2024-04-06 20:35:23
El Castillo pyramid illuminated at night under the dark sky in Chichen Itza, Mexico, one of the largest Mayan cities.
Ancient Maya astronomers, known for their celestial observations and accurate calendars, recorded their astronomical knowledge in codes, predicted eclipses, and aligned monumental structures with celestial events.
We live in a light-polluted world, where streetlights, electronic ads, and even backyard lighting block out all of the brightest celestial objects in the night sky. But go to the officially protected “dark sky” area, look up at the sky and you will be.
This is the view of the sky that people have had for thousands of years. Pre-modern societies observed the sky and created cosmographies, maps of the heavens that provided information for calendars and agricultural cycles. They also created cosmologies, which in the original use of the word were religious beliefs to explain the universe. The gods and the sky were inseparable.
The sky is orderly and cyclical in nature, so observe and record long enough and establish their rhythms. Many companies were able to accurately predict a lunar eclipse, and some could also predict a solar eclipse – such as the one that will occur over North America on April 8, 2024.
The path of totality, where the moon will completely block the sun, will cross into Mexico on the Pacific coast before entering the United States in Texas, where I teach the history of technology and science, and will look like a partial solar eclipse over the ancient Mayan lands. This follows the annular eclipse of October 2023, when the “ring of fire” around the sun could be observed from many ancient Mayan ruins and parts of Texas.
Thousands of years ago, two such eclipses over the same area within six months would have seen Maya astronomers, priests and rulers jump into a frenzy of activity. I’ve seen similar madness – albeit for different reasons – here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where we’ll be in the path of totality. During this time between the two eclipses, I felt privileged to share my interest in the history of astronomy with the students and the community.
Maya Observatory “Underworld” Revealed | National Geographic
Ancient astronomers
The ancient Maya were undoubtedly one of the greatest sky-watching societies. Gifted mathematicians, they recorded systematic observations of the motion of the sun, planets, and stars.
From these observations, they created a complex system of calendars to regulate their world – one of the most accurate in the pre-modern period.
Astronomers watched the sun closely and aligned monumental structures, such as pyramids, to track solstices and equinoxes. They also used these structures, as well as caves and wells, to mark the solstice days – twice a year in the tropics when the sun is directly overhead and vertical objects cast no shadow.
Eclipse plates in the Dresden Codex. Credit: Saxon University and State Library – Dresden
Maya scribes kept accounts of the astronomical observations in codices, hieroglyphic folding books made of fig bark paper. The Dresden Codex, one of the four surviving ancient Maya texts, dates to the 11th century. Its pages contain a wealth of astronomical knowledge and religious interpretations and provide evidence that the Maya could predict solar eclipses.
From the codex’s astronomical charts, researchers know that the Maya tracked the nodes of the moon, the two points where the moon’s path intersects the ecliptic—the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun, which from our perspective is the sun’s path through our sky. They also created tables divided into the 177-day solar eclipse seasons, indicating days when eclipses were possible.
Heavenly battle
But why invest so much in tracking the sky?
Knowledge is power. If you have kept accounts of what happened during certain celestial events, you can be forewarned and take proper precautions when cycles repeat themselves. Priests and rulers will know how to act, what rituals to perform and what sacrifices to offer to the gods to ensure that the cycles of destruction, rebirth and renewal continue.
In the Mayan belief system, sunsets were associated with death and decay. Each evening the sun god, Kinich Ahau, made the perilous journey through Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, to be reborn at sunrise. A solar eclipse is seen as a “broken sun” – a sign of possible cataclysmic destruction.
Kinich Ahau was associated with prosperity and good order. His brother Chuck Ack – the morning star, which we know today as the planet Venus – was associated with war and strife. They had an adversarial relationship, fighting for supremacy.
An illustration from the Dresden Codex shows the god Venus descending from a band of sky containing sun and moon symbols. Credit: State and University Library of Saxony – Dresden
Their battle could be seen in the sky. During a solar eclipse you can see planets, stars and sometimes comets during totality. If properly placed, Venus will shine brightly next to the dark sun, which the Mayans interpreted as a chak ak in attack. This is alluded to in the Dresden Codex, where a diving Venus appears in the solar eclipse charts, and in the coordination of the solar eclipse with Venus cycles in the Madrid Codex, another Mayan folding book from the end of the 15th century.
With Kinich Ahau – the sun – hidden behind the moon, the Maya believed it was dying. Rituals of renewal were necessary to restore balance and put him back on track.
The nobility, especially the king, would perform bloodletting sacrifices, piercing their bodies and collecting the drops of blood to burn as sacrifices to the sun god. This “blood of kings” was the highest form of sacrifice, intended to strengthen Kinich Ahau. Maya believed that the creator gods gave their blood and mixed it with corn dough to create the first humans. In turn, the nobility gave a small portion of their life force to feed the gods.
Time stands still
Ahead of April’s eclipse, I feel like I’m completing my own personal cycle, taking me back to earlier career paths: first as an aerospace engineer who loved her orbital mechanics classes and enjoyed backyard astronomy; and then as a doctoral student in history, studying how the Mayan culture continued after the Spanish conquest.
An image of the Mayan sun god Kinich Ahau, made between the sixth and ninth centuries, now resides in Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology. Credit: Bagval
For me, just like the ancient Maya, the total solar eclipse will be an opportunity not only to look up but also to consider the past and the future. Eclipse viewing is something our ancestors have done since time immemorial and will do a lot in the future. It is amazing in the original sense of the word: for a few moments time seems to both stop, when all eyes are turned to the sky and converge, when we take part in the same spectacle as our ancestors and descendants.
And whether you believe in divine messages, battles between Venus and the Sun, or the beauty of science and the natural world, this event brings people together. It’s humbling, and it’s also very, very cool.
I just hope Kinich Ahau will grace us with his presence in a cloudless sky and once again beat Venus, who is a morning star on April 8th.
Written by Kimberly H. Breuer, associate professor of teaching, University of Texas at Arlington.
Adapted from an article originally published on The Conversation.
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