UNAM
Revista Digital Universitaria
Revista Digital Universitaria ISSN: 1607 - 6079 | Publicación mensual | 1 de junio de 2013 vol.14, No.6

ABSTRACT

Significant astronomical from buildings oriented

Daniel Flores Gutiérrez



The Study of Mesoamerican structures oreintations has gathered enough evidence to understand that in the Mesoamerican past, there was a choice of four azimuthal directions of great importance to be characterized by certain conspicuous astronomical events. The efforts and endeavors of these topics are not new, as we can note in the classic works of Franz Tychi, Horst Hartung, John Carlson, Anthony Aveni and Ivan Sprajc, and more recently the collaboration between Pedro Francisco Sánchez and Ivan Sprajc in the study of oriented buildings in the Mayan Area.

In this paper, from the astronomical point view, we present the identification of celebrations of the solar risings and settings, close to February 12 and October 30, and April 30 and August 13. We also propose the existence of other astronomical events related to the constellations Uras Minor, Sothern Cross and Orion, that were apparently validated as a set of significant astronomical events, belonging to the rituals and calendarical systems of Mesoamerica.

Keywords: Azimuth, astronomy, orientations, zenith, calendar, contellations