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The Sun, Moon and Venus at Uxmal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Weldon Lamb
Weldon Lamb*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118
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Abstract

Counts of mosaic facade elements, doors, steps, and colonnettes of the East, West, and North Buildings of the Nunnery Quadrangle at the Maya site of Uxmal suggest that these features, taken together, preserve knowledge of eight facts about the sun, moon, and Venus: the moon's synodic period is 29.53 + days; the lunar sidereal period lasts nearly 27.33 days; the Venus synodic mean is almost 584 days; the observed Venus synodic can vary between 581 and 587 days; any five consecutive Venus synodics equal or come to within one day of eight vague years of 365 days each; one sun-moon correlation has five short years and three long ones together equal to eight vague years or eight true solar years or 99 lunations; the Venus sidereal period is nearly 224 days long; and, finally, 13 Venus sidereals virtually equal five Venus synodics. Cheek glyphs, flanking birdserpents, and plumed-snake headbands all suggest that most of the masks on the East Building, West Building, and Governor's Palace represent not Chac but Kukulcan-Venus. It is therefore suggested that at least some Pure Florescent facades contain astronomical, calendrical, and ritual information, not just attractively arranged mosaic stones, and that other features, such as doors, steps, and colonnettes, should also be considered as potentially informative.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , January 1980 , pp. 79 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1980

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References

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