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Show "The Foremost Intellectual I Achievement of Ancient America" ; I picked up a brand new calendar today 1944 in big bold type; yes, February has 29 days. We can't adjust the sun, but we can adjust the calendar to the sun. What if a calendar was fixed, and a people peo-ple would not change it? So I picked up a book written by Indians, barbaric, bar-baric, uncivilized Indians Indians who pinched the heads of babies to mold them into a peak; Indians In-dians whose record shows that early in their career they used the throwing stick and atalatl, and much later adapted bows and arrows for fighting; Indians whose religion was gory with blood of human sacrifice sac-rifice streaming down the steps of a high temple; they had no steel tools; they had no telescope yet those crude, barbaric savages, at a time about 800 A. D., long before Columbus "discovered" their land, performed the most brilliant feat in .keeping track of the sun and calendar known to mankind up to that time! Those barbarians had "a record of the days" from a fixed beginning dated about 3113 B. C; this record must not be changed, must not be deviated from; as each sun set, click, another day must be recorded, without break., without lapse, without change; hence they couldn't put a 29 in February, but they could say, "From the beginning of our time they are so-and-so number of leap year day equivalents equiv-alents to be added to our record of days to catch up with the sun." This they did. The most famous computation they made read 9.16.12. 5.17 6 Caban 10 Mol; in the record of time this was 1,415,637 days, and they computed that in that lapse of time there were 938 days which we call leap year days, or February 29s. We multiply 3876 by .2422 and say 938 days, too. But our .2422 was found after centuries cen-turies of a telescope, then finely constructed meridian meri-dian circles, with precision "down to a gnat's heel;" they got it with a split stick, and a shadow. Their religion embodied worshhip of the heavenly heav-enly bodies, in which they saw the manifestation materially of their highest gods; great Kukulcan in Venus; Itzamma in the great orb of day; the kindly Moon Goddess in luna; and so devoted were they to number that they fixed the number when they appeared in "synodic revolutions" to an amazing accuracy. For instance: 1,415,637 is 47,938 new moons; try this at out formula of 29.530,588. They said the tropical sun was 938 days ahead of the fixed calendar of 365 days in 3876 years; try that and see if it was accurate. They said 3876 tropical years are 1,415,678 days and that 2422 14 synodic revolutions of Venus, a' the exact computation, plus 4 VI lunations was 1,415,678! Note that there is something engagingly interesting in the digits employed; for leap year day formula we say 2422 in 10,000 years; they use a computation com-putation which gives 2422 12 times a term as i 2422 and 2422 VI at that time fixed a formula. I does. I consulted the National Geographic Magazine for February, 1922, and find that Sylvanus G. Mor ley, the highest authority on the Maya Indians ir the world, states in an article that this computatior of the Maya was "The Foremost Intellectua Achievement of Ancient America." That's pretty strong words, but true; it is not overstated. Teeple, who wrote a valume entitled "Maya As tronomy" says: "The astronomical knowledge of the Maya was indigenous; it was a product of Amer ica, not borrowed, for there was no other people or earth their contemporaries who had anything tc teach them." Teeple gives the chart they used ir determining the synodic revolutions of Venus which briefly stated is 301-24, giving an exactitude on Venus which varies one digit only in- approxi mately 6020 years; he and others show the well known formula 1 1,960 days equals 405 moons, a for mula which is out .1118 (eleven hundred and eigh teen ten-thousandths of a day) in about 33 years. Twenty-two astronomer-priests met in Copan, a a sort of "Advancement of Science" meeting, anc no doubt each gave his findings, and proved hi: case; then in conclave they announced 9.16.12 5 17 6 Caban 10 Mol. And so greatly pleaased witl it (and themselves) were they that ordered made c fine monolith in stone of "the twenty-two, richly a domed in magnificent robes, wearing regalia of of fice, and their smugness fixed in portraits in the stone. Locally you all know that I have "a screw loose' on the subject of Indians; it is admitted; and wher a man of great authority says Indians computec "The Foremost Intellectual Achievement of Anci ent America," then one feels that the hobby is wortr while. A far cry from the Utes of Kanosh to the Mayc of Yucatan. But the same in kindred, blood and des cent. |
