Topic: Space - on August 18, 2016 at 6:02:00 PM CEST
This ancient text reveals a Maya astronomer calculated the movements of Venus over a millennium ago
A new analysis of the ancient Mayan text, the Dresden Codex – the oldest book written in the Americas known to historians – suggests an early Maya scientist may have made a major discovery in astronomy more than a thousand years ago. According to a new study, astronomical data written in part of the text called the Venus Table weren't just based on numerology as had been thought, but were a pioneering form of scientific record-keeping that had huge significance for Maya society. "This is the part that I find to be most rewarding, that when we get in here, we're looking at the work of an individual Mayan, and we could call him or her a scientist, an astronomer," says anthropologist Gerardo Aldana from University of California, Santa Barbara. "This person, who's witnessing events at this one city during this very specific period of time, created, through their own creativity, this mathematical innovation."
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