Lima, Nov 18 (EFE) .- Caral, considered the oldest civilization in America, having developed in present-day Peru about 5,000 years ago, has now revealed itself as a society that is also an expert in astronomy, after confirming that the sun and the moon they played a key role in the orientation of their constructions.
Contemporary with the great civilizations of the ancient world such as Egypt, Mesopotamia and China, Caral developed in the valley of the Supe River, about 130 kilometers north of Lima, with a special dedication to the study of the sky, from one of the most important astronomical observatories. ancient of the world.
Thus they probably determined the positioning of their buildings, including their great truncated pyramids, almost always located in front of circular squares dug into the ground.
With measurements taken in 55 buildings in a dozen urban centers, the statistical results yielded two main patterns, one towards the greatest moon, which is the southernmost position of the moonrise; and another towards the sunrise on the summer solstice, which in these lands is in December.
A third pattern, not so strong, points to Sirius, the brightest star at night in the southern hemisphere.
“The probability tests show that the orientation pattern was intentional. In no way is it due to something random or accidental,” archaeologist José Ricra, lead author, together with Aldemar Crispín, of this study published in the journal Latin American, told EFE. Antiquity, from the University of Cambridge.
Two Spanish experts participated in the data collection and processing: the archaeoastronomer César González-García, from the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit); and the astrophysicist Juan Antonio Belmonte, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
A WAY OF MEASURING TIME
Therefore, it is not something random that, at each summer solstice, the first rays of the sun entered the central pyramid of Caral through its staircase and crossed the main hall through windows or niches.
“It is very likely that a person has been on top of the buildings as the main point of observation, to check both sunrises and sunsets, in the case of the solstices,” Crispín told Efe.
However, according to Ricra, the best point of observation of this phenomenon was in the circular plaza, so that it could be admired by the rest of the population “with a perhaps religious or magical purpose” that endorsed the power of the elite. of Caral.
The summer solstice probably marked the beginning of the harvest season, since it coincides with the only time of the year when the Supe river bed fills with water thanks to rains in the Andes mountain range, since the rest of the year is almost dried.
More difficult to decipher are the buildings facing the lunastice, because although the moon is strongly linked to fishing, this position only occurs every 18.6 years, which reveals a sustained and conscientious observation of the sky.
“There may be two explanations: one is that the moon has been a long count marker, and the other is that the systematic observation of the moon has led them to deduce that this was its most extreme south point,” said Ricra.
The buildings did not always have the same position, as some were changing throughout the existence of this civilization, between 3000 and 1800 BC.
“Initially they could have been focused on the solstice, and surely some remained that way until the end, but others could have modified their orientation towards the moon,” said Crispín.
“Each orientation could be in relation to a certain time within the entire occupation of Caral. There are many explanations,” he added.
UNDERGROUND OBSERVATORY
This knowledge arose from the astronomical observatory located near the main city, which led the director of the Caral Archaeological Zone, Ruth Shady, to anticipate the astral orientation of the buildings in a 1997 publication, which could not be corroborated with data so far.
“It was an underground observatory, with a shed for the person who was dedicated to that work at night,” Shady reminded Efe, who since 1994 has been the head of the investigations, although for two years he has not set foot in Caral due to threats of death of land traffickers.
“There we identified a series of stone alignments as a record of astral movement, as well as geoglyphs (drawings on the earth),” he added.
However, astronomy was only one specialty of this complex society that emerged 4,500 years before pre-Hispanic America was dominated by the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs.
“We have had other findings that are admired by current scientists in the world,” said Shady, such as using the Venturi effect, which was not theorized in Europe until 1797, while in Caral it was already used in houses, which had a series ducts to keep the fire alive inside.
For Marco Antonio Machacuay, deputy director of research, the astronomical findings are only “the beginning” of a series of new studies in the always surprising Caral, the results of which will be presented at the Oxford conferences in La Plata (Argentina) in 2022, the largest meeting on archaeoastronomy.
Fernando Gimeno
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