Decoding the Tiwanaku calendar

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Cieza de Leon records that the city was already long abandoned in the time of the first Inca, it had not been built by the Incas and the locals had no idea who had built it. He also recorded that the people of that region, that is to say, the Aymara, used a year of 10 months. The first recorded description of the Collao region around Lake Titcaca by Cieza de Leon in describes a year of 10 months. This is consistent with an early Inca calendar of 10 months using 6 towers to the east and 6 towers to the west of Cuzco. It is also the same as the Tiwanaku calendar since a year of 10 months of 36 days is also 20 "half months" of 18 days or 40 "weeks" of 9 days.

Above, Acosta tells us the Inca calendar was reformed by Pachacutec Perhaps it was at this time the Inca calendar was changed from the ancient 10 or 20 month division to the 12 month division which is more commonly spoken of, although at the same time the Inca also used a lunar calendar of 12 sidereal months Above, Garcilaso tells us that at Cuzco, eight towers were set up to the east and eight towers to the west of the city, to calculate the year which was divided into 12 months. With eight towers, the sun is observed through the spaces between the towers resulting in a division of 12 months.

Above, at Chankillo in Peru, there still exists a row of thirteen solar towers - these would divide the year into 24 parts viewed when the sun set or rose over the towers, making each division a half-month and every two towers a month of 30 days in a 12 month year. Above, in Tiwanaku, the 11 pillars divided the year into 20 "half-months" of 18 days or 10 "months" of 36 days. The chasquis on the calendar count 30 solar years when an extra month has to be added to the lunar calendars. Above, the chasqui icons are arranged vertically in threes - every three solar years was equal to 40 sidereal lunar months, marked by the 40 condor's heads on the freize, there are 30 chasquis because every thirty years an extra sidereal lunar month was added to synchronise the solar and lunar calendar.

Above, left, winter solstice ceremony, 21 June at Tiwanaku. Above, satellite photo with superimposed sight lines showing the positions for calculating the rising sun solstice sight lines described by Posnansky. Above, to the west sunset the inner blue triangle dotted line shows sight lines based upon drawing to the left, the solid blue line shows sight line to present western wall "of the third period" based on observation block in centre of Kalasasaya. The yellow lines show sight lines to the original corner stones which Posnansky calls "of the second period".

To the east, sunrise the yellow sight line is to the original solstice pillars of the compound. The viewing positions are marked by large stone blocks which were recovered on site. The viewing stone shown here dotted line is approximately According to Posnansky, the large stone block now split in two and used as the observation stone was originally positioned in a wall on the western side of the inner "sanctissimum" and intended to support the Gate of the Sun. Oscar Corvison gives a viewing distance of The angle of view according to Corvison is Although Corvison was correct in identifying the use of a solar calendar based on divisions of 20, and this should not be a surprise since both the Aztec and Maya civilisations used a base 20 calendar he does not seem to have considered the possibility it could also have been a lunar calendar.

By the time it reached midway to the next pillar, it would have travelled half as much again, which when added to the first figure means Could this be the calendar of Atlantis? Some people thought so Corvison , but they failed to realise the Altiplano was Atlantis. In addition to counting the Inca lunar year of 12 sidereal lunar months days the calendar also represents a year of days as well as a year of How it could do that may be something like this.

From the centre to the centre of the end pillars is taken as days counting from one end to the other end then back again then the distance from the outside to the outside of the opposite pillar and back again would represent Each division from pillar to pillar would be 18 days, which could be arranged in groups of 2 x 9 days. It seems that in the Andes, a work period of six weeks of nine days was used, which would therefore correspond to three divisions of the pillar calendar and be two sidereal lunar months.

The key to the calendar was said to be built into the Gate of the Sun, today found near the Kalasasaya pillar wall and put there when the Kalasasaya was restored. It consists of a giant block of stone with a gate cut into its lower half and an elaborate decoration on the upper part. But who can read the monument today? The upper part of the Gate of the Sun shows the key to using the calendar. They are arranged so that each side of the central figure there are two blocks each of three rows of five chasquis.

It can also be noted that two rows of two x five of the chasquis making twenty chasquis have faces looking forwards and one row of two x five chasquis making ten chasquis has condor heads looking upwards. The freize with eleven icons represents the eleven pillars of the wall. Beneath these chasquis there is a continuous row of smaller icons arranged so that eleven of them stand apart from the rest. We can assume that these eleven represent the pillars of the calendar. Now it has usually been wrongly assumed that because the upper chasquis in horizontal rows total fifteen on each side not counting the outer ones that the total of thirty chasquis represent a month of 30 days since a solar year of days divided by 12 months would give a 30 day month.

But as explained above, the actual calendar is divided by 20, which would make solar divisions of 18 days. And work periods of 18 days were used in the Andes. Apart from the end chasquis, each chasqui conceals a twin behind it representing the same position on the other side of the orbit.

This is clearly shown on the freize itself where there is like a route marked round the chasquis telling you to go round the calendar in an orbit, then there are 20 condor head symbols in pairs on the upper part of the freize, and 20 condor head symbols on the lower part of the freize in pairs, telling you to count in twenties and forties.

The freize shows forty condor heads in two rows of twenty also indicating that the calendar is based upon divisions of twenty. The pillar stones built into the west wall are the calendar and it could be instead, that the chasquis are telling you how to operate the calendar. When we studied the operation of the stones on the wall, we found that every one and a half pillars represented one sidereal lunar month. Therefore every half division between the pillars represented one fortieth of the year or a third of a sidereal lunar month, the month itself being the prime unit.

Now on the Gate of the Sun there are a total of 48 Chasqui icons which could therefore represent 48 sidereal lunar months. In turn days divided by 4 gave the 82 day three month period at the end of which the moon would be visible against the same group of stars etc and that I believe, is the message of the Chasquis — how to operate the calendar. The Muisca were a pre-Columbian people who lived in the territory now known as Columbia in South America. In , Dr Jose Domingo Duquesne, a priest of the church of Gachancipa in Columbia published a paper detailing the Muisca calendar, which information he claimed to have received from the Indians themselves.

His paper was later ridiculed as being nothing but an invention of his. Yet the figures given by Duquesne do in fact relate to a lunar calendar although Duquesne himself may not have fully understood the workings of it since it seems possible that the calendar was more sophisticated than might appear at first glance, and two types of lunar month may have been used, the Sidereal Lunar Month when the moon returns to the same position relative to the stars Background At Tiwanaku we found how the solar year was divided into 20 months of 18 days and also interlocked with the Inca calendar of 12 sidereal lunar months of Duquesne At first difficult to read and understand, Duquesne's paper begins with a background about the Americas and the Egyptians and how the Muiscas counted by their fingers with names for each number up to ten, and then on to twenty.

He then relates their calendar to harvesting and sowing and begins: The first thought on reading this, was that as at Tiwanku, they might have divided the Solar Year into twenty for their months, but the text implies that 20 lunar months made the year and it also implies that Synodic or phase months were intended. This year of twenty months he tells us was called a "Zocam" year.

Now a period of 20 x 20 months which Duquesne mentions might seem worthy of fitting into an Aztec or Mayan calendar since 20 x 20 gives , but further down the text, if we read closely, Duquesne says that.

Explanation thanks to Oscar Corvison. Although Corvison was correct in identifying the use of a solar calendar based on divisions of 20, and this should not be a surprise since both the Aztec and Maya civilisations used a base 20 calendar he does not seem to have considered the possibility it could also have been a lunar calendar. By the time it reached midway to the next pillar, it would have travelled half as much again, which when added to the first figure means Could this be the calendar of Atlantis?

Some people thought so Corvison , but they failed to realise the Altiplano was Atlantis. How it could do that may be something like this.

From the centre to the centre of the end pillars is taken as days counting from one end to the other end then back again then the distance from the outside to the outside of the opposite pillar and back again would represent Each division from pillar to pillar would be 18 days, which could be arranged either in groups of 3 x 6 days or 2 x 9 days. The half space between pillars would be 8 feet so the one and a half pillars space would be 24 feet marking the sidereal lunar month intervals, while returning to the 16 feet interval between pillars, a different unit would be necessary to divide this space into three for the three weeks of 6 days.

The space between the pillars as a solar calendar would be 16 feet or shusi, and each week would be one third of that which is 96 shusi and each day of the six day week would be 16 shusi or 32 barleycorns. It seems that in the Andes, a work period of six weeks of nine days was also used, which would therefore correspond to three divisions of the pillar calendar and be two sidereal lunar months.

Counting in Sumerian cubits, the pillars would be 96 cubits from the centre of one end to the centre of the other end and using cubits of 20" the distance would be feet I have set out the principles behind the calendar which being built of rough blocks of stone, may not have been set to a particularly high degree of accuracy to begin with. The key to the calendar was said to be built into the Gate of the Sun, today found near the Kalasasaya pillar wall and put there when the Kalasasaya was restored. It consists of a giant block of stone with a gate cut into its lower half and an elaborate decoration on the upper part.

But who can read the monument today?

The upper part of the Gate of the Sun shows the key to using the calendar. The freize with eleven icons represents the eleven pillars of the wall. Beneath these chasquis there is a continuous row of smaller icons arranged so that eleven of them stand apart from the rest. We can assume that these eleven represent the pillars of the calendar.

Now it has usually been wrongly assumed that because the upper chasquis in horizontal rows total fifteen on each side not counting the outer ones that the total of thirty chasquis represent 30 days since a solar year of days divided by 12 months would give a 30 day month. But as explained above, the actual calendar is divided by 20, which would make solar divisions of 18 days. These in turn could be divided either as 3 weeks of 6 days or 2 weeks of 9 days and it seems that work periods of 6 weeks of 9 days were used in the Andes thus corresponding to two sidereal lunar months.

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Apart from the end chasquis, each chasqui conceals a twin behind it representing the same position on the other side of the orbit. This is clearly shown on the freize itself where there is like a route marked round the chasquis telling you to go round the calendar in an orbit, then there are 20 condor head symbols in pairs on the upper part of the freize, and 20 condor head symbols on the lower part of the freize in pairs, telling you to count in twenties and forties. Additionally, each chasqui has a slightly different form, some seem to include symbols so that the upper row adds up to 20 and the lower row adds up to 18 — indicating the The freize tells you to follow the orbit of the sun around the pillars, counting like this, in twenties.

The pillars seen in plan view. The pillar stones built into the west wall are the calendar and it could be instead, that the chasquis are telling you how to operate the calendar.

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When we studied the operation of the stones on the wall, we found that every one and a half pillars represented one sidereal lunar month. Therefore every half division between the pillars represented one forthieth of the year or a third of a sidereal lunar month, the month itself being the prime unit. Now on the Gate of the Sun there are a total of 48 Chasqui icons which therefore represent 48 sidereal lunar months.

In turn days divided by 4 gave the 82 day three month period at the end of which the moon would be visible against the same group of stars etc and that I believe, is the message of the Chasquis — how to operate the calendar. This satellite image shows the Kalasasaya courtyard with the calendar wall to the west and the observation stone marked.

A row of thirteen towers has recently been found in Peru, which according to the system above would represent the division of the year into 24 and correspond to 12 solar months, suggesting the ancient calendar was later reformed into 12 months of 30 days which may have misled some scholars in their attempts to understand the original Andean calendar.

I have expanded quite a bit on the ancient measurement systems in the hope that it may be useful for future investigators and encourage them to look at the measurements of Andean monuments and cities in a new light. Had he measured it in sacred cubits of 25 ", he might have defined the same measurements as by sacred cubits. Amongst the other values of Egyptian cubit, the cubit used for land surveying of So when we say the sides of the Akapana pyramid have a measurement in Egyptian Royal Cubits we could also put it the alternative way round, as John Villegas pointed out: At the same time though, we cannot discount the fact that different cultures could arrive at the same value for their cubits because they both used as a starting point the dimensions of the Earth subdivided according to their own mathematical preferences.

We can consider further the use of Sumerian cubits at Tiwanaku. The Sumerian cubit of I suspect this may have some relationship to the fact that the earth day is 24 hours but the moon takes 25 hours to orbit the Earth.

Or it could also have practical uses in land surveying since with an allotment of 10 x 10 stades such as Plato described, we might wish to divided the allotment decimally, or we might wish to divide it by halves, quarters and eights, or by thirds. If the allotment is of feet by feet, it would be x Sumerian cubits of So the Egyptian cubit has a practical use in relation to the Sumerina cubit depending on whether we wish to divide by 24 or 25, or by 5 or by 6. We should also note that a wheel which has a diameter of 21" will have a circumference of 66" which is two Sumerian yards of 50 "shusi" making shusi for this unit.

However, as the empire expanded, ceramics changed in the society. These ceramics included libation bowls and bulbous bottom vases. Examples of textiles are tapestries and tunics. The objects typically depicted herders, effigies, trophy heads, sacrificial victims, and felines.

The key to spreading religion and influence from the main site to the satellite centers was through small portable objects that held ritual religious meaning. They were created in wood, engraved bone, and cloth and depicted puma and jaguar effigies, incense burners, carved wooden hallucinogenic snuff tablets, and human portrait vessels. Like the Moche, Tiwanaku portraits had individual characteristics in them. Many researchers date is thousands of years earlier. The temple itself stood at least 56 feet tall and took up an area of square feet while the overall site and the surrounding constructions, namely the pyramid which the ruins sit on, extend over half a kilometer in length.

At its peak, Puma Punku is thought to have been unimaginably wondrous, adorned with polished metal plaques, brightly colored ceramic and fabric ornamentation, and trafficked by costumed citizens, elaborately dressed priests and elites decked in exotic jewelry.

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Understanding of this complex is limited due to its age, the lack of a written record, and the current deteriorated state of the structures due to looting, stone mining for building stone and railroad ballast and natural weathering. The technological innovation and the beautiful stonework that went into the creation of Puma Punku have drawn comparisons to the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and Easter Island.

Currently archaeologists date the beginning of the Tiwanaku culture to some time around BC, and the construction of the Puma Punku complex to around BC. The processes and technologies involved in the creation of these temples are still not fully understood by modern scholars. Our current ideas of the Tiwanaku culture hold that they had no writing system and also that the invention of the wheel was most likely unknown to them.

The architectural achievements seen at Puma Punku are striking in light of the presumed level of technological capability available during its construction. The stones are argued to have been transported up a steep incline from a quarry near Lake Titicaca roughly 20 miles away. Some of the blocks are said to weigh in the range of tons.

One notable block has been measured at 36 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 6 feet thick. Archaeologists argue that this was accomplished by the large labor force of ancient Tiwanaku, these theories remain speculative. Two of the more common proposals involve the use of llama skin ropes and the use of ramps and inclined planes. In assembling the walls of Puma Punku, each stone was finely cut to interlock with the surrounding stones and the blocks fit together like a puzzle, forming load-bearing joints without the use of mortar.

One common engineering technique involves cutting the top of the lower stone at a certain angle, and placing another stone on top of it which was cut at the same angle. The precision with which these angles have been utilized to create flush joints is indicative of a highly sophisticated knowledge of stone-cutting and a thorough understanding of descriptive geometry.

Many of the joints are so precise that not even a razor blade will fit between the stones. Much of the masonry is characterized by accurately cut rectilinear blocks of such uniformity that they could be interchanged for one another while maintaining a level surface and even joints. Tiwanaku engineers were also adept at developing a civic infrastructure at this complex, constructing functional irrigation systems, hydraulic mechanisms, and waterproof sewage lines.

To sustain the weight of these massive structures, Tiwanaku architects were meticulous in creating foundations, often fitting stones directly to bedrock or digging precise trenches and carefully filling them with layered sedimentary stones to support large stone blocks. Modern day engineers argue that the base of the Puma Punku temple was constructed using a technique called layering and depositing.

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By alternating layers of sand from the interior and layers of composite from the exterior, the fills would overlap each other at the joints, essentially grading the contact points to create a sturdy base. Notable features at Puma Punku are I-shaped architectural cramps, which are composed of a unique copper-arsenic-nickel bronze alloy. These I-shaped cramps were also used on a section of canal found at the base of the Akapana pyramid at Tiwanaku. These cramps were used to hold the blocks comprising the walls and bottom of stone-line canals that drain sunken courts.

In the south canal of the Puma Punku, the I-shaped cramps were cast in place. In sharp contrast, the cramps used at the Akapana canal were fashioned by the cold hammering of copper-arsenic-nickel bronze ingots. The unique copper-arsenic-nickel bronze alloy is also found in metal artifacts within the region between Tiwanaku and San Pedro de Atacama during the late Middle Horizon around A. The Puma Punku is another man-made platform built on an east-west axis like the Akapana.

Its main difference from other structures at the cite is its T-shaped construction. It measures meters on each side and 5 meters tall. The heaviest stone block weighs tons and was dragged from a quarry 10 km away. One of the sunken temples includes projecting heads of volcanic tuff which may imply remote Chavin influence.

It is theorized the Puma Punku complex as well as its surrounding temples, the Akapana pyramid, Kalasasaya, Putuni and Kerikala functioned as spiritual and ritual centers for the Tiwanaku. This area might have been viewed as the center of the Andean world, attracting pilgrims from miles away to marvel in its beauty. These structures transformed the local landscape; Puma Punku was purposely integrated with Illimani mountain, a sacred peak that the Tiwanaku possibly believed to be home to the spirits of their dead.

This area was believed to have existed between heaven and Earth. Recent excavations have unearthed hallucinogenic cacti, other psychedelic entheogens, drug paraphernalia, snuffing kits, and mummified shamans with assortments of drugs and medicines. The Tiwanaku civilization and the use of these temples appear to some to have peaked from around AD to AD, by which point the temples and surrounding area may have been home to some , people. By this point, an extensive infrastructure had been developed with a complex irrigation system running over 30 square miles to support potatoes, quinoa, corn and other various crops.

At its peak the Tiwanaku culture dominated the entire Lake Titicaca basin as well as portions of Bolivia and Chile. The culture in question seems to have dissolved rather abruptly some time around AD and researchers are still seeking answers as to why. A likely scenario involves rapid environmental change, possibly involving an extended drought.

Unable to support the massive crop yields necessary for their large population, the Tiwanaku are argued to have scattered into the local mountain ranges only to disappear shortly thereafter. As these people had no written language, what is known of their religious beliefs are based on archaeological interpretation and some myths, which may have been passed down to the Incas and the Spanish. They seem to have worshipped many gods, perhaps centered around agriculture. One of the most important gods was Viracocha, the god of action, shaper of many worlds, and destroyer of many worlds.

He created people, with two servants, on a great piece of rock. Then he drew sections on the rock and sent his servants to name the tribes in those areas. El Fraile depicting two left hands, similar to the hands depicted of Seti I, Egypt. Viracocha, like Quetzalcoatl, is described in many forms — human and a god. Both were sometimes described as a Caucasian, a bearded man in some writings, with white skin, bearded and with beautiful emerald eyes. In some writings he is described as wearing long white robes and sandals, carrying a staff, with a cougar lying at his feet.

Viracocha, as the feathered serpent god, is one of the great mysteries of ancient American cultures. Viracocha was generally depicted as having staves in both of his hands and an aureole, suggests the qualities of a sun god, perhaps holding thunderbolts or lightning bolts associated with Zeus head of the Greek Pantheon of Gods.

His attendants were ranking deities in the shapes of cougar, condor, falcon and snake. Viracocha was worshipped as the main god of the Huari. It was believed that Viracocha allegedly created humans out of rock and brought life to them through the earth. He created giants to move the massive stones that comprise much of their archaeology, but then grew unhappy with the giants and created a flood to destroy them. Viracocha, arrived in pre history to restore civilization, culture and knowledge after the Flood.

Inca legend claims that the original people were flood survivors who by hiding in a hollow caverns high in the mountains, they were saved and repopulated the Earth. Viracocha is depicted by a water symbol —that of the serpent or snake, carved into the most famous gateway, a monolithic structure of regular, non-monumental size found at Kalasasaya, but due to the similarity of other gateways found at Puma punku it was probably originally part of a series of doorways. It is recognized for its singular, great frieze.

This statue is more complicated than Viracocha in that it has twelve faces covered by a solar mask and at the base thirty running or kneeling figures. Some scientists believe that this statue is a representation of the calendar with twelve months and thirty days in each month.

Viracocha was said to use holy relics such as four skulls of wisdom. When brought together in ceremonial rites, these four skulls delivered enlightenment to the worthy. The power of the skulls was also used to vanquish their enemies by bringing fire from the skies. Legends of the Aymara Indians say that the Creator God Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca during the time of darkness to bring forth light. Viracocha was a storm god and a sun god who was represented as wearing the sun for a crown, with thunderbolts in his hands, and tears descending from his eyes as rain.

He wandered the Earth disguised as a beggar and wept when he saw the plight of the creatures he had created, but knew that he must sustain them. Viracocha made the earth, the stars, the sky and mankind, but his first creation displeased him, so he destroyed it with a flood and made a new, better one, taking to his wanderings as a beggar, teaching his new creations the rudiments of civilization, as well as working numerous miracles.

Viracocha eventually disappeared across the Pacific Ocean setting off near Manta Ecuador, and never returned.

It was thought that Viracocha would re-appear in times of trouble. References are also found of a group of men named the bearded ones. Evidence also points to a system of ancestor worship at Tiwanaku. The preservation, use, and reconfiguration of mummy bundles and skeletal remains, like the later Inca, may suggest that this is the case.

Similar, though smaller, structures were found within the site of Tiwanaku. Kolata suggests that, like the later Inka, the inhabitants of Tiwanaku may have practiced similar rituals and rites in relation to defunct. The Akapana East Building has evidence of ancestor burial.

In comparison to the brutal treatment of the dead on top of the Akapana, the human remains at Akapana East seem to be much less for show and more so for proper burial. The skeletons show many cut marks that were most likely made by removing the flesh after death. Then these individuals were bundled up and buried rather than left out in the open. But in fact, the gateway itself is not the calendar, the calendar is a little known row of 11 giant upright stones, now built into a wall which exists just behind the gateway. Today, there are only 10 stones in the wall and the missing 11th stone lies face down some distance out in the field behind the wall.

This meant that every 30 solar years was at the same time 20 Muisca Zocam years of 20 sidereal months of World Reviewer July — Bolivian ruins of Tiwanaku at Lake Titicaca with precision diamond-cut stonework predate the presumed migration of indigenous peoples into the New World over the Bering Strait by several thousand years.

The oldest city on Earth may be in Bolivia. Once on the coast of sacred Lake Titicaca, but now twelve miles inland, the enigmatic site of Tiwanakuwas the source of the creation myths, the social orders, and the sophisticated preoccupation with astronomy that informed thousands of years of Andean culture.

The mystery of Tiwanakuis that the construction geometry of some of its structures — and the astronomical alignments of those structures in relationship to each other — indicate a possible erection period far more ancient than any other monumental archaeological site in South America. The Akapana pyramid, sometimes called the sacred mountain of Tiahuanaco, is precisely oriented to the cardinal directions and has an extremely sophisticated system of interlinked surface and subterranean channels.

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