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Mayan Astronomy
Note 13: The Zero Base-Day and the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table. 7/9/99
Maya astronomers during the Classic Period connected the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table to the zero base-day of the Long Count, or Initial Series, notation by fixing its base-day at 9.16.4.10.8 12 Lamat 1 Muan, where they began to monitor a lunar eclipse series initiated on June 29, 698 A. D. (Julian Day #1976182), which subsequently places every lunar eclipse the table was designed to count on the day-names listed by Maya astronomers in the table. At this point in time, the lunar eclipse was paired with a solar eclipse which occurred 16 days earlier on June 13, 698 A. D. (Julian Day #1976166). As certain essential design features of the table prescribe, the solar eclipse also occupies a day-name position in the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table, position #42 to be exact, but the sequence of solar eclipses is counted from a different and distinct base-day position of its own. The base-day which begins the solar sequence occurred 7,280 days prior to the eclipse of June 13, 698 A. D. The solar eclipse base-day was deliberately off-set in this way by a predetermined number of days so that Maya astronomers would be able to count both sequences of eclipses (lunar and solar) simultaneously by using two different tables which were identical in every way with the single exception that the solar sequence was set to begin 7,280 days prior to the lunar sequence.
A digression is necessary at this point to clarify certain issues. The statements above are actually inverted in the sense that the solar eclipse sequence was probably subordinate to the lunar eclipses marked by the table. This is true because the glyphic inscription above the base-day position in the Dresden Codex itself, which is the final position in the table and is counted as the 69th eclipse station, contains a sign that signifies an interval equal to 13-Tun, or 4,680 days (13 X 360 = 4,680 days). Projecting forward the prescribed number of days from the 12 Lamat 1 Muan base-day, a Long Count notation designated by 9.16.17.10.8 12 Lamat 16 Zac is reached. The 12 Lamat day-name repeats because 4,680 is a multiple of 260 (18 X 260 = 4,680). The day in question occurred on April 22, 711 A. D. (Julian Day #1980862) and marked a solar eclipse at the base-day position in the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table relative to a 42nd eclipse station in a prior run of the sequence. In other words, the solar eclipse on April 22, 711 A. D. is perfectly consistent with the structure of the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table in every way. One pertinent observation already in evidence here is the fact that the solar eclipse base-day is temporally positioned in such a way as to reflect or recapitulate a circumstance that existed in 3171 B.C. with respect to the zero base-day. In this context, the conjunction between the star cluster known as the Pleiades and the sun occurred five days after the solar eclipse on April 27, 711 A. D. (4 Ben 1 Ceh in the Maya CR) when Alcyone crossed the eastern horizon at 5:26 AM or one minute before the sun which crossed at 5:27 AM. Another relevant point concerns the fact that Venus stood at 46.1* of elongation from the sun in the morning sky on the day of occurrence for the lunar eclipse (#27 in sequence from 12 Lamat 1 Muan) which was paired with the solar eclipse 15 days earlier on April 7, 711 A. D. (Julian Day #1980847). The CR day-name for the lunar eclipse was 10 Ben 1 Zac.
The point here is that Venus's position at 46.1* of elongation in the morning sky is the same as it was on the first day of the Dresden Codex Venus Table (3 Cib 9 Zac) in 566 A. D. The difference between one and the other is that here Venus has already reached its maximum elongation and is beginning its journey back toward superior conjunction. As it moves back toward the sun, Venus reaches conjunction with the Pleiades 58 days after the lunar eclipse on June 4, 711 A. D. (Julian Day #1980905) when it rises at 3:11 AM or one minute before Alcyone at 3:12 AM. Venus's last day of visibility before superior conjunction is also conspicuous in the context of the eclipse sequence because it reaches that point 10 days after a lunar eclipse (#28 from 12 Lamat 1 Muan) and 5 days before the solar eclipse paired with it (#1 after 12 Lamat 16 Zac). The lunar eclipse occurred on October 1, 711 A. D. (Julian Day #1981024) and was designated as 5 Oc 13 Pop in the CR. The solar eclipse fell on October 16, 711 A. D. (Julian Day #1981039) and was called 7 Chicchan 8 Uo in the CR. Venus's last day of visibility was on October 11, 711 A. D. (Julian Day #1981034) when it reached 6.8* of elongation from the sun in the morning sky.
Going back to the 12 Lamat 1 Muan base-day of the Maya Eclipse Table, and to the solar eclipse with which it is paired, an eclipse which occurred on the CR day-name 9 Eb 5 Kankin, one becomes cognizant of the fact that the day-name and LC notation (9.16.4.9.12) are consistent with a formal position of the Dresden Codex Venus Table, located on page 48, row 4, column K of the table's structure, 10,512 days (18 X 584 = 10,512 days) into the second run of the table's use from its second base-day at 9.14.15.6.0 1 Ahau 18 Kayab (September 1, 669 A. D.--Julian Day #1965654). One reason it is possible to argue that this structure is intentional, and not the result of coincidence or chance, concerns the fact that three days before the solar eclipse, which is counted by formal positions in both the Venus and Eclipse Tables in the Dresden Codex, on June 10, 698 A. D. (6 Muluc 2 Kankin in the CR), Venus stood at 45.4* of elongation from the sun in the morning sky and rose at 2:33 AM or one minute after Alcyone crossed the horizon at 2:32 AM. This conjunction between Venus and the Pleiades, in the context of the Venus Table by virtue of its occurrence three days before the 9 Eb 5 Kankin position, and simultaneously in the context of the Eclipse Table by virtue of its connection to the 12 Lamat base-day 19 days later, ties these astronomical tables to each other and to the zero base-day of the LC notation as well.
This relationship, furthermore, is a virtual foregone conclusion because of the astronomy that is apparent at the second first-day of the Dresden Codex Venus Table on April 25, 670 A. D. (Julian Day #1965890). On that 3 Cib 9 Zac, which stands as the first-day of the Venus Table whose extension overtakes the Classic Period eclipse sequence on 9 Eb 5 Kankin/12 Lamat 1 Muan, as it were, Venus reached 1.3* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky and rose at 5:35 AM. Two minutes earlier, at 5:33 AM, Alcyone crossed the eastern horizon. Four minutes prior to that, at 5:29 AM, the sun rose into the morning sky. Two minutes before that, at 5:27 AM, the moon crossed the eastern horizon. In other words, the moon, the sun, the Pleiades, and Venus were in virtual conjunction with each other on the first day of the second run of the Dresden Codex Venus Table as it was counted from the zero base-day on April 29, 3171 B. C.
The only other quadruple conjunction involving these same four celestial objects, of which I have become aware, occurred 29 days before the zero base-day on March 31, 3171 B. C. On that day, the sun rose at 6:22 AM. It was followed two minutes later by the moon at 6:24 AM. One minute later, Venus, which had reached 1.1* of elongation from the sun in the morning sky as it approached superior conjunction, crossed the eastern horizon at 6:25 AM. Four minutes after that, Alcyone joined the other three objects above the horizon, rising at 6:29 AM.
What this evidence suggests, of course, is that Maya astronomers employed their knowledge of the motion of the moon, Venus, and the stellar background to triangulate a suitable position for the zero base-day in the LC, or IS, notation at, or near, the point in time when they observed the quadruple conjunction of Venus, the Pleiades, the sun, and the moon in the context of the Dresden Codex Venus Table's second run after the 9.9.9.16.0 1 Ahau 18 Kayab base-day.
What also seems reasonably clear is that a correlation number must do better than this, in some astronomical context or another, to be considered as more probably the one that identifies the ground from which Maya perceptions of celestial motion spring in real time. The Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation number (584283) tells us clearly enough what the Maya sky looks like through the filter of Eurocentric discourse and paradigms. It tells us little about how the Mayas saw it in their own skin and with their own eyes. 563334 does that.
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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 14]; [Note 15]; [Note 16]; [Note 17]; [Note 18] in this series of thoughts.
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