Key Takeaways:
- Mayan calendars were maintained by specialists known as daykeepers who tracked eclipses and had rituals around them.
- Analysis by Lowry and Justeson suggests that the codex’s eclipse tables evolved from a table of lunar months, enabling accurate prediction of full and new moons over 405 successive lunar dates.
- The Maya daykeepers figured out how to predict solar eclipses by accurately predicting new moons and adjusting their tables periodically.
The Mayan calendars were managed by daykeepers who tracked eclipses and integrated them into their cultural beliefs. Analysis by Lowry and Justeson indicates that the eclipse tables in the Dresden Codex evolved from lunar month tables, helping the Maya predict full and new moons accurately. By understanding the alignment of lunar cycles with their 260-day calendar, the Maya were able to predict solar eclipses by accurately predicting new moons and adjusting their tables when necessary.
Insight: The Maya's understanding of lunar cycles and their adjustments to predict solar eclipses highlight their sophisticated calendar system, which focused on accuracy to the day rather than to the second, showcasing their advanced astronomical knowledge.
This article was curated by memoment.jp from the feed source: Ars Technica.
Read the original article here: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/11/study-how-the-maya-created-such-accurate-eclipse-tables/
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