Mayan Astronomy

 

At the end of 2012, the whole world was abuzz with the news that on December 21st, the Mayan calendar would end. Some claimed this ominous event signaled the end of the world, while others simply suggested the Mayans would have likely extended their calendar if they were still around.

Who Did It Better: Ptolemy or the Mayans?

In any case, a large part of the Mayan legacy is the astounding precision with which they measured the movements of the heavens. Michael John Finley compared the calculations of the Maya and those of Ptolemy to our modern measurements:

Courtesy of Michael John Finley

Although we are splitting hairs when comparing the Mayan and Greek measurements, the Maya were able to make more accurate calculations for the Lunar month, Synodic period of Venus, and the Solar year.

The Significance of Astronomy for the Mayans

For the Mayans, observation of the sky was much more than a scientific exercise. The Mayans saw the Sun and planets as gods tracing out their path in night sky, and the movement, position, and alignment of celestial bodies heavily affected the actions of the Mayan people. For example, Venus corresponded to the god of war in Mayan culture (compared to Mars in the Greek/Roman culture), and the Mayans saw the rise of Venus in the morning sky as a sign of good fortune in wartime pursuits. Consequently, Mayan rulers would rely on ancient astronomical predictions of when Venus would rise in the morning sky in order to plan military campaigns.

The Dresden Codex: A Link To The Past

Courtesy of WikiMedia

When the Spaniards conquered much of modern-day Latin America, they were appalled by the ritual and spiritual practices of the indigenous people groups. As a result, they burned most of the written texts produced by the cultures of Latin America. Fortunately, a few key texts survived, including the Dresden Codex. The text was brought back to Europe as an example of native art, and was re-discovered in the 19th century when a director for the Dresden Public Library in Germany purchased the piece from a private owner (hence the name).

The codex can be best described as a priestly handbook, but much of the information in this text is astronomical data. The book contains almanacs, eclipse tables and data on the timing of planetary positions. This text, among other archeological discoveries, has given us a lot of the knowledge we have today on Mayan culture.

Most interestingly, the Dresden Codex further emphasizes how inextricably linked scientific and religious practice were in the Mayan culture. The Maya observed the sky for centuries if not millennia, and they did so because they believed they were not just observing stars and planets. They believed they were observing the gods themselves. And although we may not share their belief, perhaps it is a similar sense of wonder that moves us to study the heavens today.