The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya: Cycles and Steps from the Madrid Codex

by Merideth Paxton

Overview

Flourishing by A.D. 250-300, Maya civilization extended over large sections of modern Mexico and Guatemala, as well as Belize, and into present-day El Salvador and Honduras. The pre-Conquest inhabitants of this vast area left important clues to their understanding of religious and historical events in the remains of their architecture, painting, sculpture, distinctive polychrome ceramics, and sophisticated hieroglyphic writing. A vital key to understanding these clues is an appreciation of the solar, lunar, and planetary cycles that are woven through the Maya chronological records. The Maya concepts of time figured heavily in their association of human rulers with celestial deities and cosmic events, and in the physical orientation of cities and buildings. In fact, scholars are now realizing that virtually every aspect of pre-Hispanic Mayan life was ordered by a religion based on the apparent annual movement of the sun through the sky.

In The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya, Merideth Paxton provides an ingenious and thorough new study of parts of two of the Maya books, or codices, with particular focus on a previously unrecognized image of the solar year that appears in the manuscript known as the Madrid Codex. The motif of the solar year also underlies her identification of a regional organization among the ruins of the Yucatec Maya settlements. Incorporating analyses of art, archaeology, astronomy, and colonial and modern ethnography pertaining to Yucatán, as well as studies of sixteenth-century Spanish beliefs, Dr. Paxton elicits fascinating new meanings from her sources and she invites Mesoamerican specialists and students to consider links between components of pre-Conquest Maya civilization. This innovative, scholarly text is essential reading for all who are interested in Mesoamerica, and it is sure to stimulate additional developments in the field of Maya cosmology and ideology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826350367
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Merideth Paxton, who received her Ph.D. in art history, is Mesoamerican manuscripts editor of the Latin American Indian Literatures Journal. She is also a Visiting Scholar at the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	viii
	List of Maps	ix
	List of Tables	ix
	Preface	xi
1	Introduction
1.1	Yucatan in the Maya Context	1
1.2	The Maya Codices	7
1.3	Conquest and Survival	10
2	The Maya Directions
2.1	Introduction	15
2.2	East and West	17
2.2.1	Lakin and Chikin	17
2.2.2	Dze-emal and Noh-emal	19
2.3	North and South	23
2.4	The Center	25
2.5	Summary	28
3	Pages 75-76 of the Madrid Codex and the Symbolism of Calendar Round Dates
3.1	Introduction	31
3.1.1	Orientation of the Madrid 75-76 Painting	32
3.1.2	Description of the 260-day Cycle	33
3.2	Iconography of the Haab	33
3.2.1	Uinals Symbolized by Footprints	39
3.2.2	The Blending of the Haab and the Tzolkin at the Corners of the Universe	42
3.2.3	Association of the Tzolkin with the Haab: The 364-day Computing Year	43
3.3	Symbolism of the Calendar Round	45
3.3.1	Previous Theories on the Meaning of the Tzolkin	48
3.3.2	The Moon and Human Procreation: Construction of Lunar Goddesses	49
3.3.2.1	The Moon Goddess among the Early Colonial Yucatec Maya	50
3.3.2.2	The Modern Quiche Maya and the Moon Goddess	51
3.3.2.3	The Moon Goddess in the Popol Vuh	54
3.3.2.4	Lunar Timekeeping in Yucatan	56
3.3.2.5	Lunar Phases and Lunar Content of the Pre-Hispanic Codices	57
3.4	Summary and Conclusions	59
4	The Venus Table of the Dresden Codex: Deities and the Directions of the Cosmos
4.1	Introduction	63
4.2	Venus and the Sun: The Primary Structure of the Dresden Venus Table	65
4.2.1	Venus as Morning and Evening Star	65
4.2.1.1	Prediction of Venus Appearances	69
4.2.1.2	Cumulative Astronomical Error	69
4.2.2	Venus and the Four Corners of the Maya Cosmos	76
4.3	Venus and the Moon: The List of Twenty Deities in the Dresden Table	80
4.3.1	Directional Positions of the Twenty Deities	80
4.3.2	The 1 Ahau 13 Mac Base and Solar Regents	81
4.3.3	The 1 Ahau 13 Mac Base and the Moon	87
4.4	Summary and Conclusions	92
5	The Cosmic Directions and Yucatec Settlement Organization: Chichen Itza as Center
5.1	Introduction	95
5.2	The Sacred Cenote Complex as the Center Marker at Chichen Itza	98
5.3	The Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza as the Center of Yucatan	109
5.4	Chronology	111
5.5	Summary	113
6	The Primary World Direction: Tulum and Cozumel Island as Regional Settlement Markers of East
6.1	Introduction	115
6.2	Tulum as the Site of Winter Solstice Sunrise	116
6.2.1	Tulum as Samal	116
6.2.2	The Tulum Castillo as a Winter Solstice Marker	117
6.2.3	Tulum and the Forces of Chac	120
6.3	Cozumel as the Primary Symbol of East	123
6.4	The Yaxuna-Coba Road as a Cosmic Symbol?	124
6.4.1	Literary Description	124
6.4.2	Possible Extensions of the Coba-Yaxuna Causeway	127
6.4.3	Chronology	129
6.4.4	Interpretation	131
6.5	Summary and Conclusions	133
7	General Summary and Conclusions	137
	Appendices
A	Goddesses I and O and the Madrid 76-75 Moon Goddess	145
B	Explanation of Venus Events Recorded in the Dresden Codex	150
C	Application of Teeple's Method for Correcting Cumulative Error in the Dresden Venus Table	152
D	Sixteenth-Century Spanish Astronomy and the Maya Turtle Constellation	153
E	Lunar Intervals of the Dresden Venus Table	181
	Notes	189
	Technical Terms	214
	References Cited	215
	Index	233
	List of Illustrations
	Figures
1.1	The days of the tzolkin	4
1.2	The months of the haab	5
1.3	Lintel 1 from Structure 3 C 6 at Oxkintok	6
1.4	Text from Oxkintok Lintels 11 and 13	7
1.5	The Almanac on pages 10b-11b of the Madrid Codex	10
2.1	Drawing of pages 75-76 of the Madrid Codex	16
2.2	Hieroglyphs for the perimeter directions of the Maya cosmos, from the Madrid and Dresden Codices	17
2.3	Possible glyphs for zenith and nadir, pages 77-78 of the Madrid Codex	27
3.1A	Pages 78-77 of the Madrid Codex	34
3.1B	Transcription of Pages 78-77 of the Madrid Codex	35
3.2A	Pages 76-75 of the Madrid Codex	36
3.2B	Transcription of Pages 76-75 of the Madrid Codex	37
3.3	World directions of the modern Yucatec Maya	38
3.4a-c	Moon goddesses of the Madrid Codex	39
3.5	The tzolkin at the corners of the Maya universe	40
3.6a,b	Acante trees from the Dresden and Madrid Codices	41
3.7a	Page 32a of the Dresden Codex	46
3.7b	Transcription of Page 32a of the Dresden Codex	47
4.1a	The Venus table of the Dresden Codex, page 24	64
4.1b	Drawing of the Venus table of the Dresden Codex, page 24	64
4.2	The Venus table of the Dresden Codex, pages 46-50	65
4.3a	Venus cycles of the Dresden Codex, pages 46-50	67
4.3b	Restored transcription of the Venus cycles of the Dresden Codex, pages 46-50	66
4.4	Two realignments of the Dresden Venus table with the tropical year and the world directions	78