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To: dr_lew
"The eclipse pages of the Dresden Codex, for instance, are based on the formula that 405 lunations equal 11,958 days, giving a synodic month of 29.52592 days, only 7 minutes away from the modern value." ATLAS OF ANCIENT AMERICA, Coe, Snow and Benson.

Not bad for a culture without telescopes, computers, atomic clocks and other high-tech goodies.

47 posted on 03/14/2012 9:18:25 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
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To: Bernard Marx
Not bad for a culture without telescopes, computers, atomic clocks and other high-tech goodies.

Technology is beside the point. All you have to be able to do is count days and see the moon a few times a month. What's impressive is the attention span, but more than that it's the conception, or apprehension, of the celestial movements.

Note though, that in 12,000 days the 365 day year drifts by about 8 days from the tropical, i.e. seasonal, year. This is a slow drift, and evidently didn't concern them, just as it didn't concern the Egyptians.

48 posted on 03/14/2012 9:46:17 PM PDT by dr_lew
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