Comparison of the Mayan Eclipse Table and the Greek Saros Cycle

Abstract

Motivated by the construction of the Monumental Antikythera Mechanism for Hermosillo and its future exhibition at the “Centro” campus of the Universidad de Sonora, Mexico, we undertook a study about the prediction of eclipses, implemented in this mechanism whose basis is the knowledge of the Saros Cycle. It was natural, to arrive at the need to add to this study, the Mesoamerican perspective of eclipses; in particular, we arrive at the analysis of the Table of Eclipses of the Dresden Codex. It was from the sequence of intervals of this table, which we decided to make a comparison between both perspectives: the Maya of the Dresden Codex and the Greek of the Saros Cycle. In this report we present our findings and contrast their main properties. In Maya case: The prediction of solar eclipses could be obtained from systematic observations of the Moon because, in the introductory section of the table (pages 51a and 52a), there are elements for elaboration of the sequence of 69 eclipses reported from pages 53a to 58b; The period of 11,960 days (11,958 in the sequence) allowed them to group solar eclipses according to their type by groups of 7 or 9; The ten vignettes after the 148-day intervals could be attributed to eclipses observed in the Maya zone; and, when comparing the sequence of eclipses in the table with the sequence of eclipses that occurred in the span of 700 to 800 CE, the series identified by the eclipse of 06/08/0788 was the series of greater coincidence. On the side of the Saros we have: the eclipses are recorded in the corresponding spiral of the mechanism and there are 27 solar eclipses; Each eclipse appears with date and time of occurrence by means of the spiral and the glyphs in it; in the period of 19,755 days (3 Saros = 3 X 6585 days = 1 Exeligmus) an eclipse occurs again at the same geographical longitude; Those reported are eclipses observed in the area of the mechanism going from partial to annular and, finally, to total and vice versa. These findings suggest that the Maya must have had a model of theWorld in which the Earth, Moon and Sun had a specific role to play in eclipses; and, consequently, they must have had a comprehensive model of their own.