Ancient Astronomy in the Americas

1

• Ancient Astronomy in the Americas

2
Practical Origins

• Ancient Americans were farmers and needed to know
  the best time for planting and harvesting.
• With farming came a practical need for a
  calendar.
• As civilization developed, deeper meanings were
  attached to astronomical phenomenon.
• An overall trend the more settled a culture
  became, the more religious meanings became
  attached to the sky.

3

• North America

4
Some Quick History

• People crossed from Asia into Alaska via the now
  sunken Bering Land Bridge in about (YEAR).
• Following open areas free of ice people migrated
  South into the continent.
• First permanent settlements in about (YEAR).
• Except for the Maya civilization, no Ancient
  Americans ever developed writing.
• Most information is based on educated guesses and
  second-hand European sources.

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• Ancient Astronomy in Ohio

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Moundbuilders (1000BC-500AD)?

• A collective name given to many Indian groups
  between 1000BC and 1500AD.
• By the time of European colonists, the
  Moundbuilders were history.
• Many mounds were for burial.
• Some may have been related to astronomy.

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The Great Serpent Mound

• Located in Adams County, Ohio.
• Built by the Adena (YEARS)?
• At over 3 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and 1,370 feet
  long, it is the world's largest effigy mound.
• No burials, its purpose remains a mystery.
• Time of construction is unknown.

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From the Air
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An Astronomical Explanation?

• Do the head and coils point toward the
  sunrises/sets on solstices and equinoxes?
• Does the serpent represent Draco?
• Can lunar movements be found within the coils?

10
The Octagon

• Located in Newark, OH, now incorporated into a
  golf course.
• Built by the Hopewell Culture (200BC-500AD)?
• In the 1980s during a search for solar
  alignments, several Lunar alignments were
  discovered (no solar ones though).

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Evidence of Advanced Observing

• The main axis, connecting the octagon and circle,
  points to the Northernmost moon rise in the 18.6
  year lunar cycle.
• Four other sides point to the maximum southern
  rise, minimum northern rise, maximum northern
  set, and minimum southern set.
• A similar Hopewell structure, the High Bank
  Earthworks in Chillicothe, also exhibit these
  same alignments.

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Newark (left) and Chillicothe (right)?
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Is There More?

• Newark and Chilicothe are very similar sites
  about 55 miles apart.
• The common design in obvious.
• In Newark, traces of parallel Earth banks about
  200 feet apart, leading 6 miles in the direction
  of Chillicothe were first surveyed in 1862.
• With aerial photography, traces of this supposed
  road are visible at four additional sites, which
  are in direct line between Newark and Chillicothe.

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The Great Hopewell Road
15
More?
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Fort Ancient People (1000-1550)?

• Descendants of the Moundbuilders
• Named for a hilltop site occupied by the tribe.
  In reality, this site, no longer considered a
  fort, was probably built by the Moundbuilders.
• Far more agriculturally orentated than their
  Moundbuilder ancestors.
• With agriculture comes a need for accurate
  timekeeping.

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Sunwatch Village

• Located in Dayton.
• Originally intended to be a salvage excavation.
  Now, the site is permanantely preserved.
• Now restored.
• The village centers around tall posts in the
  ground.
• Using line of sight, these posts mark the
  solstices and equinoxes.
• Special houses are also in these sight lines.

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The Reconstructed Village
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Cahokia

• Located in the St. Louis area.
• Flourished from about 650-1400 AD.
• Monk's Mound (left) is a pyramid-like structure
  and is the largest man made mound in N. America
  with a 1,037' x 790' base (Egypt's Great Pyramid
  is a 754' square).

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Woodhenge

• Located to the West of Monk's Mound.
• Consisted of a circle of posts used to make line
  of sight astronomical alignments.
• There were as many as five henges, with posts
  ranging from as few as 12 to as many as 60.
• Original posts long gone, holes averaging 4 feet
  deep and 2 feet wide were the evidence the henge
  existed.
• The 48 post version, 410 feet in diameter, has
  been reconstructed.
• Solstices and Equinoxes were marked.
• Other alignments are unknown.

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Artist's Depiction
22

• The Southwest

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The Pueblo (1200AD-????)?

• A collective name applied to many individual
  tribes.
• Lived in the Four Corners area of the Southwest.
• Known for their pottery and cliff side housing.
• Modern Indians in this area claim these people as
  their ancestors.
• Although not certain, there are believed to be
  links with Mesoamerican cultures.

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An Ancient Pueblo Village
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Chaco Canyon

• Occupied by the Anasazi People from about
  900-1250AD.
• Pearls and parrot feathers found here, which are
  thought to be represent a link to Central
  American groups.
• The strength of these ties is uncertain, ranging
  from trading partners to outposts of Mesoamerican
  civilization.
• Reasons for their collapse are thought to be
  weather related.

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The Supernova Petroglyph

• M1, the Crab Nebula, is the remnant of a
  Supernova first seen on July 4, 1054.
• The Supernova was visible in daylight for almost
  three weeks, absolutely impossible to ignore.
• The people at Chaco Canyon may have recorded this
  observation in stone.
• Tracing back the sky, the glyph depicts the
  moon's location on July 5, 1054.

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The Petroglyph
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The Sun Dagger

• Rediscovered in the 1970s.
• Used to mark the solstices and equinoxes.
• Created by the interplay of light and shadow.
• Consists of petroglyphs on rock behind a stone
  slab in front with slits for sunlight.
• The petroglyphs are a large spiral and a small
  snake.
• The effect would last about 15 minutes.
• Due to shifting rocks, the effect is now altered
  and the site is closed to the public.

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In Detail

• Summer Solstice The sun shines through a slit
  and appears as a small point of light on the
  spiral. Slowly the point of light grows into a
  cone, which is then cut off at the top to make a
  dagger, which slowly moves down.
• Winter Solstice The same except that two daggers
  bracket the spiral.
• Equinoxes Long light shaft bisects the snake,
  another illuminated the spiral.

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At the Winter Solstice
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The Great Kiva
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Medicine Wheels

• Many are located in the Western U.S.
• Strongly resemble henges.
• Spokes and rocks are thought by some to mark
  astronomical alignments.
• A complete lack of written history leaves
  meanings uncertain.

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• Central/Mesoamerica

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Quick History

• Many cultures in a small area.
• Overall trend cultural succession. A certain
  culture becomes dominant, declines, and is
  replaced by another.
• As new cultures rise, they build on the legacy of
  the previous civilizations.
• In Mesoamerica, the astronomy/religion link is
  common. By the Spanish conquest, religion and
  astronomy are essentially one discipline.

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The Olmecs (1200-300BC)?

• The foundation culture of Central America.
• Known as The Rubber People for their
  ballgame-more later.
• The tradition of pyramid temples started with the
  Olmecs.
• Known for carving giant stone heads, on which
  there has been much speculation.
• Astronomically, the development of the first
  calendars is their most important achievement.

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Olmec Sites
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Olmec Pyramid
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Olmec Stone Head
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The Ritual Ballgame

• Played with a heavy (WEIGHT) rubber ball, which
  represented the sun.
• The object was to keep the ball moving and get it
  through a stone loop high on a wall.
• The game could last for days because the players
  could not use hands or feet.
• Played by teams of two.
• The losers were often sacrificed.
• A potentially deeper meaning to the stone loop
  will be addressed later.

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Ritual Ballcourt
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The Olmec Calendars

• The Olmecs used 2 parallel calendars.
• A 365 day solar calendar. As far as we know, no
  Mesoamrican culture used leap years. This was the
  everyday calendar for practical activities.
• A 260 day ritual calendar. The origins of this
  calendar remain unknown.
• Calendars would start at the same time, but would
  not re align again for 52 years.
• The later Maya expand greatly upon these ideas.

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The Maya (600 BC-1200AD)?

• New evidence continually pushes the Origin of
  Maya culture further back in time.
• Some Maya pyramids rival Egypt's in size.
• The only Mesoamerican culture to develop writing.
• Once thought to be a peaceful civilization ruled
  by astronomer-priests. Actually very
  militaristic.
• Did very detailed astronomical observations.
• For reasons unknown, civilization mostly
  collapsed by 900AD. Much speculation here.

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More About the Maya

• The Maya believed that time was cyclical, not
  linear.
• With this idea came the belief that thew world
  was created, will be destroyed, and then
  recreated.
• These cycles were known as Suns.
• To the Maya, these suns were not random, but were
  clearly organized. More to follow.

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Important Maya Sites
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The Importance of Time

• Kept the Olmec 365 and 260 day calendars.
• Thanks to texts, we know more about the division
  of the calendars.
• Ritual calendar consisted of 20 months of 13 days
  each.
• Solar calendar was 18 months of 20 days each.
• The leftover 5 days were considered dangerous
  because the gates of the underworld were thought
  to open. People mostly stayed home.

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The Ultimate Calendar
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Religion and the Sky

• The Milky Way represents the road to the
  underworld.
• The Milky Way is often represented as a monster
  devouring the dead.
• This is the sarcophagus lid of Maya king Pacal.

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Or is it an Astronaut on a Rocket?
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The Myth of the Hero Twins

• A king and his twin brother like to play the
  ritual ballgame.
• Problem they play on a court over a gateway to
  the underworld, which annoys the gods of death.
• The gods summon the king and his brother to the
  underworld for a game.
• The gods win and the brothers are killed.
• The king had two twin sons of his own.

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Take Two

• The younger twins also like to play the ballgame
  and also annoy the gods of death.
• Once again, the gods summon the twins to the
  underworld. The twins take the challenge.
• This time, the gods lose.
• Before exiting the underworld, the twins
  resurrect their father and uncle.
• Their father becomes the sun, their uncle becomes
  the planet Venus.

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Cosmic Brothers

• The Sun and Venus share a rhythm that only long
  observations can detect.
• The solar year is 365 days.
• The Venus Cycle (What) is 584 days.
• Coincidently, 8 solar years directly overlaps
  with 5 cycles of Venus (both are 2920 days).
• Both represent life triumphing over death.
• Rising and setting sun
• Venus going from visability to conjunction

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Venus and the Maya

• Since Venus represented life triumphing over
  death, Venus was carefully observed.
• The movements of Venus often dictated policy.
• Venus approaching conjunction was an ominous time
  and the reappearance of Venus was a time of
  rejoicing.
• Conjunction signified the ballgame between the
  Hero Twins and gods of death. During conjunction,
  the Maya believed that the existence of the world
  was being determined.

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Beyond the Century

• 52 years too short for long term record keeping.
• Maya invented the Long Count with its longer
  cycles to fix this.
• 1 day (kin)?
• 20 days (kins) 1 month (uinal)?
• 18 months (uinals) 360 days (1 tun)?
• 20 tuns 1 K'atun (7200 days)?
• 20 K'atuns 1 Ba'ak'tun (144,000 days)?
• 1 Ba'ak'tun 1 Sun/Great Cycle (1,872,000 days
  or 5,125 years)?

54
Astronomy, the Long Count, and Doomsday?

• The Long Count dates to (DATE 3,114 BC) and runs
  out on December 21, 2012.
• Coincidently, on December 21, 2012, the sun will
  rise directly in a black void in the Milky Way.
• Since the Milky Way was the road to the
  underworld, this dark void was the actual gate.
• With the Hero Twins in mind, this astronomical
  event signifies the birth of a new sun because
  the Hero Twins' father exits the underworld.
• Remember the ballgame and the stone loop?

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What this Means

• The Twins myth comes from the Popol Vuh.
• Astronomical knowledge comes from observation.
• At the time the Popol Vuh was being written in
  about 100 BC, the Winter Solstice sun rose about
  30 degrees from the Void.
• Precession shifts apparent location a degree
  every 70 years.
• 70 years x 30 degrees about 2100 years.
• The Maya must have understood Precession to
  calculate when the sun would rise in the void.

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Astronomy in Buildings

• Many Maya buildings incorperate line of sight
  alignments.
• The temple group at Uaxactun (left) is designed
  to mark the solstices and equinoxes.
• Some alignments are not so obvious.

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An astronomical City?

• Tikal, located in Guatemala, is one of the most
  impressive Maya sites.
• The 5 central temples were all built within about
  40 years and exhibit possible astronomical
  significance.
• The equinoxes, Winter Solstice, and August 13 are
  all possible.

58
The Ultimate Ancient Observatory

• The Caracol, located in Chichen Itza, displays
  many subtle aignments.
• The main axis of the temple is toward the
  Northernmost rise of Venus.
• Windows in the building align to rises/sets of
  prominent stars.
• The solstices are discreetly included too.

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The Caracol's Many Alignments
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Teotihuacan (DATES)?

• Located near Mexico City.
• Ran parallel to the Maya civilization, but much
  farther north.
• Famous for its pyramids.
• Less known for its astronomy.

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Pyramid City
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A Place of Mystery

• Compared to other civilizations, (CITY) was short
  lived.
• Once again, no writing.
• Evidence of a catastrophic end.
• The later Aztecs believed that the gods created
  the universe here.
• The Aztecs were also responsible for naming many
  of the major landmarks.

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The Avenue of the Dead

• At the time of construction, this avenue was
  orentated to the first helical rising of the
  Pleiades.
• This also coincides with the beginning of the
  rainy season.
• 56 other cities copy this plan.

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The Aztecs (1300-1521)?

• The Last great Mesoamerican civilization.
• Inherited, then added to the traditions of the
  earlier cultures.
• Known for their particularily gruesome method of
  practicing human sacrifice on an industrial
  scale.
• Strong believers in astrology, which was often
  used in policymaking.
• Believed everything was predestined and that
  nothing happened due to chance.

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Sun Centered View

• Unlike the Maya, the Sun was most important.
• Aztecs believed they were living in the 5th and
  final Sun (the Maya had no limits)?
• When the world was created, the Sun refused to
  move. To get it moving, the gods sacrificed
  themselves to it.
• The need for human sacrifice comes from a need to
  keep the sun moving.
• As long as the sun kept moving, the world would
  not end.

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Aztec Raisin Bran
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Moctezuma's Comet

• Seen in (YEAR)?
• Now known to have been Halley's Comet.
• Was unpredicted by the astrologers, who were
  beheaded as punishment.
• Something unforseen like a comet was taken as a
  bad omen, especially for a people as fatalistic
  as the Aztecs.

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A period Depiction
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The Templo Mayor

• The double pyramid temple in the Aztec capital on
  Tenoichtitlan.
• A main point of sacrifice.
• From an observation point opposite the temple,
  the sun would appear to rise directly between the
  two pyramids.
• Due to precession, the alignment bacame slightly
  off over time.
• At the time of the conquest, there was a plan to
  completely disassemble and rebuild the temple to
  adjust for precession.

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• South America

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Quick History

• First traces of human settlement around (YEAR)?
• No real powerful, long lived cultures.
• Instead, many overlapping, differing cultures.
• Despite the cultural and chronological
  differences, astronomy was a shared
  characvteristiuc to varying degrees.

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Did you know...

• The world's oldest man made mummies are from the
  South American Chinchorro culture and are from
  about 5-6000BC, at least 2000 years older than
  the oldest Egyptian mummy.

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Now for Some Astronomy

• Writing was unknown in South America until the
  arrival of the Spanish.
• Without writing, there is much speculation.
• Basic astronomical achievements can be relatively
  certain.

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The Nazca Lines

• Located in the Nazca desert in Peru.
• One of the driest places on earth.
• Lack of water and wind has allowed the lines,
  created by scraping away iron oxide pebbles to
  reveal the lighter lower soil, to remain
  preserved for about 1500 years without change.

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Several Mysteries

• Astronomical significance?
• Religious motivation?
• Related to water?
• Proof of ancient hot air balloons?
• Aliens?
• Is this an ancient astronaut?

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Possible Astronomical Significance

• These theories are all educated guesses, no one
  knows anything about the lines for sure.
• Some think the figures could represent
  constellations.
• Others argue that the figures and lines align
  with certain celestial events.
• The problem is that there are so many lines, it
  is hard not to find any alignments!
• A second problem is that there is no written
  history from the time.

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Other Ideas?

• No one knows the lines' purpose.
• Religious motivation The drawings depict gods
  and/or were meant for the gods to see. They could
  have also been mazes on which rituals were
  performed.
• A map of underground springs, which are known to
  exist in the area?
• Proof of ancient hot air balloons?
• Ancient alien airfield?

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Ancient Hot Air Balloon

• Not completely crazy.
• A balloon was built in (YEAR) with
  technology/materials that would have been current
  at the Lines' time of construction.
• Potential problem Could the ancients have
  thought of manned flight?

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Ancient Nazca Spaceport?
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The Incas

• Very short lived civilization.
• Controlled an area about the size of Ancient
  Egypt.
• The true empire only lasted about 90 years.
• Astronomical practices were recorded, the Sun was
  dominant.

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The Intihuatana Stone

• Located in Macchu Picchu, Peru.
• Points at the Winter Solstice sun.
• Also called the Hitching Post of the Sun
  because, at mid day on the equinoxes, the pillar
  casts no shadow.

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A Threatened Site

• Macchu Picchu, as a whole, is Peru's most visited
  tourist site.
• Over 400,000 people visit the site annually.
• In the 1990s, a cable car was built to allow
  easier access.
• Economic and commercial forces threaten the
  sight, according to academics.
• In 2000, the Stone was damaged when an 1,100
  pound crane fell on it during filming of...

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• ...A Beer Commercial!

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Oops!
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The Thirteen Towers

• About 2300 years old and located in Peru.
• Have been known of for almost 100 years.
• Thirteen well preserved towers are situated on a
  ridge and run from North to South.
• About 750 feet to the East and West are two areas
  scientists think could be observation points.
• From these points, the rising and setting Sun
  will travel from the Northernmost to Southernmost
  tower during the course of a year.

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Coincidence or Intended?
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The Temple of the Fox

• Located in the Chillon River Valley, North of
  Lima, Peru.
• The site was first Excavated in 1987.
• In 2006, an observatory marking the solstices was
  recognized.
• From carbon dating of objects at the site, the
  age is estimated to be 4,200 years old.
• This is the oldest known observatory in the
  Americas.

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The Amazon Stonehenge

• Discovered in 2003.
• 127 blocks in total spaced along regular
  intervals in a 100 foot diameter circle.
• Some stones are 9 feet tall.
• Located on a hilltop.
• One block is situated so that its shadow
  disappears as the sun rises over it.