A Critical Epigraphic and Chronological Rectification of Curatorial Media: Historiographical Fallacies in the Long Count and Structural Flaws in the Haab' at Shanghai Museum's "On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas"

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-09-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22858422
Primary Topic
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

A Critical Epigraphic and Chronological Rectification of Curatorial Media: Historiographical Fallacies in the Long Count and Structural Flaws in the Haab' at Shanghai Museum's "On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas"

YOUSONG SUN
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
article

A Critical Epigraphic and Chronological Rectification of Curatorial Media: Historiographical Fallacies in the Long Count and Structural Flaws in the Haab' at Shanghai Museum's "On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas"

YOUSONG SUN
article en

Abstract

This technical report (Version 4) delivers a forensic epigraphic, mathematical, and archaeoastronomical audit of the central multimedia digital projection displayed within the special exhibition "On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas" (《世界树之巅:美洲古代文明大展》) at the Shanghai Museum. An exhaustive frame-by-frame analysis of the digital projections reveals foundational flaws across two pillars of Maya chronometry: 1. The Long Count Compositing Inversion & Historiographical Distortion: An unverified compositing inversion at timestamp 00:44 where the Arabic numeral "13.0.0.0.0" directly contradicts the five Mi-zero glyphs displayed above. Furthermore, the exhibition introduces the curatorial fabrication of a non-existent glyphic sequence "0.0.0.0.0" and commits a historiographical fallacy by defining the strictly linear, cumulative Long Count as a "cyclical" calendar. 2. The Erasure of Maya Zero (Chum): The exhibition numbers the days of regular 20-day months (winals) from 1 to 20, directly violating the epigraphic standard of a 0-indexed interval ([0, 19]) based on the positional seating of the month (Chum), thereby fabricating non-existent dates (e.g., "20 Pop") and obliterating the Maya's monumental scientific achievement of zero as a positional baseline. 3. Violation of the Wayeb' Boundary ([0, 4]): The transitional 5-day unlucky period is labeled 1 to 5, manufacturing an impossible epigraphic entity ("5 Wayeb'"). 4. Archaeoastronomical and Ecological Misconception: Official subtitles declare that the Haab' "records the cycles of the sun and seasons." This statement commits a dual fallacy: it ignores the tropical lowland wet/dry ecology, and mischaracterizes the uncorrected 365-day vague year (año vago), which lacks leap-year intercalations and undergoes a seasonal drift of approximately 0.2422 days per tropical year, shifting an entire quarter of a year every ~377 years. Documented with classical epigraphic benchmarks and mathematical formulations, this paper establishes a rigorous evidentiary basis to safeguard intellectual integrity in museum digital curatorship. --------------------------------------------------[PRIMARY EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE & DIGITAL PROVENANCE]Raw Video Evidence File: IMG_5130.MOVCapture Location: Shanghai Museum, "On Top of the World Tree" Exhibition HallDate of Recording: September 2026SHA-256 Cryptographic Checksum:4806A6C2FBB6C5FB12C8FF421A41E97D16F849CF24EB5DF5BFDB4D8B671A5381Verification Command (PowerShell):Get-FileHash "IMG_5130.MOV" -Algorithm SHA256--------------------------------------------------

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
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