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1250, but fell in A.D. 1451. By the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in the early 16th century, all of the major centers had disappeared. The Maya conducted a ferocious and highly successful resistance to the Conquest for years. The last independent Maya kingdom did not fall to the Spanish until A.D. 1697. |
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9.5.1.2.2
A Common Calendar |
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In view of the unremitting animosity between the Maya citystates, it may seem remarkable that all of them accepted and used the same calendar system. Intense hostility seems to have been just one among many ritualized common beliefs. By contrast, the ancient Greek citystates shared a common cultural heritage and a tradition of enmity, but each evolved a separate calendar. |
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9.5.1.2.3
The Baktuns of Maya History |
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Most of the recorded dates of Maya history occur in baktun 9 (from about A.D. 435830). There are earlier dates in baktun 8 and even a few in baktun 7. Likewise, dates are recorded in baktun 10, but the Long Count tradition was nearly at the end of its tether by the start of that baktun. |
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The Maya, like most traditional peoples, selected a date in their distant past as their epoch. This date was undoubtedly selected with care. According to Aveni (Empires of Time, p. 202), for example, the date of 11 August corresponds very closely to one of the two dates in the year when the sun passes exactly overhead at the latitude of 14.5°N (near Copan, where the first calendric inscriptions are found). |
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The Maya were skilled astronomers. Like many early cultures, they shunned fractions and made all of their calendric adjustments using whole numbers of days. The Dresden Codex is essentially an ephemeris for the planet Venus, and contains tables showing the necessary adjustments to be made between the calendar dates and the predicted observation dates. The accuracy of the Codex is, according to Aveni, a leading paleoastronomer, two hours in five centuries (p. 223). |
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The Maya were likewise aware of the difference between the length of the haab and the length of the tropical year. They regularly calculated the necessary adjustments for the calendar, in order to be able to predict events like the solstices. The Maya did not, however, intercalate days in their calendar. For the Maya, it was not important that their calendar express the length of the solar year. The annual solar cycle was simply one of many astronomical phenomena of which the Maya were aware, and it was not the most important one. Unlike other cultures, which make this one single datum the basis for the calendar, the Maya were comfortable with the idea of deriving it as needed, and reserved the calendar for more important matters. By refusing to twist their calendar around one single measure, the Maya made a powerful statement about their calendric maturity. |
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