WHITECROW BORDERLAND
The Copanec Baseline: Stela
10 and Stela 12 at Copan, Honduras.
(* signifies degrees)
According to Anthony F. Aveni ("Concepts of Positional Astronomy Employed in Ancient Mesoamerican Architecture," in Native American Astronomy, ed. Anthony F. Aveni (Austin: U of Texas Press, 1977), 3-19), the Maya at Copan, Honduras, created a line of sight relationship between two sculpted stones on the east and west sides of the valley where they built their ceremonial center that precisely mark the position of the setting sun (over Stela 10 in the west) 20 days after vernal equinox in the spring and 20 days before autumnal equinox in the fall. Zenith passage at Copan, according to Aveni, occurs 20 days after the sun sets over Stela 10, and hence, 40 days after equinox in the spring. As autumnal equinox approaches, the sun reaches its zenith passage 40 days before equinox and sets over Stela 10 20 days before the sun reaches the celestial equator. At the same time, Aveni determined that the view out of the western-facing window in Temple 22 at Copan included in its field the sun's location on the western horizon when it set over Stela 10 so that it could be simultaneously observed along the baseline from Stela 12 and from the interior of the Temple through its window (9-14). 4 days after the sun set over Stela 10 it reached the midpoint of the window's central axis. During the Classic Period, when the baseline was created, according to Aveni, the sun reached its relevant position over Stela 10 and its position at the midpoint if the window's central axis on April 8th and April 12th in the spring and on September 1st and September 5th in the fall, respectively (11).
Aveni also indicates that three dates were recorded on the two stelae. Stela 10 has one date inscribed at 9.10.19.13.0 3 Ahau 8 Yaxkin on February 22, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938434) in the 12 Lamat Eclipse correlation. Stela 12 has two dates; that is, 9.10.15.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Mac on June 28, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936734) and 9.11.0.0.0 12 Ahau 8 Ceh on June 2, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938534). Aveni also states that the dates "appear to have no astronomical significance" (11), when their temporal locations are fixed by the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation. Since both dates on Stela 12 can be said to fall into a traditional pattern of marking quarter-Katun (9.10.15.0.0) and Katun-ending (9.11.0.0.0) positions in the Maya LC notation, and that such designations often appear as signals for the beginning or end of a particular recorded calendrical interval, and are justified as much by that function as they might be by astronomical considerations, it becomes possible to suggest that only the third date (9.10.19.13.0 3 Ahau 8 Yaxkin) on Stela 10 may have been meant to carry the weight of the astronomy associated with these two stelae. This is not to say, however, that the positions of the other two dates in the count of the days were astronomically meaningless. Examination of those two positions, in fact, demonstrates quite the contrary.
The earliest date on the stelae, at 9.10.15.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Mac on June 28, 590 A. D., fell 8 days after summer solstice (June 20, 590 A. D.), when the sun reached its extreme northerly declination of +23*37'22" from the celestial equator at 9.10.14.17.12 11 Eb 5 Mac in the Maya LC notation. Since the baseline of the two stelae and the central axis line of the window in Temple 22 seem to serve an astronomical function at vernal and autumnal equinox, a date positioned only 8 days after the midpoint between them (at summer solstice), that day seems a reasonable enough place in time from which to begin an astronomical analysis of the events that might be associated with 9.10.15.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Mac. It is important to remember, of course, that the earliest date on Stela 12, because it marks a quarter-Katun position, was determined in its place relative to celestial motion of every kind by virtue of where the zero base-day was fixed by Maya astronomers when they first began to use the CR day-name system and the LC notation to count the sequence of days in their calendrical system. Finding the sun just 8 days past its extreme northerly declination from the celestial equator at a quarter-Katun marker (6 Ahau 13 Mac) recorded on Stela 12 does at least open the possibility that a relevant astronomy to the baseline and window at Copan does exist in the 12 Lamat eclipse correlation, since this position is determined by fixing 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 8 Cumku at Julian Day #563334 on April 29, 3171 B. C. and extending forward precisely to 9.10.15.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Mac.
Looking at the relevant data for autumnal equinox, 84 days after the date recorded on Stela 12, the sun reached a declination of +00*05'23" and an azimuth of +270*13'45" at 18:02 PM (local time at Palenque), which was 2 minutes before sunset, at 9.10.15.4.4 12 Kan 17 Kayab on September 20, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936818). (All positions in this study are taken from Palenque's coordinates at 17*35'00" North longitude and 92*03'00" West latitude, where Copan is further south by about 3* and further east by about 5*, which produces a variation in time and location of only a few minutes in both respects). 40 days earlier, as Aveni specifies, the sun reached its zenith passage at 9.10.15.2.4 11 Kan 17 Muan on August 11, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936778). On that same day, Venus stood at 24.5* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky, set at 19:57 PM, was in conjunction with Zaniah in Virgo (which set at 19:58 PM), and reached an azimuth of +277*28'15" as it crossed the western horizon at Copan. According to Aveni's data, Venus was situated approximately midway between Stela 10 (at 6*45'00" as seen from the window in Temple 22) and the mid line of the central axis of it at 8*25'00" (14) when it set on the day of the sun's zenith passage. Also highly significant in this context is the fact that 2 days later, at 9.10.15.2.6 13 Cimi 19 Muan on August 13, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936780), a formal position in the Dresden Codex Venus Table was reached after the addition of the 90-day interval in the 16th synodic period of the planet after the base-day at 9.9.9.16.0 1 Ahau 18 Kayab (September 27, 565 A. D.-Julian Day #1927694 in the 12 Lamat Eclipse correlation).
On 13 Cimi 19 Muan, Venus had slightly increased its angle of elongation from the sun in the evening sky and stood at 24.9*, and had also continued to move toward the south and hence closer to the celestial equator. On August 13, 590 A. D., then, Venus reached an azimuth of +276*23'25" when it set at 19:56 PM. At this position, of course, it would have been just to the south of Stela 10 as seen from the window of Temple 22 (where the Stela rests at +276*45'00" approximately). Venus actually crossed the celestial equator 12 days after it reached the Stela at 12 Etz'nab 11 Pax on August 25, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936792) when it reached 27.8* of elongation in the evening sky with a declination of -00*05'04". On the day before, at 11 Caban 10 Pax, Venus achieved an azimuth of +270*03'47" when it set at 19:50 PM. Important to note in this context is the fact that 2 days after Venus crossed the celestial equator, moving from northern to southern sky, at 9.10.15.3.0 1 Ahau 3 Pax on August 27, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936794), the base-day in the 819-day cycle in closest proximity to the date on Stela 12 was reached. The 819-day cycle base-day here occurred 1,677 turns of the cycle after the initial base-day for it at 12.19.19.17.17 1 Caban 5 Cumku (April 26, 3171 B. C.-Julian Day #563331), which fell 3 days prior to the zero base-day of the LC notation. 4 days after 1 Ahau 3 Pax, and 20 days after solar zenith passage, the count reached 5 Kan 17 Pax on August 31, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936798), when the sun reached the mid line of the window in Temple 22 at Copan with an azimuth at sunset (18:20 PM) equal to +278*25'46". 4 days later, at 9 Lamat 1 Kayab on September 4, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936802), the sun reached an azimuth of +276*46'37" at 18:15 PM as it crossed the western horizon. This is the position for Stela 10 as it was viewed from the window of Temple 22. 14 minutes later (at 18:29 PM), the moon crossed the western horizon with an azimuth of +278*41'07", which placed it very close to the mid line of the window in Temple 22. Apparent in the data here is the fact that the position of the sun relative to the mid line of the window (at 8*25') and to the position of Stela 10 on the western horizon (at 6*45') falls one day earlier than the ones given by Aveni in his analysis; that is, on August 31st and September 4th, as opposed to September 1st and September 5th. This disparity is probably the result of the 20,949-day differential between the 12 Lamat Eclipse correlation number (563334) and the one used by Aveni at 584283 (Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation) to assess these positions.
While the evidence presented to this point probably cannot be said to confirm the validity of the 12 Lamat Eclipse correlation, as opposed to others that have been proposed in the past, there is nothing in this astronomy to suggest that use of 563334 is somehow inappropriate. This note of caution is necessary because results of analysis at vernal equinox prior to 9.10.15.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Mac reveals a troubling disparity between events in the sky-map program used in this study and in Aveni's account of how the sun moves across the space of the window in Temple 22. As the sun moves from south to north at vernal equinox, it reaches the celestial equator at 9.10.14.12.18 8 Etz'nab 11 Mol on March 18, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936632) with a declination of +00*00'05" and an azimuth of +270*18'02" at 18:18 PM (2 minutes before setting at 18:20 PM). 20 days after vernal equinox, at 9.10.14.13.18 2 Etz'nab 11 Ch'en on April 7, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936652), the sun reached an azimuth of +278*22'07" at 18:21 PM. The sun set one minute later at 18:22 PM (local time at Palenque). This position, of course, is just 00*02'53" less than the value Aveni gives for the mid line of the central axis of the window in Temple 22. In his analysis, the sun does not reach this position until April 12th; whereas, here it has reached that location along the horizon 5 days earlier on April 7th. Moving forward to a comparable position in the GMT correlation, after an advance of 20,819 days (equivalent to the differential between the two correlations), to April 7, 647 A. D. (Julian Day #1957471), the sun reached an azimuth of +278*25'51" at one minute before it crossed the western horizon (18:21 PM). This is the same position that Aveni identifies as the mid line of the window's central axis. What this means is that the sun set over Stela 10 4 days earlier at 9.10.14.13.14 11 Ix 7 Ch'en on April 3, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936648), when the sun reached an azimuth of +276*46'19", which is the location of the Stela (at 6*45'00") as viewed from the window of Temple 22 at Copan. Since virtually the same value occurred on April 3, 647 A. D. (at +276*50'11"), it seems reasonable to assume that the sky-map program is accurate and that the sun reaches its setting position over Stela 10 on April 3, 590 A. D. and the mid line of the window's central axis 4 days later on April 7, 590 A. D.
With respect to solar zenith passage, which occurred 40 days after vernal equinox at 9.10.14.14.18 9 Etz'nab 11 Yax on April 27, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936672), both the sun and Venus were in conjunction with the Pleiades in close proximity to this event. The sun, for instance, rose at 5:42 AM at 8 Caban 10 Yax (April 26, 590 A. D.) with Alcyone crossing the eastern horizon at the same time. 2 days after zenith passage, at 11 Ahau 13 Pax, Venus reached 4.0* of elongation from the sun in the morning sky and crossed the eastern horizon with Alcyone at 5:30 AM. Neither of these events were visible but, as Aveni points out, "[t]he Pleiades underwent heliacal rising on the same day as the first of the two annual passages of the sun across the zenith" (5) and the people of Mesoamerica relied on this fact as a signal for the beginning of the rainy season. Here, the astronomy associated with the quarter-Katun position at 9.10.15.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Mac is clearly connected to the baseline of Stela 10 and Stela 12 at Copan where that date was inscribed on Stela 12 itself.
Two other events, both involving positions of Mars, should be included in this discussion because they anticipate the astronomy that surfaces at 9.10.19.13.0 3 Ahau 8 Yaxkin as recorded on Stela 10. For instance, 15 days after 6 Ahau 13 Mac, at 9.10.15.0.15 8 Men 8 Kankin on July 13, 590 A. D. (Julian Day #1936749), Mars reached 52.6* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky and set at 21:50 PM. The azimuth Mars held as it crossed the western horizon was +276*49'26", which would have placed it very close to Stela 10 as viewed from the window in Temple 22. 24 days later, and just 5 days before the sun's second zenith passage, at 9.10.15.1.19 6 Cauac 12 Muan (August 6, 590 A. D.-Julian Day #1936773), Mars reached 44.9* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky with a declination of -00*00'52" as it crossed the celestial equator moving from northern to southern sky. This event is highly significant because at 9.10.19.12.19 2 Cauac 7 Yaxkin on February 21, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938433), which is the day before the date recorded on Stela 10 at 3 Ahau 8 Yaxkin, and the day after the closest base-day in the 819-day cycle prior to it (at 9.10.19.12.18 1 Etz'nab 6 Yaxkin), Mars reached 25.5* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky with a declination of +00*02'48" and an azimuth equal to +270*13'06" as it crossed the western horizon at 20:01 PM. Mars actually crossed the celestial equator, moving from southern to northern sky, at 16:22:36 PM on February 21, 595 A. D. and the day before the date recorded on Stela 10. These two positions of Mars, relative to its azimuth locations as it crosses the western horizon, clearly demonstrates an astronomical ground connecting the dates on the two Copanec stelae.
Two other planetary positions in close proximity to 3 Ahau 8 Yaxkin are significant. For instance, 7 days earlier, at 9 Ben 1 Yaxkin on February 15, 595 A. D., Saturn reached 177.8* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky on the day of its opposition from the sun. 15 days later, and 8 days after 3 Ahau 8 Yaxkin, at 9.10.19.13.8 11 Lamat 16 Yaxkin on March 2, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938442), Venus reached 1.4* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky on the day of its superior conjunction with the sun. 11 Lamat 16 Yaxkin is a formal position in the Dresden Codex Venus Table and marks the first day in the 19th synodic period of the planet after the 9.9.9.16.0 1 Ahau 18 Kayab base-day of the Table. At 10 Ahau 8 Mol on March 14, 595 A. D., and 20 days after the date recorded on Stela 10, Mars reached 20.2* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky and set at 19:42 PM. One minute earlier, Mars reached an azimuth of +276*47'29", which placed it very close to Stela 10 as viewed from the window in Temple 22. 6 days later, at 3 Cimi 14 Mol on March 20, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938460), Mars reached 18.6* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky and set at 19:37 PM with an azimuth of +278*37'32" at 19:36 PM, which placed the planet very close to the mid line of the window (8*25'00") in Temple 22.
Positions of Venus in this context are also extremely significant. For instance, at 13 Akbal 11 Mol on March 17, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938457) at 11:01:36 AM, Venus reached 4.0* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky as it crossed the celestial equator with a declination of +00*00'01" moving from southern to northern sky. On the following day, at 9.10.19.14.4 1 Kan 12 Mol, and 26 days (2 X 13 = 26) after the base-day of the 819-day cycle, on March 18, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938458), the sun reached a declination of +00*00'01" at 3:00 PM on the day of vernal equinox. 10 days after vernal equinox, at 11 Ix 2 Ch'en on March 28, 595 A. D., Venus reached 6.8* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky on its first day of visibility after superior conjunction, a day recorded as a formal position in the Dresden Codex Venus Table at 11 Lamat 16 Yaxkin, as noted above. One day later (at 12 Men 3 Ch'en), Venus set at 18:50 PM with an azimuth equal to +276*47'01" at 18:49:36 PM, which placed it very close to Stela 10 on the western horizon at Copan. 3 days later, at 9.10.19.14.18 2 Etz'nab 6 Ch'en on April 1, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938472), Venus reached 7.9* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky with an azimuth of +278*17'56" as it crossed the western horizon at 18:52 PM. This position is just to the south of the mid line of the window's central axis in Temple 22. Important to note here is the fact that the sun reached the mid line of the window at 9.10.14.13.18 2 Etz'nab 11 Ch'en on April 7, 590 A. D.(Julian Day #1936652), exactly 7 X 260 days and 5 X 364 days (1,820) prior to Venus's appearance at this same position in the calendrical structure articulated between the earliest date on Stela 12 and the one that was inscribed on Stela 10. Put simply, this is certainly not the result of coincidence, accident, or chance; rather, this is the result of conscious and deliberate design on the part of the astronomers at Copan.
As noted earlier in discussing vernal equinox in 590 A. D., the sun reaches its position over Stela 10 along the Copan baseline on April 3rd and then the mid line of the window in Temple 22 on April 7th. The first of these events fell at 4 Ahau 8 Ch'en, 2 days after Venus reached the mid line of the window, on April 3, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938474) with an azimuth of +276*39'08" at 18:19 PM. The sun set 3 minutes later at 18:22 PM. 4 days later, and 20 days after vernal equinox, at 8 Kan 12 Ch'en on April 7, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938478), the sun reached an azimuth of +278*15'01" two minutes before it crossed the western horizon at 18:20 PM. This position, of course, is close to the mid line of the window's central axis. On this same day, Mars reached 14.0* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky on its last day of visibility before its solar conjunction, which occurred 52 days later (see Robert R. Newton, Ancient Astronomical Observations and the Validity of Ephemeris Time, Johns Hopkins U P, 1976, for intervals associated with planetary synodic motion) at 9.10.19.17.16 8 Cib 4 Ceh on May 29, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938530), a position just 4 days prior to the Katun-ending date at 9.11.0.0.0 12 Ahau 8 Ceh as recorded on Stela 12 at Copan. 20 days later, at 2 Kan 12 Yax on April 27, 595 A. D., the sun reached its zenith passage one day after it was in conjunction with Alcyone in the Pleiades, just as it had done 5 years earlier in 590 A. D. The day of the conjunction, at 1 Akbal 11 Yax, fell on the 65th day (5 X 13 = 65) of the 819-day cycle whose base-day, at 1 Etz'nab 6 Yaxkin, fell 2 days before the date recorded on Stela 10 at Copan. A final note with regard to planetary astronomy, on the day of the Mars-solar conjunction, Venus reached 23.1* of elongation from the sun in the evening sky with a declination of +24*59'52", which placed it at its extreme northerly position relative to the celestial equator. 2 days later, at 10 Etz'nab 6 Ceh on May 31, 595 A. D., the count reached a formal position in the Dresden Codex Venus Table on the second designated day (after the addition of the 90-day interval) of the 19th synodic period of the planet in the Table's structure after the 1 Ahau 18 Kayab base-day at 9.9.9.16.0. The Dresden Venus Table position here fell 2 days prior to the Katun-ending position at 9.11.0.0.0 12 Ahau 8 Ceh on June 2, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938534), which brings us to the end of the inscriptional record for Stela 10 and Stela 12 at Copan. The final date fell 18 days before summer solstice at 9.11.0.0.18 4 Etz'nab 6 Mac on June 20, 595 A. D.
Rather than pursuing data apparent at autumnal equinox after the final date on Stela 12, which follows precisely the same pattern as seen and described above with the quarter-Katun position at 9.10.15.0.0, albeit with appropriately different day-names for the baseline and window positions in the architecture, it is worth the effort to examine the calendrical position of the solar eclipse in closest proximity to, and 40 days after, the Katun-ending date at 9.11.0.0.0. The eclipse, then, fell at 9.11.0.2.0 13 Ahau 8 Kankin on July 12, 595 A. D. (Julian Day #1938574). The eclipse was total with its greatest magnitude (1.041) coming at 5:34 PM local time at Copan and was visible there as a partial eclipse because its track at totality was located at 175.6* west longitude (11.5* north latitude), which is too far west for totality to have been seen in the viewing area of the Maya.
Apart from its visibility, the eclipse is significant in the history of Maya astronomy, and duly noted here in direct relation to the baseline at Copan, because of the position it came to occupy in the structure of the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table at a remove of 4 X 11,960 days after its occurrence in 595 A. D., which is a little more than 131 Maya solar years later. Counting forward by 47,840 days, then, a second solar eclipse is reached at 9.17.13.0.0 13 Ahau 13 Muan on July 4, 726 A. D. (Julian Day #1986414), which occupies the 32nd triad for solar eclipses in the Dresden Eclipse Table's structure. This eclipse, by virtue of its precise LC notation at 9.17.13.0.0, preserves the interval of separation between the base-day for lunar eclipse and the subsequent base-day for solar eclipses that defines the structure of the Classic Period Maya Eclipse Table at an interval equal to 4,680 days exactly, which is written as 13.0.0 in Maya numerical notation. That this interval expressed by the LC notation preserves the structure of the Eclipse Table is apparent because there was also a lunar eclipse at 9.16.19.17.19 12 Cauac 17 Cumku, which fell one day before the Katun-ending position at 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumku on September 9, 713 A. D. (Julian Day #1981733). Hence, when the interval of 4,680 days is counted from the Katun-ending position at 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumku to 9.17.13.0.0 13 Ahau 13 Muan, and simultaneously from a lunar eclipse to a solar eclipse, the interval separating the lunar eclipse base-day (9.16.4.10.8 12 Lamat 1 Muan) from the solar eclipse base-day (9.16.17.10.8 12 Lamat 16 Zac) in the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table is exactly replicated in the LC notations that express these two eclipse positions in real time (on June 29, 698 A. D.-Julian Day #1976182 and April 22, 711 A. D.-Julian Day #1980862 respectively). Both eclipses (at 9.17.0.0.0 and 9.17.13.0.0) occupy the 32nd triad after their respective base-days in the structure of the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table.
The lunar eclipse that corresponds to 9.17.0.0.0 in the sequence at Copan, and which occurred 4 X 11,960 days prior to it, fell at 9.10.7.2.0 13 Ahau 13 Kayab on September 18, 582 A. D. (Julian Day #1933894). The proximity of this eclipse to vernal equinox, which fell just 2 days later at 2 Ik 15 Kayab on September 20, 582 A. D., gives ample cause to assume that Maya astronomers at Copan were fully cognizant both of its existence in their eclipse prediction technology and with respect to the baseline between Stelae 10 and 12 and to the window structure in Temple 22. This possibility is made even more obvious by virtue of solar positions at the time in this context; that is, at 8 Ik 15 Pax on August 31, 582 A. D. (Julian Day #1933876), the sun reached an azimuth of +278*23'01" at 18:18 PM and was close to the mid line of the window in Temple 22. 4 days later, at 12 Cimi 19 Pax on September 4, 582 A. D. (Julian Day #1933880), the sun reached +276*48'25" at 18:15 PM as it set behind Stela 10. This matters because the day between these two positions, at 10 Kan 17 Pax on September 2, 582 A. D., marked the day of the solar eclipse that was paired with the lunar event (at 13 Ahau 13 Kayab) 2 days before vernal equinox. In terms of projecting the solar eclipse forward in time to its counterpart in 713 A. D., and after the required extension of 4 X 11,960 days, a second solar eclipse is reached at 9.16.19.17.4 10 Kan 2 Cumku on August 25, 713 A. D. (Julian Day #1981718). This annular eclipse (greatest magnitude 0.940) would have been visible at Copan through the window in Temple 22 because it occurred at 5:56 PM (with sunset at 6:24 PM) with an azimuth of +280*13'27", where Aveni indicates that the northern edge of the window's view ends at approximately 11 north of west (+281*). The eclipse in 582 A. D. was not visible in the Maya area.
A point to be made here is that the sun's position in 582 A. D. as it reaches the mid line of the window in Temple 22 (at 8 Ik 19 Pax) and then the baseline position behind Stela 10 (at 12 Cimi 19 Pax) exactly frames the eclipse triad because it is composed of 9 Akbal (16 Pax), 10 Kan (17 Pax), and 11 Chicchan (18 Pax). The Haab day-names for the triad in 713 A. D. were 1 Cumku (9 Akbal), 2 Cumku (10 Kan), and 3 Cumku (11 Chicchan). In both cases the eclipse occurred on the middle day of the triad. Also true is the fact that the sun reached the mid line of the window in Temple 22 in 713 A. D. just 5 days after the eclipse at 9.16.19.17.9 2 Muluc 7 Cumku on August 30, 713 A. D. (Julian Day #1981723). What this may suggest is that the astronomers at Copan were using an earlier version of the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table in conjunction with the baseline between Stelae 10 and 12, and with the window in Temple 22, to create and preserve this astronomical data in the architectural orientations in their ceremonial center. It is clear, after all, that the last date on Stela 12, at 9.11.0.0.0 12 Ahau 8 Ceh, since it falls just 40 days prior to the solar eclipse at 9.11.0.2.0 13 Ahau 8 Kankin, which counts forward by 4 X 11,960 to the one at 9.17.13.0.0 13 Ahau 13 Muan, foreshadows, even perfectly, the one that emerges in the actual text of the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table a little more than 131 Maya solar years later. Given the parallels between solar positions relative to the baseline and window at Copan, it seems highly probable that the astronomers there were well aware of the consequences of their tabular eclipse prediction technology in 582-590-595 A. D., since it plays so consistently into those future facts and realities.
Also pertinent to the discussion here is the fact that the astronomers at Tikal, using much earlier dates recorded on Stelae 29 and 31 (in 235 and 354 A. D. respectively), precisely marked a parallel eclipse structure that replicates the foreshadowing of the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table positions at the 32nd triad for lunar and solar eclipses. Following that, and prior to Copan's expression of it, the "birth" dates of Ruler IV and V at Caracol also exactly mark these same eclipse positions in 518 and 530 A. D. respectively. Details for these positions are examined elsewhere in this study.
While it might be possible to find another correlation number in the haystack of time represented by the Julian Day List and the Classic Period Maya LC notation that approaches the astronomy apparent in the dates recorded on Stelae 10 and 12 along the baseline at Copan in the 12 Lamat Eclipse correlation, it is unlikely that any other number will improve the accuracy and precision, the scope and detail (in the 819-day cycle, the Dresden Codex Venus Table, and the Dresden Codex Eclipse Table), produced by the one used here (at 563334). Certainly, the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation (at 584283), as Aveni states, does little to clarify any of the issues and events that might explain what Maya astronomers in the 6th Century were looking at across the baseline created by Stelae 10 and 12, and through the window of Temple 22, at Copan. Seeing nothing at all, on the one hand, and watching Venus, Mars, Saturn, the sun, and the moon, move through both proper and precise positions along the western horizon, as any reasonable expectation suggests they ought to do, on the other, should open an alternative space in the discussion of Maya astronomy that has depended for too long on a correlation between astronomical fact in the Julian Day List and the Maya LC notation which tells us little, if anything, about the way Classic Period Maya astronomers perceived the sky and recorded the progression of the celestial objects inhabiting it. Leaving that possibility aside, for the sake of preserving the status quo, would be an affront to philosophy, and a dismissal of her sisters, learning and education as well.