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Maya astronomy is the study of the Moon, planets, Milky Way, Sun, and astronomical phenomena by the Precolumbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica.The Classic Maya in particular developed some of the most accurate pre-telescope astronomy in the world, aided by their fully developed writing system and their positional numeral system, both of which are fully indigenous to Mesoamerica.
Maya codices (sg.: codex) are folding books written by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark paper. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of deities such as the Tonsured Maize God and the Howler Monkey Gods .
The Dresden Codex is a Maya book, which was believed to be the oldest surviving book written in the Americas, dating to the 11th or 12th century. [1] However, in September 2018 it was proven that the Maya Codex of Mexico , previously known as the Grolier Codex, is, in fact, older by about a century. [ 2 ]
The codex also contains astronomical tables, although fewer than those in the other three surviving Maya codices. [9] Some of the content is likely to have been copied from older Maya books. [ 10 ] Included in the codex is a description of the New Year ceremony.
Representation of an astronomer from the Madrid Codex [331] The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies. This information was used for divination, so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes.
Maya calendar on michielb.nl, with conversion applet from Gregorian calendar to Maya date (Uses the proleptic Gregorian calendar.) The Dresden Codex Lunar Series and Sidereal Astronomy Day Symbols of the Maya Year at Project Gutenberg 1897 text by Cyrus Thomas.
The Codex was first displayed at the Grolier Club in New York, hence its name. The first Mexican owner, Josué Saenz, claimed that the manuscript had been recovered from a cave in the Mexican state of Chiapas in the 1960s, along with a mosaic mask, a wooden box, a knife handle, as well as a child's sandal and a piece of rope, along with some blank pages of amate (pre-Columbian fig-bark paper).
In Yucatán, she has also worked on a Maya-English dictionary, the Maya language, and ethnobotany. [3] Bricker has also studied Precolumbian Maya astronomy, calendars, astrology, divination, and script. [2] [3] Her work included studies of the Dresden Codex and Madrid Codex. [2]