Yale University
March 1, 2007
Archeologists from Yale and the University of Leicester have identified an ancient solar observatory at Chankillo, Peru as the oldest in the Americas with alignments covering the entire solar year, according to an article in the March 2 issue of Science.
Recorded accounts from the 16th century A.D. detail practices of state-regulated sun worship during Inca times, and related social and cosmological beliefs. These speak of towers being used to mark the rising or setting position of the sun at certain times in the year, but no trace of the towers has ever been found. This paper reports the earliest structures that support those writings.
At Chankillo, not only were there towers marking the sun\'s position throughout the year, but they remain in place, and the site was constructed much earlier NEWS- PRESS RELEASES
13 Towers
The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo
The Thirteen Towers: Peruvian Citadel is Site of Earliest Ancient Solar Observatory in the Americas
Existence of sophisticated Sun cults uncovered by researchers from University of Leicester and Yale University
Article Image and Home Page Image: courtesy of Ivan Ghezzi
Thumbnail Image is courtesy of Peru’s National Aerophotographic Service (SAN).
A 2,300 year old solar observatory in Peru has been identified by new research published today (March 1), in the journal Science, by archaeologists from the University of Leicester and Yale University.
The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo have been discovered to span, almost exactly, the annual rising and setting arcs of the sun when viewed from two specially constructed observation points.
The existence of this observatory predates the European conquests by 1,800 years and even precedes the monuments of similar purpose constructed by the Mayans in Central America.
Chankillo is a large ceremonial centre covering several square kilometers. It was better known in the past for a heavily fortified hilltop structure with massive walls, restricted gates, and parapets. But the purpose of a 300m-long line of Thirteen Towers lying along a small hill nearby had remained a mystery. New evidence now identifies it as a solar observatory.
And the researchers go further-pointing to evidence of an ancient Sun cult participating in public rituals and feasts directly linked to the observation and interpretation of the seasonal passage of the Sun.
They claim Sun worship and related cosmological beliefs could have helped to legitimize the authority of an elite class - two millennia before the Incas.
The research was carried out by Ivan Ghezzi, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University who is now Archaeological Director of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (National Institute for Culture) in Peru, and Professor Clive Ruggles, of the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester. Professor Ruggles is one of the world’s leading authorities on archaeoastronomy.
Recorded accounts from as early as the 16th century A.D. detail practices of state-regulated sun worship during Inca times, and related social and cosmological beliefs. These speak of towers being used to mark the rising or setting position of the sun at certain times in the year, but no trace of the towers remained. At Chankillo, not only were there towers marking the sun’s position throughout the year, but they remain in place, and the site was constructed much earlier Peruvian citadel is site of earliest ancient solar observatory in the Americas
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Simplified diagram of how the solar observatory would have worked. Credit: Courtesy of Ivan Ghezzi
Simplified diagram of how the solar observatory would have worked. Credit: Courtesy of Ivan Ghezzi
Archeologists from Yale and the University of Leicester have identified an ancient solar observatory at Chankillo, Peru as the oldest in the Americas with alignments covering the entire solar year, according to an article in the March 2 issue of Science.
Recorded accounts from the 16th century A.D. detail practices of state-regulated sun worship during Inca times, and related social and cosmological beliefs. These speak of towers being used to mark the rising or setting position of the sun at certain times in the year, but no trace of the towers has ever been found. This paper reports the earliest structures that support those writings.
The fortified stone temple at Chankillo. Credit: Courtesy of Peru\'s National Aerophotographic Service (SAN)
At Chankillo, not only were there towers marking the sun\'s position throughout the year, but they remain in place, and the site was constructed much earlier Peru\'s ancient solar observatory
The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo form a toothed horizon atop a low ridge in north coastal Peru. Archaeologists have discovered that the 2,300-year-old stone towers are part of an ancient solar observatory. Image is courtesy of Ivan Ghezzi.
A line of 2,300-year-old stone towers north of Lima, Peru, form the oldest known solar observatory in the Americas, a team of archaeologists has found. The discovery that the line of stone markers tracks the sun\'s progress across the sky also suggests that sophisticated sun worship may have thrived in the region nearly two millennia prior to the famous sun cults of the Incas, the team says.
Known as the Thirteen Towers of Chankillo, the structures sit atop a low ridge in north coastal Peru, part of a ceremonial complex dating to the 4th century B.C. Ranging from 2 to 6 meters high, the towers form a toothed horizon along the ridge. The 4-square-kilometer site also contains multiple structures and plazas, including two structures that precisely flank the towers to the east and west. Earlier excavations uncovered pottery, shells and stone fragments littering the site around one of the structures.
Archaeologists have known of the site since the 19th century, but rather than linking it to the path of the sun, researchers originally thought it tracked the moon\'s movement. Ivan Ghezzi, director of the National Institute of Culture in Peru, wanted to investigate the site further, however. Taking the evidence of shells and pottery as suggestive of rituals, Ghezzi and archaeoastronomer Clive Ruggles of the University of Leicester postulated that the two flanking structures might be observing points from which the people could examine the towers. The team then compared the towers\' locations with the sun\'s position throughout the year, including a precise calibration to the sun\'s position during the June and December solstices in 300 B.C.
Viewed from either observing point, the spread of the towers precisely follows the full range of movement of the sun, tracking its progress accurately to within two to three days, Ghezzi and Ruggles reported March 2 in Science. During the winter and summer solstices, the sun\'s position was also symmetrical, setting on either end of the line of towers when viewed from the opposite observing points. Furthermore, the regularly spaced gaps between the towers suggest the structures\' arrangement may have been used to count off the days of a solar calendar, the team said.
The fortified temple at Chankillo, where the ancient observatory was found. Image is courtesy of Servicio Aerofotografico Nacional, Peru.
How such a calendar might have been used — whether for religious or other purposes — is difficult to interpret from the data, the authors wrote. It is possible, however, that the restricted entry to the observing points and the discovery of ceramic warrior figurines at Chankillo, possibly representing an elite class, together suggest a link between these solar observations and ritualistic practices, the researchers reported.
Whatever their purpose, the towers suggest that sophisticated solar observation existed thousands of years before the Incas used it, Ghezzi says. \"Now we know these practices are quite a bit older, and were highly developed by Chankillo\'s time,\" he says. \"Chankillo was built approximately 1,700 years before the Incas began their expansion.\"
It can be tempting to impose astronomical predictions on archaeological sites, even with scant evidence, says J. McKim Malville, an archaeologist at the University of Chicago. Sites such as Chankillo, for example, may reveal \"more about the thinking of the people and their search for meaning\" than provide definitive evidence of astronomical observations, he says. Still, \"the powerful role of astronomy at Chankillo as revealed in the sometimes very inscrutable archaeological record is unusually compelling for such an early date.\"
That the towers\' alignment corresponded well with the summer and winter solstices is one strong line of evidence that lends validity to the researchers\' conclusions, says Brian Bauer, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. \"A solstice is very important, and very noticeable to any society that is outdoors,\" Bauer says. \"I review a lot of papers like this, and most of them are not that substantial in the evidence. But this one is terrific.\"
Other researchers are not entirely convinced of the team\'s conclusions, however. Although architecture played an extremely important role in formal activities for the people of this area and time, the architecture of these \"sighting stations\" does not appear to be highly elaborate, say anthropologists Thomas and Shelia Pozorski of the University of Texas-Pan American. The site may have held some ritualistic significance, but \"we need to see more convincing evidence of this,\" Thomas Pozorski says.
Whether it proves to have ritualistic significance or not, the site will be an interesting place of future study, Malville says. \"There is much more to be read in the archaeological record,\" he says.
Margaret Putney
Geotimes contributing writer
美刊评出2007年度十大考古发现：南美《山海经》
美刊评出2007年度十大考古发现[组图]2007年12月19日 15:19:05 来源：新浪科技
北京时间12月19日消息，过去的一年里，几乎每周都有重大考古发现，每周都有关于人类历史的新理论发表，从这些中挑出十大最重要发现是件困难之事，尤其此次不只是为报纸挑选头条标题，而是将在未来十几年内都会被业内谈论重视的话题。下面这些就是美国《考古学》杂志挑选出来的2007年重大发现：
1.发现美洲最古老太阳观测站
旅行家们早就注意到，秘鲁沿海山丘上排列的13个塔楼至少建于19世纪，然而去年研究人员才发明这些建筑物的用途：它们是美洲最古老的太阳观测站。秘鲁国立文化学院的伊万.盖兹及莱斯特大学的克利夫.拉戈斯对考古地点以及文字记录的研究表明，查基洛的13座塔上的拱弓是用于太阳观测，这些塔出自某未名文化，是秘鲁卡马塞钦(Casma-Sechin)河流域祭祀中心的一部分。它们是在该中心一个山丘上从北向南修建的。东西两边的地点有已知的祭祀物装饰，是可能的观测场所。从这些场所的角度来看，塔精确标志了太阳每年的上升和下降弧。它们作为日历的精确度是以天计的。比如，每年12月冬至这天，从西方看过去，太阳会直接从最南端的塔楼上升起。塔楼上的木梁来自公元前300年。跟踪太阳的变化有助于查基洛人计时和种植粮食，不过塔楼也许是为了显示当地统治者与太阳的某种神秘关系所建，以彰显其影响太阳运动的能力。盖兹表示，“如果只是为了区分四季，完全没有必要修建如此大规模的建筑物，其目的还意在传达某种政治和意识形态上的信息，表示统治者与太阳之间的密切关系。”塔楼旁一座巨大的圆形“城堡”也证明了这一用途。
http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2007-12/19/xin_0221204191527750502283.jpg
http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2007-12/19/xin_0221204191527750502283.jpg
匪兵按：这应该是对《大荒经》中日月出入之山之天文学意义的最有力证明。
[ 本帖由 匪兵甲 于 2008-3-9 13:12 最后编辑 ]
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