Ancient Maya
The lost civilization
By Georgia
The Ancient Mayans produced accurate knowledge of astronomical observations and studied the movements of the moon, planets and stars. With this they could predicit eclipses and other celestial events such as the cycle of Venus and its conjunctions.
With the astronomic tracking knowledge the Mayans possesed, they created calendars from the cycle of the sun, moon and planets. These calendars could show and predict when to start new farming seasons, the best time to harvest maize, tide patterns, women's menstruational cycles, celebrations and religious events.
The Mayan were also very interested in zenial passages (the times when the sun passed directly overhead.) Because of the location of the Mayan cities, these zinial passages would happen twice a year. To represent the position of the sun overhead, the Mayans had a god named Diving God.
One of the four surviving Mayan books from the Spanish conquest was inscripted with the most detailed astronomical events. Some inscriptions showed and proved that the Mayans examinations and analysis of Venus were far more important to the Mayans than any other astronomical event or object, including the Sun.
The Maya believed that the Earth was the centre of all things, fixed and immovable. The stars, moons, sun and planets were gods, their movements were seen as them going between the Earth, the Underworld and other celestial destinations. These gods were closely involved in human affairs and as such, the Mayan planned activities to coincide with their movements (Wars and ascending to the royal thrown as examples)
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The luner and solar eclipses were of great interest to the Mayans. They were particularly facinated with planets and their devotion and fasination in tracking and studying the planet Venus and its moons was well documented.
Astronomy
