Maya City Planning and the Calendar

Calendars and Ecosystem Management: Some Observations

“…It contains embedded information related to weather, animal behaviour, agriculture, and forestry using a combination of geometry, astronomy, mathematical calculations, and construction skills (Bolles 1990;LaraAlecio et al 1998). Activities related to agriculture from sowing to harvest were initiated by specific rituals and farmers received information on seasons, rainfall and even humidity in part through the calendar (Aveni and Hartung 1986;Thompson 1974).…”

More on Mesoamerican Cosmology and City Plans

“…The application of these general methodological principles in Mesoamerican archaeoastronomy can be illustrated by a number of studies, which have led to the recognition of particular concepts involved in prehispanic architectural and urban planning. Systematic research carried out during the last few decades has revealed that the orientations in civic and ceremonial architecture exhibit a clearly nonrandom distribution, which indicates that the buildings were mostly oriented on the basis of astronomical considerations, particularly to the Sun's positions on the horizon on certain dates of the tropical year (Aveni 2001;Aveni and Gibbs 1976;Aveni and Hartung 1986;Tichy 1991). Any skeptic wanting to challenge this conclusion should offer an alternative explanation for the widespread orientation groups (the azimuths clustering around certain values occur at a number of sites in different Mesoamerican regions, some of them over long time spans), as well as for the fact that most of the east-west azimuths lie within the angle of annual movement of the Sun along the horizon.1 Furthermore, interpretations based on contextual evidence have been proposed concerning both the practical and the symbolic significance of architectural orientations.…”

New world complex societies: Recent economic, social, and political studies

“…Hyslop's (1990) comprehensive treatment of Inka settlements analyzes utilitarian, political, and symbolic aspects of site planning using both archaeological and ethnohistoric data (see also Agurto Calvo, 1987). Archaeoastronomers continue to find astronomical significance in site locations, orientations, and layouts (Aveni, 1991;Aveni et al, 1988;Aveni and Hartung, 1987;Carrasco, 1990;Hyslop, 1990;Zuidema, 1990).…”