The Beginning of Prehistoric Settlements of the American Southwest (original) (raw)
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This paper represents the continuation of the research (from the planer’s view) on the American prehistoric settlements, but this time of the Southwest. The Southwest was a cradle for numerous cultures and communities which have left astonishing masterpieces of Places which they have erected between 7th and 13th century AD, in order to make their living easier in this arid and hot environment. Structural and location differences, along with author’s personal observation and experience, have been inter-compared and presented. The main conclusion for this research can be summarized in a few words: despite the lack of the written and calculus skills, they had the knowledge of how to observe the Universe above and make conclusions on sequences of celestial events through the design of their settlements.
Prehistoric astronomy in the American Southwest
Astronomy Quarterly, 1991
In this review I concentrate primarily upon work reported during the past five years and emphasize the four major geographic areas within the Anasaxi heartland in which the majority of recent field work has been carried out: Chaco Canyon, Chimney Rock, Hovenweep, and Yellow Jacket (see Figure 1). There have been other observations of astronomical phenomena reported in the Southwest, but it is primarily in these four regions that a sufficiently developed archaeological model is available to enable one to explore the detailed role of astronomy in a specific culture. Archaeoastronomy has progressed beyond the stage of searching for alignments with little regard for the culture in which astronomy was embedded. I. CHACO CANYON By A. D. 1000 Chaco Canyon appears to have become a nuljor population center and the hub of an integrated group of communities distributed throughout the San Juan basin of northern New Mexico, extending southward from the San Juan river to the present city of Gallup. The burgeoning population in the basin probably could not have been supported by local agriculture, and the Chacoans may have began fashioning turquoise into ritual and other objects that were traded with outlying villages for food and other necessities (Judge 1984; Lekson, Windes, Stein and Judge 1988). In the process Chaco Canyon apparently developed into a ceremonial center in which redistribution of economic wealth was combined with religious ceremony. At the height of the Chacoan culture, the great houses of the Canyon may have served primarily as ritual centers providing accommodations for pilgrims (Judge 1984).
American Antiquity, 2011
Stephen Lekson has been one of the most productive Southwestern archaeologists of his generation. Three decades after publication of his first book, Great Pueblo Architecture, the volume remains one of a handful of "must read" books for scholars studying the Chaco region. His detailed reconstruction of the establishment and growth of individual Chacoan great houses and his graphing of the intensity of construction activity over time provide a core element of the foundation on which most understandings of Chaco are built. In addition, Lekson's research has continued to be central to most discussions of the history of the canyon.
Mesoamerican civic and ceremonial buildings were largely oriented to astronomical phenomena on the horizon, mostly to sunrises and sunsets on particular dates; some orientations were probably intended to mark major lunar standstills and Venus extremes. Solar orientations must have had a practical function, allowing the use of observational calendars that facilitated a proper scheduling of agricultural activities. Moreover, some important buildings seem to have been erected on carefully selected places, with the purpose of employing prominent peaks on the local horizon as natural markers of sunrises and sunsets on relevant dates. However, the characteristics of buildings incorporating deliberate alignments, their predominant clockwise skew from cardinal directions, and their relations to the surrounding natural and cultural landscape reveal that the architectural and urban planning in Mesoamerica was dictated by a complex set of rules, in which astronomical considerations were embedded in a broader framework of cosmological concepts substantiated by political ideology.
Key words: ključne riječi: American prehistory američka prapovijest A m e r i c a n S o u t h e a s t a m e r i čki jugoistok Moundbuilders graditelji zemljanih humaka Mounds zemljani humci Native Americans starosjedioci Amerike This paper represents an iceberg of scientific research and gained results in revealing data and documentation upon creating first American prehistoric settlements of the Southeast, scoped through the planers point of view, rather than archeological or anthropological one. Numerous types and sizes of habitat settlements were discovered searching and evaluating existing archeological and anthropological data which were compared with the personal observation and experience while visiting some of the existing locations.
Šprajc, Ivan, 2011. Astronomy and its role in ancient Mesoamerica
David Valls-Gabaud and Alexander Boksenberg, eds., The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 87-95
The observation of the sky had an important rôle among the Maya, Aztecs and other prehispanic peoples of Mesoamerica. Their familiarity with the regularities of the apparent motion of the Sun, the Moon and bright planets is attested in a large amount of astronomical data contained in codices and monumental hieroglyphic inscriptions, as well as in their sophisticated calendrical system. On the other hand, the study of architectural alignments has disclosed that civic and ceremonial buildings were largely oriented on astronomical grounds, mostly to sunrises and sunsets on certain dates, allowing the use of observational calendars that facilitated a proper scheduling of agricultural and the associated ritual activities in the yearly cycle. Both accurate knowledge and other astronomically-derived concepts reveal that the significance attributed to certain celestial events by the ancient Mesoamericans can be explained in terms of the relationship of these phenomena with specific environmental and cultural facts, such as seasonal climatic changes and subsistence strategies. It was particularly due to its practical utility that astronomy, intertwined with religious ideas and practices, had such an important place in the worldview and, consequently, in the cosmologically substantiated political ideology of Mesoamerican societies