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Aztec, Maya, and K'iche' flood cycles (Popol Vuh; the Five Suns)
Mythic

Aztec, Maya, and K'iche' flood cycles (Popol Vuh; the Five Suns)

Post-rebellion flood memory (Dalamatia submergence, Eden submergence, regional floods)
UB

Post-rebellion flood memory (Dalamatia submergence, Eden submergence, regional floods)

Post-rebellion flood memory (Dalamatia submergence, Eden submergence, regional floods) = Aztec, Maya, and K'iche' flood cycles (Popol Vuh; the Five Suns)

Informed SpeculationModerate evidenceMesoamerican

The Connection

The UB describes multiple catastrophic floods in the ancient record: the Dalamatia submergence 162 years after the rebellion (67:5.4), the sinking of the first Eden (73:7.1, 78:7.7), and the regional floods around Mesopotamia that fed the Noah tradition (78:7.3-5). The Mesoamerican cycle-of-ages cosmology (the Aztec Five Suns, the Maya K'iche' flood that destroyed the "wooden men" in the Popol Vuh) preserves the same narrative logic: humanity has been destroyed and remade multiple times by cosmic catastrophe. Rather than a single flood, Mesoamerican tradition preserves the plural-flood structure the UB actually describes.

UB Citation

UB 67:5.4, 73:7.1, 78:7.3-5

Academic Source

Popol Vuh (trans. Tedlock, 1985); Sahagún, Florentine Codex; Miller & Taube, Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico (1993)

Historical Evidence(Moderate evidence)

The Popol Vuh (the K'iche' Maya creation account, as translated by Dennis Tedlock) describes three previous creations destroyed by the gods, the third ending in a great flood that drowns the "wooden people" who were only rough drafts of humanity. The Aztec Five Suns cosmology, preserved in the Codex Chimalpopoca and Sahagún, records four previous ages destroyed by jaguars, wind, fire, and flood. Mary Miller and Karl Taube document the motif across Mesoamerica. The UB's multi-flood chronology matches the plural-flood structure better than Genesis 6-9 does.

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