Archaeoastronomy and the Ancient Maya World

Mercury, January/February 2004 Table of Contents

Image courtesy of E. L. Barnhart.

by Edwin L. Barnhart

Nearly two millennia ago, the Maya were putting mathematics and celestial observations to use in their calendrical system, architecture, and ritual. Today, archaeoastronomers are working to piece their science and culture back together.

The Maya of Mexico and Central America were the most advanced astronomers in the Pre-Columbian world. No other culture indigenous to the Americas reached their level of sky-watching sophistication.

Archaeologists are still refining their understanding of Maya technology and culture, but they believe that their culture began developing in Guatemala by at least 500 B.C.E.. The basics of the Maya writing system and early calendar were inherited from the Olmec, Mesoamerica’s "mother culture," which emerged in Veracruz, Mexico almost 1000 years earlier. By the first century of the Common Era, the Maya had honed their writing and mathematical skills, most importantly mastering the concept of "zero." And during the Classic Period (250-900 C.E.), use of astronomy expanded among the Mayan civilization.

The mention of celestial bodies in text and art became much more prevalent, and the Maya began orienting their temples to important stations of the Sun. Lunar cycles were also first added into their calendar during the Classic Period. Despite major migrations and changes in political structure at the end of this period, Maya astronomy continued to advance through the Post Classic Period (900-1521 C.E.).

The Dresden Codex, one of four surviving Maya manuscripts—probably authored in the 13th century—contains calculations of the synodic periods of the terrestrial worlds Mercury, Venus, and Mars. It also provides a correction table for long-term observations of Venus and another table used for eclipse predictions. Then, tragically, after over 2000 years of steady advance, the arrival of the Spanish missionaries stamped out Maya astronomy as part of a pagan religion that was keeping the Maya from accepting the path of Christianity.

Today, almost 500 years later, archaeoastronomers are examining multiple lines of evidence in order to put the puzzle of ancient Maya astronomy back together. Let us consider the evidence we Maya investigators have collected from two discreet categories of data: Maya calendars and building orientations.

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