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Monday, August 2, 2010

Astronomy in Ancient India

Journal of Cosmology, 2010, Vol 9, IN PRESS
JournalofCosmology.com, July, 2010

Visions of the Cosmos:
Archaeoastronomy in Ancient India Subhash Kak, Ph.D.
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

Abstract This paper is an overview of archaeoastronomy in ancient India. It describes the Vedic conception of the cosmos and the representation of the knowledge of the motions of the sun and the moon in the design of fire altars. Sites of archaeoastronomical interest described include Neolithic and Megalithic sites and the Sanchi Stupa.
Keywords: archaeoastronomy, alignments, cosmos, India, Vedic, Cyclic Universe, ancient skies, calendars, metaphysics.

1. Introduction
Archaeoastronomy in India has the benefit of ancient texts that describe cosmological ideas, their basis in astronomy, and their representation in architecture. These texts provide us crucial understanding of the astronomy and cosmology of the historical period.
In the Indian view, the cosmos is seen as being tripartite and recursive (see Kak, 2000a and Kak, 2008 for review and additional references). The universe is viewed as three regions of earth, space, and sky (Dumézil, 1988) which in the human being are mirrored in the physical body, the breath (prāna), and mind. The processes in the sky, on earth, and within the mind are taken to be connected.
Indian narratives about the cosmos are characterized by the central role of the observer. The cosmos is seen both as real and arising out of the phenomenal contents of the mind. At a practical level, agreement on the phenomenal contents of many minds is taken to imply real existence, and the question of the nature of the qualities of the objects is raised. The question that is asked in the Indian narrative is: Do these attributes or concepts have a real existence or do they arise from the intuition of the observers?
The examination of this and related questions leads to theories of the cosmos, both at the universal and personal levels, that form part of the philosophical systems of Sānkhya and Vaiśeshika. The Vedic view of India (spanning a long period that goes back to at least 2000 BCE) classifies knowledge in two categories: the higher or unified and the lower or dual. Higher knowledge concerns the perceiving subject (consciousness), whereas the lower knowledge concerns objects. Higher knowledge can be arrived at indirectly through intuition and contemplation on the paradoxes of the outer world. Lower knowledge is analytical and it represents standard science with its many branches. There is a complementarity between the higher and the lower, each being necessary to define the other. This complementarity mirrors the one between mind and matter.
The Vedic thinkers were aware that formal descriptions of the universe lead to logical paradox. The one category transcending all oppositions is Brahman. Figure 1 represents this world-view schematically. In this figure, logic is shown as a subset of the capacities of the mind, and likewise models of reality (which are based on logic) do not capture all aspects of the material world. Machines have been grouped together with logic in the figure since they must be constructed according to a logical framework. This figure may be viewed as a representation of the incompleteness of formal systems of knowledge. Vedic ritual is a symbolic retelling of this conception. Notable features of this world view that are relevant here are (Basham, 2004):
An Extremely Old and Large Cyclic Universe: The Vedic texts speak of an infinite universe with ages of very large time periods, or yugas. The recursive Vedic worldview requires that the universe itself go through cycles of creation and destruction. The encyclopedic Purānas speak of the universe going through a current cycle of 8.64 billion years, and the period of the largest cycle is stated to be 311 trillion years. An Atomic World: According to the atomic doctrine of Kanāda, there are nine classes of substances: ether, space, and time that are continuous, four elementary substances (or particles) called earth, air, water, and fire that are atomic, and two kinds of mind, one omnipresent (the universal self) and another that is the individual mind.
Relativity of Time and Space: That space and time need not flow at the same rate for different observers is encountered in the late Vedic and Purānic stories, and in the Mahābhārata and the Yoga Vāsishtha (Dimmitt and van Buitenen, 1978, Kak, 2008).
Many Solar Systems: Indian mythology assumes an uncountable number of worlds (solar systems) (Dimmitt and van Buitenen, 1978). In Purānic texts, the diameter of our own solar system is taken to be about 500 million yojanas which is about 7.5 billion kilometers (Kak, 1999, Rao and Kak, 2000).

Figure 1. Universe as projection of a transcendent principle. With the above as background to the general ideas regarding the cosmos current in ancient India, we come to the discussion of archaeoastronomy in ancient India. A considerable part of the archaeoastronomy of this period is based on the author's research (see, e.g., Kak, 1992, 1993, 2000a, 2000b, 2005a, 2009). Due to the importance given in Indian culture to the abstract and the symbolic, many of the archaeoastronomical sites are temples. The king was consecrated at the temple. The consecration served to confirm the king as foremost devotee of the chosen deity, who was taken to be the embodiment of time and the universe (Kak, 2002).
The Indian sacred city has been viewed as a structured mesocosm, situated between the microcosm of the individual and the macrocosm of the culturally conceived larger universe (Levy, 1991). Such a city is constructed of spatially connected and recursively layered circles, each of which is sustained by its own culture and performance. Although Levy's city is not very ancient, it is built according to an old tradition (Volwahsen, 2001). The Harappan city of Dholavira (Bisht, 1997) is also recursively structured. Furthermore, temples were taken to be define the meeting ground between the macrocosm and the microcosm, and, therefore, they provide much information on the relationship between astronomy and cosmology.
India's archaeological record has unbroken continuity going back to about 7500 BCE at Mehrgarh (Kenoyer, 1998, Lal, 2002), and it has a rock art tradition, next only to that of Australia and Africa in abundance, that is much older (Pandey, 1993, Bednarik, 2000). Some rock art has been assigned to the Upper Paleolithic period. There is surprising uniformity, both in style and content, in the rock art paintings of the Mesolithic period (10,000 – 2500 BCE) (Wakankar, 1992).
The setting for the hymns of the Rigveda, which is India's most ancient literary text, is the area of Sapta Saindhava, the region of north India bounded by the Sindh and the Ganga rivers although regions around this heartland are also mentioned. The Rigveda describes the Sarasvati River to be the greatest of the rivers and going from the mountains to the sea. The archaeological record, suggesting that this river had turned dry by1900 BCE, indicates that the Rigveda is prior to this epoch.
The Rigveda and other early Vedic literature have astronomical references related to the shifting astronomical frame that indicate epochs of the fourth and third millennium BCE which is consistent with the hydrological evidence. The nakshatra lists are found in the Vedas, either directly or listed under their presiding deities, and it one may conclude that their names have not changed. Vedic astronomy used a luni-solar year in which an intercalary month was employed as adjustment with solar year.
The foundation of Vedic cosmology is the notion of bandhu (homology or binding between the outer and the inner). It was estimated correctly that the sun and the moon were approximately 108 times their respective diameters from the earth (perhaps from the discovery that the angular size of a pole removed 108 times its height is the same as that of the sun and the moon), and this number was used in sacred architecture. The distance to the sanctum sanctorum of the temple from the gate and the perimeter of the temple were taken to be 54 and 180 units, which are one-half each of 108 and 360 (e.g. Kak, 2005a). Homologies at many levels are at the basis of the idea of recursion, or repetition in scale and time. The astronomical basis of the Vedic ritual was the reconciliation of the lunar and solar years.
2. The Cosmological Plan of the City and the Temple
According to the Vāstu Śāstra, manual of sacred architecture, the structure of the building mirrors the emergence of cosmic order out of primordial chaos through the act of measurement. The universe is symbolically mapped into a square that emphasizes the four cardinal directions. It is represented by the square vāstupurushamandala, which in its various forms is the basic plan for the temple, the house, and the city. There exist further elaborations of this plan, some of which are rectangular.
Yantric buildings in the form of mandalas, dated to about 2000 BCE, have been discovered in North Afghanistan that belong to a period that corresponds to the late stage of the Harappan tradition (Kak, 2005b, 2010) providing architectural evidence in support of the idea of recursion at this time. Although these building are a part of the Bactria- Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), their affinity with ideas that are also present in the Harappan system shows that these ideas were widely spread..
Recent studies haves shown that the unit of dhanus has been used consistently in India in town planning and architecture for over 4,000 years, going back to the Harappan period. By considering the largest measure which leads to integer dimensions for the various parts of the Harappan age city of Dholavira, which was excavated in the 1990s (Bisht, 1997, Bisht, 1999), it was found that this measure is the same as the Arthaśāstra (300 BCE) measure of dhanus (bow) that equals 108 angulas (fingers) (see Kak, 2009, 2010, for details).
The measure of dhanus is seen to apply not only to the Mauryan and Gupta era structures, but even to more recent grid and modular measures in the town planning of Kathmandu Valley. The measures used in ancient India are summarized in the table below.

Table 1.

The three different hasta measures have been called the Prājāpatya (P-hasta), commercial (C-hasta), and forest (F-hasta) by Balasubramaniam (2008), and used variously in different situations. Here we are concerned primarily with dhanus, although we will also encounter pāda and aratni.
With the measure of dhanus (D) of 1.9404 m, the dimensions of Mohenjo-Daro's acropolis turn out to be 210 x 105 D, Kalibangan's acropolis turn out to be 126 x 63 D. The dimensions of the lower town of Dholavira are 405 x 324 D, the width of the middle town is 180 D, and the inner dimensions of the castle are 60 x 48 D (Danino, 2008). The sum of the width and length of the lower town comes to 729 which is astronomically significant since it is 27 x 27, and the width 324 equals the nakshatra year 27 x 12 (Kak, 2009).
The layout of Dholavira is unique in that it comprises of three "towns," which is in accord with Vedic ideas (Bisht, 1997, Bisht, 1999). The feature of recursion in the three towns, or repeating ratios at different scales, is significant. Specifically, the design is characterized by the nesting proportion of 9:4 across the lower and the middle towns and the castle. The proportions of 5/4, 7/6, and 5/4 for the lower town, the middle town, and the castle may reflect the measures related to the royal city, the commander's quarter, and the king's quarter, respectively, which was also true of Classical India (Bhat, 1995).

Figure 2. Map of Dholavira (Bisht, 1997). The Somapura Mahāvihāra of Pāhārpur has dimensions of 280x281 m, which when converted to dhanus become nearly 147x147 D, or 49x49 with the units of three times dhanus, which would be a natural plan for a vāstupurushamandala. The base of the temple was generally in a square grid of 8 or 9 units (64 or 81 squares) in the Brihat Samhitā (Bhat, 1995), but according to other texts it could range from one to 1024 square divisions. Another text gives special importance to the 7x7 plan. The Brihadīśvara temple (which was completed in 1010 CE), has a sanctum tower of 30.2x30.2x66 and it is within an enclosure of 240x120 m. In dhanus units, this amounts to 16x16 D plan in an enclosure of 126x63 D, where the error is less than one percent in the sanctum and almost zero for the enclosure. This indicates that the sanctum used a vāstupurushamandala of 64 squares where each square had a length of one-fourth dhanus. The dhanus unit also explains the chosen dimensions of Angkor Wat and Prambanan temples in Southeast Asia.
3. More on Harappan and Vedic Records
In this section we consider additional evidence from Harappan and Vedic periods. The absence of monumental buildings such as palaces and temples makes the Harappan city strikingly different from its counterparts of Mesopotamia and Egypt, suggesting that the polity of the Harappan state was de-centralized and based on a balance between the political, the mercantile, and the religious elites. The presence of civic amenities such as wells and drains attests to considerable social equality. The power of the mercantile guilds is clear in the standardization of weights of carefully cut and polished chert cubes that form a combined binary and decimal system.
Mohenjo-Daro and other sites show slight divergence of 1° to 2° clockwise of the axes from the cardinal directions (Wanzke, 1984). It is thought that this might have been due to the orientation of Aldebaran (Rohinī in Sanskrit) and the Pleiades (Kritikkā in Sanskrit) that rose in the east during 3000 BCE to 2000 BCE at the spring equinox, the word "rohinī" literally means rising. Furthermore, the slight difference in the orientations amongst the buildings in Mohenjo-Daro indicates different construction periods using the same traditional sighting points that had shifted in this interval due to precession of the equinoxes (Kenoyer, 1998).
Mohenjo-Daro's astronomy used both the motions of the moon and the sun (Maula, 1984). This is attested by the use of great calendar stones, in the shape of ring, which served to mark the beginning and end of the solar year.

Figure 3. Astronomical seal from the Harappan era (left: picture, right: sketch of same). The seal of Figure 3 has been viewed by many as representing the Pleiades. The conjunction of this constellation with the sun at the vernal equinox marked the New Year around 2400 BCE. The Pleiades, the wives of the seven sages, are important in Vedic mythology as representing the seven mothers who nurse the war-god Skanda.

Figure 4. A 3rd millennium seal from Rehman Dheri. The seal of Figure 4 is taken to represent the opposition of the Orion (Mrigashiras, or antelope head) and the Scorpio (Rohini of the southern hemisphere which is 14 nakshatras from the Rohini of the northern hemisphere) nakshatras. The arrow near the head of one of the antelopes could represent the decapitation of Orion. It is generally accepted that the myth of Prajapati being killed by Rudra represents the shifting of the beginning of the year away from Orion and it places the astronomical event in the fourth millennium BCE (Kak, 1996, 2000a).

Figure 5. Mapping of the nakshatras to the solar months. Figure 5 presents the 27 nakshatras of the Indian astronomy together with the 12 solar segments (rāshis). It is significant that the 27 nakshatras contain 24 names together with three which are further subdivided. This indicates that the 24 divisions may have preceded the 27 divisions of the Vedic astronomy.
Fire altars, with astronomical basis, have been found in the third millennium cities of India. Vedic texts describe the design and ritual of the fire altars which were oriented towards the east and whose design, using bricks laid in five layers, coded astronomical knowledge of its times (Kak, 2000a). The best known of the fire altars is the falcon altar of Figure 6. Texts that describe fire altar designs are conservatively dated to the first millennium BCE, but their contents appear to be much older.

Figure 6. Fire altar designed as a falcon. Vedic ritual was based on the times for the full and the new moons, the solstices and the equinoxes. There were two years: the ritual year started with the winter solstice (mahāvrata), and the civil one started with the spring equinox (vishuva). The passage of the rising of the sun in its northward course from the winter solstice to the summer solstice (vishuvant) was called gavām ayana, or the sun's walk. The solar year was divided into two ayanas: in the uttarāyana the sun travels north, in the dakshināyana it travels south. The movement of the moon was marked by its nightly conjunction with one of the 27 or 28 nakshatras. The Rigveda 1.164 also speaks of another tradition of dividing the zodiac into twelve equal parts. It appears that these divisions were called the Ādityas. The incommensurability between the lunar and the solar reckonings led to the search for ever-increasing cycles to synchronize the motions of the sun and the moon. This is how the yuga astronomical model was born. In the lunar month, there were separate traditions of counting the beginning of the month by the full-moon day and the new-moon day.
4. Neolithic and Megalithic Sites
Sites of archaeoastronomical interest include the Neolithic site of Burzahom from Kashmir in North India, and megalithic sites from Brahmagiri and Hanamsagar from Karnataka in South India. The dates for these specific sites are provided in the text. The importance of these sites arises from the fact that they present astronomical knowledge that was most likely outside the literary tradition.
Burzahom, Kashmir
The Burzahom site is located about 10 km northeast of Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley on a terrace of Late Pleistocene-Holocene deposits. Dated to around 3000 - 1500 BCE, its deep pit dwellings are associated with ground stone axes, bone tools, and gray burnished pottery. A stone slab of 48 cm x 27 cm, obtained from a phase dated to 2125 BCE shows two bright objects in the sky with a hunting scene in the foreground. These have been assumed to be a depiction of a double star system (Rao, 2005).

Figure 7. Burzahom sky scene. Brahmagiri, Karnataka. The megalithic stone circles of Brahmagiri (latitude 14^o 73', longitude 76^o 77'), Chitradurga district of Karnataka in South India, that have been dated to 900 BCE, show astronomical orientations. Rao (1993) has argued that site lines from the centre of a circle to an outer tangent of another circle point to the directions of the sunrise and full moon rise at the time of the solar and lunar solstices and equinox.

Figure 8. Megalithic stone circles of Brahmagiri Hanamsagar, Karnataka. Hanamsagar is a megalithic site with stone alignments pointing to cardinal directions. Since the megalithic period of Karnataka is believed to belong to the first millennium BCE, it may be assumed that this is the period of the site. The site is located on a flat area between hills about 6 km north of the Krishna river at latitude 16^o 19' 18" and longitude 76^o 27' 10". The stones, which are smooth granite, are arranged in a square of side that is about 600 meters with 50 rows and 50 column (for a total of 2,500 stones), with a separation between stones of about 12 m. The stones are between 1 to 2.5 m in height with a maximum diameter of 2 to 3 m. The lines are oriented in cardinal directions. There is a squarish central structure known as chakri katti.

Figure 9. Alignments at Hanamsagar (Rao, 2005). It has been argued that the directions of summer and winter solstice can be fixed in relation to the outer and the inner squares. Rao (2005) suggests that it could have been used for several other kind of astronomical observations such as use of shadows to tell the time of the day, the prediction of months, seasons and passage of the year.
5. The Sanchi Stupas
The Sanchi Stupa, a hemispherical domed structure with a flattened top meant to contain the relics of the Buddha, is believed to have been built by King Aśoka in around 250 BCE, an enlargement to double the size was done by the Śungas (this dynasty ruled between 185 and 73 BCE). It is surrounded by a balustrade that represents the sun's circuit. The Buddha did on full moon day of the lunar month Vaiśākha, and this day is observed as the Buddha pūrnimā day. At full moon the moonrise and sunset are observed in the eastern and western horizons.
It is likely that the astronomical basis of the Stupa was inspired by the Vedic altar that represented the circuit of the sun. It has been shown elsewhere (Millar and Kak, 1999) how this representation of the sun's motion remained common knowledge and it was used in Angkor Wat.

Figure 10. A Vedic fire altar representing the circuit of the sun. Two further Stupas were built by the Śunga kings and it is believed that they fixed the orientation of the Stupa. G.M. Ballabh and K.D. Abhyankar found that the Buddha pūrnimā occurred at Sanchi on April 28, 109 BCE with the sunset and moonrise of the full moon to the east-west orientation of the Stupa (azimuth of the Sun and Moon equal to 285.2 and 105 degrees, respectively, with an altitude of about 1 degree). This also corresponds to the setting and rising of the Pleiades (Krittikā) and δ Scorpii (Anurādhā) (Rao, 1992).

Figure 11. The Sanchi Great Stupa (Rao, 1992).

Figure 12. The Sanchi Great Stupa from Eastern Gate (picture Raveesh Vyas). There is further astronomical significance to the design of the outer balustrade in the Stupas.
Great Stupa. The outer balustrade has 120 posts arranged in 4 quadrants and they are joined by three rows of 29 horizontal crossbars. Starting with the 30 posts in the first quadrant, 29 crossbars of the second quadrant, 30 posts of the third quadrant, and 29 crossbars of the fourth quadrant, we have a count of 118. Three such rounds correspond to the number of days in the lunar year. Rao (1992) adds that to arrive at an undistorted full circle it would require 108 (i.e. 120-16+4) posts, where the 16 entrance posts have been subtracted and 4 missing posts at each entrance required have been added for reasons of symmetry. We have already mentioned the significance of the count of 108 in Indian astronomy. Rao (1992) speculates that the total number of outer balustrade posts (120) and slabs (115) gives a count of 235 corresponds to the lunations of the Metonic cycle. The harmika balustrade at the top has 28 posts, which equals the number of nakshatras.
Stupa 2. The count according to Rao (1992) for the posts and the crossbars is also 354, the number of days in the lunar year. Rao further speculates that the location of Sanchi may have astronomical significance since its latitude is close to the declination of the sun on the summer solstice day.
6. Concluding Remarks
This paper presents a broad overview to the archaeoastronomy of ancient India. Indian archaeoastronomy provides unique insights into the nature of ancient science and society in India for this region has vast number of texts belonging to different ages. The assumed homologies between the outer and the inner cosmoses meant that the same vocabulary was used to speak of their respective structures. While this becomes an obstacle for those who do not understand the system, it has within it the potential to explain many attitudes in Indian mythology, religious practice, science, and art.
In concluding, there was continuity between the archaeoastronomy of the early period covered in this essay and that of the medieval period where pilgrimage and temple centers mirrored conceptions of the cosmos. Medieval sites of archaeoastronomical significance include Sisupalgarh, Chitrakut, Vijayanagara, Gaya, Konarak, Khajuraho, and the Suryapuja temples in Tamil Nadu (e.g. Malville, 1989, Malville and Gujral, 2000, Malville and Swaminathan, 2005, Singh, 2009). For example, the temple complex of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, built in 9th -12th century CE by the Chandela kings, form three overlapping circles, with centers at the Lakshmana (Vishnu), the Javeri (Śiva), and the Duladeva (Śiva) temples. Their deviation from true cardinality is believed to be due to the direction of sunrise on the day of consecration (Singh, 2009). The Lakshmana temple, one of the oldest of the complex, is considered the axis mundi of the site and it is oriented to the sunrise on Holi.
The sun temples of Varanasi (Malville, 1985, Singh, 2009) are interesting in that six of these lie along one side of an isosceles triangle with a base of 2.5km. The triangle surrounds the former temple of Madhyameshavara, which was the original center of the city. Pilgrims walking along the triangle are symbolically circumambulating the cosmos. The subject of the medieval temples forms an important and fascinating chapter in India's archaeoastronomy that is beyond the scope of this paper.

The Role of Astronomy In Ancient Cultures

Journal of Cosmology, 2010, Vol 9, IN PRESS
JournalofCosmology.com, April 14

Finding Our Place in the Cosmos:
The Role of Astronomy In Ancient Cultures Juan Antonio Belmonte, Ph.D.
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Vía Láctea S.N., 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.

Abstract Mircea Eliade (1992) argued that a single view of the starry celestial vault would be sufficient to awake a religious experience. This idea is as true today as in the remote past. Hence, the starry sky has often served as a source of inspiration not just for science, but metaphysics, art, and the creation of symbols of power and identity. Ancient astronomer priests found that uncovering their mysteries allowed, through the mapping of heavens, made possible the development of calendars and navigation. Consequently, astronomy developed as the best tool for determining an accurate and predictable orientation in time and space. Today, as yesterday, starry nights are able to awake our imagination and continue to inspire a desire to discover our place in the cosmos.
Keywords: archaeoastronomy, alignments, ancient skies, calendars, metaphysics.

1. Finding Our place in the Cosmos: the Role of Cultural Astronomy
Today as in ancient times, astronomers seeking to observe the heavens have journeyed to the summits of the highest mountains, because these are the places where conditions are best suited for astronomical observation. Be it lonely mountain top, or desert, these sites are places which inspire feelings of awe and majesty; a fitting back drop to admire the wonders of the universe. Few specialists have not rested at these ancient observational outposts, under the seemingly endless tapestry of stars, and have not been amazed by their beauty and splendour, because a single view of the starry celestial vault would be sufficient to awake a religious −I would rather say spiritual− experience.
Our ancestors also selected high mountains to study the stars, ideal places from where communication between Earth and Sky was believed possible: the Axes Mundi where feelings of cosmic reality could be experienced. These stars in their endless cycle, returning again and again as they circled the heavens, provided a sense of security, inferring by similarity, rebirth and the transcendence of death. For these and other reasons ancient peoples mapped the firmament in an attempt to find the order where, only in appearance, chaos reigned.
From the mists of time emerged the fully "modern" Cro-Magnon people, Homo sapiens sapiens, with a brain larger on some occasions than modern humans, and the males standing 6 foot tall compared to the shorter Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis with their apparent inability to produce any semblance of art (Joseph 2002). Cro-Magnon were burying their dead, and creating "Venus" figurines, some representing Earth goddess pregnant with swollen belly, one of them holding a symbol of what might be the moon in her hand (see Fig. 1). Joseph (2002) has argued that the 13 lines cut in this presumable lunar symbol may represent an understanding of the link between women and moon; a woman having nearly 13 menstrual periods and the 13 new-moon cycles in a solar year.

Figure 1. The Venus of Laussel is a 1.5 foot high figurine cut in limestone, between 25,000 to 30,000 years in age. Image courtesy of Joseph (2002). Thus, we should not be surprised that the rock art in Lascaux (French Dordogne) depict what may be the oldest drawings of the constellations (Antequera, 1994; Rappenglueck, 1999), created more than 16,000 years ago, with the ubiquitous Pleiades −the most international asterism of the firmament (see Fig. 2)− already riding on the back of the great celestial bull (see Fig. 3).

Figure 2. The asterism of the Pleiades. Easily observable at naked-eye, this object has been recognized possibly since the Palaeolithic by every human culture on Earth from Greenland to New Zealand. Image from IAC Archive.

Figure 3. The main freeze of the bulls in the Lascaux Cave in Dordogne. There is a group of dots on the back of the great bull that has seldom and tentatively been identified with the Pleiades. The bull itself would be the earliest representation of Taurus constellation. Photograph by courtesy of M. Rappenglueck. Until very recent times, the megalithic monuments in Europe, and in particular Stonehenge, were believed to be the earliest evidence that ancient peoples of the Neolithic sought to link the heavens with Earth and to understand the cosmos. However, in the steppes of Southeast Turkey, on a barren isolated hill called Göbekli Tepe −Hill of the Navel−, a team of German and Turkish archaeologists (Schmidt, 2006) have discovered and are excavating a cluster of stone monuments erected with large pillars in the form of a T and dry-stone walls which suggest that a completely unknown hunter-gatherer society more than 11,000 years ago also sought to create monumental structures linked to the heavens. These series of sanctuaries, built presumably one after the other and even upon one another, may have been used for centuries, perhaps millennia to chart the heavens. However, for reasons which are unknown, the constructors deliberately buried the structures, creating conditions which contributed to their excellent state of preservation in spite of their great antiquity.

Figure 4. General view of the remains of Göbekli Tepe, in Turkish Mesopotamia, the oldest stone temple ever erected by human hands. Several of the big excavated circles are visible together with the huge, decorated T-pillars which are most representative of the site. Photograph by courtesy of M. Sanz de Lara. These monuments are mostly ellipsoidal in form. Although a favourite orientation may be established for the monument gates, there is no apparent selected pattern (see Fig. 4). However, between the group of monuments, there is one with nearly rectangular walls which were almost perfectly aligned according to the four cardinal points. These discoveries suggest that over 11,000 years ago, an ancient society had gazed into the heavens and used the sky to guide them in the appropriate ways of orientation in space and in time.
Although admittedly speculative, the profuse decoration of the T-pillars may represent yet other astronomical observations, such as the crescent and the star, so common in later cultures of the Middle East and beyond, and an earlier version of which might appear in the Venus figurine which may have been carved over 15,000 years earlier. Then there are what could be interpreted as totemic representations of animals which, if we may continue to speculate, could symbolize constellations, as Leo, Taurus or Scorpios. Certainly these constellations were recognized in the skies of other evolved cultures in the region such as the Sumerians, and their Assyrians and Babylonians heirs, thousands of years later (see Fig. 5).

Figure 5. A well-preserved kudurru of King Melishipak of Babylon showing several celestial bodies and some of the earliest unmistakable representations of constellations such as the goat-fish, ancestor of Capricornus. Photograph by Juan A. Belmonte by courtesy of the Louvre Museum. However, when analyzing the date of Göbekli Tepe, we are facing a problem: their singularity. There is no other preserved monument of the same type where data can be contrasted. From my point of view, scientific research −as jurisprudence, from where the expression is original− should be guided by the premise testis unus, testis nullus. This rule confirms that a single proof of something is like a proof of nothing and we must be very cautious of risking in too adventurous conclusions. Stonehenge was a typical example of this reality. Its singularity made of it, at the beginning in the 1960s, a Neolithic calculator, a predictor of eclipses, or, in short, the oldest "observatory" known (see Ruggles, 1999, for a critical discussion on the topic). However, more recent archaeological studies carried out on site, and in other similar planimetry monuments, have forced contemporary researchers to be much more cautious about their conclusions. Now Stonehenge is interpreted as a funerary monument which includes astronomical alignments among its design, linked to possible ritual purposes associated with the cosmovision of its builders (Parker Pearson, 2008).

Figure 6. A beautiful snapshot of the Cueva de Menga, the largest megalithic tomb of Europe. Topographically aligned to a distant conspicuous peak −perhaps also according to the moon−, it belongs, however, to a group of monuments with undoubted astronomical orientations. Photograph by courtesy of M.A. Checa Torres, Parque Arqueológico de los Dólmenes de Antequera. Actually, when we look at illiterate, extinct cultures, the only way to get a certain degree of confidence in our conclusions is when we analyze multiple but similar items −either monuments or portable objects− within a same archaeological or cultural context, especially when we are able to find a pattern. In this sense, the earliest unmistakable evidence of an interest in the local landscape, including the sky, can be found throughout the megalithic monuments of the Iberian Peninsula (see Fig. 6), notably in the south-western area. In these regions, Neolithic settlers built a series of monuments with a very similar architectural structure −they almost are clones of each other. These are known as Alentejan antas, for the name of the Portuguese region where they are a majority. They have been dated in the fourth millennium B.C. Most important, they show a pattern of orientation that clearly speaks to us of a unmistakable astronomical interest, because all the studied exemplars, without exception (more than 170, Hoskin 2001), are pointing at sunrise −or moonrise in a naïve alternative interpretation (González García and Belmonte, 2010)− at a certain moment in the annual cycle. It is difficult to uniquely establish if the pattern is solar or lunar, as the only movable elements found in the antas, the “plaque idols” −small schist plates with elaborated geometrical decoration−, show patterns illustrating the interest of their builders in both the sidereal month and the seasonal cycle. Summarizing, Alentejan antas certainly show a clear, statistically significant, intention for an orientation in space −for whatever purposes possibly related to an astral eschatology. They also show an orientation to time −perhaps associated with the existence of a lunisolar calendar (Belmonte and Hoskin, 2002).

Figure 7. The large deer of Laxe dos Carballos in Campo Lameiro. The number of tips in their antlers, and the way in which they are distributed, could be a sort of astronomical count. For example, we might postulate a three-year lunisolar cycle (37 lunar months in 3 solar years) if we take into account the three isolated stripes, close to the top of the right horn. Photograph by Juan A. Belmonte. The existence of a lunisolar calendar related to prehistoric populations of the west façade of the Iberian Peninsula has been recently confirmed by the work carried out in the rock engravings of Galicia, the north-western, Celtic origin, region of Spain. There, among beautiful representations of abstract figurative elements and animals such as deers of different sizes and typologies, our team has conducted an extensive investigative analysis. For example, a collection of large deers, with horns of exceptional proportions with too many tips, suggests that this could be a symbolic representation of astronomical counts −a sort of lunisolar calendar−, showing a fairly accurate knowledge of the movements of the Sun and the Moon (see Fig. 7). The existence of multiple representations with a similar symbology further supports this hypothesis (González García, García Quintela and Belmonte, 2008; Belmonte, García Quintela and González García, 2010). However, the lack of written texts, or any other sort of ethnographic or ethnohistoric information, prevents us from going much further in our conclusions.
Fortunately, there are cultures where we are lucky enough to have such important information. In this respect, the partnership between archaeoastronomical fieldwork along with decades of ethnographic information, collected by anthropologist Edmundo Edwards in Easter Island, has allowed us to establish, without doubt, the importance of certain asterisms in the culture of Rapa Nui −singularly Matariki (the Pleiades) or Tautoru (Orion’s Belt, see Fig. 8). This circumstance would be reflected in the related orientation of some of Rapa Nui’s major ceremonial platforms, the ahus, with their huge statues called moais. The celestial symbolism of the local art and the creation of a calendar that, both in its sacred and profane character, came determined by the visibility or invisibility of these celestial bodies at certain epochs of the year (Edwards and Belmonte, 2004). Part of these conclusions may be nuanced by the chronological difference between the last ahu constructors, in the 17th century, and their current descendants. Unfortunately, the original texts in rongorongo tablets, remain undeciphered so that we can not “speak” to the own sculptors of the moais.

Figure 8. The seven moai of Ahu A Kivi facing the sea at the helical setting of Tautoru (Orion´s Belt) as seen c. 1300 A.D. This astronomical event was one of the markers of the New Year starting in the following new moon of the rapanui calendar. Image by J.A. Belmonte & SMM/IAC. (From Edwards and Belmonte, 2004). However, there are a certain number of ancient civilizations, with close ties to sky-watching practices, which fortunately left written texts that thanks to the expertise of linguists we are now able to read and understand. Two unique and illustrative cases would be the Mayan culture and the civilization of ancient Egypt. Based on recently deciphered glyphs, we now know that the Mayan civilization was obsessed by the concept of and the desire to control time. Moreover, most of this civilizations sacred buildings follow orientation patterns which are governed by their most sophisticated calendar system (see Fig. 9); and these celestial calendars promoted actions, as the so-called Star Wars (see Fig. 10), in conjunction with unique events associated with the movement of planets and stars in the heavens (Šprajc, 2001 and 2005).

Figure 9. The evocative “descent of Kukulkan” produced each equinox on one of the steps of American’s most famous pyramid, El Castillo, at Chichen Itza. The monument had to be orientated accordingly. Photograph by courtesy of Jesús Galindo Trejo.

Figure 10. Three Mayan glyphs representing Star Wars. These were normally related to certain attacks upon an enemy city when Venus was at a significant position in the sky. Diagram by courtesy of I. Šprajc. The culture that the author has devoted much of his time seeking to understand and to research, as reflected in his writing, and which includes several archaeoastronomical missions in the country, is the Pharaonic civilization of ancient Egypt. Thanks to the texts of the pyramids −collection of religious literature of the Old Kingdom− it is known that the ancient Egyptians had already mapped the sky, recognized constellations, asterisms and unique stars, early in the historic period. Furthermore, they saw these objects as celestial destinations of the late king in a real paradigm of stellar eschatology. One of these groups of stars was Meskhetyu, equivalent to the Plough −or Big Dipper− asterism in the constellation Ursa Major. This group of stars was circumpolar during the Old Kingdom and the ancient Egyptians recognized this nature by including it among the “imperishable” stars (the ikhemu sek of the texts) par excellence. They associated this fact to the transcendence of the afterlife, and to such an extent that the two interchangeably recognized elements in the asterism (a bull’s foreleg or an adze) were intimately related to certain funerary cult ceremonies such as the "opening of the mouth", which was believed to provide immortality for the deceased. Our fieldwork in the country (Belmonte and Shaltout, 2009), particularly in the fields of pyramids, seem to confirm this fact, especially as Meskhetyu may be the principal celestial object used to align these imposing monuments. Consequently, the architectural arrangement of the pyramids could be a realization in the land of the cosmic order prevailing in the sky (see Fig. 11).

Figure 11. Schematic diagram where we show the astronomical and topographical relationships between the different monuments erected in the Giza Plateau, notably the Sphinx and the pyramids, and certain elements of the sky or nearby geography. The topographic relation with Letopolis and Heliopolis is quite suggestive. However, in this diagram, we additionally relate the original northern orientation of the pyramids, based on the observation of Meskhetyu’s meridian transit, to the similar name of the province which had Letopolis as capital, the Bull’s Foreleg. Astronomical connections of the Sphinx with equinox sunrise and summer solstice sunset (behind Akhet Khufu, the Horizon of Khufu) are also stressed. Finally, the alignment of Khufu’s causeway to Wepet Renpet −New Year’s Eve− during his reign is emphasized. Photographs by Juan A. Belmonte. (From Belmonte and Shaltout, 2009). We could continue ad infinitum our tour of the various forms that have been used to link astronomy and various aspects of culture in the thousands of years of human development. However, we believe that, already at this point, two basic ideas have clearly been expressed in the short essay that I would like to stress as arguable conclusions, indeed open to debate. On the one hand, that the observation of the sky has been, and remains (see Fig. 12), one of the main generators of metaphysics in human thought and, on the other hand, that astronomy has traditionally been the most powerful tool of human beings to reach a proper orientation in time and space. Therefore, our discipline is certainly one of the best guides that humanity had, since the dawn of the species, to find our correct place in the cosmos.

Figure 12. One of our current dreams is to find an exoplanet, or a related moon, with a huge ocean of liquid water where life could survive and evolve. This would probably be the major change in our metaphysical view of nature for generations. Image by courtesy of J. Whatmough.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This work is partially financed in the framework of the projects «Arqueoastronomía» (P310793) of the IAC, and «Orientatio ad Sidera II» (AYA2007-60213) of the Spanish MICINN.

Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica

Journal of Cosmology, 2010, Vol 9, IN PRESS
JournalofCosmology.com, April 14

Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica:
An Overview Ivan Šprajc, Ph.D.
Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Novi trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract The observation of the sky was of considerable importance to 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. The study of architectural alignments has also 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 largely 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.
Keywords: Mesoamerica, Maya, Aztec, archaeoastronomy, cosmology.

1. INTRODUCTION
Mesoamerica is a culturally defined geographical area corresponding to central and southern parts of modern Mexico and the northern part of Central America. The term refers to the territory on which civilizations, with common cultural traits, flourished since the 2nd millennium B.C., when the first complex societies emerged, until the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century A.D. The history of Mesoamerica is traditionally divided into three main periods or evolutionary stages: the Preclassic (ca. 2000 B.C. – A.D. 250), Classic (250 – 900) and Postclassic (900 – 1519). The earliest urban societies appeared during the Preclassic along the southern part of the Mexican Gulf Coast, in central Mexico and in the Maya area in the Mesoamerican southeast. The greatest splendor, particularly notable in fine arts, architectural achievements and writing systems, was reached during the Classic, whereas the Postclassic period was characterized by intensified migrations, pronounced militarization and, particularly in the Maya area, by increased political fragmentation.
The antiquity of astronomy and its importance in all ancient civilizations (cf. Waerden 1974) can be accounted for by its practical uses. Celestial motions allow orientation in both time and space. Seasonal changes in natural environment coincide with various cyclical events observable in the sky. However, since the periodicity of the latter is much more stable and exact, the observation of these regularities allowed ancient societies to predict annual changes in their environments and to regulate their activities in time. The need for astronomical observations increased notably with the origin of agriculture as farming requires an orderly scheduling of labors in the yearly cycle such as planting and harvesting. Since astronomical knowledge offered adaptive advantages to the societies possessing better specialists in this field, it acquired great importance in early states, contributing to the legitimation of power of the ruling class (cf. Reyman 1975; Broda 1982; Aveni & Hartung 1986, p. 56; Iwaniszewski 1989, pp. 28f; Šprajc 1996, pp. 20ff).
Astronomical observations resulted, on the one hand, in a corpus of exact and practically useful knowledge. On the other hand, the celestial order, apparently invariable and perfect, came to be considered superior to the terrestrial and human order, and this notion gave rise to an enormous variety of myths and beliefs which explained why and how events on Earth depended on celestial phenomena observed in the heavens.
2. MESOAMERICAN ARCHAEOASTRONOMY

In any particular social group, the exact concepts and those defined in terms of our current knowledge as "non-scientific" are normally intertwined and integrated in a relatively coherent worldview, which can be properly understood only if examined as a whole and in the light of the specific natural, social and historical context; both correct and false ideas can shed considerable light on the society being studied. This holistic approach has been adopted by archaeoastronomy, a relatively new anthropological discipline focused not only on exact knowledge but rather on all astronomically derived concepts and related cultural manifestations. Taking into account specific environmental peculiarities, subsistence strategies, sociopolitical structure and historical antecedents of the society under study, archaeoastronomy searches for answers to a number of questions: Why did certain astronomical phenomena acquire a prevailing importance? What were the social functions of astronomical knowledge? Which were the observational bases of the concepts embedded in myths, iconography, attributes of gods, etc.? In its attempts to solve problems of this kind, archaeoastronomy participates in common efforts of anthropological disciplines and contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of ancient societies, as well as of general processes of cultural evolution (Aveni 1989; 2001; 2003; Broda 1982; 1992; Iwaniszewski 1989; 1994; Ruggles 1999; Šprajc 2005).
Mesoamerican archaeoastronomy relies on a variety of sources. Astronomical concepts and practices are referred to in the iconography and hieroglyphic texts in prehispanic manuscripts or codices, monumental inscriptions, mural paintings, reliefs and other archaeological objects.
Complementary information is contained in early colonial documents and, considering that fragments of prehispanic cultural heritage survive in modern indigenous communities, even in the ethnographic material. Furthermore, relevant data on prehispanic astronomy are embedded in spatial distribution of archaeological vestiges, particularly in architectural orientations and other alignments detected in ancient cultural landscapes.
3. MESOAMERICAN ASTRONOMY IN WRITTEN SOURCES, ICONOGRAPHY AND ETHNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL
3a: Calendrical System
Like any other precise calendar invented in the history of humankind, the complex Mesoamerican calendrical system was based on astronomy (Aveni 2001; Caso 1967; Kelley 1976; Lounsbury 1978; Thompson 1950). The relation between the tropical year and the 365-day Mesoamerican year, composed of 18 months of 20 days and an additional 5-day period, is evident. While the origin of the other pan- Mesoamerican calendrical cycle, which had 260 days, is less clear, it has been noticed that the length of two 260-day periods corresponds, with reasonable accuracy, to three eclipse half-years of 173.31 days, and that the synodic period of Mars (779.94 days) equals almost exactly three 260-day cycles.
It has also been suggested that the 260-day count was invented somewhere along the 15th parallel north, because at this latitude the Sun’s passages through the zenith are separated by intervals of 105 and 260 days (Aveni 2001, pp. 184ff; Malmström 1997, pp. 47ff; Šprajc 2001a, pp. 279f). Whatever its origin, this cycle, unique in the history of humankind, had an enormous importance in all calendrical and astronomical computations.
3b. The Sun and the Moon
The 365-day calendrical year was likely derived from the observation of the Sun’s annual movement along the horizon. This is suggested by the importance of solstitial extremes, attested since early periods and reflected not only in architectural orientations (see below) but also in the concept, apparently pan- Mesoamerican, that the sky corners are located at the four solstitial points on the horizon (cf. Milbrath 1999, p. 19; Šprajc 2001a, p. 281).
The zenith passages of the Sun were also observed, and of particular importance the first annual transit; though its exact date depends on the latitude, this event occurs throughout Mesoamerica in late April or May and thus announces, or coincides with, the onset of the rainy season, a crucial moment in the agricultural cycle (Aveni 2001, pp. 40ff; Tedlock 1992; Šprajc 2001a, pp. 281ff).
A wide variety of sources demonstrate the importance of the Moon in Mesoamerica (Milbrath 1999; Thompson 1939; Galindo 1994). Chronological information in Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions regularly includes the data on the "age" of the Moon expressed in the so-called Lunar Series. To keep their lunar months of 29 or 30 days in step with lunations of 29.53059 days during longer periods, the Maya alternated them using different formulae. This enabled them to achieve a remarkable degree of precision reflected in lunar data calculated for dates in distant past and future (Lounsbury 1978; Aveni 2001, pp. 155ff; Cases et al. 2004; Fuls 2007).
In all ancient traditions the eclipses were considered as bad auguries. This is because they are relatively rare and difficult to predict and, therefore, are associated with bringing disorder and disrupting the cosmic harmony.
Various prehispanic codices and early colonial sources contain information on native beliefs about eclipses and on ritual performances intended to prevent their negative influences (Caso 1967, pp. 93ff; Aveni 2001, pp. 26ff; Galindo 1994, pp. 70ff). On the other hand, the Mesoamerican astronomers-priests achieved a rather sophisticated knowledge about the periodicity of eclipses. The most explicit information can be found in the Dresden Codex, one of the few Maya manuscripts that survived to our time: the dates listed on the pages constituting the so-called Lunar Table are spaced at typical eclipse intervals (177 and 148 days). The purpose of such tables was astrological: if the possibility or "danger" of an eclipse could be predicted, the appropriate ritual acts could be performed on time (Thompson 1972; Lounsbury 1978; Aveni 2001, pp. 173ff; Bricker & Bricker 1983; Justeson 1989; Martin 1993; Knowlton 2003).

Figure 1. Fifth page of the Dresden Codex Venus Table. The bar and dot numerals in the bottom line (each bar represents five, a dot is equivalent to one, and the shell symbol stands for zero), compose numbers written in the Maya vigesimal positional notation (11.16; 4.10; 12.10; 0.8), which correspond to the canonical periods of morning star visibility (236 days), invisibility around superior conjunction (250 days), evening star visibility (250 days) and disappearance around inferior conjunction (8 days) in one synodic period of 584 days. The intervals separate the first and last appearances of the morning and evening star, falling on the dates of the 260- day and 365-day cycles listed in the upper rows. The accompanying text and images refer to the deities presiding over this synodic cycle, and to the victims of the baleful first appearances of the morning star. 3c. Planets and Stars.
Among the planets observed in Mesoamerica, Venus had a paramount importance. The finest example of the knowledge on this planet is the Venus Table in the Dresden Codex. The five pages of the table, each of them covering one synodic period, reflect the commensurability of five synodic periods and eight calendrical years. The complete run of the table embraces 37,960 days or 104 years, which is the lowest common multiple of the canonical Venus period of 584 days and of the 260-day count (37,960 = 65 x 584 = 146 x 260 = 104 x 365; Fig. 1). It is notable that even if the difference between the true mean length of Venus synodic revolution (583.92 days) and the canonical value assigned to this period by the Mesoamericans (584 days) resulted in an error of 5.2 days, accumulated after the complete run of the table, an introductory page reveals that the table was "recyclable." In fact, occasionally, correction mechanisms were applied, intended to maintain the dates of Venus phenomena predicted by the table (first and last appearances of the morning and evening star) in accordance with observational reality (Lounsbury 1978; 1983; Aveni 1992; 2001, pp. 184ff; Šprajc 1996, pp. 50ff).
While Venus as morning star at its first appearance after inferior conjunction was believed to inflict harm on nature and humankind (Thompson 1972, pp. 67ff; Aveni 2001, pp. 195f), the evening star had a prevalent role in the beliefs about rain, maize and fertility. The main observational motive of the latter concepts must have been the seasonality of the planet’s maximum and minimum declinations observable as extreme rising and setting points: the evening star extremes, constantly occurring in April-May and October-November, coincide with the beginning and the end of the rainy season and, therefore, also delimit the agricultural cycle in Mesoamerica.
Venus also figured prominently in ideas and ritual practices linked to warfare and sacrifice, and was also believed to be an eclipse agent (Carlson 1991; Closs 1994; Closs et al. 1984; Milbrath 1999; Šprajc 1993a,b; 1996).
While other planets seem to have had much less importance, one section of the Dresden Codex has been interpreted as a Mars Table, and references to Jupiter and Saturn have been found in some Maya texts (Aveni 2001, pp. 196ff; Aveni, Bricker & Bricker 2003; Aveni & Hotaling 1994; Bricker & Bricker 1986; Fox & Justeson 1978; Love 1995; Lounsbury 1989).
A number of prehispanic constellations or asterisms have been identified (Aveni 2001, pp. 29ff; Galindo 1994, pp. 90ff; Köhler 1991; Lupo 1991; Tedlock 1992; Justeson 1989; Milbrath 1999). A table in the Maya manuscript known as Paris Codex, containing dates accompanied by different animals hanging from celestial bands, has been interpreted by various researchers as a Maya zodiac (Fig. 2). However, there is no general agreement about the functioning of the table and the identity of the constellations represented (Kelley 1976, pp. 45ff; Aveni 2001, pp. 200ff; Justeson 1989; Bricker & Bricker 1992; Love 1994, pp. 93ff).

Figure 2. Zodiacal almanac in the Paris Codex. 4. ASTRONOMICAL PROPERTIES OF MESOAMERICAN ARCHITECTURE
Systematic research carried out during the last few decades has revealed that Mesoamerican architectural orientations exhibit a clearly non-uniform distribution and that civic and ceremonial buildings were largely oriented on the basis of astronomical considerations, particularly to the Sun’s positions on the horizon on certain dates (Aveni 2001; 2003; Aveni & Hartung 1986; 2000; Galindo 1994; Tichy 1991; Šprajc 2001b). The earliest orientations in Mesoamerica refer to solstitial sunrises and sunsets, probably because the solstices, marked by easily perceptible extremes of the Sun’s movement along the horizon, must have been the most elementary references for orientation in time (Fig. 3). Two other rather easily determinable dates are the so-called quarter-days of the year, or mid-points in time between the solstices (March 23 and September 21, ± 1 day). While there is no compelling evidence that the true equinoxes were known in Mesoamerica, the orientation of architecture to sunsets on the quarter-days of the year are quite common (Aveni 2001, pp. 245ff; Aveni, Dowd & Vining 2003; Aveni & Hartung 1986; 2000; Tichy 1991; Šprajc 1995; 2001b; 2008). The solstitial and quarter-day orientations are not limited to the early periods of Mesoamerica; in later times, however, more complicated orientation principles began to prevail.

Figure 3. Group F of Yaxnohcah, a large Maya urban center discovered in 2004 in southeastern Campeche, Mexico, exhibits a solstitial orientation (digital relief model by Tomaž Podobnikar). As the surface ceramics indicates, this huge acropolis was built as early as midfirst millennium B.C. (Middle Preclassic period; Šprajc 2008: 236f). Recent studies based on a number of archaeological sites with monumental architecture in central Mexico and in the Maya area have revealed that the alignments enabled the use of observational calendars composed of calendrically significant and, therefore, easily manageable intervals. The intervals separating the sunrise and sunset dates recorded by orientations at a particular site tend to be multiples of 13 or 20 days, i.e. basic periods of the Mesoamerican calendrical system. The correspondence between the most frequently recorded dates and the crucial moments of the cultivation cycle suggests that the observational schemes, reconstructed for a number of sites, served for predicting important seasonal changes and for accurately scheduling corresponding agricultural and ritual activities (Aveni & Hartung 1986; Aveni, Dowd & Vining 2003; Šprajc 2001b; 2008; Šprajc et al. 2009).
It should be recalled that the Mesoamerican calendrical year of 365 days, due to the lack of intercalations, did not maintain a perpetual concordance with the tropical year of 365.2422 days; direct astronomical observations were, therefore, always necessary. The orientations of public buildings, marking critical and canonized moments of the year of the seasons, not only allowed their determination by means of direct observations: since the observational schemes were composed of elementary periods of the formal calendrical system, it was relatively easy to anticipate the relevant dates (this was important because cloudy weather could impede direct observations on these dates). Knowing the structure of a particular observational calendar and the mechanics of the formal one was of crucial importance to these societies.
Particularly important for these purposes must have been the 260-day calendrical count, in which the cycles of 13 and 20 days were intermeshing: every date had a name composed of a number from 1 to 13 and a sign in the series of 20. Given the structure of this calendrical count, the sunrises and sunsets, separated by 13-day intervals and their multiples occurred on the dates with the same numeral, while the events separated by periods of 20 days and their multiples fell on the dates having the same sign (Fig. 4; Šprajc 2001b). In some cases, the relevant dates were marked by attractive light-and-shadow effects produced by appropriate spatial arrangement of certain architectural elements including stairways (Fig. 5; Anderson et al. 1981; Aveni 2001, pp. 265ff, 295ff; Aveni et al. 2004; Carlson 1999; Galindo 1994; Šprajc 1995).

Figure 4. Along the east-west axis of the central and uppermost part of the Acropolis at Xochicalco, Morelos, Mexico, the sun rises on February 12 and October 30 (Left) and sets on April 30 and August 13 (Right). The four dates, recorded by a number of orientations in Mesoamerican architecture, must have been canonical dates of a ceremonial agricultural cycle: on the one hand, they delimit intervals of 260 days (from February 12 to October 30, and from August 13 to April 30), equivalent to the length of the Mesoamerican ritual calendrical count; on the other, these dates approximately coincide with four critical moments in the maize cultivation cycle, i.e. the preparation of fields (February), the onset of the rainy season and the time of planting (around May 1st), the appearance of the first corn cobs or elotes (August), and the end of the rainy season and the beginning of harvest (around November 1st). While the orientations in Mesoamerican architecture are predominantly solar, a few alignments to Venus extremes have also been identified. The preferred targets were the evening star extremes, probably because they approximately delimit the rainy season (see above) (Aveni et al. 1975; Šprajc 1993a; 1996). A few architectural alignments might also refer to major lunar standstills (Aveni & Hartung 1978; Šprajc 2009) and, possibly, to the rising or setting points of some brilliant stars (Aveni 2001, pp. 262ff).

Figure 5. At Dzibilchaltún, Yucatán, Mexico, an interesting light-and-shadow effect can be observed twice a year in the Classic period Temple of the Seven Dolls. In late afternoons, when the Sun rays enter the building through two windows and two smaller openings in the western wall (Top), illuminated rectangles are projected on the opposite inner wall, moving up as the Sun descends, and disappearing at the moment of sunset; on the quarter days of the year (March 23 and Setpember 20), they disappear aligned exactly with the corresponding openings in the eastern wall (bottom Right and Left). 5. CONCLUDING REMARKS
In Mesoamerica, just like in other ancient civilizations whose subsistence was based on intensive agriculture, the ability to predict important seasonal changes in natural environment was of paramount importance. In the absence of a calendar accurately reproducing seasonal cycles, reliable predictions could only be based on astronomical observations performed by specialists familiar with cyclical celestial phenomena and their concomitance with annual climatic variations. This was a lot of power to be put in the hands of a few. Considering that an efficient distribution of activities in the agricultural cycle increased productivity and secured survival to a larger population, the astronomers-priests’ professional skills were vital for a successful economy and a smooth functioning of the existing social and political system.
In view of the parallelism observed between the movement of celestial bodies and the alternation of seasonal changes in natural environment, and because the intervals at which astronomical phenomena recur are much more constant and precise than those separating other cyclical events in nature, the sky was considered, since time immemorial, to be the image of divine perfection and supreme order to which human and earthly order was subordinated. With the origin and development of social stratification, such beliefs were modified and incorporated into the ideology that was elaborated, declared and imposed by the ruling elite, with the purpose of sanctioning and maintaining the existent social order.
The rulers were believed to be men-gods responsible for performing ritual activities that guaranteed a proper development of natural cycles and the preservation of the ideal cosmic order (cf. López Austin 1973). Advances in astronomical knowledge made the achievement of these objectives more effective, as they allowed the most appropriate moments for every ceremonial act to be determined with greater precision. Moreover, reliable predictions of celestial events and the corresponding astrological auguries contributed to the legitimation of power, justifying the privileges enjoyed by the rulers and their collaborators dedicated to the priesthood, astronomy and the calendar (Aveni 1989; 2001; 2003; Broda 1982; 1992; Šprajc 1996; 2005).

Figure 6. A throne in a monumental building at Toniná, a large Maya site in Chiapas, Mexico, is decorated with a giant Venus glyph elaborated in stucco. The apparently immutable and perfect order observed in the sky, obviously superior to the one reigning on the earth, must have been the primary source of deification of heavenly bodies. Therefore, the cyclic behavior of the stars and planets was not viewed as being simply correlated with seasonal transformations in natural environment, but rather as provoking them. It comes as no surprise, then, that the rulers personifying important deities were also associated with the latter’s celestial avatars, particularly the Sun and Venus (Fig. 6). On the other hand, due to the belief that the proper movement of the Sun, Venus and other celestial bodies were responsible for timely occurrences of cyclical natural changes, the directions to the points of their rising and setting on crucial dates of the yearly cycle also acquired a sacred dimension. Consequently, the alignments reproducing significant astronomical directions in civic and ceremonial architecture can be interpreted not only as a sanctified materialization of the union of space and time, whose importance in the Mesoamerican world view is attested in different sources, but also as a manifestation of the attempts of the governing class to legitimate its power by recreating and perpetuating the cosmic order in the earthly environment. Hence the alignments in Mesoamerican architecture, just like other types of evidence, clearly show that practical use of astronomy was intimately related to social organization, religion and political ideology of prehispanic societies.

Astronomy in Early China

Journal of Cosmology, 2010, Vol 9, IN PRESS
JournalofCosmology.com, April 14

Cosmic Capitals and Numinous Precincts in
Early China David W. Pankenier, Ph.D.
Lehigh University, Dept. MLL, 9 W Packer Ave. Bethlehem, PA 18015 USA

Abstract Study of the role of astronomical alignment in shaping the built environment suggests that centuries before the ascendancy of mathematical astronomy in the Han dynasty, the Chinese had already developed practical, geometrical applications of astronomical knowledge useful in orienting high value structures. The archaeological record clearly shows this fundamental disposition was firmly established already by the formative period of Chinese civilization in the early 2nd millennium BCE. The imperative to conform precisely to celestial norms led to the cosmological design of ritual precincts like the Hall of Numinous Brightness described here. Moreover, the identity between the Celestial Pole and the imperial capital and an intense focus on the circumpolar "skyscape" are manifested in the highly symbolic orientation of early imperial capitals. Keywords: Archaeastronomy, Astronomy of Ancient China, Astronomical Architectural Alignment, Chang'an, Mingtang, Xianyang

1. The Mingtang "Hall of Numinous Brightness"
According to the Kang gao 康誥 chapter of Shangshu 尚書, following the establishment of the new Zhou dynasty (1046 – 256 BCE) capital at Luoyang in mid-11th century BCE, a precedent-setting assembly of all the vassals of the realm was convened. Classical texts consistently identify the location of this assembly as the Zhou sacred precinct called Mingtang "Hall of Numinous Brightness". The Mingtang was also the location of similar highly symbolic ceremonial events recorded in early Zhou ritual bronze inscriptions. This is not the place for a comprehensive survey of the cosmological symbolism of the Mingtang in tradition and practice, not least because the subject has already been extensively studied (Hwang Ming-chorng, 1996). Here I propose just to consider the astral associations of the Hall of Numinous Brightness and two early capitals of China’s "Celestial Empire". The most authoritative early discussion of the design and function of the Mingtang is that of Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133 – 192 CE) found in his Mingtang yueling lun 明堂月令論 "Excursus on the Hall of Numinous Brightness and the Monthly Ordinances":

The Mingtang is the taimiao (Grand Ancestral Temple) of the Son of Heaven, wherein the Emperor sacrifices to his ancestors in the company of the Supernal Lord. The lineage of Xia called this place shishi (Chamber of Generations); the Shang people called it chongwu (Multi-storied Chamber); and the people of Zhou called it Mingtang (Hall of Numinous Brightness). The eastern [chamber] is called qingyang (Green yang); the southern is called Mingtang; the western is called zongzhang (Assemblage of Emblems); the northern is called xuantang (Sombre Hall), and the central chamber is called taishi (Grand Hall). The Book of Changes says: 'Li is brightness, the hexagram of the south. The sage faces south and attends (to affairs), all under heaven face the brightness and are ordered. For the ruler of men there is no more true position than this’ . . . Therefore, although there are five appellations, principal among them is Mingtang . . . Compare this to the Northern Asterism which dwells in its place while all the myriad stars circle it, and the ten-thousand things are regulated by it. [It is] the source from which springs governance and instruction, and the origin of all change and transformation, manifesting unity. Therefore, it is said of the Mingtang that its affairs are great and its meaning profound. If one invokes the aspect of purity, it is called qingmiao (Pure Temple); if one invokes its aspect as the hall of governance, then it is called taimiao; if one invokes the aspect of veneration, then it is called taishi; if one invokes its aspect of facing toward the light, then it is called Mingtang; if one invokes the aspect of the schools of the four gates, it is called the daxue (Great Learning); if one invokes the aspect of being surrounded on the four sides by [a body of] water, round like a jade bi, it is called biyong [Circular Moat]. They are all different names for the same thing—it is one thing. (Mingtang yueling lun, Siku quanshu, 3.6 a-b). Summing up, Mark Edward Lewis (2006, 271) put it like this:

"the Bright Hall is a microcosm in which both cosmos and state are completely realized. It is a ritual complex that combines rites to ancestors and cosmic deities; an administrative center where all officials are gathered and all policies enacted; and an educational institution in which all true teachings are presented. It is also the summation of the ritual structures of earlier dynasties. As a chart of the cosmos, the source of order, and a summation of history, it becomes the perfect image of power." 1.1 The Mingtang as Celestial Simulacrum
It will be important to consider in more detail some features of the Mingtang that have a direct bearing on the notion of a normative celestial temple. The political and religious significance attaching to the Mingtang, held to inhere in the very design and layout of the Hall, indicates that in addition to the functions named above, the solar and lunar observations essential to calendrical astronomy would also have been performed within these precincts. Given the archetypal role of proper orientation based on the guidance derived from the "images" suspended in the heavens, it now seems clear that the Pure Temple (Great Square of Pegasus) displayed so prominently in the night sky above may actually have been the prototype of the Mingtang on the ground.

Figure 1a: Artist's conception of Wang Mang’s 王莽 (45 BCE – 23 CE) Mingtang (after http-//tupian.hudong.com/s/王莽改制/xgtupian/1/8).

Figure 1b: Plan of Wang Mang's Mingtang based on the 1956 archaeological excavations south of the Han capital of Chang’an (after Yi Ding et al., 1996, 174). Immediately following the passage above, Cai Yong quotes the Yueling ji 月令記 "Records of Monthly Ordinances":

The Mingtang is that wherein the unification of all things by Heaven and Earth is manifest. The stellar image in Heaven through which the Mingtang communicates is called the [Northern] Asterism (UMa). Therefore, its twelve palaces here below are the [twelve solar] chronograms. The water surrounds it on the four sides, emblematic of the king’s acting as the model for all under Heaven, his virtue reaching abroad to the Four Seas, like this water. (Siku quanshu, Yueling ji, 3.6 a-b). Here we have it explicitly stated that the correspondence between Mingtang and Heaven is not merely one of cosmological analogy, but that, in fact, this sacred space is precisely the axis mundi through which the terrestrial sovereign communicates with his celestial counterpart at the Pole. Still another Han source, the Liji Mingtang yinyang lu 禮記明堂陰陽錄 "Yin-yang Record of the Hall of Numinous Brightness of the Classic of Rites", elaborates on the details of this resonance between the temporal and celestial realms:

The yin and yang of the Mingtang are the means by which the kingly ruler responds to Heaven. The scheme of the Mingtang is that it is surrounded by water, the water swirling leftward in imitation of Heaven. In the interior is the taishi "Great Hall", in imitation of the zigong (Purple Tenuity Palace; circumpolar stars in UMa and Draco); emerging [from it] to the south there is the Mingtang, in imitation of taiwei (Palace of Grand Tenuity; stars in Leo and Virgo); emerging [from it] to the west there is the zongzhang (Assembly of Emblems), in imitation of wuhuang (Five Ponds; stars in Auriga); emerging [from it] to the north there is the xuantang "Somber Hall", in imitation of yingshi (Lay-out-the-Hall; Square of Pegasus); emerging [from it] to the east there is the qingyang Green yang, in imitation of tianshi (Celestial Marketpace; stars in Ophiucus and Hercules). [Each of] the Supernal Lord Shangdi’s four seasons govern its own palace, the kingly ruler too in carrying out Heaven’s unification of all things attends to the affairs of the kingdom from the [appropriate] quarter. (quoted in Sui shu: Niu Hong zhuan, 49.1304; cf. Taiping yulan, 533.2b). If this sounds somewhat idealized, compare Li Daoyuan’s 酈道元 (d. 527) striking description in Shuijing zhu 水經注 "Annotated Water Classic" of the design of the Mingtang in the Northern Wei dynasty 北魏 capital of Pingcheng 平城 (present-day Datong 大同) in the early 3rd century:

The Mingtang was round above and square below, on the four sides there were twelve doors and nine rooms, without common walls. Outside the rooms, within the columns and beneath the silk atrium awning were installed mechanical wheels and pale blue-green silk decorated with blue semi-precious stones—looking up it resembled the sky. [On it] were painted the Polar Asterism and lunar lodges, so that it resembled the canopy of Heaven. Each month as the [Northern] Dipper pointed to [successive] chronograms, it revolved to correspond to the way of Heaven; in this respect [the Mingtang] departed from the ancient [model]. On top [of the Mingtang] was added a Numinous Terrace, and below water was led in to form a biyong [Circular Moat]. Along the water’s edge stones were laid to form embankments, in this respect according with the ancient scheme. This is what was laid out and built during the Taizhong (227-232) reign period. (Siku quanshu edition, Shui jing zhu jishi ding’e, 13.10b). 2. The Qin Dynasty (221 – 206 BCE) Cosmic Capital
Conscious imitation of the celestial patterns is perfectly consistent with the heavenward orientation of rulership in China from the outset, and in early imperial times gained physical expression, not only in the Mingtang, but in the imperial capital itself. There are ample historical instances of just such mimicry, which go well beyond the cardinal orientation and number symbolism of the Mingtang. In the "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin" in Shiji "The Grand Scribe’s Records" (ca. 100 BCE) there is the following description of the layout of the Qin capital of Xianyang 咸陽:

Thus he laid out and started to build the audience halls to the south of the Wei [River] in the Shanglin [Menagerie]. He started first with the E-pang 阿房‭ ‬[palace], which was five-hundred paces‭ ‬from east to west and fifty rods‭ ‬from north to south . . . From all sides ran stepped passageways reaching directly from the Hall to the Southern Mountains. He built an elevated passageway from E-pang [palace] across the Wei [River] to connect that hall to Xianyang, thereby symbolizing the Gedao 閣道 "Stepped Passageway" (Cassiopeia), [which runs] from near the Celestial Pole across the Milky Way to connect with lunar lodge Yingshi 營室 Lay-out-the-Hall. (Nienhauser 1994, 148; tr. modified). Note here the explicit identification of the capital of Xianyang with the Celestial Pole, and the focus on the connection between the Pole and the Celestial Temple, Yingshi Lay-out-the-Hall (Square of Pegasus), communication between the opposite sides of the Milky Way being accomplished via the Stepped Passageway. Elsewhere in the same chapter, Sima Qian again mentions the link between the terrestrial palace and Celestial Pole:

In his [First Emperor of Qin’s] 27th year (220 BCE) . . . He built the Xin 信 "Trust" Palace to the south of the Wei [River]. Shortly afterward, he renamed the Xin Palace the Jimiao 極廟‭ ‬[Northern] Culmen Temple to symbolize the Celestial Pole. From the Culmen Temple a road led to Mount Li 酈, where he built the front hall of the Ganquan "Sweet Springs" 甘泉‭ ‬Palace. He constructed a walled corridor to connect it to Xianyang (Nienhauser 1994, 138; tr. modified). This cosmological analogy, redolent of the celestial source of the imperial charisma and legitimacy, was certainly widely recognized from Qin and Han times on. The Sanfu huangtu 三輔黃圖 "Yellow Plans of the Three Capital Commanderies" (ca. 3rd to 6th century), a widely circulated text compiled from Han sources and frequently quoted down through the Song dynasty (960 –1279), confirms that this astral-terrestrial correspondence was commonly understood. For example, Zhang Shoujie’s 張守節 (fl. 725 – 735) Zhengyi 正義 commentary in Shiji quotes the Sanfu huangtu as follows:

The Sanfu huangtu says: ‘When the First Emperor of Qin unified all under heaven he made Xianyang his capital. Because he laid out a palace on North Hill, the Zigong (circumpolar Palace of Purple Tenuity) resembled the Emperor’s Palace. The Wei River ran through the capital, simulating the Milky Way, and the Transverse Bridge crossed [the Wei River] to the south, on the model of Oxherd Qianniu (lunar lodge #9, β Cap) (Shiji, 86.2535).' In the First Emperor of Qin’s time, in late October to early November the brilliant silvery ribbon of the Milky Way arched across the sky from southwest to northeast, between the circumpolar palace of the heavens and lunar lodge Oxherd (β Cap), precisely like its terrestrial correlate, the Wei River. The Pure Temple (Great Square of Pegasus) was due south, perpendicular to the horizon and only at this moment capable of fulfilling its polar alignment function (Pankenier, 2010). Here we have the probable explanation for the Qin dynasty’s choice of precisely this time to begin the New Year—the highly symbolic celebratory moment when Heaven above and the sub-celestial realm below were exactly congruent.
3. The Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) Cosmic Capital
Meticulous mathematical analysis by Stephen Hotaling using scale drawings of the layout and curious configuration of the walls of the early Han capital of Ch’ang-an (built 194 – 190 BCE) suggests that the contours of the northern wall of the city reproduced the shape of the Northern Dipper, while the southern wall reproduced the shape of the Southern Dipper (lunar lodge #8, ϕ Sgr) where the ecliptic intersects the Milky Way (Hotaling, 1978, 1-46, fig. 22; cf. Liu, 2007, 115). Hotaling (1978, 6) cites in evidence an account in the Sanfu huangtu which states explicitly:

The south of the city wall was in the shape of the Southern Dipper, the north was in the shape of the Northern Dipper; it is for this reason that until now people refer to the city wall of the Han capital as the ‘Dipper (dou) wall’. (Sanfu huangtu, Siku quanshu, 1.7 a-b). The east wall of the city, on the other hand, was aligned on true north, while the imperial palaces inside the city, such as the Weiyang 未央 "Everlasting" Palace, were rectilinear and cardinally oriented (Liu, 2007, 116).

Figure 2: Stephen Hotaling’s proposed reconstruction of the walls of Chang’an (after Hotaling 1978, 39). At the upper left in Fig. 2 is Hotaling’s inset drawing showing the stars Dubhe and Merak in the "bowl" of Ursa Major pointing toward Polaris. However, Polaris was not the Pole Star in the early Han, and the Southern Dipper, whose outline is supposedly replicated in the south wall, should not lie due south directly behind the Northern Dipper. Instead it should lie well to the north of the southwesterly direction in which the "handle" portion of Chang’an’s north wall points in the reconstruction. Most problematical of all, if the design of the north wall of Chang’an had been conceived as Hotaling suggests, the fictive Pole in Chang’an such a configuration would imply would necessarily lie outside the city wall some distance to the north, much as would Kochab β UMi, the brightest star near the Pole in Han times. But placing the Celestial Pole, and hence the axis mundi, outside the walls of the imperial capital is an untenable proposition.
Hotaling’s suggested configuration is one that would typically result from drawing the Dipper on a sheet of paper, then placing this chart face up on the ground in order to plan something according to the stellar pattern. However, proceeding in this fashion would invert the orientation of the Dipper, which is fine if the purpose is merely to draw a chart of the constellation. To exactly replicate the stellar pattern on the ground, however, one has to place the drawing of the Dipper face down, as if the circumpolar stars had floated down to the ground surface (or been projected through a template). This procedure correctly reproduces the precise configuration of the circumpolar sky on the ground, thereby preserving an exact correspondence between the imperial capital and the Supernal Lord’s abode at the Pole.

Fig. 3: Early Han cosmograph with the Dipper at the center of the rotating "Heaven Plate"; from the tomb of the Marquis of Ru Yin, ca. 168 BCE (after Major, 1993, 42).

Fig. 4: Stone carving from the Wuliang Shrine (ca 2nd c. CE) showing the Supernal Lord Shang-di driving his heavenly chariot, the Dipper (after Major, 1993, 108). (Note the depiction of Alcor.) Thus Hotaling’s reconstruction, while otherwise ingenious, is conceptually flawed in a crucial respect. The contradictions can easily be resolved, however, if one imagines the Dipper "emptying" inward rather than outward as in Fig. 2 above; that is, configured in a manner identical to its depiction on shi 式 "cosmographs" (Fig. 3) and stone reliefs of the period (Fig. 4). It is extremely doubtful whether the diviners who made such cosmographs or the engineers who built Chang’an’s walls ever imagined themselves actually looking down on the pole from a vantage point outside the cosmos. They simply followed the procedure described above: "looking up they took the images from Heaven", then floated them down unmediated to earth. They were not about mapping the sky, but about making a precise simulacrum of the Celestial Pole.
On Hotaling’s drawing in Fig. 2 the proposed revision would simply entail flipping the north-south positions of the pairs of "bowl" stars—Megrez and Phecda, Dubhe and Merak—with the result that the Pole (and all the "imperial" stars of UMi) would then lie inside the walls of Chang’an. Admittedly, the position of the last star in the handle of the Dipper, Alkaid (η UMa), looks out of place and somewhat incongruous in Hotaling’s drawing of the north wall, but it was the reconstruction of precisely this section of the wall that posed the greatest problems, leading to Hotaling’s characterization of this part as tentative. Significantly, this modification of Hotaling’s solution would also resolve the seemingly problematical identification in Fig. 2 of the south wall with the Southern Dipper (ϕ Sgr), because now the Southern Dipper’s location vis à vis the north wall’s Northern Dipper would correspond to its true position in the sky. On the Han cosmograph in Fig. 8 Nandou, Southern Dipper, is shown by the character dou 斗 in the 8 o’clock position. This would also explain the curious fact, which confounded Hotaling, that the moat along the south wall of Chang’an actually cut through the ‘scoop’ of the Southern Dipper where it protrudes from the wall. Given the precedent established by the First Emperor of Qin as documented above, who exploited the Wei River’s course to make it flow through the capital of Xianyang, and given the fact of the Southern Dipper’s actual location in the "silvery river" of the Milky Way, this curious feature of the south wall of Chang’an now also fits the pattern.
Whether or not we have recovered the precise explanation for the idiosyncratic configuration of the walls of Chang’an, we have it on good authority that the identification of the earliest imperial capitals with the Celestial Pole was certainly in the minds of their builders and imperial residents. Between early Zhou (early first millennium BCE) and the immediate pre-imperial period the picture remains somewhat confused, and confusing. A vast amount of new archaeological information has emerged since Wheatley’s (1971) pioneering study, but the data on cardinal alignment has yet to be systematically compiled and analyzed. A significant obstacle is that many site plans in the archaeological reports fail even to indicate the direction of magnetic north, much less axial alignments of structures in azimuth. Mingtang from the earliest period are notoriously difficult to identify from excavated foundations, but there are notable examples of precise north-south orientation, such as the Eastern Zhou (8th – 7th century BCE) royal city of Wangcheng (von Falkenhausen 2006, 172). As in the case of the shift from the west-of-north to the east-of-north bias coincident with the Xia (1953 – 1555 BCE) to Shang (1554 – 1046 BCE) dynastic transition (Pankenier, 2004), changes in alignment can most definitely be indicative of significant socio-political or cultural transitions, as has been pointed out in the case of the Western Zhou devolution of power to Qin in Shaanxi:

Qin tombs differ in two respects from Eastern Zhou-period tombs elsewhere in the Zhou culture sphere: they are overwhelmingly oriented east-west rather than north-south, and they feature flexed rather than extended burial. These idiosyncracies have been taken as markers of an alien ethnic identity of the Qin people. And indeed it is impressive to observe how the predominant tomb orientation at central Shaanxi cemeteries suddenly shifted by 90 degrees at the transition from Western to Eastern Zhou, when the Qin took over the area from the royal Zhou (von Falkenhausen 2006, 215). 4. Conclusion The ancient Chinese were intensely interested in the circumpolar region, and especially in the mysterious Pole itself, from the very beginning of Chinese civilization (Pankenier, 2004). Study of the role of astronomical alignment in shaping the built environment shows that centuries before the emergence of mathematical astronomy in the Han dynasty, the Chinese had already developed practical, geometrical applications of astronomical knowledge. A case in point is the sophisticated use by mid-1st millennium BCE of the parallel sides of Ding — the "Pure Temple" (Great Square of Pegasus) — to achieve a ritually correct polar alignment of symbolic structures (Pankenier, 2010; Ban Dawei, 2008). I have traced the evidence of a persistent intentionality—a focus on the heavens, and especially the circumpolar sky—in symbolic representation, literary sources, and applied astronomy. There are innumerable references in classical Chinese literature to the vital necessity of maintaining conformity with the normative patterns of the cosmos. Long before this core idea became enshrined in the imperial ideology, the archaeological record clearly shows this fundamental noetic disposition was firmly established by the formative period of Chinese civilization in the early 2nd millennium BCE. The imperative to conform to Heaven made it essential to devise practical methods of achieving that objective. The practice of divination is one modality that exemplifies this impulse. Devising a calendar is another. The design and symbolism of ritual precincts like the Mingtang "Hall of Numinous Brightness" is another. And finally, as shown here, an age-old preoccupation with the circumpolar "skyscape" continued to manifest itself in the highly symbolic orientation of early imperial capitals.

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