by K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil knew his history.
For 11 generations, a dynasty of Mayan rulers ruled Copan, a city-state near the present-day border between Honduras and Guatemala. From the fifth century CE to the seventh century, scribes painted the genealogies of their ancestors in their manuscripts and carved them into stone monuments throughout the city.
Around 650, one particular piece of architectural history seems to have been captured.
Centuries earlier, village carpenters built special structures for public ceremonies to view the Sun – ceremonies temporarily anchored to the solstices, such as the one that will occur on June 20, 2024. Building the types These architectural complexes, which archaeologists call “E-Groups,” more or less went out of fashion by the time of K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil.
But aiming to realize his ambitious plans for his city, he seems to have found inspiration in these astronomical public spaces, as I wrote about in my research on Maya postlinguistically recorded astronomy.
K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil’s innovations are a reminder that science changes through discovery or invention – but sometimes also for personal or political ends, especially in the ancient world.
Looking at the horizon
E-Groups were first built in the Mayan region as early as 1000 BCE One such example is the site of Ceibal, on the banks of the Pasión River in central Guatemala. There, residents built a long plaster terrace bordering the eastern edge of a large plaza. Three structures were arranged along a north-south axis on top of this terrace, the roofs high enough to rise above the floral canopy of the rainforest.
Inside the center of the plaza, on the west side of the terrace, they built a symmetrical pyramid of radii. From there, observers could follow the sunrise behind and between the structures on the terrace throughout the year.
On one level, the earliest E-Group complexes served practical purposes. Preclassic villages where these complexes were found, such as Ceibal, had populations of a few hundred to a few thousand living on “milpa” or “slash-and-burn” farming techniques practices still in tents throughout Mesoamerica today. Farmers cut down brush vegetation, then burn it to fertilize the soil. This requires careful attention to the rainy season, which in ancient times was tracked by following the position of the rising sun on the horizon.
Most of the sites in the Classic Maya area, however, are located in flat, forested landscapes with few significant features along the horizon. Only a green sea of floral canopy meets the eye of the observer standing on a tall pyramid.
By pointing to the horizon, the eastern structures of E-Group complexes could be used to mark solar extremes. The sunrise would be observed behind the northernmost structure of the eastern terrace on the summer solstice. The winter solstice marked the sunrise behind the southernmost structure. The equators could be marked halfway between, when the Sun rose due east.
The main factors of these complexes are still being debated by scholars, but their religious significance is well established. A hoard of jade and ritual pottery represents the cosmology centered on the four cardinal directions, which may be coordinated with the year division of the E-Group.
Information fading
However, the citizenry of K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awil would be less accustomed to direct celestial observations than their ancestors.
By the seventh century, Maya political organization had changed significantly. Copan grew to 25,000 residents, and agricultural technologies also changed to keep up. Cities of the Classical period practiced multiple forms of intensive agriculture that relied on sophisticated water management strategies, which alleviated the need to carefully follow the Sun’s celestial movement.
E-Group complexes continued to be included in the Classic period, but they were no longer oriented towards the sunrise, and served political or stylistic purposes rather than celestial scenes.
Such a development can be seen today, I think. People pay attention to the changing of the seasons, and they know when the summer solstice happens because of a calendar app on their phones. But they probably don’t remember the science: how the tilt of the Earth and its path around the Sun make it visible how the Sun itself travels north or south along the eastern horizon.
United by fire
In the mid-seventh century, K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil had developed ambitious plans for his city – and astrology provided one opportunity to achieve them.
Today he is famous for his unusual burial chamber, which reflects his eventual success. This tomb is located in the heart of a magnificent structure, in front of which is the “Hieroglyphic History”: a record of the history of his dynasty which is one of the largest single inscriptions in ancient history.
Looking for opportunities to transform Copan into a regional power, K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil looked for alliances beyond his local nobility, and reached out to nearby villages.
Over the past hundred years, several scholars, myself included, have explored the astronomical component of his plan. K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil appears to have commissioned a series of stone monuments or “stelae,” located within the city and at the foot of Glen Copan, which traced the Sun along the horizon.
Like the E-Group complexes, these monuments engaged the public in solar observations. Together, the stelae formed a countdown to an important calendrical event, commanded by the Sun.
In the 1920s, archaeologist Sylvanus Morley noted that from Stela 12, on the east side of the city, one could see the Sun behind Stela 10, on a hill to the west, twice a year. Half a century later, the ancient astronomer Anthony Aveni recognized that these two sunsets defined 20-day intervals relative to the equators and the Sun’s zenith, when the shadows of vertical objects disappear. Twenty days is an important interval in the May calendar and corresponds to the length of a “month” in the solar year.
My own research has shown that the dates on some stelae also commemorate some of these 20 day interval events. Furthermore, they all lead up to an event once every 20 years called “katun end”.
K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil celebrated this katun territory, setting his plans for regional hegemony in motion at Quirigua, a growing and influential city about 30 miles away. A round altar bears an image of him, commemorating his arrival. The hieroglyphic text tells us that K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil “danced” at Quirigua, cementing an alliance between the two cities.
In other words, K’ahk’ Uti’ Witz’ K’awiil’s “solar stelae” tracked more than the Sun. The monuments brought communities together to witness astronomical events for shared cultural and religious experiences, spanning generations.
It is something – I hope – that will never fail in fashion to come together to the natural cycles that express life on earth.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a non-profit, independent news organization that brings you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.
It was written by: Gerardo Aldana, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Read more:
Gerardo Aldana does not work for, consult with, or own shares or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article this, and has not disclosed any relevant connections beyond their academic appointment.
