Were the Maya and Aztec aware of the Sunspot cycles

The Mayan and Aztecs along with other meso-american tribes occupied the North and South American continents for thousands of years prior to the Columbian conquest of the 1500's. They were pagans and subscribed to a pantheon of gods. These gods would at times present themselves in the flesh to lead the meso americans.

During their expansive sovereign time on the continent they developed several methods of time keeping and they celebrated their gods and their beliefs in rituals. Many of these rituals were a means to appease the gods or gain the gifts that only gods could deliver such as fertility, rain, sun, etc.

The Sun was a major influence and the Sun God always presents himself in lores and prophecy as a revered figure.

The Mayan awareness of sunspot cycles in an age long past is a mystery that Maurice Cotterell and Adrian Gilbert have attempted to explain. Cotterell claims to have developed a complex formula that can accurately measure the time between the ages that come and go due to the magnetic influence of the sun on the earth. He states that his measures of historical catastrophes in the land of the Maya correlate with the hieroglyph records that show large population declines of these great nations at certain periods of history. These ages are recorded in the languages of the mesoamericans and are translated as mythical stories of a fifth world or a fourth age. According to Cotterell and Gilbert the fifth world mayan prophecy is a story which ends with a polar shift due to the magnetic influence of the sun on the earth and that shift is schedualed for 2012. Cotterell and Gilbert went on to co-author a book called The Mayan Prophecies: unlocking the secrets of a lost civilization. This book includes the numbers behind Cotterell's equation and it is filled with historical interpretations of the Maya World.

John Major Jenkins, a famed 2012 Mayan theorist, did a full review of the Cotterell/Gilbert book and states that the book lacks historical consistency and adds that the authors should have taken more time to find empirical evidence to support their claims.

This hasn't discouraged Cotterell from persisting with his beliefs. He has many books to his credit.




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Reference

Review-Essay of Mayan Prophecies by Gilbert and Cotterell, Element Books 1995

Book Review. October 18th, 1995
by John Major Jenkins
c. Four Ahau Press
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