"Deep Time and the (Grand) Long Count"

Marie Botzet and Dimitrios Markianos-Daniolos

Tracking the passage of time, the movements of celestial bodies, and the occurrence of significant days and events was a central aspect of Classic Maya culture. This emphasis gave rise to the invention of several calendars, used by the Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples, some of which remain in use today. This workshop will focus on the Long Count, which played a pivotal role during the Classic Period, and introduces most monumental texts. But just how long was it? Beginner and intermediate students of Maya hieroglyphic writing are familiar with the five main periods used to construct a Long Count date (bak’tun, k’atun, tun, winal, k’in), but there were many more periods whose lengths dwarf the five main ones we see in most inscriptions, in what has been called the “Grand Long Count”. Mathematician scribes used these periods to make calculations involving numbers of astronomical lengths. These “expanded versions” of the Long Count helped to refer to events in the deep past or even the distant future, many of them supernatural in character. These grand narratives take the reader on journeys through cosmic time and creation events which were fundamental for Classic Maya dynasties. In this workshop, we will cover the history of the Long Count system and examine a selection of “deep time” inscriptions and their enigmatic narratives.  When was the world created? What came before our current era? Is there a beginning and an end to the Maya calendar? What was all the fuss with 2012? We will tackle all of these questions and more in our workshop, as we navigate through deep Maya time. By the end of this workshop, the student will have a better grasp of the Maya Long Count and will have the opportunity to read through some unique monumental texts, further appreciating the tradition of Maya timekeeping.

Instruction language: English. The instructors are also able to attend questions and comments in Spanish, German, and Greek.

Admittance: 25 attendees (max.).

"Ancient Maya Astronomy and Timekeeping"

Marc Zender, Felix Kupprat, Harri Kettunen & Albert Davletshin

The academic study of Maya calendars and astronomy began in the late 19th century, predating the phonetic decipherment of Maya writing by over 75 years, and has produced a complex and multilingual literature. For these reasons, but also due to the demanding specializations of astronomy and mathematics, the findings of this field are often inaccessible to anthropologists, iconographers, epigraphers, and linguists who might otherwise be fascinated by Maya astronomy, but lack the necessary background to absorb the frequently forbidding literature on this subject. Our purpose in this team-taught seminar-style long workshop is to provide that background, as well as a thorough review of what can be said with some confidence about ancient Maya astronomy and timekeeping.

The workshop begins with a review of the major Maya calendars (i.e., the so-called Tzolkin, Haab, Calendar Round, Long Count, and Lunar Series). We then provide a ‘crash course’ in observational astronomy, focusing on the major bodies and phenomena observed and recorded by the Maya: (1) the Sun (particularly the length of the year, and its natural division by solstitial and equinoctial stations); (2) the Moon (including its phases and central involvement in both lunar and solar eclipses); (3) Venus; (4) Mars, and; (5) the constellations. These provide a ‘springboard’ to several linked, thematic surveys of Maya astronomical records in Colonial sources, Postclassic codices, and Classic stone monuments.

Over the course of this three-day workshop, students will be exposed to all of the most important astronomical information in Maya art, writing, and language, including (but not limited to): rare but important colonial Maya terms for stars, planets, and constellations (e.g., ek, ac ek, chac ek, çinan ek, tzab ek, xux ek, etc.) and their echoes of Classic Maya terms; the Madrid Codex cosmogram; the Dresden Codex eclipse pages and relevant Classic texts from Poco Uinic, Xultun, and  Quirigua; the Venus tables of the Dresden and Grolier/Mexico codices, the alignments of the Caracol observatory at Chichen Itza. and a rare Venus event recorded in Copan’s Temple 11 EN Panel; the Dresden Codex Mars Table; and the Paris Codex constellations, with relevant evidence from skybands and depictions of constellations in Maya art. It is of course impossible to cover everything that has been either discerned or guessed about Maya astronomy in a mere three days, but we are confident that the most important and consensual topics can indeed be introduced and explained in the time we have before us.

Instruction language: English. The instructors are also able to address questions and comments in a selection of Indo-European and Uralic languages.

Admittance: 30 attendees (max.)