The Caracol Tower at Chichen Itza: An Ancient Astronomical Observatory?

Abstract

Although our investigations reveal a number of significant astronomical events coinciding with many of the measured alignments presented in Table 1, not every alignment appears to have an astronomical match which we can recognize. It may be that only some of the sighting possibilities we have discussed were actually functional. Moreover, our search of significant astronomical events to match the alignments has included only those which seem of obvious functional importance to us: sun, moon, and planetary extremes and the setting positions of the brightest stars. We have emphasized those celestial bodies which are documented in the literature as having been of importance. Perhaps hitherto unrecognized constellations were sighted in the windows, perhaps fainter stars, the heliacal rising and setting times of which could have served to mark important dates in the calendar. While we propose no grand cosmic scheme for the astronomical design of the Caracol it can be inferred that the building, apart from being a monument related to Quetzalcoatl, was erected primarily for the purpose of embodying in its architecture certain significant astronomical event alignments, in the same sense that a modern astronomical ephemeris exhibits information of importance to us in the keeping of the current calendar. There are examples in the Mesoamerican historical literature of deliberate attempts to align buildings with astronomical directions of importance. For example, Maudslay (33) quotes Father Motolinia, who tells us that in Tenochtitlan the festival called Tlacaxipeualistli "took place when the sun stood in the middle of Huicholobos, which was at the equinox, and because it was a little out of the straight, Montezuma wished to pull it down and set it right." According to Maudslay, worshipers were probably facing east to watch the sun rise between the two oratories on the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan at the time of the equinox. The directions of the faces of the Lower and Upper platforms of the Caracol seem to have been laid out deliberately to point to horizon events involving the sun and the planet Venus. Of the lines taken through the windows, the Venus setting points seem most plausible to us in view of both the accuracy with which they fit the architecture and the historical evidence bearing upon the importance of Venus to the Mesoamerican people. A specific connection between the Venus calendar in the Dresden Codex and the sighting of the extreme positions of the planet along the horizon, however, is yet to be established. It is especially significant that alignments in both the base and the top of the tower relate to Venus. The solar equinox alignment in window I remains problematical, although the arrangement probably functioned as an approximate means of determining the first day of spring and the first day of autumn. Lines pointing to individual bright stars undoubtedly should be given lower value. If one is willing to carry the matching game to its ultimate completion, a stellar object can always be found which, altho...

Astronomy, Ritual, and the Interpretation of Maya “E-Group” Architectural Assemblages

“…Despite this caveat, Ricketson compared Group E to the Caracol at Chichen Itza, a round structure typically characterized as an observatory (see Aveni 2001:273-282 for a full discussion; see also Aveni et al 1975). As a result of this ambiguity, in only four years Group E at Uaxactun was established in the literature as a bona fide astronomical observatory rather than one that merely marked the position of already known celestial phenomena.…”

Astronomical Orientation of the Skyband Bench at Copán

“…Although a Precolumbian concern with zenith passage has been documented archaeologically at Monte Alban in Oaxaca and Xochicalco in Morelos (Aveni and Hartung 1981), and although historical evidence has been interpreted as showing its importance to the Aztecs at the time of the Conquest (for example, by Nuttall 1928), its salience for the Precolumbian Maya is considerably less well documented. Two of the alignments at the Caracol structure of Chichen Itza in Yucatan reported by Aveni, Gibbs, and Hartung (1975) are toward the position of sunset on days of solar zenith passage, and we have discussed elsewhere (\7: Bricker and H. Bricker 1995: 101-103) the possibility of an inscriptional commemoration of zenith passage on a lintel of the east wing of the Monjas from the same site. It is, however, Copan that provides the best evidence.…”

Astronomía en la arquitectura de Chichén Itzá: una reevaluación

“…Es por ello que no incluimos a El Caracol, que, además de ser un edificio de planta redonda, está construido sobre dos plataformas irregulares y con orientaciones diferentes. Aveni, Gibbs y Hartung (1975) determinaron los ejes de las escalinatas que conducen a las plataformas; también trazaron diversas líneas a lo largo de las entradas del edificio y de los orificios que se conservan en la torre superior, sugiriendo varios eventos astronómicos con los que podrían relacionarse estos alineamientos (salidas y puestas del Sol en ciertas fechas, de Venus en sus extremos y de algunas estrellas). Las hipótesis son viables, y la relación del edificio con el culto a Kukulcán, deidad vinculada con Venus, representa un dato contextual que hace particularmente probable la presencia de alineamientos venusinos.…”