The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript

Chapter 11: “Yearbearer Pages” and Their Connection to Planting Almanacs in the Borgia Codex

“Yearbearer Pages” and Their Connection to Planting Almanacs in the Borgia Codex CHRISTINE HERNÁNDEZ ANTECEDENTS In an earlier study of the Borgia Codex (Hernández 2003), I argue that Aveni’s (1999) correlation of the starting day of the almanac on page 27 (year 1 Reed 1 Crocodile) with a Venus elast event on April 4, 1467 (Gregorian) aligns the rain god and maize iconography on the page with the anticipated start of the rains and the inauguration of planting activities in highland central Mexico. The almanac on Borgia 27 employs year-naming notation and dates in the 260-day ritual calendar (Nahuatl tonalpohualli) to refer to 4 individual solar years (Nahuatl xihuitl) separated by intervals of 13 years and thereby marks the quarters of a 52-year period. Borgia 27 is calendrically connected to the following page, Borgia 28, which contains very similar rain and maize iconography. The almanac on Borgia 28 utilizes the same combination of calendrics to refer to dates at the end of the laborious planting stage in the early summer months of 5 sequential years, beginning with the same 1 Reed year recorded on Borgia 27. C H A P T E R 1 1 CHRISTINE HERNÁNDEZ 322 Recently, Victoria Bricker and I (see Chapter 10) compared “planting” almanacs on pages 24–33 of the Maya Madrid Codex (Codex Tro-Cortesianus 1967) with pages 27 and 28 in the Borgia Codex. In our study we applied the calendrical and iconographic patterns from the almanac on Borgia 27 to the Madrid to date its “planting” almanacs to the second half of the fifteenth century . We argued that a commencement of rain- and planting-related rituals in late March and early April is indicated for central Mexico and northeastern Yucatán by both the Borgia and Madrid codices. We also showed how almanacs in both codices refer to these springtime dates in different years throughout a single 52-year cycle. The annual timing of agricultural and associated prognostication activities in the Madrid appeared to be intermeshed with other major ceremonial events, including celebrations in anticipation of the New Year. The New Year’s events appear iconographically depicted in the almanacs on Madrid pages 34–37 immediately following the planting- and rainrelated sections. The identification of haab dates in connection with planting iconography on pages 34 through 37 of the Madrid was one of the most exciting discoveries to emerge from our research. Madrid pages 34–37 (Plates 2 and 3) contain a four-fold almanac that refers to all the dates of New Year within a 52-year Calendar Round, beginning with a 10 Cauac (2 Pop) year. Each page contains a list of 13 yearbearer tzolkin dates, hieroglyphic captions, and a large twotiered panel split by a sky band and filled with scenes that include gods, offerings , braziers, birds, animals, human sacrifices, and figures planting seeds. References are made in the hieroglyphic text on each page to colors, clouds (muyal), and cardinal directions. Cyrus Thomas (1882:52–89) keenly noted how the iconography on Madrid 34–37 parallels in several ways Landa’s (in Tozzer 1941:136–149) descriptions of Yucatec Maya Uayeb and New Year’s ceremonies of the early Colonial period. The directional and color associations also concur with Landa’s report (Bill, Hernández, and V. Bricker 2000:157). For this reason, pages 34 through 37 of the Madrid are commonly referred to as the “New Year’s pages.” What puzzled us about this finding was the fact that the Maya New Year during the Late Postclassic to the early Colonial period fell in August, several months after the start of planting. To explain this anomaly we suggested that some of the pictures on the Madrid New Year’s pages (specifically, the figures in the upper right corners planting seeds) must therefore refer to a variety of activities taking place throughout the year and not exclusively to the inauguration of a New Year. Both iconography and calendrics in the form of tzolkin coefficients and haab dates represent these events. An analysis of the calendrical structure and iconography contained within the first four large panels of an almanac covering pages 49–52 and part of page 53 of the Borgia Codex (Figures 11.1–11.3) reveals yet another almanac that “YEARBEARER PAGES” AND THEIR CONNECTION TO PLANTING ALMANACS IN THE BORGIA CODEX 323 Figure 11.1 The large panels...