The Mayan Dance of the Stars

“The night is a bright and dark eye that forces us to look and think about what we’re doing here, where we’re going”. Josefina Moyrón.

When architectural monuments become instruments for accurately measuring of the universe at the time of the tropical year, the data obtained by observing the sky leaves traces of a very powerful message. The monument becomes a source of information that explains the relationship between the swaying of the stars and the philosophy of the native people. What a wonder, the sacred temples were also telescopes that deciphered the existence of life on earth from the dance of the universe.

For decades, researchers have found common ground between astronomy and other social sciences in order to interpret the fascinating legacy of the native people. This study is known as archaeoastronomy and involves a scientific dialogue between astronomy and some human sciences such as archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, epigraphy and art history, among others. By crossing astronomical data with cultural features, the information is enriched and new findings are obtained.

An example of archaeoastronomy may be the study of an archaeological monument that was thought, designed and built in alignment with the movement of the stars. The constructions were functional observatories that played a key role in the decisions of the community. Everything had an orientation and a reason for being. Nothing was adrift.

In Mesoamerica, the Mayan people were great observers of the sky and built their temples and cities taking into account the cycles of Kin (the sun), Uh’ (the moon) and Noh Ek (Venus); they knew that many of the answers of their practical and spiritual life were there. Using their temples as instruments of measurement and keeping track of time, they discovered that the celestial cycles were repeating themselves and that the natural manifestations had a temporality. And they put it all down on paper.

In this way, the stellar knowledge was transmitted among lineages of wisdom and represented a great part of the social, scientific, agricultural, spiritual, political and religious development of the time. Each new generation studied the previous records and drew new conclusions that were transmitted to the community.

Thus, the astronomers warned the people of droughts, hurricanes, changes of seasons, rainy seasons, planting seasons and also of great social changes. The famous Mayan prophecies did not arise from their imagination, everything was based on the knowledge of the past and the understanding of the cycles of the stars. They were chroniclers of their time and their reality, and they counted the time for a powerful reason: they wanted to live better, they wanted to live in harmony with their whole environment.

I had the honor of being initiated into this knowledge by Felipe Chan Chi, Mayan empirical archaeoastronomer and custodian of the archaeological zone of Dzibilchaltún. He has been making astronomical observations with the naked eye for more than 20 years, using the building of The Seven Dolls of Dzibilchaltún and the architectural structures that make it up in a very similar way to the ancient Maya. Talking with him, we understood why the Mayas used the sacred temples to study the solstices, the equinoxes, the lunar phenomena and especially the passage of the sun on its daily path.

And in that class, he also taught us an instrument that he designed, and that according to his studies and interpretations, was how Mayan astronomers observed the sky thousands of years ago. The semi-circular structure (which resembles a huge shell) is covered with an angel veil fabric that allows light to pass through in the darkness, and allows you to dot the stars with an ink that leaves the trace of your observations.

When the loom is unfolded, and after several observations on different dates, the dance of the universe is drawn and the star mantle is reproduced on earth. It is something spectacular.

Sources:
- Celestial observation in pre-Hispanic thought/ Mexican archaeology/ Jesus Galindo Trejo
- Architectural Geometric Language of Space and Computation of Mesoamerican Time/ Victor Hugo Ruíz Ortíz.
- Maya Archaeoastronomy, Observers of the Universe/ Film directed by Milagros Varguez, produced by Gabriel Berríos, and written and narrated by Josefina Moyrón