Maya Eclipses and the Correlacion Problem

Resumen

The Eclipse Table in the Dresden Codex implies that in the first millenium A.D. the Maya had kept long and accurate date-lists of lunar and solar eclipses. The table itself has been variously regarded either as a) a Solar Eclipse table or b) an Eclipse Warning table. Correlations converting Maya to A.D. dates are normally made to fit one of these alternatives. A test is now presented that seems to confirm the Early Warning hypothesis. In the Codex there are over 30 specified Long Count dates, believed to be of astronomical observations; of the four such dates associated with the Eclipse Table at least one is assumed to be that of an eclipse. The Moon Age glyphs of the Long Count dates in the Codex prove that the dates are not randomly distributed in the four-week Lunar cycle, many are at New Moon (potential Solar Eclipse) and a few are at Full Moon (potential Lunar Eclipse). We here show that the dates are likewise not randomly distributed in the 173-day Eclipse cycle and that there is a cluster within a 38-day section. This section is assumed to include the eclipse moons and the 36-day period, centred on the node, when eclipses are possible. As the Eclipse Base itself -9.16.4.10. 8 12 Lamat- is not at the middle but at the beginning of this cluster, the Table is assumed not to be an Eclipse table but an Eclipse-Warning Table; the first three associated d<1-tes defining the beginning, middle and end of Eclipse Moons.