Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:10:18.230Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“REAL-TIME” CLIMATE EVENTS IN THE BORGIA-GROUP CODICES: TESTING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE CALENDAR

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Chris Woolley  and
Susan Milbrath
Chris Woolley
Affiliation:
History Department, University of Florida, PO Box 117320, Gainesville, Florida, 32611-7320
Susan Milbrath*
Affiliation:
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 110 Dickinson Hall, Museum Road & Newell Drive Gainesville, Florida, 32611
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the past decade, a number of prominent scholars have attempted to use astronomical data to place the images on page 27 of the Codex Borgia in “real-time.” This method has yielded some interesting results, but all of these authors have assumed that the Codex Borgia was produced in accordance with the Aztec calendar. Given the probable origin of the Codex Borgia in the area bordering the Mixtec and eastern Nahua cultural areas, this assumption needs to be tested. This article compares weather-related images that have associated dates on Borgia 27–28 with tree-ring data and estimated maize yields from the Puebla area. Our research for this paper seems to confirm the use of the Aztec calendar in the Codex Borgia. By analyzing depictions of weather phenomenon relating to maize production, we also offer a fresh analysis of this well-known document, specifically arguing that a major drought is shown in a 1 Rabbit year, whereas the year 1 Flint is linked with a period of dryness following heavy rains, a condition sometimes linked with locust swarms like those on Borgia 27.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 37 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anders, Ferdinand, Jansen, Maarten, and García, Luis Reyes 1993 Los templos del cielo y de la oscuridad: Oráculos y liturgia. Libro explicativo del llamado códice Borgia. Fondo de Cultura Económica and Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Mexico City and Graz, Austria.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony 1999 Astronomy in the Mexican Codex Borgia. Archaeoastronomy, 24. Supplement to the Journal of the History of Astronomy 30:S1–S20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth Hill. 2007 Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R. 2001 A Method for Dating Venus Almanacs in the Borgia Codex. Archaeoastronomy, 26. Supplement to the Journal of the History of Astronomy 32:S21–S43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bricker, Victoria R., and Hill, Rebecca E. 2009 Climatic Signatures in Yucatecan Wills and Death Records. Ethnohistory 56:227–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byland, Bruce E. 1993 Introduction and Commentary. The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript, created by Díaz, Gisele and Rodgers, Alan, pp. xiii–xvi. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Capinera, John L. 2001 Handbook of Vegetable Pests. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1951 El mapa de Teozacoalco. Cuadernos Americanos, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1971 Calendrical Systems of Central Mexico. In Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, edited by Ekholm, Gordon F. and Bernal, Ignacio, pp. 333–348. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 10, Robert Wauchope, general editor, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Cassidy, Anne W. 2004 Divination by Image: The Borgia Group of Pre-Hispanic Mexican Manuscripts. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
Caviedes, César N. 2001 El Niño in History: Storming through the Ages. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Centre for Overseas Pest Research 1982 The Locust and Grasshopper Agricultural Manual. Centre for Overseas Pest Research, London.Google Scholar
Chimalpahin, Domingo Fransisco 1998 Las ocho relaciones y el memorial de Colhuacan, Vol. 1. Consejo Nacional para La Cultura y las Artes, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Díaz, Gisele, and Rodgers, Alan (editors) 1993 The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Garibay, Angel María 1979 Teogonía e historia de los Mexicanos: Tres opúsculos del siglo XVI. 3rd ed.Porrúa, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Hernández, Christine 2006 The Fortunes for Maize in the Codex Borgia. Boundary End Archaeology Research Center, Barnardsville, NC.Google Scholar
Jiménez Moreno, Wigberto 1940 Signos cronográficos del codice y calendario Mixteco. In Códice de Yanhuitlán: Edición en facsímile y con un estudio preliminar, edited by Moreno, Wigberto Jiménez and Higuera, Salvador Mateos, pp. 69–76. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Kovar, Anton 1970 The Physical and Biological Environment. In Teotihuacan Valley Project, Final Report, Vol. 1, edited by Sanders, William T.Kovar, Anton, Charlton, Thomas, and Diehl, Richard, pp. 14–67. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 3, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Maasch, Kirk 2008 El Niño and Interannual Variability in the Western Hemisphere. In El Niño, Catastrophism, and Cultural Change in Ancient America, edited by Sandweiss, Daniel H. and Quilter, Jeffrey, pp. 33–55. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Metcalfe, Sarah, and Davies, Sarah 2007 Deciphering Recent Climate Change in Central Mexican Lake Records. Climate Change 83:169–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 1999 Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 2007 Astronomical Cycles in the Imagery of Codex Borgia 29–46. In Cultural Astronomy in New World Cosmologies, edited by Ruggles, Clive and Urton, Gary, pp. 157–208. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 2012 Heavenly History: Ancient Mexican Astronomy in the Codex Borgia. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Henry B. 1971 Religion in Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico. In Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, edited by Ekholm, Gordon F. and Bernal, Ignacio, pp. 395–445. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 10, Robert Wauchope, general editor, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Pohl, John M. 2004 Screenfold Manuscripts of Highland Mexico and Their Possible Influence on Codex Madrid: A Summary. In The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript, edited by Vail, Gabrielle and Aveni, Anthony F., pp. 367–413. University of Colorado Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Quiñones Keber, Eloise 1995 Codex Telleriano-Remensis: Ritual, Divination, and History in a Pictorial Aztec Manuscript. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Seler, Eduard 1963 Commentarios al Codice Borgia. 3 vols. Fondo de Cultural Economica, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Stahle, David W., Diaz, Jose Villanueva, Burneete, Dorian J., Paredes, Julian Cerano, Heim, Richard R. Jr., Fye, Falko K., Soto, Rodolfo Acuna, Therrell, Matthew D., Cleaveland, Malcolm K., and Stahle, Daniel K. 2011 Major Mesoamerican Droughts of the Past Millennium. Geophysical Research Letters 38 (L05703):1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Therrell, Matthew D., Stahle, David W., and Soto, Rodolfo Acuña 2004 Aztec Drought and the “Curse of One Rabbit.” BAMS:1263–1272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Therrell, Matthew D., Stahle, David W., Diaz, Jose Villanueva, Oviedo, Eliade H. Cornejo, and Cleaveland, Malcolm K. 2006a Tree-ring Reconstructed Maize Yield in Central Mexico: 1474–2001. Climatic Change 74:493–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Therrell, Matthew D., Stahle, David W., Diaz, Jose Villanueva, Oviedo, Eliade H. Cornejo, and Cleaveland, Malcolm K.. 2006b Tree-ring Reconstructed Maize Yield in Central Mexico: 1474–2001. Climatic Change 74:493–504 (with additional tables of data for the reconstructed and actual maize yields for the years 1980 through 2001). Electronic document, ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/treering/reconstructions/mexico/central-mexico-maize.txt, accessed May 4, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar