Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 13:47:27 -0400
From: "A. D. Jenkins" <ct411@cleveland.Freenet.Edu>
Subject: Re: Mayan Astronomy
This document is a written summary of a lecture I gave on
the topic of Maya Astronomy at the February 13, 1995, at the
regular meeting of the Cuyahoga Astronomical Association. It
has been edited for posting to the ASTRO list, a bitnet
mailing list.
Dawn Jenkins, ct411@cleveland.freenet.edu
MAYA ASTRONOMY
Recent work in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs and
archaeological discoveries have increased our knowledge of
the ancient Maya. Some of the so-called mysteries about
them have been cleared up. There were many misconceptions
about the Maya and some of the leading Mayanists had very
mistaken ideas about them. For instance, it once was
thought that they did not sacrifice humans the way that the
Aztecs did, but we now know that they tortured and
sacrificed people on a regular basis. It was widely
accepted that the Maya inscriptions did not contain
information of a personal nature, and that calendric and
astronomical history was carved on Maya monuments. Through
the work of modern decipherers, we now know that the carved
stones of the Maya contain the personal victories and
defeats of individuals in the Maya ruling class.
The Maya lived in Central America, in regional municipalities
comparable to the Greek city states. They were located in
what is now called Mesoamerica. This region covers Central
Mexico through El Salvador, Guatemala as far south as
Honduras. Theirs was a Stone Age Culture, devoid of metal
weapons. However, by the time of Spanish contact in the
sixteenth century, the Maya had begun working with copper
and gold. While the Spanish prized gold highly, the Maya
venerated jade.
The Maya developed mathematics using a base of 20. Instead
of ten digits like we have today, the Maya used a base
number of 20. (Base 20 is vigesimal.) They also used a
system of bar and dot as "shorthand" for counting. A dot
stood for one and a bar stood for five. It was very easy to
add and subtract using this number system, but they did not
use fractions. Base twenty was also used in their calendar,
which is the first major portion of this paper because
calendars are developed by astronomers for keeping track of
time.
The Maya developed a sophisticated calendar. The ritual
calendar that developed in Mesoamerica used a count of 260
days. This calendar gave each day a name, much like our days
of the week. There were 20 day names, each represented by a
unique symbol. The days were numbered from 1 to 13. Since
there are 20 day names, after the count of thirteen was
reached, the next day was numbered 1 again. The 260-day or
sacred count calendar was in use throughout Mesoamerica for
centuries, probably before the beginning of writing.
Maya Day Names & Approximate Meanings
Imix Waterlily Chuwen Frog
Ik' Wind Eb Skull
Ak'bal Night Ben Corn stalk
K'an Corn Ix Jaguar
Chikchan Snake Men Eagle
Kimi Death head Kib Shell
Manik' Hand Kaban Earth
Lamat Venus Etz'nab Flint
Muluk Water Kawak Storm cloud
Ok Dog Ahaw Lord
The Maya also tracked a vague solar year in which they
counted 365 days per year. Because they could not use
fractions, the "quarter" day left over every year caused
their calendar to drift with regard to the actual solar
year. The 365-day year contained months were also given
names. numbers 0-19 before they changed, so that the count
goes Zero Pohp to 19 Pohp, then continues with Zero Wo.
Month Names and Approximate Meanings
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 Maya appended a special
five-day month called Wayeb composed of 5 days which were
considered unnamed and unlucky. Thus the days were counted:
One Imix, Zero Pohp, Two Ik, One Pohp. When the thirteenth
day was reached the next day was Thirteen Ben, Twelve Pohp;
then One Ix, Thirteen Pohp, Two Men, Fourteen Pohp. After
Seven Ahaw, Nineteen Pohp, the next day was Eight Imix, Zero
Wo.
In addition, the Maya used special glyphs to indicate time
periods, the kin represented one day. Winals are periods of
20-days which we now call a month. The Tun was a year of
360 days and the K'atun was a time period of 20 years of 360
days each. As we will see later, the K'atun ending was a
special time period celebrated by the Maya. It has its
parallel in the modern world, the period of time which we
call a decade. The Maya also counted 400-year periods
called Baktuns. The Maya used these time periods in a
special day count which is now called the Long count. Today
a typical long count date is written thus: 9.14.12.2.17.
This represents 9 baktuns, 14 k'atuns, 12 tuns, 2 winals and
17 k'ins.
[Special note: All names given here are in the new
orthography developed by native Maya of Guatemala. Their
system is being accepted by many various organizations of
Maya and similar forms of this orthography are being adopted
by other Maya groups. In actuality, this system probably
makes it easier for English speakers to pronounce the actual
words. Given the Maya propensity for words and language it
is only a natural development.]
The Maya developed a highly complex system of writing,
using pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements. A
complete discussion of their writing system is beyond the
scope of this paper. Their writing was highly
sophisticated, probably only members of the higher classes
were able to read their symbols. The Maya carved these
symbols into stone, but the most common place for writing
was probably the highly perishable books they made from bark
paper, coated with lime to make a fresh white surface.
These "books" were screen-folded and bound with wood and
deer hide. They are called codices, codex is singular.
Because of their perishable nature and zealous Spanish book
burning, only four codices remain today.
The contents of the codices must have varied, but some of
them were evidently similar to astronomic almanacs. We have
examples of a Venus table, eclipse tables in a codex in
Dresden. There is a codex in Paris that seems to contain
some kind of Maya Zodiac, but if it is and how it must have
worked are still unknown. Another major example of Maya
almanacs are present in the Madrid Codex. The fourth codex
is called the Grolier and was authenticated as late as 1983.
These codices probably contained much of the information
used by priests or the noble class to determine dates of
importance or seasonal interest. We can only speculate as
to whether or not the Maya developed poetry or drama that
was committed to paper. The codices probably kept track of
dynastic information as well.
The Maya were quite accomplished astronomers. Their
primary interest, in contrast to "western" astronomers, were
Zenial Passages when the Sun crossed over the Maya
latitudes. On an annual basis the sun travels to its summer
solstice point, or the latitude of 23-1/3 degrees north.
Most of the Maya cities were located south of this latitude,
meaning that they could observe the sun directly overhead
during the time that the sun was passing over their
latitude. This happened twice a year, evenly spaced around
the day of solstice. The Maya could easily determine these
dates, because at local noon, they cast no shadow. Zenial
passage observations are possible only in the Tropics and
were quite unknown to the Spanish conquistadors who
descended upon the Yucatan peninsula in the 16th century.
The Maya had a god to represented this position of the Sun
called the Diving God.
Venus was the astronomical object of greatest interest. I
think it possible that the Maya knew it better than any
civilization outside Mesoamerica. 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 pattern of Venus is
usually reckoned at Inferior Conjunction, that time when
Venus passes between the Sun and the Earth. During this
period, Venus cannot be seen from Earth. It disappears for
a short period that averages 8 days. When it first rises
after inferior conjunction, that is when it was first
spotted in the morning sky, called heliacal rising because
it is rising with the sun, was the most important position
of Venus. After rising, Venus will reach its greatest
brilliancy then it greatest elongation west, moving quickly
(in retrograde motion) away from the Sun. After that it
will remain visible for about 260 days in the morning sky
until it reaches superior conjunction. At this point Venus
is on the opposite side of the Sun as we view it from Earth.
It becomes dim, until it dips back under the horizon, only
to appear on the opposite side of the sun an average of 50
days later. It then rises as a evening star and remains in
the night sky about 260 days until it goes through its
eastern elongation point and greatest brilliancy before
arriving at Inferior Conjunction again.
The Maya made daytime observations of Venus. Venus had a
psychological effect upon the Maya and other Mesoamerican
cultures, it has been shown that the Maya were timing some
of their wars based on the stationary points of Venus and
Jupiter. 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. They
counted five sets of 584 days, that is 2,920 days are
approximately 8 years or 5 repetitions of the Venus cycle.
The Maya had a lunar component to their calendric
inscriptions. 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 for they also made eclipse predictions, an
almanac for predicting them is contained in the Dresden
Codex.
The Maya portrayed the Ecliptic in their artwork as a
Double-Headed Serpent. 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, in this figure I believe they used the claws of
Libra. It has also been found that Gemini appeared to the
Maya as a pig or peccary, (a nocturnal animal in the pig
family.) 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 is
called, "Tz'ab."
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 Chichen Itza, during sunset a sun
serpent rises up the side of the stairway of the pyramid
called El Castillo on the day of Spring and Autumn Equinox.
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.
The Milky Way itself 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
also 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
can 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 Maya Kings timed their accession rituals in tune with
the stars and the Milky Way. They celebrated k'atun endings
approximately every twenty years. At the end of the 20-year
k'atun period, Maya rulers regularly erected a stela, called
a stone tree, to commemorate the event. On stone stela they
depicted themselves at the time of these ceremonies dressed
in costumes that contained the symbols that were associated
with the World Tree. Their headdresses contained the
Principal Bird Deity, in their arms they held a so-called
ceremonial bar that represented the double-headed serpent of
the ecliptic. By wearing the costume elements of the World
Tree the Maya ruler linked himself to the sky, the gods and
that essential ingredient, life. In addition, it has been
found that when the k'atun ending coincided with certain
planetary positions the Maya went to war to obtain captives.
The cosmology of the Maya was a living, religious philosophy
that permeated their lives to a degree that might seem
excessive to modern people. They were astute observers,
sensitive to the cyclical nature of the sun, moon and
planets.
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