- THE MAYA 37
certain technique is presumed. Thus, although there is an unavoidable lack of unity
and continuity in the Mesopotamian texts compared with mathematics written on
more compact and flexible media, the cuneiform tablets nevertheless contain many
problems like those considered in India, China, and Egypt. The applications that
these techniques had must be inferred, but we may confidently assume that they
were the same everywhere: commerce, government administration, and religious
rites, all of which call for counting and measuring objects on Earth and making
mathematical observations of the sky in order to keep track of months and years.6. The Maya
The Maya civilization of southern Mexico and Central America began around 2600
BCE. Its period of greatest material wealth lasted from the third to tenth centuries
CE. Archaeologists have found evidence of economic decline from the tenth century
onward. This civilization was conquered by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth
century, with devastating effect on the ancient culture. Some authorities estimate
that as much as 90% of the population may have perished of smallpox. Those who
survived were dispersed into the countryside and forbidden to practice their ancient
religion. In the 1550s the Franciscan friar Diego de Landa (1524-1579) undertook
to destroy all Maya books.^12 Fortunately, three Maya books had already been
sent to Europe by earlier colonizers. From these few precious remnants, something
can be learned of Maya religion and astronomy, which are their main subjects.
The authors remain unknown,^13 so that the books are named for their present
locations: the Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex, and the Paris Codex. A fourth
work, consisting of parts of 11 pages of Venus tables, was recovered in Mexico in- It was shown to the Maya scholar Michael Coe, who published it (Coe, 1973).
It is known as the Grolier Codex, after the New York publisher of Coe's book, and
it now resides in Mexico City.
6.1. The Dresden Codex. The information on the Dresden Codex given here
comes from the following website.
http: //www. tu-dresden. de/slub/pro j /maya/maya. html
An English summary of this information can be found at the following website.
http: //www. tu-dresden. de/slub/pro j /maya/mayaeng .html
The codex that is now in the Sachsische Landesbibliothek of Dresden was pur-
chased in Vienna in 1739 by Johann Christian Goetze (1692-1749), who was at
the time director of the royal library at the court of Saxony. It is conjectured that
the codex was sent to the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V (1500-1558; he was also
King Carlos I of Spain). The codex consists of 74 folios, folded like an accordion,
with texts and illustrations in bright colors (see Plate 3). It suffered some damage
from the British-American bombing of Dresden during World War II. Fortunately,(^12) Sources differ on the dates of Diego de Landa's life. Ironically, de Landa's own work helped
in deciphering the Maya hieroglyphs, which he tried to summarize in a history of events in the
Yucatan. He had no quarrel with the Maya language, only with the religious beliefs embodied in
its books. According to Sharer (1994, P- 558), de Landa recognized and wrote about the vigesimal
place system used by the Maya.
(^13) One can infer something about Maya mathematics from the remains of Maya crafts and archi-
tecture. Closs (1992, p. 12) notes that one Maya vase contains a painting with a scribe figure who
is apparently female and bears the name "Ah Ts'ib, The Scribe."