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Item Details
| Title:
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HEAVEN AND EARTH IN ANCIENT MEXICO
ASTRONOMY AND SEASONAL CYCLES IN THE CODEX BORGIA |
| By: |
Susan Milbrath |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| List price:
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£50.00 |
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We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for
further information.
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| ISBN 10: |
0292743734 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780292743731 |
| Publisher: |
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS |
| Pub. date: |
22 February, 2013 |
| Series: |
The Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies |
| Pages: |
224 |
| Description: |
Offering a major new interpretation of the enigmatic middle section of the Codex Borgia, Milbrath demonstrates that this ancient painted text is the most important historical record of pre-Columbian astronomy and natural history in central Mexico |
| Synopsis: |
The Codex Borgia, a masterpiece that predates the Spanish conquest of central Mexico, records almanacs used in divination and astronomy. Within its beautifully painted screenfold pages is a section (pages 29-46) that shows a sequence of enigmatic pictures that have been the subject of debate for more than a century. Bringing insights from ethnohistory, anthropology, art history, and archaeoastronomy to bear on this passage, Susan Milbrath presents a convincing new interpretation of Borgia 29-46 as a narrative of noteworthy astronomical events that occurred over the course of the year AD 1495-1496, set in the context of the central Mexican festival calendar.In contrast to scholars who have interpreted Borgia 29-46 as a mythic history of the heavens and the earth, Milbrath demonstrates that the narrative documents ancient Mesoamericans' understanding of real-time astronomy and natural history. Interpreting the screenfold's complex symbols in light of known astronomical events, she finds that Borgia 29-46 records such phenomena as a total solar eclipse in August 1496, a November meteor shower, a comet first sighted in February 1496, and the changing phases of Venus and Mercury. She also shows how the narrative is organized according to the eighteen-month festival calendar and how seasonal cycles in nature are represented in its imagery. This new understanding of the content and purpose of the Codex Borgia reveals this long-misunderstood narrative as the most important historical record of central Mexican astronomy on the eve of the Spanish conquest. |
| Illustrations: |
26 color plates, 18 B&W plates, 44 figures, 8 sky maps, 18 tables |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
University of Texas Press |
| Returns: |
Non-returnable |
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