Geography is about maps, and astronomy is about stars. Very often the two disciplines go hand in hand because stars are essential for navigation on long sea-going voyages of discovery (and long sea-going voyages of discovery are essential for the production of accurate maps). Is it accidental that the First Men of the Popol Vuh were remembered not only for studying ‘the round face of the earth’ but for their contemplation of ‘the arch of heaven’?8 And is it a coincidence that the outstanding achievement of Mayan society was its observational astronomy, upon which, through the medium of
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