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WHITECROW BORDERLAND
Mayan Astronomy
Note 14: A Maya Window on the Sky: Yax Pac, Temple 22, and Venus at Copan, Honduras. 7/14/99
Ivan Sprajc, in "The Venus-Rain-Maize Complex in the Mesoamerican World View: Part I" (Journal for the History of Astronomy 24: 1993, 17-70), presents considerable evidence from various kinds of ethnohistorical sources that evening-star positions of Venus were more significant in Classic Period Maya astronomy than most scholars have been willing to admit, since they have generally preferred the morning-star attributes of the planet. The zero base-day position in the GMT correlation, with Venus near inferior conjunction with the sun and poised to rise into the morning sky a few days later, is one reason for that preference, which was based in part on the fact that contemporary Maya villagers in Guatemala using the 260-day almanac in the 1930's specified a Venus heliacal rising at inferior conjunction for the day-name 1 Ahau, the base-day for the Dresden Codex Venus Table. The choice of Julian Day #584283 for the zero base-day of the GMT correlation was determined by this contemporary usage and other ethnohistorical data. Sprajc contends that the morning sky positions of Venus gained prominence only during the post-classic period of Maya history and were not that significant in the earlier astronomy of the Classic Period itself.
Leaving that debate behind in the more competent hands of professional, academic ethnohistorians, and since Sprajc is preaching to the choir where I am concerned, I want to examine the astronomy associated with two Maya dates he reports in his paper which were recorded on Temple 11 at Copan, Honduras, during the Classic Period. The first date, 9.15.15.12.16 5 Cib 9 Pop, has been interpreted to signify the day Yax Pac, a future "king" of Copan, was designated as the heir-apparent to the throne of the ceremonial center. The second date, 9.17.0.0.16 3 Cib 9 Pop, seems significant because it records an anniversary of Yax Pac's heir designation 24 Maya years (365 days each) after the first date and/or 15 Venus synodic periods later as well. This coincidence between Maya solar years and Venus periods, since the first is a multiple of 8 and the second is a multiple of 5, puts the two dates on an extension over time like the one that controls the articulation of the Dresden Codex Venus Table (8 X 365 = 5 X 584) and indicates that Venus will occupy the same position relative to the sun on both days. Sprajc, using the GMT correlation, determined that Venus was at its first day of visibility in the evening sky after superior conjunction on both days and may have been visible on the western horizon to someone looking through the window in the west wall of Temple 22 at Copan on those two days (Sprajc, 53). He also suggests that Yax Pac may have been responsible for the design of the window in that Temple so that Venus could be seen in the socio-political context of his rulership at Copan (53). This would have been significant because it would have connected Yax Pac as ruler of Copan to the Venus-Rain-Maize complex that Sprajc has argued in his paper, since Venus's entry into the evening sky after superior conjunction may have been associated with both the beginning and end of the rainy season in Mesoamerica during the Classic Period.
Sprajc's overall argument is somewhat tortured, however, because the zero base-day in the GMT correlation has Venus in the wrong position moving in the wrong direction for it to have been associated with the Venus-Rain-Maize complex if its entry into the evening sky was a determining factor in Classic Period articulation of that complex. In other words, the zero base-day astronomy in the GMT correlation does not support Sprajc's position and can even be said to contradict it. The astronomy he reports for the dates at Copan is, of course, consistent with his position, in part at least, because Venus was located at 6.6* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky on February 9, 747 A. D. (9.15.15.12.16 5 Cib 9 Pop in the GMT) and was moving away from the sun after superior conjunction. On February 3, 771 A. D. (9.17.0.0.16 3 Cib 9 Pop in the GMT), Venus was in a similar position at 7.0* of elongation from the sun. In both cases the planet probably would have been visible. The problem with this assessment, however, concerns the fact that dates in early February do not correspond to either the beginning or ending of the rainy season in the Maya area.
Looking at these same dates with the correlation number I have proposed, Julian Day #563334 as the Maya zero base-day on April 29, 3171 B. C., when Venus stood at 7.6* of elongation in the evening sky after superior conjunction at the beginning of the rainy season, the first date corresponds to October 2, 689 A. D. (Julian Day #1972990) where Venus had reached 26.7* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky and was moving away from it toward maximum eastern elongation. Approximately two degrees south of Venus, and standing at 27.4* of elongation from the sun, was Saturn. When Venus and Saturn reached the western horizon, they were separated by seven minutes of real time, since Venus crossed the western horizon at 19:21 PM and Saturn disappeared at 19:28 PM. Jupiter, at the same time, was somewhat closer to the sun and approaching its last day of visibility before it shifted its position into the morning sky after its solar conjunction. Jupiter stood at 14.4* of elongation in the evening sky, setting at 18:41 PM, and was in conjunction with Zubenelgenubi, setting at 18:40 PM, which is the first star in Libra to cross the western horizon as that constellation sets. Venus and Saturn were at the other side of Libra at the time in proximity to 38-Librae which set four minutes before Saturn and 3 minutes after Venus, at 19:24 PM. Hence, one can say that to an observer looking out the window of Temple 22 at Copan on the day that Yax Pac was confirmed as heir-apparent to the throne there Jupiter was separated from Venus and Saturn by the length of time it takes Libra to disappear across the western horizon as it sets.
On the second day in question, 9.17.0.0.16 3 Cib 9 Pop, which corresponds to September 26, 713 A. D. (Julian Day #1981750), Venus reached 27.0* of elongation from the sun and set at 19:25 PM. About 1.5* south of Venus, Jupiter stood at 25.8* of elongation from the sun and set at 19:23 PM that same day. Both planets were situated in the "center" of Libra above Zubenelgenubi and below 38-Librae. The moon was in close proximity to both planets, 2 days after its conjunction with the sun, which occurred on September 24, 713 A, D., or one lumination after a solar eclipse marked by position #5 in the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table on August 25, 713 A. D. (Julian Day #1981718), 10 Kan 2 Cumku in the Mayan CR. The lunar eclipse paired with this solar one occurred 16 days before the anniversary date of Yax Pac's heir-designation, one day before the widely recorded Katun-ending date 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumku.
Another significant point which can be made here concerns the fact that the two dates recorded on Temple 11 at Copan both fall two days after respective formal positions in the Dresden Codex Venus Table's second run from its base-day on September 1, 669 A. D. (Julian Day # 1965654). The first date came two days after 3 Ix 7 Pop in the 13th revolution of the planet after the base-day and marks Venus at 26.2* of elongation in the evening sky on September 30, 689 A. D. The second date came two days after 1 Ix 7 Pop in the 28th revolution of the planet and marks Venus at 26.5* of elongation in the evening sky on September 24, 713 A. D. This same Venus Table position also records the day of occurrence of the new moon mentioned above. A final point which might be significant concerns the fact that 258 days after the second Venus Table position on 1 Ix 7 Pop, when the Table had advanced to its final stop in the 28th revolution of the planet, Venus had reached 45.6* of elongation in the morning sky and rose at 2:33 AM, or three minutes before Alcyone which crossed the eastern horizon at 2:36 AM. The day in question was 12 Eb 5 Kankin in the Mayan CR and June 9, 714 A. D. (Julian Day #1982006) in the European calendar.
While it has never been possible for anyone in the twentieth century to say what Maya individuals may have been thinking when they chose to carve certain dates on pieces of stone during the Classic Period, it is possible to reconstruct the sky they might have been looking at when those dates were selected. No amount of argument, however, regardless of how reasonable or persuasive it might appear to us now, can overcome the speculation inherent in discussions aimed at reporting astronomical data derived from one correlation number or another when such facts are then applied to the notations found in Temple 11 at Copan or anywhere else in the Maya Classic Period. Such data are mostly speculation and do not rise to the level of proving the validity of any correlation proposal. What can be said here is that the zero base-day derived from correlation number 563334 does place Venus in a position just after its first day of visibility in the evening sky after its superior conjunction with the sun in close proximity to the onset of the rainy season. This position satisfies every qualification Sprajc makes in his discussion of the Venus-Rain-Maize complex. While it is true that finding two first days of Venus's visibility after superior conjunction on the days recorded in Temple 11 at Copan, as the GMT correlation determines for them, that is not the case when #563334 is employed in place of #584283. Instead, Venus is in the evening sky on both days, approximately 102 days after its superior conjunction with the sun, and has reached a point in near conjunction with Saturn on the first day and in near conjunction with Jupiter on the second one 24 years later. Both dates are within a little more than one full lumination of the moon prior to the end of the rainy season.
To say that one set of astronomical data is better than the other, more meaningful than the other, begs the same question that lies at the heart of this entire discourse about who can or should determine what is meaningful or significant to the people who carved the dates on the piece of stone in the first place. I will not take that liberty. What I will say is that Yax Pac, if the data I have presented here in place of the GMT correlation astronomy is credible, may have chosen to record those dates, not to symbolize anything, but rather to draw the spirit-power of Saturn and Jupiter to his own Venus-spirit-identity as he looked forward to, or back at, the day on which he was designated as the heir-apparent to the throne of Copan. As Sprajc points out, Venus as the evening star, especially at the onset of the dry season, was considered a malevolent influence on the lives of the Maya people in general. Perhaps the proximity of Venus and Saturn, and then Venus and Jupiter 24 years later, stood to mitigate that malevolent influence by virtue of combining Venus's spirit-power with the spirits of Saturn and Jupiter on the two days that were recorded in Temple 11 at Copan. In the GMT correlation there does not seem to be anything to alter or affect the influence of Venus's transition into the evening sky and it seems odd that a future ruler of Copan would commemorate his reign by drawing attention to the fact that it reached an important beginning as Venus entered its most dangerous and malevolent aspect.
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To reach [Note 1]; [Note 2]; [Note 3]; [Note 4]; [Note 5]; [Note 6]; [Note 7]; [Note 8]; [Note 9]; [Note 9a]; [Note 10]; [Note 11]; [Note 12]; [Note 13] [Note 15]; [Note 16]; [Note 17]; [Note 18] in this series of thoughts.
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