Showing posts with label Orion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orion. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Constellations and the Ancient Maya

A photo taken at Arches
National Park.

Did the ancient Maya have constellations? It is believed they did – and the constellations may have been on the ecliptic, the route the sun "takes" annually. However, archaeologists still haven’t been able to figure out what ancient Maya constellations were exactly.

Constellation Evidence
One example of evidence that the ancient Maya had constellations is in their structures. Archaeologists have found that the Maya would build structures so that they lined up with a constellation during its cycle through the sky. For example, at Utatlan, they have found buildings that are lined up with Orion when it is “setting.” But evidence for ancient Maya constellations also seems to show up in ancient Maya art as well.

One example of what’s thought to be evidence for ancient Maya constellations is in the codices. For example, in the Paris codex, page 23 and 24 have drawings of animals, each biting an eclipse glyph. These are possible constellations. Each drawing has the number 168 next to it. ("168" might mean 168 days.) And it’s not just in the codices – images of groups of animals thought to be drawings of constellations have been found in buildings.

Examples of structures where you can find images groups of animals thought to represent constellations include the East Wing of the Nunnery at Chichen Itza, the Governor’s Palace at Uxmal, and at Acanceh’s Palace of the Stuccoes.

These groups of animals don’t all show the same animals, or the same number of animals. And, at least with the Paris Codex, there is some disagreement about which animals the ancient Maya were drawing.

Possible Identities
Two people who study ancient Maya astronomy, Victoria and Harvey Bricker, created a list of possible constellations, using the list in the Paris Codex’s animals. In this list they thought the constellations the ancient Maya may have had were:

  • The Pleiades, drawn as a rattlesnake
  • Aries, drawn as an ocelot
  • Gemini, drawn as a bird they called a cox bird or bird 2
  • Pisces, drawn as a skeleton
  • Scorpio, drawn as a scorpion
  • Aquarius, drawn as a bat
  • Libra, drawn as an animal they called bird 1
  • Sagittarius, drawn as a fish-snake
  • Capricorn, drawn as an animal they called bird 3
  • Virgo, drawn as an animal they couldn’t identify
  • Orion, drawn as a turtle
  • Leo:
    • eastern stars: a peccary
    • western stars: a frog


Outside this list, you'll find sources that say the ancient Maya saw the stars of Orion’s belt as a constellation. It seems there was more than one idea about this group of stars. It looks like one idea they had – at least at Quirigua and Palenque -- was that it was a group of hearthstones connected to creation. (They called it the “three-stone place.) Another idea was that it was a turtle.

Speaking of turtles, there’s another view about what constellation the ancient Maya saw in Gemini: a turtle. And that’s not the only other view: there’s another idea that says when the ancient Maya looked at Gemini, they saw a peccary.

As for the Pleiades, you may see it theorized that a rattlesnake's rattle was a symbol of the these stars. (On a related note, Diego de Landa's writings say that that's what the Maya he spoke with saw in the Pleiades. He also says that along with Gemini, the Pleiades was a constellation that the Maya he spoke with liked to keep track of the most.)

Zodiac
The ancient Maya may have had a zodiac as well as constellations. One theory says the Maya had a zodiac that had 13 constellations. This theory also says that each constellation was connected to a period of 28 days.


References:
Google Books: "Encyclopedia of the Ancient Maya"; Walter R.T. Witschey (editor); 2016

 Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume XV; Winter 2015

(Link goes to what the site calls: Paris Codex: 23-24 Frame: 1)


Image Credits:
NPS/William Pedro
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Thursday, August 3, 2017

Ancient Maya Astronomy

Maya glyph thought to mean 'solar eclipse.'
Without any special tools to bring things into closer view, the ancient Maya watched the skies, studying the stars, various planets, the moon and the sun. They may have been trying to find ways that the cycles of the objects they observed were connected.

 Evidence of these studies can be found in monument inscriptions, the Postclassic codices -- and even in their buildings, which they would orient towards various celestial objects. Let's learn more about what's currently understood about ancient Maya astronomy.

 Constellations
It looks like the ancient Maya had constellations (and a zodiac), though there's a lot of uncertainty about what they were. One constellation that the ancient Maya may have had was the Pleiades, whose shape may have been viewed as a rattlesnake's rattle. 

 Another constellation they may have had was made up of part of Orion: his belt.The three stars may have been seen as three hearthstones connected to creation -- but there may have been another idea among them that the stars were seen as a turtle.

 Earth
It doesn't look like the ancient Maya ever figured out that Earth is ball-shaped or that it orbits the sun. Instead, the ancient Maya thought that our planet was the middle of all layers of reality. They thought that it was a crocodile/crocodile-like creature or caiman or a turtle, and they thought that they lived on the back -- another theory says these were just metaphors. (There's also art that shows Earth as a creature with two heads called kawak.)

 They thought that they lived above their underworld and below a place that we call the upperworld. (And it's possible they believed the underworld had 9 layers and the upper world had 13 layers.) The upperworld is where the ancient Maya thought the celestial objects that were gods lived.

 They thought that the world was made of four parts or quarters. Each of the four had certain things connected to them -- one of these was colors: east was red, west was black, south was yellow and north was white. The center of their world had a color too, but which color depends on the source: examples from sources include blue, green or blue-green.

 Eclipses
The ancient Maya knew about lunar and solar eclipses, and sort of knew how to predict them. They used two groups of moon-based months, 148 days (five months) and 177/178 days (six months) as a way of figuring out when eclipses would occur. One artifact that shows they studied eclipses is the Dresden Codex; pages 51 through 58 look like they were for eclipses. (Whether they were lunar or solar is debated). 

 Solar eclipses seem to have been an event that the ancient Maya thought was dangerous. Though perhaps they were dangerous if they happened in certain "bad" astrological times. 

 Jupiter
An 819-day count may have been used by the Maya in the Classic Period to track Jupiter. The tun (a period of 360 days) and the katun (20 tuns or 7,200 days) may have been connected to Jupiter. The ancient Maya tracked Jupiter in order to time their wars to happen in connection certain positions of that planet. (This count is thought to have been used with Saturn as well, perhaps along with other cycles.) 

 A god that archaeologists call K'awiil or god K might be connected to Jupiter. This god is also connected to the sky, lightning, snakes, and storms as well as ancestors and rulers. 
Mars
The ancient Maya had a cycle of 780 days that tracked Mars. And it seems they thought there was a supernatural creature that was linked with the planet. Archaeologists call this creature the Mars Beast. (The creature might be linked with the rainy season too.)

 Mercury
The Maya tracked Mercury, using the number 117. (Mercury's orbit is more precisely 115.8 days). You can see evidence for this in the Dresden Codex. 

 The Milky Way
The Milky Way may have been thought to be a path/road that the spirits of the dead traveled on. Another idea among them was that it was a river -- another idea it seems they had was that it was a river with a crocodile-like creature in it. The ancient Maya also associated the Milky Way with three things: rain, wind and lightning.

 Moon
The ancient Maya followed the moon's path, but it doesn't so far seem that they had an official, separate moon calendar. What they did have was what we call today the "lunar series," which was part of inscriptions. The lunar series describes information about the moon on a particular date, including how far along in the month it was. Moon months to the Maya could be 29 days or 30 days, depending on the month.

 The moon itself was connected with eclipses. There was an idea among the ancient Maya, among other ideas they had, that eclipses were fights between the sun and the moon. 

 As for supernatural connections, the goddess Ix Chel may or may not have been a 'young' moon goddess (as well as a goddess of other things.) But there are those who don't think she was connected to the moon at all -- instead they think there's a different goddess, which can be seen in the Dresden Codex, on page 49a.
Saturn
The ancient Maya followed Saturn's orbit with a cycle of 378 days. They also, as you probably read above, used an 819-day cycle for Saturn (as well as Jupiter), perhaps along with other cycles. It seems that, like Venus, the ancient Maya used certain positions of Saturn and Jupiter to time wars. 

 An aspect of the god Pawaaj (or god N) named Pawaaj Sahb'iin could have been the god Saturn. Or he may have been Saturn's messenger. 

 Sun
The ancient Maya tracked the sun's path across the sky (called the ecliptic), which in their art they showed as a double-headed snake. They would build their buildings according to the various points of the sun's path, such as the equinoxes. 

 One example is this: in the Preclassic Period, it was popular to orient your structure to both the solstices' sunsets and the solstices' sunrises. There was even a type of building group they would construct as a kind of sundial -- these are called E groups by archaeologists.

 To the ancient Maya, the sun was also a god. They thought he had different aspects -- one was the 'jaguar sun,' which he became at night and went through the underworld. This god was also connected to kings. Names archaeologists use for the Maya sun god is K'inich Ahaw and god G.

 Venus 
This brightest planet in the solar system was to the ancient Maya a very important "star." One name for Venus that the ancient Maya used for the planet was Chak Ek' or Great Star.  From what has been found, Venus was a celestial object that represented violence. How?

 It seems rulers used parts of its orbit to figure out times for wars to get captives to kill as sacrifices. (However, nowadays, it looks like the ancient Maya more often used Jupiter and Saturn to time their wars more often than Venus.)

 But there are also many theories about Venus's aspects and functions.  One theory says that there was a belief among the ancient Maya that it made eclipses happen.

 Consideration: 63 Day Cycle
Unless further evidence shows otherwise, in the Classic Period at least, there was a 63-day cycle that was used to sync different celestial objects' cycles.  In the examples found, the 63-day cycle looks like it was for fire rituals for the god Pawaaj Sahb'iin. 

References:


PubMed: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: "Ancient Maya documents concerning the movements of Mars"; Harvey M. Bricker, Anthony F. Aveni, and Victoria R. Bricker; 2001 Feb 13

 "Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars"; Susan Milbrath; 1999

 Exploration Magazine, Volume 6, Issue 2: "Mayan Meltdown UF Geologists' Analysis Of Ancient Lakebeds Leads To A Theory About The Decline Of Mayan Civilization"

 "The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives"; Heather Irene McKillop; 2004

 "Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities"; Karen Bassie-Sweet; 2008

 "Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia"; Susan Toby Evans, David L. Webster (editors); 2001

The PARI Journal: 14(1), 2013, 6-12; "Patterns in the Dresden Codex"; Cara G. Tremain

"Archaeoastronomy and the Maya"; Gerardo Aldana y Villalobos, Edwin L. Barnhart (editors); 2014

"Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica"; Anne S. Dowd, Susan Milbrath (editors); 2015

The PARI Journal 15 (1), 11-24, 2014: "Alternative Functions of Distance Numbers in Maya Calendrical Texts: Codices vs. Monuments"; Victoria Bricker, Anthony Aveni
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