Dane Burns
Astronomy
The Mayan Civilization
The Mayan civilization was one of the first civilizations that had advanced knowledge of astronomy. The Mayans believed that they came from the stars and that their gods still remained there. Astronomical calendars told the Mayans when to plant their crops, when to go to war, who to elect as their leader, and dictated many other aspects of their lives. The movement of objects in the sky like stars and constellations represented to them a connection between the gods and the people. In the area in Mexico where they lived (shown below) they constructed observatories, pyramids, and temples specifically designed to represent movements of certain stars and constellations.
Mayan priests were thought to be able to see the future because they were able to predict things before they happened. In reality they had made such accurate maps of the movements of objects in the sky that they could predict things by calculating these movements. Certain objects in the sky were more important to the Mayans than others. Among the most important were certain constellations, the planet Venus, the sun, and the moon. Each one of these represented one of their deities. The Mayans believed that objects in the sky were the givers of life and should be worshipped. The sun for obvious reasons was the most important. It was believed to be the “Chief Life Giver”. Others were extremely important as well. The star cluster Pleiades would appear in the morning sky around planting season. They could predict when to prepare for planting by calculating where this constellation was at. They built the streets of one of their cities Teotihuacán, to align with Pleiades.
The Mayans took astronomy very seriously. The layout of their cities, the buildings that they constructed that have ways of viewing astronomical alignments built into the walls, and their fear of eclipses because they thought that something was eating the sun, all support this fact. The highest figures in Mayan society were the Mayan priests. The Mayans believed that the priests got their information about objects in the sky by communicating with the gods. The Mayans made animal as well as human sacrifices to their gods to get them to continue to help them. The way the Mayans built all of their buildings and cities to mirror constellations shows just how important the sky was to the Mayans. They built buildings aligned with everything from the movement of the sun, to the movement of Venus, or just to reflect where the brightest stars were in the sky. This illustration shows a set of buildings as well as their astronomical placement.
By far the most intriguing object that the Mayans built was their calendar. The Mayan calendar was a circular system of rotating pieces that worked together to form a few different calendars. Their time keeping ability is thought by some to be more accurate than even our own. The Mayans get so much respect because of their astronomical knowledge that people nowadays believe that the world is going to end when their calendar ends on December 21, 2012. (I truly hope they are wrong. That is only two and a half weeks away. I guess we will find out)
The Mayan people built amazingly accurate observatories to help them to map the sky. Living in the jungle they needed to get above the forest canopy in order to see the stars in full. They built observatories like the ones below to have places that they could view the stars unobstructed. Although these look like they housed telescopes, they did not. The Mayans did not have the technology to build telescopes that we know of. Instead they made observations with the naked eye, which is another reason that it is almost unbelievable what they managed to accomplish. The dome shaped observatory appears to have been built to track the movement of Venus. Venus was believed to be the suns twin and the Mayans god of war Kukulcan (shown below). The cement platform that the dome was built onto has corners that align with the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset.
The Mayans knowledge of the sky was so advanced that there are theories that they learned their knowledge from extra terrestrials. For as long as I can remember I have believed that there just has to be life elsewhere in the universe. The universe is too vast for us to be the only living creatures. However, I do not know that I accept the theories that these other civilizations are able to visit us or have visited us in the past. The Mayan accomplishments though are the strongest evidence I have heard to support these theories. These people knew things about the universe that we did not know until the past hundred years or so. They also were able to figure these things out by observing the world around them with the naked eye. We are just starting to catch up with them and we have technology that is far more advanced than they had. We have telescopes that can show us light years into space. It is hard for me to believe that they just discovered all of their knowledge through years of observation and mapping. If their “Gods” did visit them and give them some of their information, it would sure explain a lot. One of the most intriguing facts about the Mayans is there belief about when the Universe formed. The Mayans estimates about when the Universe formed are within a few hundred thousand years of when scientists today believe it began. We are talking about billions of years ago. How did the Mayans figure this out? There is no way that they just guessed and were able to estimate with that kind of accuracy. There are even scientists who believe that the Mayans estimates are correct and ours are wrong. We may never know the truth about where the Mayans got all their knowledge, but we should definitely continue to research the subject and hope that we learn from their mistakes in order to avoid the outcome that they endured.
References
Anthony Aveni. Ancient Astronomers. Smithsonian Books, 1993.
Anthony Aveni. "Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica." In In Search of Ancient Astronomies, edited by E.C. Krupp. Doubleday and Company, 1977. 165-202.
Anthony Aveni. "Possible Astronomical Orientations in Ancient Mesoamerica." In Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America, edited by Anthony Aveni. U. of Texas Press, 1975. 163-190.
Evan Hadingham. Early Man and the Cosmos. Walker and Company, 1984.