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Ancient
Mayan Astronomy
Among the Planets, Venus Held Particular Importance
by Christopher Minster
The ancient Maya were keen
astronomers, recording and interpreting every aspect of the sky.
They believed that the will
and actions of the gods could be read in the stars, moon, and planets, so they
dedicated time to doing so, and many of their most important buildings were
built with astronomy in mind.
The sun, moon, and planets,
Venus, in particular, were studied by the Maya. The Maya also based their
calendars around astronomy.
The Maya and the Sky
The
Maya believed that the Earth was the center of all things, fixed and
immovable. The stars, moons, sun, and planets were gods; their movements were
seen as them going between the Earth, the underworld, and other celestial
destinations.
These gods were greatly
involved in human affairs, and so their movements were watched closely. Many
events in Maya life were planned to coincide with certain celestial moments.
For example, a war might be
delayed until the gods were in place, or a ruler might ascend to the throne of
a Mayan city-state only when a certain planet was visible in the night sky.
The Maya and the Sun
The
sun was of utmost importance to the ancient Maya. The Mayan sun god was Kinich
Ahau.
He was one of the more
powerful gods of the Mayan pantheon, considered an aspect of Itzamna, one of
the Mayan creator gods.
Kinich Ahau would shine in
the sky all day before transforming himself into a jaguar at night to pass
through Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.
In the Popol Vuh, the hero
twins, Hunaphu and Xbalanque, transformed themselves at one point into the sun
and the moon.
Some Mayan dynasties claimed
to be descended from the sun. The Maya were expert at predicting solar
phenomena, such as eclipses and equinoxes and when the sun reached its apex.
The Maya and the Moon
The
moon was nearly as important as the sun for the ancient Maya. Mayan astronomers
analyzed and predicted the moon’s movements with great accuracy.
As with the sun and planets,
Mayan dynasties often claimed to be descended from the moon.
Mayan mythology generally
associated the moon with a maiden, an old woman and/or a rabbit.
The Maya moon goddess was Ix
Chel, a powerful goddess who battled with the sun and made him descend into the
underworld every night.
Although she was a fearsome
goddess, she was the patroness of childbirth and fertility.
Ix Ch’up was another moon
goddess described in some of the codices; she was young and beautiful and may
have been Ix Chel in her youth.
The Maya and Venus
The
Maya were aware of the planets in the solar system and marked their movements.
The most important planet by
far to the Maya was Venus, which they associated with war.
Battles and wars would be
arranged to coincide with the movements of Venus, and captured warriors and
leaders would likewise be sacrificed according to the position of Venus in the
night sky.
The Maya painstakingly
recorded the movements of Venus and determined that its year, relative to
Earth, not the sun, was 584 days long, amazingly close to the 583.92 days that
modern science has determined.
The Maya and the Stars
Like
the planets, the stars move across the heavens, but unlike the planets, they
stay in position relative to one another.
To the Maya, the stars were
less important to their mythos than the sun, moon, Venus and other planets.
However, the stars shift
seasonally and were used by Mayan astronomers to predict when the seasons would
come and go, which was useful for agricultural planning.
For example, the rise of the
Pleiades in the night sky occurs at about the same time that the rains come to
the Mayan regions of Central America and southern Mexico.
The stars, therefore, were of
more practical use than many other aspects of Mayan astronomy.
Mayan Architecture and Astronomy
Many
important Mayan Buildings, such as temples, pyramids, palaces, observatories
and ball courts, were laid out in accordance with astronomy.
Temples and pyramids, in
particular, were designed in such a way that the sun, moon, stars, and planets
would be visible from the top or through certain windows at important times of
the year.
One example is the
observatory at Xochicalco, which, although not considered an exclusively Mayan
city, certain had Mayan influence.
The observatory is an
underground chamber with a hole in the ceiling. The sun shines through this
hole for most of the summer but is directly overhead on May 15 and July 29.
On these days the sun would
directly illuminate an illustration of the sun on the floor, and these days
were held importance for Mayan priests.
Mayan Astronomy and the Calendar
The
Mayan calendar was linked to astronomy. The Maya basically used two calendars:
the Calendar Round and the Long Count.
The Mayan Long Count calendar
was divided into different units of time that used the Haab, or solar year (365
days), as a base.
The Calendar Round consisted
of two separate calendars; the first was the 365-day solar year, the second was
the 260-day Tzolkin cycle. These cycles align every 52 years.
Christopher Minster
· Specialist in Latin American literature and history with a Ph.D. in
Spanish from Ohio State University
· Former head writer at VIVA Travel Guides, who co-authored and edited
numerous travel guidebooks
Experience
Christopher W. Minster, Ph.D., is a former
ThoughtCo. writer who contributed articles about Latin American history and
culture for eight years. He is a professor at the Universidad
San Francisco de Quito in Equador.
Christopher was the head writer at VIVA Travel
Guides, where he co-authored and edited numerous travel books, including
"VIVA Travel
Guides Ecuador and Galapagos Islands Guidebook," 7th Edition
(2014), and "VIVA Travel
Guides Lima, Peru," 3rd Edition (2010), as well as a collection
of travel stories from different writers around the world, called "The Viva
List Latin America: 333 Places and Experiences People Love"
(2007).
A specialist in Latin American literature and
history, Christopher wrote his Ph.D. dissertation about the colonial era in the
Americas. He also worked as a teaching assistant for six years at Ohio State
University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Spanish in 2005. Christopher served
two years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Guatemala, working in rural youth
development in Huehuetenango.
Education
Christopher earned his Bachelor's (B.A.) in
Spanish from Penn State University and Master's (M.A.) in Spanish from the
University of Montana. He received his Ph.D. in Spanish from Ohio State
University.
Awards and Publications
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