Time and Patience, the Most Powerful Warriors. Part Two

    While writing notes on southeast orientation and Cardinal points, I realised that I must address some basic facts and ideas as a precursor to understanding the Chacoan astronomy/architecture nexus.  
    Time in our world is created by two activities; the spinning of the Earth and the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.  Due to the former we have sunrise and sunset (the time of day) and from the latter we enjoy the change of seasons (the time of year).  Through these two types of time, the sun weaves its way across our skies in specific, observable patterns and it was these patterns and conditions which were closely observed by the ancestral Puebloans and became intrinsic to their very existence.

    Through the migration vignette from part one we see that these ancients understood the concept of direction, even if they didn’t have a word for azimuth, declination or Altitude.  As proof today, we have their repeated use of specific directions in their architecture over centuries of building.  This could have been easily accomplished through the use of a gnomon.  The gnomon is a simple tool for determining direction/time through observation of the sun’s movement and was first developed in Babylon though examples exist in the ancient world from China to Peru.

    A gnomon is built by placing a straight stick vertically in level ground and marking the location of the stick’s shadow on the ground through the course of the day.  This will quickly reveal the Cardinal directions and the device is eerily similar to the star tracking “compass” stick described in our migration myth from part one.  With a little ingenuity, this device can be a mobile compass as well.  To employ it one has to first determine the desired direction of travel.  Runners are then sent towards that direction and in the opposite.  These runners merely determine a straight line path through the gnomon itself and begin movement in the desired direction - always traveling in three parties and always re-evaluating their direction using the previous two points and terrain references prior to advancing.  If the party becomes lost or unsure, they merely stop for a day, set up the gnomon, verify the directions and begin again.

North wall of Aztec West great house which is aligned with summer solstice sunrise
(Author's collection. copyright 2019)

    Through close observation over time, a gnomon can also determine the azimuth of the equinoxes and the solstices.  When this began to happen, our ancestral Puebloans were determining annual calendars through the sun’s predictable nature.  Every March and September 21, the Sun rises and sets on the East-West meridian and its declination (distance from the Equator to the Poles measured in degrees) is 0 out of a possible 90 degrees.  Additionally, the gnomon can track the sun’s behaviour through its Winter and Summer Solstice declinations which are a positive or negative 23.5 degrees depending on the time of year.   The gnomon can also determine the altitude of the sun, track the Moon's activity through the full moon cycle and is a carpenter's square.  When this level of expertise is reached, the gnomon is a formidable weapon for nation building.  Horizon calendars can be created and future plans can be made on a grand scale.  Those grand scale plans can be employed to serve specific purposes which can, ultimately, manipulate public opinion and ideals.  

    When utilised in this fashion, our gnomon ceases to be a simple stick in the ground and becomes a sceptre of national power.  In this simple devise lies the power to legitimise rulers by “commanding the heavens” and thus, compel subjects to build organised cosmic cities which create an infrastructure based on that cyclic nature.   Their hard work is rewarded by security, well-planned festivals and markets centred around these cosmic events which stabilise lifestyles, build a vibrant economy and, ultimately, come to define them as a culture.

Specific events tied to an horizon calendar providing anticipatory warning for festival preparation.   (Author's composition)