Origins of Mesoamerican astronomy and calendar: Evidence from the Olmec and Maya regions

Archaeoastronomical studies have demonstrated that the important civic and ceremonial buildings in Mesoamerica were largely oriented to sunrises or sunsets on specific dates, but the origin and spread of orientation practices were not clear. Using aerial laser scanning (lidar) data, we analyzed orientations of a large number of ceremonial complexes in the area along the southern Gulf Coast, including many recently identified Formative sites dating to 1100 BCE to 250 CE. The distribution pattern of dates marked by solar alignments indicates their subsistence-related ritual significance. The orientations of complexes built between 1100 and 750 BCE, in particular, represent the earliest evidence of the use of the 260-day calendar, centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The pecked cross symbol in ancient Mesoamerica

Attention is directed to a design, possibly of Teotihuacan origin, carved both in rock and in the floors of ceremonial buildings throughout ancient Mesoamerica. Consisting generally of a double circular pattern centered on a set of orthogonal axes, the so-called pecked cross or quartered circle figure is shown to exhibit a remarkable consistency in appearance throughout its 29 reported locations, thus suggesting that it was not perfunctory. The metric properties of the symbols gleaned from field surveys are delineated, and several interpretations of their possible functions are discussed. These symbols may have been intended as astronomical orientational devices, surveyor's bench marks, calendars, or ritual games. Evidence is presented which implies that more than one and perhaps all of these functions were employed simultaneously, a view which is shown to be consistent with the cosmological attitude of the pre-Columbian people

The Caracol tower at Chichen Itza: An ancient astronomical observatory

[No abstract available

The pecked cross symbol in ancient Mesoamerica

Attention is directed to a design, possibly of Teotihuacan origin, carved both in rock and in the floors of ceremonial buildings throughout ancient Mesoamerica. Consisting generally of a double circular pattern centered on a set of orthogonal axes, the so-called pecked cross or quartered circle figure is shown to exhibit a remarkable consistency in appearance throughout its 29 reported locations, thus suggesting that it was not perfunctory. The metric properties of the symbols gleaned from field surveys are delineated, and several interpretations of their possible functions are discussed. These symbols may have been intended as astronomical orientational devices, surveyor's bench marks, calendars, or ritual games. Evidence is presented which implies that more than one and perhaps all of these functions were employed simultaneously, a view which is shown to be consistent with the cosmological attitude of the pre-Columbian people

The Caracol tower at Chichen Itza: An ancient astronomical observatory

[No abstract available

Culture Confronts Nature in the Dialectical World of the Tropics

As an anthropologist, I would like to suggest that the tropics provide a perceptual environment that promotes and enhances a particular 'science of the concrete, whereby perceived order in the environment is the basis for systems of classifications, epistemological structures, and cosmologies. In the American tropics, the science of the concrete takes on a particular character that results in epistemologies founded in what I will call dialectical, reversible dualism