Archaeoastronomy and the Maya

Gerardo Aldana y Villalobos, Edwin L. Barnhart, Gerardo Aldana y V., Edwin L. Barnhart

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781782976462
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: Social Sciences

Archaeoastronomy and the Maya illustrates archaeoastronomical approaches to ancient Mayan cultural production. The book is contextualized through a history of archaeoastronomical investigations into Mayan sites, originating in the 19th century discovery of astronomical tables within hieroglyphic books. Early 20th century archaeological excavations revealed inscriptions carved into stone that also preserved astronomical records, along with architecture that was built to reflect astronomical orientations. These materials provided the basis of a growing professionalized archaeoastronomy, blossoming in the 1970s and expanding into recent years. The chapters here exemplify the advances made in the field during the early 21st century as well as the on-going diversity of approaches, presenting new perspectives and discoveries in ancient Mayan astronomy that result from recent studies of architectural alignments, codices, epigraphy, iconography, ethnography, and calendrics. More than just investigations of esoteric ancient sciences, studies of ancient Mayan astronomy have profoundly aided our understanding of Mayan worldviews. Concepts of time and space, meanings encoded in religious art, intentions underlying architectural alignments, and even methods of political legitimization are all illuminated through the study of Mayan astronomy.

Table of contents

• Contributors
• Foreword: The long and winding road to publication
• Glossary
• Introduction: Towards an archaeoastronomy 2.0?
• 1. Cosmic order at Chocolá: implications of solar observations of the eastern horizon at Chocolá, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala
• 2. Teotihuacan architectural alignments in the central Maya lowlands?
• 3. The astronomical architecture of Palenque’s Temple of the Sun
• 4. An oracular hypothesis: the Dresden Codex Venus Table and the cultural translation of science
• 5. Centering the world: zenith and nadir passages at Palenque
• 6. The many faces of Venus in Mesoamerica
• 7. Glyphs G and F: the cycle of nine, the lunar nodes, and the draconic month
• 8. Epilogue: Mayan astronomers at work