Mesoamerica




Mayan Temple of the Sun

As with other ancient cultures, observatories, pyramids and temples were erected based on celestial alignments. Prior to the Maya rising to power circa 400 AD in Central America and Mexico, there is evidence that the Olmec people had already begun to use astronomical orientations to direct the layout of several ceremonial centers, with the Pyramids of the New World oriented to observing and predicting the motions of the Sun and Mon.

As with the Egyptians, we can deduce that Mayan astronomical endeavors, heavily relied upon the ritual and ceremonial worlds of the culture, however, here we have a wealth of evidence to substantiate such claims. Left behind are codices, or systems of hieroglyphic recordings of the Maya, and which include celestial sightings and how these sightings and predictions are woven into the entire cultural complex.

'The Dresden Codex' has perhaps proved the most fruitful in helping to recreate the ancient environment, and containing an elaborate calendar used to record the observations of Venus, which seems to be an object of utmost importance to them. Working with both a solar calendar and a ritual calendar, the ancient Maya imparted much meaning in the helical rising of Venus, which is made evident in the structure of several ceremonial centers throughout the area. Unlike the Megalithic and Egyptian complexes, scientific observation can be better deciphered here, because of the elaborate records left behind, and because of the fact that so many of the deductions the Maya made so closely resemble recent calculations of the same recorded cycles.

Like the Egyptians, the Maya had devised two calendars, one solar and one ritual which interacted and depended upon one another for the dictation of certain ritual events to be carried out. The sky for the Maya was a seeming personification of Gods and deities who played important roles in the daily lives of the population. Most significantly, the relationship between the Sun and Venus (talked about previously in the helical rising, conjunction, phases) was representative of Kutaikcan, the God of Venus , and "symbolizes the cyclic myth of departure and return or death and resurrection." (Aveni 1984). In addition other objects may have been tracked in order to predict certain 'natural' phenomenon in accordance to seasonal changes therefor placing major importance on the accurate predictions undertaken to better predict the earthly events thought to be under the control of the Gods.

A great many structures are indicative of the devotion to and dependence upon Venus, to the Maya, and can be found in the architecture ceremonial centers throughout the region. Caracol, at Chichen Itza sits atop a large earthen mound and is a structure obviously intended for observing Venus at its most extreme points on the horizon.

Just as famous, is the Governor's Palace at Uxmal, constructed so that it would center on the helical rising of Venus at its southernmost point during the eight year cycle it follows. Such an alignment can be further substantiated by the fact that the Palace deviates from the remainder of the buildings at Uxmal by twenty degrees, indicating the care taken to insure the sight lines of the observation windows. The careful planning inherent in the design and building of such structures is made evident in the precision of their alignments, however this precision was indispensable to the planning of ritual events and the prediction of natural processes that so dictated the lives of the Maya.

In Chichen Itza, in Mexico there is a celestial observatory to the stars that was aligned along the line of the summer solstice and the winter soltice. It was built by the ancient Maya and their God Quetzalcoatl.



Chichen Itza Observatory in the complex

North America


Miami Circle

The Miami Circle, also known as The Miami River Circle or Brickell Point, is an archaeological site in downtown Miami, Florida. It consists of a perfect circle of 24 holes or basins cut into the limestone bedrock, on a coastal spit of land, surrounded by a large number of other 'minor' holes. It is the only known evidence of a permanent structure cut into the bedrock in the United States, and considerably predates other known permanent settlements on the East Coast. It is believed to have been the location of a structure, built by the Tequesta (also Tekesta) Indians, in what was possibly their capital. It was discovered in 1998, and is believed to be somewhere between 1700 and 2000 years old, though some have questioned both its age and its authenticity.

A strange circle formation has been discovered at the mouth of the Miami River in what could be signs of an ancient culture. Archeologists have discovered a perfect circle measuring 38 feet in diameter, with 24 irregular cut basins, ranging in size from one to three feet. Some experts believe the basins depict the images of sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, manatees, shrimp and other marine animals.

Centuries or millennia after its creation, the formation still seems sacred because of its apparent function as a temple or astronomical device. The structure has 41 potholes on each side of the circle's center along the east-west axis. It measures the precise outlines of the autumnal equinox (the time when the sun crosses the equator, making night and day equal in duration) and the summer and winter solstices (the northern and southern extremes of the sun's seasonal travel through the sky).

Could it be that the time-obsessed Maya or maybe a much older culture carved this astronomical observatory for future memory or to remind us what was sacred to our ancient people?

Archeologists say the perfect circle measuring 37.5 feet in diameter, with 24 irregular cut basins, ranging in size from one to three feet, may have an "astronomical purpose" as it has an obvious east-west alignment. Some experts believe the basins depict the images of sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, manatees, shrimp and other marine animals.

Mainstream experts familiar with the Miami Circle say it may be an astronomical observatory. But they also note it could have been the foundation of a sacred temple with no connection to the stars. Also, mainstream archaeologists do not share the notion of an ancient global stone civilization linking the Egyptians, Incas or Mayans. In addition, the standard view of ancient Egyptian history is that the pyramids were royal tombs - not astronomical monuments.

Does this observatory resemble Avebury?

Or Stonehenge in England?

Stonehenge I (3100-2300 BCE)

Stonehenge IIIa (2100-2000 BCE)

Or ancient Mayan ruins?

Native American


Archaeoastronomy of North American Indians
The Native Americans called it Star Knowledge which included the ability to mark events based on celestial alignments. Almost everything the Lakota scholars brought together from elders in the Lakota Star Knowledge book is about observations leading to the summer solstice where the sunpath will be at its farthest north, the days are longest, and the Sun Dance is held "when the sun is strongest and the power of growing things is greatest".

Chaco Canyon - Sun Dagger
Cahokia was the most important center for the peoples known today as Mississippians. Their settlements ranged across what is now the Midwest, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. Cahokia maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes to the north and the Gulf Coast to the south. Pottery and stone tools in the Cahokian style were found at the Silvernale site near Red Wing, Minnesota. At the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico. Although it was home to only about 1,000 people before ca. 1050, its population grew explosively after that date. Archaeologists estimate the city's population at between 8,000 and 40,000 at its peak, with more people living in outlying farming villages that supplied the main urban center. If the highest population estimates are correct, Cahokia was larger than any subsequent city in the United States until about 1800, when Philadelphia's population grew beyond 40,000.

Fajata Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico boasts a chamber in which a spiral petroglyph may be found. The glyph is surrounded by stone slabs allowing only scant light to penetrate into the darkness, and as the sun makes its appearance, a slit of light climbs the wall arriving at the center of the petroglyph at noon at the time of equinox. A number of artistic depictions of celestial phenomenon can be found as well, left behind by various tribes, indicating that even if they were not predicting the movements of the stare, they were intently contemplating the evident motions of the celestial bodies which corresponded to their various mythologies. This also marks a 19-year lunar cycle as the spiral has 19 rings.

Chaco Canyon was an important Anasazi cultural center from about 900 through 1130 AD. About 30 ancient masonry buildings, containing hundreds of rooms each, attest to Chaco's importance. Some structures are thought to serve as astronomical observatories or calendars. At noon on the summer solstice, a dagger of sun penetrates the center of the spiral. On the autumnal equinox, a sun dagger passes through the center of a small spiral on the left, and another passes on the edge of the large spiral. At the Winter Solstice, a big sun dagger passes on either side of the large spiral.

Cahokia Mounds in southern Illinois near East St. Louis has a circle of postholes interpreted in 1970 as an astronomical indicator of summer solstice sunrise, winter solstice sunrise, and equinox sunrise. Monk's Mound is the central focus of this great ceremonial center. A massive structure with four terraces, it is the largest man-made earthen mound in North America. Facing south, it is 92 feet (28 m) high, 951 feet (290 m) long and 836 feet (255 m) wide. The Travel Channel has called it the "world's largest pyramid." Excavation on the top of Monk's Mound has revealed evidence of a large building - perhaps a temple or the residence of the paramount chief - that could be seen throughout the city. This building was about 105 feet (32 m) long and 48 feet (15 m) wide, and could have been as much as 50 feet (15 m) high. The east and northwest sides of Monk's Mound were twice excavated in August 2007 during an attempt to avoid erosion.

Woodhenge


"Woodhenge," a circle of posts used to make astronomical sightings, stood to the west of Monk's Mound. The name is taken from Stonehenge, as this structure marked solstices, equinoxes and other astronomical cycles. Archaeologists discovered Woodhenge during excavation of the site. They found that the structure was rebuilt several times during the urban center's roughly 300-year history. According to Chappell, "A beaker found in a pit near the winter solstice post bore a circle and cross symbol that for many Native Americans symbolizes the Earth and the four cardinal directions. Radiating lines probably symbolized the sun, as they have in countless other civilizations." It is not to be confused with another site of the same name that exists in the United Kingdom.
Fascinating information about the people who once built the great prehistoric city of Cahokia was revealed accidentally during excavations in the early 1960s. Professional archaeologists were trying desperately to save archaeological information which was to be destroyed by the construction of an interstate highway, which was later rerouted. After a summer of intense excavation, Dr. Warren Wittry was studying excavation maps when he observed that numerous large oval-shaped pits seemed to be arranged in arcs of circles. He theorized that posts set in these pits lined up with the rising sun at certain times of the year, serving as a calendar, which he called Woodhenge. More post pits were found where predicted, and evidence that there were as many as five Woodhenges at this location. These calendars had been built over a period of 200 years (A.D. 900-1100). Fragments of wood remaining in some of the post pits revealed red cedar had been used for the posts, a sacred wood.
The first circle, only partially excavated, (date unknown) would have consisted of 24 posts: the second circle had 36 posts; the third circle (A.D. 1000), The most completely excavated, had 48 posts; the fourth, partially excavated, would have had 60 posts. The last Woodhenge was only 12, or possible 13 posts, along the eastern sunrise arc(if it had been a complete circle, it would have had 72 posts). Building only the sunrise arc might indicate that red cedar trees had become scarce. It is not known why the size and location of the circles, and the number of posts was constantly changed - perhaps to include more festival dates or to improve and increase alignments.
Only three posts are crucial as seasonal markers - those marking the first days of winter and summer (the solstices), and the one halfway between marking the first days of spring and fall (the equinoxes). Viewing was from the center of the circle, and several circles had large "observation posts" at that location, where it is likely the sunpriest stood on a raised platform. Other posts between the solstice posts probably marked special festival dates related to the agricultural cycle. The remaining posts around the circle have no known function, other than symbolically forming a circle and forming an enclosure to hold the sacred Woodhenge ceremonies. There have been suggestions some posts had alignments with certain bright stars or the moon, or were used in predicting eclipses, and others have suggested Woodhenge was used as an engineering "aligner" to determine mound placements, but none of this has been proven convincingly.
The most spectacular sunrise occurs at the equinoxes, when the sun rises due east. The post marking these sunrises aligns with the front of Monks Mound, where the leader resided, and it looks as though Monks Mound gives birth the sun. A possible offertory pit near the winter solstice post suggests a fire was burned to warm the sun and encourage it to return northward for another annual cycle and rebirth of the earth. This probably marked the start of the new year.
The third circle (A.D. 1000) was reconstructed in 1985 at the original location. The circle is 410 feet in diameter, had 48 posts spaced 26.8 feet apart (9 are missing on the west side, removed by a highway borrow pit). The posts were 15-20 inches in diameter and stood about 20 feet high. Red ocher pigment found in some of the post pits suggests the posts may have been painted. The post pits averaged 7 feet long and just over two feet wide, sloping from the surface at one end to a depth of four feet at the other, forming a ramp to slide the posts down to facilitate their raising.

The Big Horn Medicine Wheel in the Big Horn Mountains near Sheriden, Wyoming was interpreted in 1974 as an indicator of summer solstice sunrise and sunset, with other alignments for the rising of certain stars (Aldebaran, Rigel, and Sirius).

Built about 1050 AD. Has 28 spokes, and is about 90 ft in diameter.

About 50 similar circles exist. The oldest is in Canada (built about 2500 BC - the age of the Egyptian pyramids, for comparison).

The alignments presented by these stone circles are controversial; they could be due to chance. There is no evidence that they were astronomical in design. Why were they interested in those 3 particular stars?

Research regarding North American Indian astronomical insight has just recently begun to gain headway in the studies of archeoastronomers, and while the same volume of evidence does not exist as with cultures such as the Maya, the depth of Native American astronomical use and understanding is beginning to emerge. Based on the climactic conditions of more northern latitudes, it is safe to assume that one of the major reasons various tribes tracked the stars was for the prediction of seasonal change, which would indicate to nomadic or semi nomadic peoples that it was time to relocate for the winter months. This idea can be tied to the alignments found by John Eddy in the remains of the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming.

At Big Horn, Eddy noticed that by standing at the hub of the wheel one is able to deduce "a coherent alignment scheme" where the points on the outer wheel correspond to the sunrise of summer solstice, as well as the rising of Rigel, Aldebran, and Sirius, all of which have helical risings at the time of year when the site was climactically suited for occupation.

Makeshift structures and artwork in the southern United States argue for the ingenuity of the various architects responsible for constructing them, and as to the important part of astronomical phenomenon in constructing their own cosmos. Von Del Chamberlain notes that even structures dedicated to habitation may have served as observatories, and has found that the Pawnee earth lodges "highlight a number of celestial phenomena, ranging from the movement of the solar disk to that of constellations known to have been named".

While lack of written records stall progress somewhat, the strong mythological tradition that exists among the descendants of various North American Indian groups helps in deciphering the origins of myth that would lend explanation as to the importance of the sky in the life ways of native cultures. A certain number of scholars however have raised the question as to whether North American Indian astronomy can in fact be considered in the context of archeoastronomy and its study of prehistoric peoples, contending that these Indian populations may have been tainted by Christian schools of thought somewhere along the line. While this is a valid point, and deserves consideration, it is important to account for the mythological elements which factor into the overall schematic.