Gerardo Aldana from the University of California at Santa Barbara (USA) studied the so-called Venus calendar, published on pages 27-28 of the Dresden Mayan Code, and came to the conclusion about its rather important scientific significance. He presented the results of his work in an article published in the Journal of Astronomy in Culture.
"Instructions" for priests
The Dresden Codex is one of four Mayan manuscripts that have come down to us in a relatively intact state. It is also the only manuscript that has survived in full.
Maya texts were divided into thematic blocks. In essence, the codes were priestly books (the term was introduced by the Russian researcher Yu. V. Knorozov). They included both hieroglyphic writing and images. Separate parts of the text were devoted to various rituals, astronomy and astrology, the practices of fortune-telling and divination, as well as the calculation of agricultural and calendar cycles that helped the priests to interpret the phenomena of nature and the influence of divine forces … Cult rites were held according to the calendar.
Since the codes belonged to the priests, they were usually placed in the grave after the death of the owner. Most of the codices were made in the XI-XIV centuries, but, perhaps, there are even more ancient manuscripts … So, in some burials of the classical Mayan era, remains of manuscripts were found in the form of a sticky mass with splashes of paint. We haven't been able to read them yet.
Spanish chronicles report that as early as the beginning of the 16th century, extensive "book depositories" existed in Mesoamerica, but they were destroyed by the conquistadors and later by Catholic missionaries. So, in 1562, the Bishop of Yucatan Diego de Landa held a real book auto-da-fe in Mani: by his order, 27 Mayan manuscripts were set on fire …
By the beginning of the 19th century, only three codes survived in relatively general form, named after the places of their storage, Dresden, Paris and Madrid. In 1971, a fourth, the Grolier code, was discovered in a burial in Chiapas, but its authenticity has not yet been proven.
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Features of the Dresden Code
The Dresden Codex got its name after it found itself in Germany in the 18th century. The manuscript was acquired in Vienna in 1739 by the chief librarian of the Dresden Elector Library, IK Goetse. The seller remained anonymous. The manuscript is currently kept in the Book Museum of the Saxon State and University Library in Dresden. It is officially dated 1200-1250 years.
The book contains 39 sheets made from the bark of the amate plant (a variety of ficus) and written on both sides. This paper was called amatl. Its production technology was developed around the 5th century. At the same time, in Central Mexico, up to colonization by the Spaniards, they used leather of a jaguar, deer or manatee.
The size of the pages of the code is 20.5 by 10 centimeters. They are glued together in the form of a harmonic. When unfolded, its length reaches 3.5 meters. Therefore, the exhibit is presented in two parts, in one of which there are 20, and in the other - 19 sheets. By the way, this is the only Mayan manuscript available to visitors for free viewing.
The Code is a set of rules and guidelines adopted by the Maya society. Aldan, unlike other official researchers, believes that he was created in the so-called classical Mayan era (800-1000 AD). Several authors worked on the manuscript at once, the main of whom was Kakupakal from Chichen Itza, who most likely held the post of high priest and possessed scientific knowledge.
Maya Astronomers?
The manuscript contains a number of numbers that were interpreted by the famous physicist Richard Feynman as astronomical data. According to Aldan, the Mayan calendar was based on centuries of astronomical observations carried out from the 1st century AD. However, until recently, many experts believed that these tables could not have scientific significance, since their content is associated with the system of numerology invented by the Indians, and not at all with real observations.
Back in the 30s of the last century, scientists were interested in the Venus calendar, which is a table that allows you to track the phases of the second from
Sun planet adjusted for leap years. But only Gerardo Aldan was able to analyze this fragment of the code in comparison with modern scientific data. The researcher concluded that the knowledge of the Maya in the field of astronomy and mathematics was much deeper than one might suppose …