Although in the general opinion of historians, the Maya were a peaceful people, archaeological discoveries have revealed that they seemed to engage in significant internal deadly conflicts, between different political entities, with the aim of establishing a new political authority for the winning party. These conflicts are designated by the Maya via very particular glyphs representing stars, as they are most often correlated with astronomical phenomena. These turf wars have been dubbed “star wars” (star wars ) by the American archaeologist-linguist Linda Schele.
During the first millennium AD. J.-C., the Maya civilization was the seat of many conflicts. The Maya language places these wars into four categories and assigns each a specific glyph (symbol). The most important of these categories is designated by a star glyph and corresponds to particularly deadly internal conflicts involving political parties, fighting to install a new dynasty, assert their domination over another party or claim their independence.
For the losing party, the consequences could be extremely disastrous. On April 29, 562 — the date of the first Star Wars according to traces found — the conflict opposed the political cities of Caracol and Tikal. For the latter, the loss of the war led to a dark period of 120 years:decline of the population, cessation of the erection of buildings and partial destruction of the Grand Place. Similarly, the loss of Naranjo to Calakmul in 631, resulted in the torture to death of its ruler, who was then eaten.
The glyphs represent a star overhanging the Earth and pouring drops on it, or else a star above a shell. These glyphs correspond to a verb, but its phonetics and exact meaning are still unknown. For astroarchaeologists specializing in the Maya civilization, the star is used because researchers have found that the majority of star wars are correlated with astronomical events.
In particular involving the planet Venus (visible in the morning or evening). For Mesoamerican civilizations, Venus represents the god of war (the equivalent of Mars for the Romans or Ares for the Greeks), named Chak Ek', meaning "Great Star". The Dresden Codex, the astronomical codex of the Maya, has calculation tables for determining the position and trajectory of Venus.
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Thus, 70% of the appearance dates of the Star Wars correspond to the nocturnal phases of Venus, while 84% of them are correlated to the first visible appearance of the planet in the evening. Although the exact link between the Star Wars and Venus is still unclear, archaeologists believe that in view of the warlike significance conferred on the planet by the Maya, the appearance of this one was seen as a military omen encouraging the warriors to go into battle.
Also, Star Wars seemed to follow some sort of seasonal schedule, mostly taking place between November and January (drought time), and none between September and October (harvest time). Some dates (notably in Tikal) also correspond to the occurrence of solar eclipses. Finally, a non-negligible number of conflicts seem to be correlated with the retrograde periods of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, implying a link (as yet unknown) with planets other than Venus.
