Earliest Mayan Astronomical Records Found In Guatemalan Ruins

Lost Mayan Tradition. At this time, a lot of the traditional Mayan tradition is misplaced forever. Their beliefsconflicted in many ways with the Roman Catholic Church, and the firstArchbishop of Mexico claimed to have burned tens of 1000′s of Mayanbooks within the 1500s. Apart from remaining temple inscriptions, onlyfour books stay right now as the remnant of this ancient tradition:the Dresden Codex, the Grolier Codex, the Madrid Codex, and theParis Codex. Doomsday situations also declare that the planets will align and their tidal forces will trigger harmful earthquakes. A book known as The Jupiter Impact made similar claims within the seventies. There were no problems then both.

Mayans believed that we are currently within the Fifth Great Cycle, whichwill finish, and a new First Solar start, on 23 December 2012. Popularliterature abounds with hypothesis on this occasion, and its close to-coincidingwith ecliptic crossing to the north of the Photo voltaic System’s orbitaround the Galatic Heart. Astronomers have found a cache of 14 massive area rocks past the orbit of Neptune whereas sifting by means of archival observations from the Hubble Area Telescope. The relieves, which date again to the ninth century , depict scenes and symbols used by Maya to calculate the movements of celestial our bodies and compose their calendars.

At Chichen Itza, the feathered serpent god referred to as Kukulcan would climb down his pyramid, El Castillo, on the primary day of spring. Astronomers would then know when to have festivities with human sacrifices, trading human blood for the approaching rains — all to appease Kukulcan and the rain god, Chaac. We truly present this sacrifice (tastefully) within the full dome and really up-shut in the Mayan Prophecies planetarium show. Many current books and the most important Hollywood film, 2012 , purvey alleged Mayan predictions that the world will end on the 2012 winter solstice, December 21, 2012. These claims intertwine the Mayan calendar with some somewhat dubious astronomy.

It is exhausting to compare the Greeks and the Mayans as a result of they lived severalthousand years aside. The Ancient Greek society appeared to considerknowledge and studying to be an essential part of their tradition – thusstudying astronomy was a pure extension of that. The Mayans developed astronomy to the point where they could predict eclipses hundreds of years in the future. Their legends say they obtained their astronomical wisdom from the Olmecs. Little is understood in regards to the Olmecs, though traces of their tradition have been discovered relationship to about 2000 B.C.E. A Mayan stone calendar is shown at left.

Fashionable (days) As recorded by the Maya Maya in days Ptolemy Lunar (synodic) month405 lunations = 46 tzolk’ins (260 x 46 = 11,960 days) 29.53086 29.53337 Synodic period of Venus 583.93 301 periods = 676 tzolk’ins ( 260 x 676 = one hundred seventy five,760 days) 583.92027 583.94267 Synodic period of Mars 779.94 1 interval = three tzolk’ins (3 x 260 = 780 days) 780 779.94 Solar (tropical) 12 months 365.24198 1507 tropical years = 1508 haabs (365 x 1508 days) 365.242 365.24667 When these early skywatchers found precession, they realized that every winter solstice the cosmic birth canal was transferring nearer and nearer to the dawning sun.