Mayans develop sophisticated astronomy The Maya civilisation was a network of city-states that existed from ancient times to the early modern period. Centred in what we now call the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, its cultural sphere extended across much of Mesoamerica. The Maya were avid sky watchers. During their civilisation’s Classic Period, between AD 250 and AD 900, they developed a sophisticated understanding of astronomy by means of their own naked-eye observations and devised an advanced calendar system as well as numerous prediction tables.[1] Thus, they were tracking the movement of celestial bodies, including our moon and other planets in our solar system, long before Copernicus (b. 1473, d. 1543). By the close of the Classic Period, the Maya had developed highly refined astronomical tables, including a sophisticated Venus calendar and detailed eclipse-prediction schemes. The eclipse table preserved in the Dresden Codex still functions today. They were able to carry out the necessary computations for these achievements by means of an advanced system of mathematics, which included the concepts of zero and place value (i.e. an individual digit having a specific value depending on its position). Using this system, Maya astronomers were able to project celestial cycles thousands of years into both the past and the future. The Maya also devised their own system of celestial stations – often referred to as a Maya ‘zodiac’ – for the purpose of divination. Their astronomy was fundamentally astrological; they interpreted the movements of celestial bodies as phenomena influencing and foretelling human affairs. Thus, the Maya’s understanding and use of astronomy was inextricably bound up in their cosmology, forming part of a unified worldview in which time, the heavens, and human destiny were deeply intertwined. It has been suggested that the earliest form of the Maya hieroglyph for Venus appears on a stela (a carved stone slab which appears to date to AD 159) from La Mojarra on Mexico’s Gulf Coast.[2] The Maya recorded their extensive astronomical observations, along with other records, in their own books. Regrettably, only a handful of these manuscripts survive. These are the Dresden, Paris, Madrid and Grolier Codices, named for the places where they are now held or were first exhibited. It is the Dresden Codex that is one of our most valuable sources for understanding Maya astronomy. Produced during the 11th or 12th century, it is considered one of the oldest known books from the Americas. Its 39 double-sided leaves, which unfold to a length of 3.58 m, are filled with illustrations, numbers and hieroglyphs, and include eclipse-prediction tables, planetary calendars, and divinatory almanacs. Currently, the Codex is preserved at the museum attached to the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, Germany. Regrettably, the rest of the Maya’s books appear to have been destroyed during the 1500s by Spanish colonial and ecclesiastical authorities, as part of their campaigns to eliminate pre-Hispanic ritual practices. End notes [1] Aveni 1997, 93–133. [2] Aveni 1997, 97; Justeson and Kaufman 1997. References Aveni, A. 1997. Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in three great ancient cultures. London, UK: Cassell Publishers Limited. Justeson, J. and T. Kaufman. July 1997. ‘A newly discovered column in the hieroglyphic text on La Mojarra Stela 1: A test of the Epi-Olmec decipherment' in Science 277: 207–210. Image credit Six sheets of the Dresden Codex (pp. 55–59, 74) depicting eclipses, multiplication tables and the flood. Via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dresden_Codex_pp.58-62_78.jpg
