Archaeoastronomy

... is a scientific term I had never heard of until Dr. Bryan Bates, a college instructor from Flagstaff, presented as our guest speaker at tonight’s Bryce Canyon National Park ranger program. A scientist by training, archaeoastronomy (or the "anthropology of astronomy") is his hobby. (He defined “hobby” as "a bug that gets in your wallet and never leaves.”)

His work is based on study and observations at 3 southwestern sites -- Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and Wapatki. The early Ancestrial Puebloans (aka Anasazi or Ancient Ones) from these areas utilized science, namely astronomy, to know when to plant and harvest, and also served as a timetable for when to practice rites and celebrations.

We too often believe they were primitive and backward peoples, but archeologists have discovered structures perfectly aligned so the sun’s rays shine through specific windows on the 2 solstices (June 21 and December 21) and the 2 equinoxes (March 21 and September 21), which told them when to plant crops just prior to the annual monsoon rains, and when to harvest prior to the first frost.

Their structures also helped them plot the moon’s phases, even down to its 4 quarter-crossover movements (crescent, gibbous, waxing, and waning.) Where the rays shined on petroglyphs behind the windows even tracked the variations of the moon over 18 year cycles, making their “calendars” even more accurate than ours.

And while our southwestern natives were doing this thousands of years ago, other early cultures did the same with Stonehenge in the UK, in Mexico’s Chichen Itza, at Giza in Egypt, and the Maya Palace of the Governor in Yucatan.

Mind-boggling!!!