Maya Calendar Origins

by Rice, Prudence M.

• ISBN13: 9780292716926
• ISBN10: 0292716923
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

In Maya Political Science: Time, Astronomy, and the Cosmos, Prudence M. Rice proposed a new model of Maya political organization in which geopolitical seats of power rotated according to a 256-year calendar cycle known as the May. This fundamental connection between timekeeping and Maya political organization sparked Rice's interest in the origins of the two major calendars used by the ancient lowland Maya, one 260 days long, and the other having 365 days. In Maya Calendar Origins, she presents a provocative new thesis about the origins and development of the calendrical system. Integrating data from anthropology, archaeology, art history, astronomy, ethnohistory, myth, and linguistics, Rice argues that the Maya calendars developed about a millennium earlier than commonly thought, around 1200 BC, as an outgrowth of observations of the natural phenomena that scheduled the movements of late Archaic hunter-gatherer-collectors throughout what became Mesoamerica. She asserts that an understanding of the cycles of weather and celestial movements became the basis of power for early rulers, who could thereby claim "control" over supernatural cosmic forces. Rice shows how time became materialized--transformed into status objects such as monuments that encoded calendrical or temporal concerns--as well as politicized, becoming the foundation for societal order, political legitimization, and wealth. Rice's research also sheds new light on the origins of the Popol Vuh, which, Rice believes, encodes the history of the development of the Mesoamerican calendars. She also explores the connections between the Maya and early Olmec and Izapan cultures in the Isthmian region, who shared with the Maya the cosmovision and ideology incorporated into the calendrical systems.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Note on Orthography and Dates

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Popol Vuh , a Maya Creation Myth

Time and Preclassic Mesoamerica

Chiefdoms and Cycles

The Early Maya and the Isthmian Region

In the Beginning: Early Mesoamerican Prehistory

Early Occupation: The Paleoindian or Lithic Stage

The Archaic Stage

The Archaic-to-Formative Transition

The Early Mesoamerican Tradition

Discussion

Mesoamerican Calendrics: Time and Its Recording

The 260-day Calendar

The 360- and 365-day Calendars

The Long Count and the May

Origins of the Mesoamerican Calendars

Recording Time

Discussion

Maya Calendar Developments in Broader Context

Originally Thirteen Months?

Beginnings and Endings

The Months and the Day Names: A Derivational Model

Calendrical Origins and the Popol Vuh

Middle and Late Preclassic: The Gulf Coast Olmec and Epi-Olmec

Architectural Patterns

Monuments, Iconography, and Themes

Discussion: Calendrical Implications

The Epi-Olmec

Discussion

Late Preclassic: Izapa and Kaminaljuyu

Izapa, Chiapas

Kaminaljuyu and Related Sites

Discussion: Calendrical Implications

The Early Maya Lowlands: Origins and Settlements

Origin Myths

Archaeology: The Earliest Lowland Settlers and Their

Languages

Archaeology and Architecture

Archaeology and Exchange

Discussion

Early Lowland Maya Intellectual Culture: Writing, Stelae, and "Government"

Writing Systems

The Stela "Cult" and Calendrics

Ties to the Isthmus

Leadership, Politics, and Government

The Materialization and Politicization of Time

Development of the Calendars

The Popol Vuh and Calendars

Pilgrimages and Tollans

Cycling: Chiefly and Calendrical

Maya Calendars: Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth

Notes

References Cited

Index

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