Recently PBS put on a program titled Quest for the Lost Maya. It was an interesting discussion about cities buried under cities and caves, well known to the surrounding countryside, that contained evidence of many fire torches "for their sacred ceremonies." That would make perfect sense, except that the whole gist of the program was "Where did the Maya go; How could so many people just disappear in such a short time?" The date given was the years in the VIII century AD, i.e.700-799 AD. Whole towns are now in the process of being uncovered, many of the lower levels are dated as far back as 500 BC; it has become a real mystery.
It would make more sense, if the history, of not only the Maya but all of Mesoamerica, were read more often. True, many events on the monuments are still not translated, even though ruler after ruler and their reigns have been, for years, well researched and confirmed. Archaeologists and anthropologist who are digging on amazing new sites in the Yucatan, scratch their heads and tell about sacrificial offerings, public displays of savage ceremonies, but, in the same breath, tell us that the astronomy of that era was well-documented. (Savage ceremonies, but extensive and well-defined astronomy records? How strange.) They have also proposed that the Yucatan may have been the actual birthplace of the Maya; not Guatemala nor Honduras as originally believed. Where could these people have gone?
Linda Schele was one of the first to publicize the decipherment of the glyphs on the Maya monuments and temple walls. She found both a star-war and a flood on one single glyph, dated it about 631 AD, the VII century, NOT the years between 700 ad 799 AD. On the other hand, Eric Wolf, on page 100 of his book, the Sons of the Shaking Earth, written before Linda's great work on the glyphs, informed even new students
that it was in the VII century AD
when the Copan Academy of Science, called a meeting to reform the calendar.
In other words, there must have been a major event in that area, but not too far back in time.
It was one of the first books I read about Mesoamerica. In the meantime, I also dipped into ancient astronomy in different countries and discovered that both India and Babylon also thought it necessary to delve into calendar changes during the same period. There was nothing in the official histories that gave any good reason, but there were more than enough myths world-wide that indicated an extra five days had been added to each year.
It is a bit silly to ask the same question as above at this point in time. Mostly because Astronomy has finally been decided that comets, not asteroids helped to create "life" on earth. Well, this is a true statement, but not for the reason given. It seems that the double comet that flew overhead, flew by not one time, but three times.
The first time it happened, the "ball" of the ball game in the sky ball court, spit out a knife to kill one of the "ball-player" Twins (one of the two of the double comet). It failed to do any damage at all.
The second time, the comet passed overhead in the sky along the same route, the disintegrating star was losing its gravity pull. So the double comet was pulled into its gravitational field, and released several times, making the "ball=game" an interesting sky spectacle as it appeared to imitate the ball-games on earth with the same sense of "conquer or die." In the Maya ball-game, the head of Hunahpu, the Twin was severed in the Bat House.. The Aztec version said that the twin of Quetzalcoatl, Xolotl, fell into Xibalba in order to save the "Sun." Later, an author who wrote about the Maya gods, wrote a completely different story about a sky entity, and called the star: Tlaltecuhtli, who was torn apart in the sky; the severed parts of her body were then taken to earth.
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