XNUMX.
From this last date to the following October twenty-ninth, exactly two hundred and sixty days pass. Therefore, Mayan architects and astronomers used the winter solstice as a natural pivot to count the days, framing it between those dates.
The observatories with lunar orientations within the Mayan astronomy can be observed on the island of Cozumel, considered "tollan", that is, pilgrimage center of the Yucatan Peninsula during the Epiclassic and Postclassic from the year 900 to the year 1519 AD, ( Patell, 2016). On this island, the buildings of San Gervasio, Grupo Manitas; Group Sixty-Four Central; The Ramonal Group; Buena Vista and The Expedition.
Each of these buildings exhibits lunar orientations, predominating the signaling of the waning Moon. It reached its northern extremities near the winter solstice, and towards the summer solstice it reached its southern extremities. For the peninsular Mayans, the disappearance of the waning Moon in the east indicated the moment of pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Ixchel.
In various buildings of San Gervasio you can see the orientations towards the values reached by the Sun in the June and December solstices. In the city of El Mirador (Guatemala), alignment patterns have also been found with respect to solstitial sunsets (Sprajc, Morales Aguilar and Hansen, 2009).
Although, perhaps the most relevant example is that of the El Caracol Observatory in Chichen Itza. This circular building erected on two platforms has a series of windows, the top three as well as the vertices of both platforms indicate the positions of the Sun on the horizon during the most important dates: the solstices and equinoxes, in addition to the positions it reaches Venus at its extremes on the celestial vault (Galindo Trejo, 2006).
There is much evidence that Copan, in Honduras, was a center of great importance for Mayan astronomy. From the data on Stela A there, it was possible to determine the calendar with great precision, year 731. On Stela M eclipses are found for the first time with the arrangement of moons in groups of five and six, year 756. In 763, the Temple twenty-two was dedicated to Venus with corrections for the synodic period, and Temple eleven was probably dedicated to eclipse tables.
Copan's (AD 731) calculation for the length of the actual year was 365,2420 days (the current value is 365.2422, so there is only a difference of one ten-thousandth of a day). Copán, palenque and Quiriguá were the places where the duration of the tropical year was determined. The lunation determined by Copán (AD 699) was 29,53020 days (current calculation is 29 days) and that of Palenque was 53059 days.
Regarding the synodic revolution of Venus, the calculation of Copan (763 AD) with a correction of less than one day every six thousand years, was 583.92, the same as the current value.
In ancient Mexico, meetings were held to adjust the data determined for the calendar and perhaps to discuss various astronomical observations. This is evidenced in Xochicalco and Copan. Copán Altar Q is a stone block placed in front of the Temple 16 pyramid with carved sculptural expressions. Sixteen figures are sculpted, reminiscent of a meeting of astronomers that took place in the XNUMXth century.
Human figures are seen on Altar T in a similar arrangement. In the stairway that leads to the first Temple of the Acropolis, in Copán is also the longest Mayan inscription consisting of fifteen hundred hieroglyphs.
The zenith passage of the Sun is another of the astronomical phenomena that is related to architectural alignments. Tulum's Temple Five is a good example of this and served to associate the temple with the solar divinity. The representations of Kin and Ixchel in the mural paintings are still preserved in it. Building P in Monte Albán (Oaxaca) is another zenithal observatory: Under the main staircase there is a dark chamber with a minimal opening that only lets in the sun's rays from April 17 to August 25.
These dates frame the Sun when it reaches its zenith at noon during the summer solstice and the two are separated in time from this phenomenon by sixty-five days. This is because the Zapotec culture divided the calendar of two hundred and sixty days into four periods of sixty-five days, called "cocijo" (Galindo Trejo, 2006).
Another example of architectural orientation towards the solar zenith is found in the Pyramid of the Magician in Uxmal, the exterior structures of the building are oriented towards the dates of May twenty-second and June twenty-second, which correspond to the passages of the sun through the zenith at the latitude of Uxmal (Aveni and Hartung, 1986)
Here are some links of interest: