Evidence of Meteor Shower Outbursts Recorded in the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Script Using Orbital Integrations

Summary

No firm evidence has existed that the ancient Maya civilization recorded specific occurrences of meteor showers or oubursts in the corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In fact, there has been no evidence of any pre-hispanic civilization in the Western Hemisphere recording any observations of any meteor showers on any specific dates. The authors numerically integrated meteoroid-sized particles released by Comet Halley as early as 1404 BC to identify years within the Maya Classic Period, AD 250-909, when Eta Aquariid outbursts might have occurred. Outbursts determined by computer model were then compared to specific events in the Maya record to see if any correlation existed between the date of the event and the date of the outburst. The model was validated by successfully explaining several outbursts around the same epoch in the Chinese record. Some outbursts likely observed by the Maya were due to recent revolutions of Comet Halley, within a few centuries, and some to resonant behavior in older Halley trails, of the order of a thousand years. Resonant behavior from both Jupiter and Saturn controlled dynamical evolution of meteoroids in apparently observed outbursts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20492