The Maya, the Seasons, and the Sky
The Maya, the Seasons, and the Sky by Vicky L. Oldham, February 6, 2022
I lived in western Belize, Central America, from June 2013 to December 2014, in a beautiful hilltop home overlooking a large citrus farm in Pilgrim Valley, just outside the twin towns of Santa Elena and San Ignacio. The property was open on three sides but backed up to hundreds of miles of dense, undeveloped jungle. Another, much larger home sat equally high on a hill less than a quarter-mile away. Both houses, built by the same owner, stood about 70 feet above the ground. Occasionally I would walk around at the base of my hill and notice a few rocky openings that seemed almost like small caves. Only at the end of my Belizean adventure did I learn the original owners of the citrus farm had leveled the tops of ancient Maya structures to construct their two homes! What mysteries might lie hidden below?
Past visits to the stunning archaeological site Xunantunich and other Maya ruins and caves in Belize prompted many more questions. Seeking answers, I was inspired to contact one of the world's most accomplished archaeologists specializing in the Maya of Belize, Dr. Jaime Awe. A professor with Northern Arizona University and Director of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project, Dr. Awe generously sent me a collection of references to explore.
As I began my study, questions lingered: why did the Maya build such elaborate structures so deep in the jungle? I was surprised to learn hundreds of unexcavated places exist throughout Belize, Guatemala, and southern Mexico. Even more astounding is the revelation that much of Mayan architecture reveals a sophisticated knowledge of mathematics and astronomy.
Xunantunich is a leading tourist attraction in Belize. A visit to this partially restored Maya center begins with a ride across the Mopan River in a hand-cranked ferry. Howler monkeys vocalize in the trees overhead, announcing new arrivals at the parking lot. Soon after entering, one realizes this is an entire village dominated by a central structure. In addition to restored buildings, sloping grassy mounds border the large courtyard. Our guide told us that structures lay buried beneath them, but funds were unavailable for excavation.
El Castillo (building A6), the main structure at Xunantunich, rises to 130 feet (39 meters). I recall the excitement of climbing to the top, following deep, winding steps to the upper platform where the spectacular views reach all the way to Guatemala. High above the jungle canopy offers an ideal observatory for studying the heavens, and one can only imagine how dazzling the night sky must be, with no bright city lights nearby to spoil the view. The appreciation of the sky did not escape the Maya's focus: stucco friezes along the upper sides of El Castillo feature a swath of intricately carved glyphs representing astronomical symbols: the Sun, the Moon, and Venus (Belize.com, n.d.). The expression of these celestial objects and their representation of deities repeats in different ways throughout Mayan architecture and art.
The remnants of the ancient Mayan civilization lay hidden in the tropical rainforest for millennia. Before their cities' abandonment, the Maya built towering pyramids and elaborate temples for 2000 years, including architectural wonders designed to record celestial phenomena (Nova, 2022). The impressive El Castillo pyramid (also known as the Temple of Kukulcán) at Chichén Itzá in the Yucatan marks the equinox (when day and night are equal lengths) with dramatic flair. As the Sun moves into position, the combination of light and shadow forms the shape of a slithering snake (SmithsonianNMAI, 2012a, 00:40). George Fery (n.d.), author and photographer of pre-Columbian archaeology sites and Fellow of the Institute of Maya Studies in Miami, Florida, explains the illusion in detail: "… the course of the Sun at sunset projects the shadows of the corners of the pyramid onto the vertical northeast face of the stairway balustrade, giving the visual impression of an undulating serpent slowly crawling down toward its stone head at the bottom of the stairs" (para. 2). It is no wonder that large crowds gather at the pyramid each year to witness this amazing sight firsthand.
Though perhaps not as striking as the Kukulcán pyramid, numerous Mayan structures reflect the motions of the Sun and Moon, the planet Venus, the solstices, and the equinoxes. Most are "based on observational calendars destined to facilitate the programming of agricultural activities and their associated rituals during the yearly cycle" (Charles River Editors, 2021, The Mayan Worldview, para. 1.). Besides aligning with celestial phenomena, there is evidence that the priorities of Mayan architecture shifted over time. One study finds that early Mayan "E-group" building arrangements, typical of several settlements, were first designed for astronomical observations but later transitioned into ritual and ceremonial use (Aimers et al., 2017). Agricultural concerns were not the only motives behind the Maya's passion for astronomy. Their understanding of the seasons and the sky was ultimately driven by a desire to honor their gods.
The Seasons in Tropical America
With the Earth's annual revolution around the Sun, latitudes above and below the Equator undergo seasonal changes. Seasons are not the result of Earth changing its distance from the Sun, as some people assume, but due to the Earth's 23.5-degree tilt during its revolution. One hemisphere leans toward the Sun in summer, while the other leans away, causing winter (Fraknoi et al., 2016b). In the Northern Hemisphere (where I live in Northern Arizona, for example), the annual change of seasons, from spring to summer, autumn to winter, is regular and predictable. Summer is hot, and winter can often bring snow. However, the closer one comes to the Equator, temperature changes are less abrupt. In Belize, located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator, seasons are defined by rainy and dry periods, important to indigenous people for planting and harvesting.
During the equinox, the Sun's rays fall 90-degrees to the Equator, and both hemispheres receive the same amount of solar radiation. As one hemisphere of Earth begins to face the Sun, different latitudes receive "variations in the amounts of solar radiation" (McCoy, 2014, 00:01:05). Unlike the temperate latitudes we experience in North America, tropical areas in latitudes between the Equator and Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn experience two instances when the Sun appears directly overhead to the observer. These times are known as the zenith passages of the Sun. At Chichén Itzá, the zenith passage occurs first in May and again in July (Exploratorium. n.d.). Vertical columns cast no shadow at the moment of the zenith passage (SmithsonianNMAI, 2012b, 00:14). Watching a time-lapse video of the effect emphasizes how it occurs precisely when the Sun is directly overhead.
The zenith passages marked critical events to the Maya for reasons I could never have anticipated. According to an article in Smithsonian, "Sun, Corn, and the Calendar," the Maya used the timing between these two events to create their calendar of 260 days known as the Tzolkin (Smithsonian, 2022a). In Copán, an older Mayan archaeological site, the zenith passages happen in late April and mid-August. The days between these two passages subtracted from the 365 days in the solar year equaled 260. The 105 days between zenith passages represented the time required to plant and harvest corn; the remaining days represented the nine lunar months and human gestation period.
In Belize, the rainy season begins in late May and lasts through November; the dry season starts in December. I remember comfortable days during the dry season, but a few December nights found temperatures dipping into the fifties. Despite the relatively stable temperature of the tropics, tracking the seasons' ebb and flow by the sky was essential to the timing of agricultural activities for early Mesoamerican people. Still, I observed scores of other signs that may have indicated optimal times to plant and harvest.
During the winter months, many of Belize's tropical plants and trees become dormant for a short period—although temperatures never fall below freezing. For example, I noticed that native plumeria shrubs, typically covered in lush, colorful flowers, dropped their leaves entirely during the winter months. I also found that giant silk moths (family Saturniidae) emerged in late May at the same time as higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. In autumn, the massive elephant beetle native to Central America appeared simultaneously to the closely related Western Hercules beetle in the southwest United States. The ancient Maya must have observed many similar seasonal signs besides those exclusive to the sky.
Observations like this led to more questions. Could overemphasis on the Maya's interest in architecture, mathematics, and astronomy paint a distorted picture of Mayan society? Were they dispassionate people obsessed with numbers, counting, and recording celestial objects? Fortunately, evidence of the Maya's profound spiritual relationship with the environment reveals their true character—one seeking harmony amid the puzzle of existence.
A significant expression of their connection to nature is seen through their belief about the majestic Ceiba tree. The Ceiba tree symbolized the universe to the Maya, portraying its multilayers, from heaven to the underworld, encompassing the meaning of life in all its dimensions. Mayan literature illustrates the sacred tree surrounded by symbolic hieroglyphs (Maestri, 2019). Dr. Jamie Awe briefly discusses the importance of the Ceiba trees at the Mayan archaeological site of Caracol in western Belize (Zayac, 2013, 02:30). Perhaps the tree may have served as the inspiration for the "Home Tree" used in the 2009 movie, Avatar (Cameron, 2009). One may ask: how does the sacred tree relate to the Maya's interest in astronomy? Since the tree was thought to reach heaven, it must have naturally extended to their study of the sky (but I am speculating at this point).
The Maya's interest in astronomy and time led them to develop what many authorities have deemed the most advanced calendar system in the ancient world. Specifically, they used a set of multipurpose calendars with a number system based on twenty (rather than our familiar "base ten"). Their observations and timekeeping are reflected in the strategic design of their buildings, temples, monuments, and sculptures, with some that dramatically frame the passage of the Sun and Moon and other celestial phenomena. Despite their precision, the Maya's reasons for an extensive recording of the seasons and the sky differed from the scientific thinking of our modern era; instead, it was intricately woven with their cultural traditions and veneration of the gods. In Stairway to the Stars, anthropologist-archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni (1997) explains the Maya's true focus: "Theirs was a religious agenda, quite different from modern scientists' professed goal of understanding nature for its own sake" (p. 109). Aveni's comment reminds us that cultural bias too often clouds our understanding of different people in distant times.
An article entitled "Lessons from Mayan Astronomy" by Harvard astrophysicist Abraham Loeb (2016) points out how the Maya, despite their collection of "exquisite astronomical data for over a millennium, failed to interpret their findings in the context of what we know today to be true and accurate astronomy" (para. 1). Their cultural frame of reference drove them to see what they wanted to see, to project their data to support their worldview. Dr. Loeb aptly points out that in contemporary society today, we may unconsciously do the same thing as the Maya and inadvertently force scientific information into what we wish or need to be true. Human weakness conspires to interfere with our judgment of the facts. I like to think that one way to avoid this trap is to constantly ask: what have we learned that is new and different? What connections did we make that never existed before?
Regardless of their purpose, the accuracy of astronomical data collected by the Maya is mind-boggling, especially when comparing it to modern values for the lunar month, period of Venus, Mars, and the tropical solar year (Finley, n.d.). Among the ancients, only Ptolemy, who developed the geocentric model of the universe in the 2nd century, achieved similar results. The closeness of values obtained (based on the lunar synodic month) is remarkable:
- Maya lunar month: 29.53086 days
- Ptolemy lunar month: 29.53337 days
- Modern lunar month: 29.53059
days
The periods of Venus, Mars, and the Sun are similarly accurate across the Ptolemaic, Mayan, and modern measurements. As with Ptolemy, the Maya achieved their feats of accuracy in measurements using data from observations accumulated over a long period.
Knowledge of the Sky is Power
The elite rulers of the Maya used their knowledge of astronomy, time, the calendar, and architecture to hold and maintain power. They presided over and administered "time" as a product essential to others for survival and demonstrated their supremacy in what must have been perceived as cosmic, mystical knowledge, uniquely charged to them by the gods (Rice, 2008). By the Classic period, 250 to 900 CE, the Maya had developed several types of calendars (Hirst, 2019). One of these, the Calendar Round, used a 260-day cycle known as the Tzolkin to mark seasonal changes, dates, and events such as Venus' location in the night sky (Fraknoi et al., 2016a). The Maya Long Count Calendar recorded grand expanses of time, from the far past to the distant future. The first date it records is August 11, 3114 BCE, when "the Maya constellation of the Turtle (Orion) was in the nadir position, which is considered the Underworld" (Smithsonian, 2022b, para. 9).
The Maya elite also incorporated elements symbolizing their power in their architecture. For example, seven doorways at the topmost level of the 43-meter high Caana complex at Caracol in Belize reflect Mayan cosmology. To the Maya, the seventh level is the highest possible, accessible only to the royal elite, excluding other social classes (Awe, 2008). It turns out that other Maya complexes, despite differences in appearance, use symbolic structures to separate social classes.
The Meaning of Constellations
Although the Maya were most interested in the Sun, Moon, and Venus, they did recognize constellations, including some that we find familiar today. In modern times, constellations refer to the arbitrary division of the sky into 88 sectors—primarily for organization's sake. Imaginary boundaries group the stars together to make it easier for identification and study. Otherwise, a cloudless, unobstructed view of the sky potentially reveals an overwhelming 3000 stars (Fraknoi, 2016c). How a constellation is perceived depends on the stars' brightness and their arrangements. Also, what we see in the night sky depends on the time of year and whether we live in the northern or southern hemisphere.
Although the Maya organized stars in groups reminiscent of known shapes and symbols, they identified constellations primarily to track the position of Venus in the sky, rather than valuing their importance in isolation. Aveni (1997) says, "Venus hieroglyphs ride on the back of weird animal and human creatures that represent signs of the constellations of a Maya zodiac used to chart the course of that planet [Venus] along the stellar roadway" (p. 130). A façade at Chichén Itzá features zodiac symbols repeated in the Paris Codex, one of few surviving Mayan texts. Sadly, only four codices are known to have survived destruction by the Spanish conquerors (History, 41:35). Among the constellations still recognized today are the Pleiades or "Seven Sisters," as the Maya attributed the rise of the Pleiades in the night sky to the start of the rainy season (Minster, 2019). I remember looking straight up at the night sky from my backyard in Belize for a clear view of the Pleiades.
An Eye-opening Experience
Over the past few decades, the trend to sensationalize ancient societies has proliferated, from stories about space aliens to fantastic depictions of lost technologies. One only needs to recall the social buzz surrounding the presumed Mayan calendar's prediction of the world's end in 2012. Most prognosticators forgot to mention that the Mayan Long Count, the source of this "end date," is designed to reset. With so much disinformation appealing to readers' emotions, it's hard to sort fiction from fact.
One reference cited the case of a popular author who made unsupported claims that the Maya accurately calculated the 25,772 year-long "precession of the equinoxes." Dr. Susan Milbraith (2007), Curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, refuted this assertion, saying, "We should not attribute to them impossible feats and thereby diminish their true accomplishments" (para. 6). Amazingly, the Maya compiled and recorded celestial movements without the aid of telescopes.
My understanding of the seasons and the local sky has taken on a new level of interest by relating it to the study of ancient people. I already knew that the tilt of Earth's axis caused the seasons, but I was surprised by in-depth details about latitude, longitude, the zenith, the nadir, the ecliptic. I was also glad to learn about our 88 constellations and that stars appear to rise in the sky four minutes earlier each night, helpful for understanding their changing positions. The apparent movement of constellations explains how ancient people may have tracked stars' relatively fixed positions against the "wandering" planets. I also appreciate there are multiple ways to design an accurate calendar—it may function differently by today's standards but serves specific purposes related to the challenges faced in different cultures and ages.
Conclusion
A visit to an ancient Mayan site is truly unforgettable. It's not just the appearance of the magnificent buildings and carvings—although they are "mind-blowing" all by themselves. It's the complete sensory experience. You never forget those moments climbing up centuries-old stones surrounded by the canopy of a tropical rain forest. Exotic life abounds in the trees as one beholds entire flocks of colorful parrots, toucans, romping monkeys, and massive iguanas reclining lazily among the branches. Blue morpho butterflies as big as one's hand suddenly flutter by and, as quickly, vanish into the dense vegetation. The entire scene evokes the feeling of an other-worldly adventure—like the trailer to an Indiana Jones movie. Beyond the experience itself, the desire to learn more about ancient cultures like the Maya helps us appreciate the importance of understanding the dynamic forces driving the cycles of the seasons and sky. The Maya's mastery of architecture and art, the calendar, and astronomy combine with their appreciation of the wonders of nature to define them as an exceptional society searching for life's meaning. The desire to see the world from their point of view not only helps us realize their achievement but provides insight into a unique episode in human history, ultimately reflecting on ourselves.
References
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