page_title: Maya astronomy
section_title: Mayan stelae
hierarchical_section_title: Maya astronomy / Sources of Astronomical Inscriptions / Maya Monuments / Mayan stelae
caption_attribution_description: Stela E in Quiriguá, Guatemala, is 12 meters tall, making it the highest in Maya culture. It was erected on January 22, 771.
context_page_description: Maya astronomy is the study of the Moon, planets, Milky Way, Sun, and astronomical phenomena by the Precolumbian Maya Civilization of Mesoamerica.
  The Classic Maya in particular developed some of the most accurate pre-telescope astronomy in the world, aided by their fully developed writing system and their positional numeral system, both of which are fully indigenous to Mesoamerica. The Classic Maya understood many astronomical phenomena: for example, their estimate of the length of the synodic month was more accurate than Ptolemy's, and their calculation of the length of the tropical solar year was more accurate than that of the Spanish when the latter first arrived.
context_section_description: The Maya erected a large number of stelae. These had a Long Count date. They also included a supplementary series. The supplementary series included lunar data – the number of days elapsed in the current lunation, the length of the lunation and the number of the lunation in a series of six. Some of them included an 819-day count which may be a count of the days in a cycle associated with Jupiter. See Jupiter and Saturn below. Some other astronomical events were recorded, for example the eclipse warning on Quirigua Stela E – 9.17.0.0.0. A partial solar eclipse was visible in Mesoamerica two days later on 9.17.0.0.2 – Friday January 18, 771.
caption: Stela E at Quiriguá, possibly the largest freestanding stone monument in the New World[6]
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