Anthropologist and Archaeoastronomer Timothy King M.A. ‘04 spoke to a packed audience yesterday evening in Pigott Hall to explain how Maya astronomy reflects the rich culture of its people.

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Chris Piech

Tim King, an anthropologist and an archaeoastronomer, talks about the research that helped him earn his Ph.D. last year from the University in Pigott Hall last night. King dicussed the ancient Maya and their study of the galaxies.

King, who also received his Ph.D. from the University last year, presented his latest research findings about ancient Maya depictions of constellations, meteor showers and eclipses.

“The sky is the only universal topic across all cultures,” King said. “It therefore provides for an extremely interesting cross-cultural study.”

Mayan astronomers maintained an extremely detailed record of their findings in codices made from bark paper, King said, but only four codices survived the 16th century Spanish missionaries, who burned them because they believed the writing was the devil’s work.

King discussed Mayan and European constellations to demonstrate how cultural paradigms influenced differing interpretations of the cosmos.

Students said they found the program informative because it revealed the beliefs of a foreign culture.

“We always look at the cosmos through the lens of Western civilization when really the Mayans seemed to have a much more lyrical and precise way of tracking the stars,” said Josh Wong ‘10. “The way King laid out the facts made me appreciate how absolutely brilliant the Mayan nighttime narratives really were.”

“It was very interesting to see another culture’s interpretation of the night skies,” said Nick Casey ‘05.

King urged his audience to better appreciate the skies as he finished his presentation.

“Look up,” he said. “As long as humans have been humans, they’ve looked up. I want my audience to do the very same.”