Ernst Förstemann(1822 — 1906)
Ernst Förstemann
royaume de Prusse
5 min read
Nineteenth-century German librarian and linguist, regarded as a pioneer in the decipherment of Maya writing. He was the first to understand the calendar system and astronomical calculations of the Dresden Codex.
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born in 1822 in Danzig and died in 1906 in Charlottenburg
- Head librarian of the Royal Saxon Library in Dresden
- Deciphered the calendar system of the Maya Dresden Codex in the 1880s-1890s
- Identified the Venus tables and Maya astronomical calculations
- Author of pioneering works on Germanic onomastics (Old German personal names)
Works & Achievements
A monumental collection of ancient Germanic personal and place names, a reference work of German philology.
A faithful color reproduction of the Maya manuscript, which opened the codex to international study.
Understanding of the Long Count, the ritual calendar, and the Maya numeral system with its zero.
Demonstration that the codex predicts the cycles of Venus and eclipses, revealing Maya astronomy.
A scholarly commentary synthesizing his discoveries about the Dresden Codex, foundational to Maya epigraphy.
A study of the Maya day and month signs, a lasting contribution to epigraphy.
Anecdotes
Förstemann never set foot in Central America and probably never saw a real Maya city with his own eyes. Yet, from his library in Dresden, he cracked one of the greatest mysteries of Maya writing: he was working on a reproduction of the Dresden Codex, whose edition he had himself supervised.
By studying the columns of dots and bars in the Dresden Codex, Förstemann understood that the Maya used a numeral system with a symbol for zero, long before that concept reached Europe. He was the first to demonstrate it for Maya writing.
Förstemann managed to decode the astronomical tables in the Dresden Codex that predict the movements of the planet Venus with astonishing accuracy, as well as eclipses. He thus revealed that Maya priests were remarkable astronomers capable of calculations spanning thousands of years.
A librarian by profession, Förstemann was first and foremost a specialist in ancient German names and medieval manuscripts. It was almost by chance, having the precious Maya codex held in Dresden close at hand, that he became a pioneer in the epigraphy of a distant civilization.
Förstemann understood how the Maya “Long Count” worked, the calendar that counts the days elapsed since a mythical starting date, located more than 3,000 years before our era. This discovery later made it possible to date Maya monuments precisely.
Primary Sources
Detailed commentary on the Dresden Codex in which Förstemann explains the Maya calendar system and the structure of the numerical tables on the “Venus page.”
Series of papers in which Förstemann sets out his progress in deciphering Maya writing and numeration, in particular the use of the zero value.
Vast collection of ancient Germanic personal and place names, Förstemann's major philological work before his Maya studies.
Study devoted to the Maya hieroglyphs in which Förstemann analyzes the signs for the days and months of the calendar.
Key Places
Baltic port city, then Prussian, where Ernst Förstemann was born in 1822.
University where Förstemann studied theology and classical philology, the training behind his scholarly rigor.
Institution where Förstemann served as head librarian and which held the Dresden Codex, central to his Maya research.
Town near Berlin where Förstemann died in 1906.
Town in Thuringia where Förstemann worked as a teacher and librarian before moving to Dresden.
