In the ancient Mesoamerican culture, astronomy was extremely important, especially to the Maya civilization. Even if they had no advanced scientific tools like we have today, the Mayas had an understanding of the cycles of celestial bodies. Their observations became the basis for creating their famous calendar, which has baffled experts for centuries.
The Beginning of Search
The ancient Maya people were known for tracking astronomical phenomena such as eclipses, and they recorded their observations in a manuscript called Dresden Codex. Researchers suggest that these people might have also followed comets and novas, but no evidence supports this claim.
The search for the possibility that ancient Mayas recorded comets and novas started in 1973 when Professor Hubert E. Harber of Westchester State College in Pennsylvania studied a particular hieroglyph. According to Science News, Harber found that 20 Mayan dates are associated with the hieroglyph, seemingly indicating something about astronomical events.
However, upon comparing the dates of known historical novas and comets with the Mayan dates, Harber realized that there is no acceptable correlation between them. Nevertheless, he still believed that these ancient people probably did record the events and that the proof would eventually be found later.
The search came up short due to a lack of evidence. For the past 50 years, the highly sought evidence has eluded scientists.
Getting the Clue in Meteor Showers
There is no solid evidence that the ancient Maya civilization recorded specific meteor showers. There is no proof that pre-Hispanic civilization in the West recorded meteor shower observations on specific dates.
A 2017 study of Maya records and astronomical data showed that these people indirectly marked at least one comet by predicting the coming of a meteor shower. Scientists focus on the Eta Aquariid as a reference point.
Eta Aquariid is one of the two meteor showers created as debris from Comet Halley. In a study led by J. Hutch Kinsman, the researchers put together the records that Comet Hailey released meteoroid-sized particles as early as 1404 BC. They used this in identifying the years within the Maya Classic Period when the Eta Aquariid outburst might have happened. From A.D. 250 and A.D. 909, six royal coronations occurred within the days of the meteor shower. This event coincided with the date when the Earth passed through the tail of Comet Halley.
Using a computer model, the research team correlated the date of the coronations and the date of the outbursts. This model was validated using observations in the Chine record around the same time frame. It was found that some of the outbursts observed by the Maya were the result of the revolutions of Comet Halley within a few centuries, and some were connected to the behavior in older trials for a thousand years.
From these research findings, scientists concluded that Maya could keep track of Eta Aquariid meteor showers and observe their outbursts. It could have been that their astronomical data were completely lost or merely embedded in surviving inscriptions.
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