Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization

by Vincent H. Malmström

Overview

The simple question "How did the Maya come up with a calendar that had only 260 days?" led Vincent Malmström to discover an unexpected "hearth" of Mesoamerican culture. In this boldly revisionist book, he sets forth his challenging, new view of the origin and diffusion of Mesoamerican calendrical systems—the intellectual achievement that gave rise to Mesoamerican civilization and culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292743120
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	05/12/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	10 MB

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations
	Preface
Ch. 1	Questions, Hypotheses, and Assorted Detours	1
Ch. 2	Humans and Environment in the Americas	16
Ch. 3	Strange Attraction: The Mystery of Magnetism	30
Ch. 4	New Windows on the World: Working the Land and Sailing the Sea	43
Ch. 5	The Olmec Dawning	65
Ch. 6	The Long Count: Astronomical Precision	110
Ch. 7	Calendar Reform and Eclipses: The Place of Edzna	130
Ch. 8	The Golden Age	151
Ch. 9	The Twilight of the Gods	184
Ch. 10	Dawn in the Desert: The Rise of the Toltecs	200
Ch. 11	People of the Pleiades: The Aztec Interlude	232
Ch. 12	The Long Journey: A Retrospective	244
	References	259
	Index	271