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The Dark Phase of the Moon and Ancient Maya Methods of Solar Eclipse Prediction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Linton Satterthwaite
Linton Satterthwaite*
Affiliation:
University Museum, University of Pennsylvania,PhiladelphiaPa.
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Extract

In this short paper the aim is to eliminate from consideration what seems to me a misleading lack of precise statement—if not an actual and important error in astronomical fact—in the recent writing of Robert H. Merrill. It seems proper first to make clear my conviction that laymen in astronomy have a proper place in the study of ancient Maya astronomy, even if mistakes are sometimes made which must seem naive to a professional astronomer. Merrill is by profession a civil engineer, and I am a garden-variety archaeologist. As a matter of fact, laymen are probably responsible for more sound progress in this field than are the all-too-few professional astronomers who have become interested. The names of Förstemann, Morley, Guthe, Teeple, and Thompson come to mind at once.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , January 1949 , pp. 230 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1949

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References

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