|
Maya Astronomy
|
Sky Glyph |
Skywatcher |
The Maya are well known for their
precise calendar and astronomy. The four surviving written documents
(which are called the Dresden, Madrid, Paris, and Grolier Codices)
that they have left behind include an ephemeris that charts the
heliacal risings and settings in the synodic cycle of the planet
Venus and an eclipse warning table based on observable lunar and
solar cycles.
 Though
the Maya were deeply concerned with astrology, it is well
established that they also incorporated their astronomical and
calendrical data into an intricate, mathematical discipline. Nowhere
is this better evidenced than in the ingenious constructions of the
Venus and eclipse tables contained in the Dresden Codex. A more
purely mathematical objective, expressed throughout the Maya
calendrical, was the determination of the least common multiples of
various astronomical and calendrical cycles.
Venus
Page Dresden Codex
The Maya also incorporated
mathematically contrived Long Count dates and 'Distance' numbers
into their codices and inscriptions, using these and other
techniques, the Maya developed mathematical frameworks through which
astronomical and calendrical cycles could be viewed as
interconnected parts of a grand astronomical order. Over a century
of formal scholarly investigations has enabled a fairly broad
understanding of the nature of ancient Maya thought processes behind
this 'grand astronomical order'.
Architectural alignments of specialized
assemblages of buildings provide further documentation for a number
of Maya astronomical skills. Quite uncharacteristic of Western
astronomy, the paramount aim of the Maya astronomers’ endeavors
seems to have been to discover commensurate relationships both among
celestial cycles and between astronomically derived periodicities
and non astronomical cycles. One of the several problems that must have been a proverbial
thorn in the sides of Maya astronomers for hundreds of years, is
that of the five visible planets (to the naked eye) only the mean synodic periods of Jupiter (of 399 days) and Saturn (of 378 days)
did not factor evenly into any of their recognized calendrica, it is
now possible to demonstrate that the formerly enigmatic 819-day
cycle, developed and used by the Maya rather late in the Classic
period, is the end product of a methodological construct
specifically designed to rectify this situation, the Maya, by
necessity, incorporated the mean synodic periods of Jupiter and
Saturn into a distinctly parallel methodological construct that in
turn couples with those previously existent. As learn from the
inscriptions in Quiriguá's (Stela K) in
A.D. 815, and one from Tikal. 819-day
counts are also expressed in the Dresden codex. The 819-day cycle,
relative to Jupiter and Saturn, is directly parallel to the
relationship of the 949-day cycle, relative to the Haab and Venus.
 Venus:
(Lamat Glyph, Venus), was the astronomical
object of greatest interest, the Maya knew it better than any
civilization outside Mesoamerica. In Maya myth, Venus is the
companion of the sun. This no doubt reflects the fact that Venus is
always close to the sun in the sky, rising not long before sunrise
as morning star (Ah-Chicum-Ek')
or after sunset as evening star (Lamat). They thought it was
more important than the Sun. They watched it carefully as it moved
through its stations, it takes 584 days for Venus and the Earth to
line up in their previous position as compared to the Sun. It takes
about 2922 days for the Earth, Venus, the Sun, and the stars to
agree. The Maya made daytime observations of Venus. Venus had a
psychological effect upon the Maya, it has been shown in the
Dos Pilas staircase, that the Maya
were timing some of their wars based on the stationary points of
Venus and Jupiter, (The famous Stars War between
Tikal and Naranjo
and allies). Humans were sacrificed on first appearance after
Superior Conjunction when Venus was at its dimmest magnitude but
they most feared the first Heliacal Rising after Inferior
Conjunction. In the Dresden Codex, the Maya had an almanac that
displayed the full cycle of Venus. Venus cycles were the mean synodic
Venus year of 584 days
and a "great cycle" of 37960 days (the lowest common multiple of the Tzolkin, and the Venus year, equal to 104 calendar years or 2
calendar rounds). In Rio Azul's tomb 19
the Lamat or Venus Glyph is beautifully painted
 The
Sun: (Yax Balam) The
Maya evidently thought quite a bit about the Sun and they
watched it trace out a path along the ecliptic. They followed it
year round, presumably following its path along the horizon as
well. At Uaxactún, the "Group E",
shows precisely the Spring and Autumn Equinox, as well as
the Summer and Winter solstice. It tells us that the Maya noted,
not only the extremes of the Sun at the Solstices, but also the
Equinoxes when the Sun appeared to rise due East or due West. In
addition to the Zenial Passages mentioned earlier, ecliptic
observations must have been a major portion of Maya solar
observing. (Cival
Stucco Mask with the Sun God shown)
Uaxactún, Group "E"
 The Maya portrayed the Ecliptic in their artwork as a
Double-Headed Serpent. (Wooden
Lintel in Temple IV, Tikal, left) The ecliptic is the path of the sun in
the sky which is marked by the constellations of fixed stars.
Here the moon and the planets can be found because they are
bound, like the Earth, to the sun. The constellations on the
ecliptic are also called the zodiac. We don't know exactly how
fixed constellations on the ecliptic were seen by the Maya, but
we have some idea of the order in some parts of the sky. We know
there is a scorpion, which we equate with our own constellation
of Scorpius, they used the claws of Libra. It has also
been found that Gemini appeared to the Maya as a peccary,
Some other constellations on the ecliptic are identified as a
jaguar, at least one serpent, a bat, a turtle, a xoc
monster--that is, shark, or a sea monster. The Pleiades were
seen as the tail of the rattlesnake and are called, "Tz'ab
ek." (See Constellations Below)
 The
Moon: (Glyph in
Piedras Negras St 10).
The Maya had a lunar component in their calendric inscriptions.
The Tun’Uc is the
moon calendar.
After giving the pertinent information on the date according to
the Maya calendar the typical Maya inscriptions contain a lunar
reckoning. The lunar count was counted as 29 or 30 days,
alternating. The lunar synodic period is close to 29.5 days, so
by alternating their count between these two numbers the moon
was carefully meshed into the calendric sequence as well. Their
lunar knowledge was impressive, they also made eclipse
predictions. An almanac for predicting them is contained in the
Dresden Codex.
 The
principal lunar cycle, for the warning of solar eclipse
possibilities, was 405 lunations (11960 days = 46 tzolkin), in
three divisions of 135 lunations each, with further subdivisions
 into nine series of 6 month and 5 month eclipse half years.
The periods of 177 or 148 days alliterated in a sequence that
corresponds to the exact interval between the eclipses
(Glyph
shown at left). The accuracy in the observations and in
the calculations of the phases of the Moon, also in very old
epochs, is an interesting evidence of the fundamental importance
of the Moon in the Maya civilization.
Ix’Chel,
Moon Goddess, Represented during the Classic as a Young woman
with a rabbit, sited in the Crescent Moon
 Mars:
Two kinds of empiric sidereal intervals of Mars were used, a long
one (702 days) that included a retrograde loop and a short one that
did not. The use of these intervals, which is indicated by the
documents in the Dresden Codex, permitted the tracking of Mars
across the zodiac and the relating of its movements to the
terrestrial seasons and to the 260-day sacred calendar. While Kepler
solved the sidereal problem of Mars by proposing an elliptical
heliocentric orbit, anonymous but equally ingenious Maya astronomers
discovered a pair of time cycles that not only accurately described
the planet's motion, but also related it to other cosmic and
terrestrial concerns. Pages 43b-45b of the Codex are concerned with
the synodic cycle of Mars, and a complex table on pages 69-74
describe the sidereal cycle. The cultural implication of the
commensuration of one kind of Martian sidereal cycle and the
tropical year is that it made it very easy for the ancient Maya to
make a certain kind of prediction about the apparently erratic
behavior of Mars. The Maya interest in the planet Mars, which,
although already established via the Codices, has recently led to
revelations of a number of cycles unknown to Western astronomy. The
examination of these cycles leads to a clearer picture of the
practical art of naked eye skywatching as well as to the role of
such activity in Maya culture.
 The
Milky Way: Was much venerated by the Maya.
They called it the World Tree, which was represented by a tall and
majestic flowering tree, the Ceiba. The Milky Way was called the
Wakah Chan. Wak means "Six" or "Erect".
Chan or K'an means "Four", "Serpent" or "Sky". The World Tree was
erect when Sagittarius was well over the horizon. At this time the
Milky Way rose up from the horizon and climbed overhead into the
North. The star clouds that form the Milky Way were seen as the tree
of life where all life came from. Near Sagittarius, the center of
our galaxy, where the World Tree meets the Ecliptic was given
special attention by the Maya. A major element of the World Tree
include the Kawak Monster, a giant head with a kin in its forehead.
This monster was also a mountain or witz monster. A sacrificial bowl
on its head contains a flint blade representing sacrifice, and the
Kimi glyph that represents death. The Ecliptic is sometimes
represented as a bar crossing the major axis of the world tree,
making a form that is similar to the Christian Cross. On top of the
World Tree we find a bird that has been called, the Principal Bird
deity, or Itzam Ye. There is also evidence that shows the Sun on the
World Tree as it appeared to the Maya at Winter Solstice.
 During the months of winter, when the so-called "Winter" Milky Way
dominates the sky, it was called the "White Boned Serpent." This
part of the Milky Way passed overhead at night during the dry
season. It is not brilliant like the star clouds that dominate the
sky North of the equator during the months of Summer, but observers
at dark locations will easily see the glow. Here the Ecliptic
crosses the Milky Way again, near the constellation of Gemini which
was the approximate location of the Sun during Summer Solstice. It
is possible that the jaws of the White-Boned Serpent were
represented by the Kawak monster head. The Great Cycle in the
Maya Cosmology, is a fifth and
final cycle in the 26,000-year Precession of the Equinoxes, except
that the Mayans measured it from the Winter Solstice instead of the
Spring Equinox. On 21/12/2012, the Solstice sun will align with the
Dark Rift in the Milky Way, which the Maya called the Mouth of the
Crocodile, (or jaguar-toad); the Crocodile Tree being the Milky Way
itself.
Maya Godess Scorpion (Mother Scorpion who dwells at the end of the
Milky Way
 Pleiades:
The Tzolk'in is the sacred calendar of
the Maya and is based on the cycles of the Pleiades. The cycle of
the Pleiades uses 26,000 years, but is reflected in the calendar we
are using by encompassing 260 days. Their calendric year began when
the Maya priests first remarked the asterism rising heliacally in
the east, immediately before the sun's dawn light obliterated the
view of the stars. In the
beginning, the Maya understood that they came from the Pleiades, or
“Tzab-ek", (Rattlesnake's tail), as
they are known by the Maya. The relationship with the Pleiades and
the Mayan world is written in the sacred books of the Maya. It is in
the consciousness of the grandmothers and grandfathers who had it
passed on to them. It is an important record. The elders say the
universe comes from the Pleiades. With the Hubble Telescope, it was
discovered about ten years
ago, that there is a place where stars are born in a great spiral
that originates at the site of the Pleiades. At the outside of the
spiral is complete empty space. In coordination with the galactic
precession, the Mayas also look at the precession of time through
the Pleiades. Alcyone, the central star of the Pleiades, is located
at 30 degrees from Taurus,
near the constellation Orion. Alcyone, in Taurus, represents the
Earth Goddess. The lessons from Alcyone are those dealing with
compassion, higher wisdom and vision, and Earth consciousness. Much
has been channeled from the Pleiades. Alcyone figures prominently in
Mayan astronomy. The Mayas believe it is the home of their
ancestors. The Pleiades star system is referred to as the seven
sisters and our sun aligns with Alcyone every 52 years. In Mayan
cosmology the precession of the Pleiades is tracked using the
Calendar Round (52 years) and the New Fire ceremony. In the Early
Preclassic Site of Ujuxte, the central
plaza appears to have a celestial alignment that coincides with the
rise and fall of the Pleiades. The
present-day Maya in Guatemala,
make use of the Pleiades to begin their planting for the year.
 Constellations:
Pages 23 and 24 of the Paris Codex,
illustrate fantastic beasts suspended from a "sky band", which
represents the ecliptic (the path of he sun and planets against the
background of fixed stars). Most scholars believe these pages are a
Maya zodiac.
The "dot and bar" numbers below each beast is a count of 168 days
between each constellation. The Codex thus appears to record the
constellations in which the sun stands at 168 day intervals. Linda
Schele She began with Sinan-Ek', or Scorpion Star, identified with
the Western zodiacal Scorpius both in ancient Maya iconography and
in ethnohistoric
and anthropological accounts (Schele 1992a, 1992b). Assuming that
Paris 23 and 24 depicted constellations on the ecliptic, Schele
added the given 168 day distance number to the morning in A.D. 690
when the sun rose in Scorpio. Twelve repetitions yielded a rough
zodiac confirming the identifications advanced by Creation Cosmology
(fig. 3). The Paris Codex Turtle did actually correspond to the
Western Gemini, she also .found evidence she believed supports this
interpretation on the Hauberg Stela and
Tikal Stela 1 that also represented literal maps of the sky on
the evenings of their dedications, March 18, A.D. 197, and April 30,
A.D. 451, respectively., which seems to illustrate several of the
constellation beasts in the order they appear in the sky where the
ecliptic crosses the Milky Way. She suggests that the Paris
Codex "records the laying out of the constellations" along the
ecliptic at intervals of 168 days immediately after Creation.
Johnson and Quenon also demonstrated that animals and supernaturals
held by rulers on the monuments of
Xultún, Guatemala, almost certainly reflected the constellations
flanking the Milky Way in the night sky on their dedication dates.
However, some other students of the Codex doubt Schele's
interpretation. Victoria Bricker believes the Codex illustrates a
zodiac, but argues that the constellations represent those opposite
the sun at 168 day intervals. When opposite the sun, a constellation
will be high in the sky at midnight.
Tikal Stela 1
According to Linda Schele the names are: Aries (vulture), Libra (xoc
= shark) Taurus (moan = owl), Scorpius (Sinan-Ek'=scorpion) Gemini (Ak-Ek'=turtle),
Sagitarrius (rattlesnake), Capricorn (jaguar), Cancer (dog?), Pisces
(bat), Virgo (peccary)
Johnson and Quenon recosntruction of Xultún Stela 10 and Schele
Tikal, Stela 1
|
