Dennis Tedlock theorized that the “test houses” of Xibalba in the Popol Vuh are based on the five types of this object’s cycles. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name this celestial object whose setting points aligned with the Caracol observatory’s windows. Maya astronomers tracked its 584-day cycle, which includes appearances as the morning and evening stars.
ANSWER: Venus [or Nohoch Ek’; prompt on Great Star or ek]
[10m] Venus sits on top of a shell in the glyph named for these events. Linda Schele coined this two-word term to refer to battles that Maya city-states may have timed to Venus’s rising, such as Caracol’s defeat of Tikal in 562 CE.
ANSWER: star wars [accept star war glyph]
[10h] Gabrielle Vail has associated the evening star with the black-painted God M or Ek Chuah, whom these people honored with offerings of incense on three stones. Aztec examples of these people used a bundle of sticks to represent the “Lord of the Big Nose,” Yacatecuhtli (“ya-ka-TEH-quit-lee”).
ANSWER: merchants [or traders; or pochtecas; prompt on travelers or synonyms]
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