-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: April 6, 2007 11:47:04 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Oldest Western Hemisphere "Stonehenge" Found -- Dates from
Same Period, ca. 2500 BC
ANCIENT SOLAR OBSERVATORY FOUND ON PERUVIAN COAST
By Sara Goudarzi
Fox News, March 02, 2007
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,255847,00.html?
sPage=fnc.science/archaeology
The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been discovered in
coastal Peru, archaeologists announced today.
The 2,300-year-old ceremonial complex featured the Towers of
Chankillo, 13 towers running north to south along a low ridge and
spread across 980 feet (300 meters) to form a toothed horizon that
was used for solar observations.
Researchers excavated the solar observatory between 2000 and 2003.
They found buildings — in exact mirror position of each other — to
the east and west of the towers with observation points for
watching the Sun rise and set over the toothed horizon.
How it works
In addition to the daily east-to-west motion, our Sun appears to
move eastward through the stars in a path known as the ecliptic
over the course of a year. Also, the Earth's axis is not
perpendicular to the ecliptic, but slanted by an angle of a little
over 23 degrees.
The combinations of these positions determine where the Sun is
above our horizon day by day.
At different times of the year, one can observe the Sun rise and
set in different spots with respect to our horizon and for
different lengths of time.
For example, in the Northern Hemisphere, around the summer solstice
— which falls on June 21 — the Sun rises highest in the sky and
stays up longest.
As viewed from the two observing points of Chankillo, the spread of
towers along the horizon corresponds very closely to the range of
movement of the rising and setting positions of the Sun over the
year, the authors write in the March 2 issue of the journal Science.
Once the Sun started to move away from any of its extreme
positions, like the solstices or equinoxes, the towers and gaps
between them provided a means to track the progress of the Sun up
and down the horizon, to within a couple of days' accuracy.
"Chankillo is arguably the oldest solar calendar that can be
identified as such with confidence within the Americas," said lead
study author Ivan Ghezzi from Pontificia Universidad Catolica del
Peru.
Tree-ring samples dated these structures back to the fourth century
B.C.
"Many indigenous American sites have been found to contain one or a
few putative solar orientations," Ghezzi said. "Chankillo, in
contrast, provides a complete set of horizon markers and two unique
and indisputable observation points."
Other discoveries
At the end of a 131-foot-long corridor in the building to the west
of the towers, the researchers found pottery, shells and stone
artifacts in an area possibly for commoners who participated in
rituals linked to solar observations.
Previous studies showed that the Incas — Andean Indians who
established an empire that ranged from northern Ecuador to central
Chile from AD 1100 to the 1530s — had built sites to mark solar
observations by 1500.
In comparison, the earliest portion of Stonehenge — megalithic
ruins in southern England purported to correlate with the rising
and setting of the Sun and the Moon — is said to have been
completed around 3000 B.C.
The new finding, however, puts Sun cults in the Americas at an
earlier date than the Incans.
"Chankillo was built approximately 1,700 years before the Incas
began their expansion," Ghezzi said. "Now we know these practices
are quite a bit older and were highly developed by Chankillo's time."
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's
free from AOL at AOL.com.
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
