[Aztlan] Planetary Tables in the Dresden Codex

ECOLING at aol.com ECOLING at aol.com
Mon Mar 5 14:54:48 CST 2007


The coming of this year's Austin meeting has nudged me to make the 
editorial revisions I intended to this book.   
I can bring a few copies to Austin, and can ship others a week later.
The book is

_Planetary Tables in the Dresden Codex of the Maya_

2 volumes, each spiralbound to lie flat.
(Will know price tomorrow.   It will be around $40 or $45 within USA,
$10 additional for air post outside USA.)

Vol.1    Analysis of Glyphic Texts   86pp. 

Vol.2    Graphs of Movements of the Planets for Relevant Dates   240pp. 
Every date considered in the main text of Vol.1 is graphed in Vol.2.
The graphs show the movement of the planets, 
usually both before and after the date of the relevant text.

This work focuses on tables whose base dates are known,
so that astronomy on the known date can be correlated with glyphic
texts applying to that same date.   This permits inferences even 
when there are no pictures to suggest interpretations of glyphs, 
the method which has otherwise mostly been used for the codices.   
The astronomy of the date functions like a picture in other
almanacs which show a correlation between picture and text.
Accordingly, there are many suggested decipherments of the 
*meanings* of logographs such as /q'al-/ 'be visible' 
(q'al-aj in modern K'iché', k'al- in Yucatec, not meaning 'bind, wrap')
or the so-called "death" glyph with the closed eye which does not 
mean that, but instead can be shown to mean "occulted", that is not visible.
Names for all five planets are included, and many verbs,
positionals, and adjectives describing their positions and movements.
A very few are known from other contexts, such as /naak(i)/ 'rose'
and /u-chab-jiiy/ 'the one in charge was [Noun]'.   But most are new
readings because of the new subject matter here.

Because of the materials and method of analysis used,
there are only a couple of good phonetic readings involving 
analysis of syllabary signs.   Perhaps the best is /uch'-/ 'be close to' .

The basis from which this work started is the Eclipse Table,
which has 69 stations, each with a two-glyph text 
(In most cases, that is Predicate followed by Subject).
With the 10 large pictures there are longer texts of
eight or ten glyphs which usually refer to several planets
on the same date.   

Contents of volume 1:

Introduction and summary of results   (8pp.)
The "Venus Table" Preface of the Dresden Codex (6pp.)
The "Eclipse Table" of the Dresden   (32pp.)
The Second Table of Serpent Numbers   (10pp.)
The First Table of Serpent Numbers   (8pp.)
Dresden pages 31a-39a   (6pp.)
The Venus Table   (6pp.)
Parallels in Classic Monumental Texts   (3pp.)
Conclustions
Alternative Datings in the Literature   (2pp.)
End Notes
References   (3pp.)


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