Dresden Codex

And then you go to the very top, which today is collapsed and broken, and you really can't get into that area.

One person could get into this upper chamber and observe this heavens through unique slots now my questions to ai were was there a telescope was there any lenses were there any tools and the reason i'm giving the ai these questions or these prompts is that there is a document within the dresden codex one of the only codexes we have on sky observatory that reveals something called the Venus Table.

And they were able to chart the 584-day cycle of the planet through observation.

I think, and I think Rupert guesses, that this is the tool, this is the observatory they use to observe the planet.

Go to Facebook, see it.

It's an elevated look looking down into the various tower structures and features.

And what's really important And what makes this Dresden Codex or the Venus Table within the Dresden Codex so unique is these observatories.

So check it out.

Four books from an entire civilization's literary output.

The Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex, the Paris Codex, the Grolier Codex, whose authenticity was debated for decades before being confirmed in 2016.

4.

Everything else is gone, not lost, not misplaced, not hidden, burned, deliberately destroyed by a man who believed he was saving souls.

What survived, among other things, was the astronomy.

And the astronomy is where the Maya achievement becomes almost difficult to believe, where the numbers force you to reconsider assumptions about what is possible without technology, what human observation alone can accomplish when it is sustained long enough, passed down carefully enough and recorded with sufficient precision.

The Dresden Codex contains tables tracking the planet Venus with an accuracy that is, even by modern standards, extraordinary.

The Maya calculated Venus' synodic period at 583.92 days.

Only three ancient Mayan books, or codices, are known to exist, and these are more or less incomplete.

They have all been reproduced in facsimile and are known by the following names, Dresden Codex, Pericianus Codex, Trocorticianus Codex.

These illuminated manuscripts are written on both sides of long strips of amatyl paper folded like Japanese screens.

The paper was given a smooth surface by coating of fine lime and the drawings were made in black and in various colors.

The three books named above have been carefully studied.

They treat principally of the calendar and of associated religious ceremonies.

A page of the Dresden Codex containing some interesting calculations is reproduced herewith.

the numbers with the digits one above the other are transcribed in two diagrams in the upper diagram the bar and dot numerals are simply put over into arabic numerals and the mayan system of periods or positions is retained in the lower diagram these numbers are reduced entirely to the arabic system the columns are lettered at the top the hieroglyphs are counted off in sixteen rows at the left and the separate groupings of numbers are shown in five sections at the right Among the hieroglyphs, the Binyu sign is especially prominent.

Now, I'm one who believes that the Maya had the lens, had a telescope technology.

And I say that because When you look at the Dresden Codex, which is one of the four books that are left to us, and you study the Venus tables, you see cylindrical data, orbital patterns of the planet Venus and some of the other planets like Mars and the Moon.

Well, to tell us that this was obtained by simple sight is a pretty big stretch.

And when you study these tables, not only are they orbital patterns of a planet, but they're very close details in providing the seasons.

it was water eroded and it looks like something hit it like a tsunami or something it's very very strange but what's fascinating about uh carl rubert is that he not only excavated the first level but the second level which is has the most uh damage done to it and what he speculates is that one person could get up on this top observatory in this room and look out almost directly above any buildings it's like you had a you had these slots is what we call them because we don't know what they are they were designed for but the slots are again they're long enough deep enough They passed through the entire wall of the observatory, and they could have supported equipment.

Now, remember, we only have about 1,000-plus buildings excavated, and this is a world where there's tens of thousands still to be discovered.

And I firmly believe, as do many others, that we'll find a lens, we'll find some form of sky-washing equipment, perhaps not a telescope, but some other telescope device that allowed for sky watching and really you know you you have to look closely at the dresden codex to to realize that this is not simple uh sky watching it's it requires

a great deal more of technology of some kind

that the Maya may have certain types of optics.

And when I say that is, if you look at the Dresden Codex, which is one of the only four remaining texts that we have on the Maya, there is the Dresden Codex, and then there's the Venus star maps in that codex.

And they're claiming... various phases of the Venus planet that you can't really look at with the naked eye.

Now, you can mathematically

Well, they, they go back like, in the codices specifically, I think the farthest they go back is 33,000 years, but that's a ridiculously long period [laughs] of time to be talking about.

There's these sections called the, the Serpent Pages in the Dresden Codex.

And they have, uh, these, this serpent body that winds down the page, and there are dates that go further and further back in time to 33,000 years ago.

33,000 years ago.

Okay.

And probably the ori- they believed that their original inspiration for the calendar was the gods and their statements, but Maya priests would use this calendar to, uh, kind of in a, in a horoscope kind of way, uh, tell you when a good day or a bad day was for things.

The first 23 pages of the Dresden Codex, which was my, translating it was my master's degree, is nothing.

We call them the prognostication pages, and they use the, the Maya calendar, the simplest Maya calendar, the 260-day calendar, to say, "These are good days to get married.

The sky changed, and someone was there to write it down.

The Maya Dresden Codex includes detailed tables for eclipse prediction.

The Dresden Codex is one of the most precious surviving books from the ancient Maya world.

Its pages carry astronomical tables that reveal an advanced understanding of repeating sky patterns.

And I have discovered, and it's been known by a certain type of archaeologist or a Mayanist, that the Maya... we're very fixated on various planets.

And we know about the Dresden Codex because it has this Venus chart in it.

But there's also the Madrid Codex, the Paris Codex, the Maya Codex of Mexico, and the Pupil Vu, and the books of Chilam Bam, all have something to say about the importance of cosmology in the Maya world.

And when you bring them all together, It's curious because the study of the Venus document by itself how the Maya were able to chart these various seasonal changes in the planet Venus are beyond comprehension.

And it's not part of a telescope that we know, but it's definitely an optical lens of some kind that was used for a variety of activities.

We don't find telescopes in the form that we see today, but there could have been some form of optics.

Well, the bottom line is that this Dresden Codex with these Venus charts is a little too much for the naked eye to calculate because you're theorizing the activities.

And where I'm getting close with AI is AI is doing a comparative study with other known calculations.

They have all been reproduced in facsimile and are known by the following names.

Dresden Codex Pericianus Codex Tracorticianus Codex These illuminated manuscripts are written on both sides of long strips of amatyl paper folded like Japanese screens.

The paper was given a smooth surface by a coating of fine lime and the drawings were made in black and in various colors.

From the early accounts we know that books were also written on prepared deerskin and upon bark.

The three books named above have been carefully studied.

They treat principally of the calendar and of associated religious ceremonies.

A page of the Dresden Codex containing some interesting calculations is reproduced herewith.

The numbers with the digits one above the other are transcribed in two diagrams.