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Note on the Maya Eclipse Table of the Dresden Codex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Linton Sattekthwaite
Linton Sattekthwaite*
Affiliation:
University Museum, University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

In the January issue Robert Merrill reviews a study of mine called Concepts and Structures of Maya Calendrical Arithmetics. Considering the flinty nature of the material I wish he had noted that there is a section devoted to “Summary.” Two “Appendices” also failed to get mentioned, but the other sections are characterized briefly. Section XV was mistakenly grouped with others as dealing with “analysis of various moon formulae.” In it, a moon formula is simply assumed, and the subject is a theory, admittedly incomplete, as to how the Maya computer of the Eclipse Table on pp. 51-8 of the Dresden Codex may have been able to do as well as he did without understanding the celestial mechanics involved. Thus, this short section has a bearing on just how “gifted” the much-praised ancient Maya astronomer-priests really were.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , July 1948 , pp. 61 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1948

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