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*Astronomical Footnotes to the Mesoamerican Calendar*

Since the publication of my book "Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the
Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization" in the spring of 1997, my
continued research into various aspects of early time-reckoning in the New
World has produced several new findings which can perhaps be shared with
the academic community most effectively in a series of short papers, no
one of which would merit a journal article of its own but which together
may well serve as a contribution of some value.

Here I would like to discuss four of these findings, the first having to
do with the possible role of Venus in the origins of the both the
Meso-american 260-day sacred almanac and the 365-day secular calendar; the
second is a new interpretation of the three stone rings erected by the
Totonac people at Zempoala; the third examines the astronomical basis for
the Mexican holiday known as the "Day of the Dead"; and the fourth is a
brief observation on the correlation of specific events in the
astronomical calendars of both the Mesoamerican and Western worlds.

(For readers having a special interest in an individual topic, the
following links will take you directly to the paper in question.)

* The Role of Venus in Mesoamerican Calendrical Origins <Venus.html> 

* A New Interpretation of the Stone Rings of Zempoala <zempoala.html> 

* Astronomical Associations of "The Day of the Dead" <dead.html> 

* An Observation on Correlating the Mesoamerican and European
Calendars <correlation.html> 

- References -

Broda, Johanna. 1993. "Astronomical Knowledge, Calendrics, and Sacred
Geography", Astronomies and Cultures, _Papers of the III Oxford
International Symposium on Archaeo-_astronomy_, St. Andrews, Scotland,
Sept. 1990, edited by C.L.N. Ruggles and N.J. Saunders. Niwot, Colo.:
University Press of Colorado.

Lounsbury, Floyd G. 1978. "Maya Numeration, Computation, and Calendrical
Astronomy," _Dictionary of Scientific Biography_, vol. 15, pp. 815-816.

Malmström, Vincent H. 1992. "Geographical Diffusion and Calendrics in
Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica", _Geographical Review_, Vol. 82, No. 2, pp.
113-127.

Malmström, Vincent H. 1997. _Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The
Calendar in_ _Mesoamerican Civilizatio_n. Austin: University of Texas
Press.

Teeple, John E. 1931. _Maya Astronomy_. Contributions to American
Archaeology, vol. 1, no. 4. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of
Washington, Publication 403.

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