The Mayan culture extended from the third to the ninth century and was thought to be influenced by the Olmec culture, which is remembered for the building of large and flourishing cities that existed for many years. Like the Egyptians, their civilization is credited with the building of pyramids, temples and cities. Today descendents of the ancient Maya account for more than 50% of the population of Guatemala. Historical evidence seems to indicate the presence of a Mayan culture in present day Mexico at least as far back as 1800 BCE, but their greatest influence was exerted between 200 B.C. and A.D. 1000. The Mayans did not believe in applying administrative power over an empire, but instead developed as a series of largely autonomous city-states, such as Palenque and Tikal.
To the Mayans, capturing the essence of time was of the utmost importance. In their cosmology, space and time were inevitably intertwined, as is evidenced by their complex calendar system that combines spatial attributes of the universe, such as animals and plants, with temporal movements of astronomical objects. The Mayans invented a calendar (shown on the right) and the Pyramid of Kukulkan was used as a calendar: four stairways, each with 91 steps and a platform at the top, making a total of 365, equivalent to the number of days in a calendar year. The Maya calendar uses three different dating systems: the Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar), and the Haab (civil calendar). They used the sky as a method of measuring the passage of time.
The Mayans made many observations and calculations from looking into the sky and studying the stars. All of their discoveries were put together into what is known as the “Dresden Codex”. It is a 78 page document containing ‘calendrical data, written in the Mayan dating system, concerning astronomical data and the sky mechanics, and tables of multiple integers that are to be used for calculations of planetary movement […] next to the hieroglyphic texts and numerous depicturings of the Mayan gods and ritual scenes.’ The Dresden Codex is most famous for its Lunar Series and Venus table and it has information on rainy seasons, floods, illness and medicine. It also seems to show conjunctions of constellations, planets and the Moon. The picture shows an example of what the Dresden Codex looked like.
Although their methods of observation and calculation were very simple (which resulted in unavoidable inaccuracy), there were various recorded astronomical observations, some of which are:
1. The observations of Venus visibility, which appeared for the first time after its conjunction with the Sun as a morning star.
2. The observations of Mercury visibility and how its trajectory creates a peculiar ellipse.
3. The solar eclipses (the obscuration of the light of the sun by the intervention of the moon between it and a point on the earth), new moons and full moons.
4. The determination of equinoxes (two times in the year when night and day are the same length of time) and solstices (either of the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the heavenly equator).
The Mayans worshipped the Milky Way and Venus was an extremely important object to them. Hence, they decided to track the motion of the planet. It is thought that the planet is connected to the deity Quetzalcoatl. They called the planet Xux Ek, the "Great Star". 584 days was what the Mayans considered to be the synodic period of Venus (how long it takes to orbit the sun). This was very close to the actual synodic period which is 583.92 days. This just shows how although they used very simple methods of observation and calculation, they were still very close to predicting the actual synodic period of Venus. In the Mayan culture, it was bad luck if Venus rose in the morning. So everyone would remain in their homes, blocked from the “evil light of Venus”.
As well as astronomers, the Mayans were also mathematicians who:
1. Developed the concept of zero.
2. Deduced that a solar year was slightly more than 365 days.
The main issue today seems to be whether or not we can believe that this predicted apocalypse will actually happen. Due to the Mayans’ simple observation and calculation methods in the past, which lead to some inaccuracy, it can be thought that it may not happen after all. However, although their predictions and calculations weren’t 100% correct, they were very close! (Remember the synodic period of Venus) Furthermore, parts of the Dresden Codex seem to be distorted. Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone said, “There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012. […] The notion of a "Great Cycle" coming to an end is completely a modern invention.” So is it the case that the world will indeed end or is it that during this time Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era?
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