Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Calculating Brilliance: An Intellectual History of Mayan Astronomy at Chich'en Itza

by Gerardo Aldana
Sold out
₹7,838.00
Original price ₹7,838.00
Original price ₹7,838.00
₹7,838.00
Current price ₹7,838.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9780816542208
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: University of Arizona Press
  • Publisher Imprint: University of Arizona Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 464
  • Original Price: USD 75.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 953 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Archaeology

To the modern eye, the architects at Chich'en Itza produced some of the most mysterious structures in ancient Mesoamerica. The purpose and cultural influences behind this architecture seem left to conjecture. The people who created and lived around this stunning site may seem even more mercurial.

Near the structure known today as the Great Ball Court and within the interior of the Lower Temple of the Jaguar, a mural depicts a female Mayan astronomer called K'uk'ul Ek' Tuyilaj. Weaving together archaeology, mathematics, history, and astronomy, Calculating Brilliance brings to light the discovery by this Mayan astronomer, which is recorded in the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex. As the book demonstrates, this brilliant discovery reverberated throughout Mayan science. But it has remained obscured to modern eyes.

Jumping from the vital contributions of K'uk'ul Ek' Tuyilaj, Gerardo Aldana y Villalobos critically reframes science in the pre-Columbian world. He reexamines the historiography of the Dresden Codex and contextualizes the Venus Table relative to other Indigenous literature. From a perspective anchored to Indigenous cosmologies and religions, Aldana y Villalobos delves into how we may understand Indigenous science and discovery--both its parallels and divergences from modern globalized perspectives of science.

Calculating Brilliance brings different intellectual threads together across time and space, from the Classic to the Postclassic, the colonial period to the twenty-first century to offer a new vision for understanding Mayan astronomy.

Gerardo Aldana y Villalobos is a professor in the Department of Chicana/o Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of The Apotheosis of Janaab Pakal: Science, History and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque and specializes in Mayan hieroglyphic history and science and technology studies.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us