The Puzzle Of The 13 Solar Towers of Chankillo

The Physics arXiv Blog ^ | 21 Aug 2012 | Anonymous

[rjbemsha]

Chankillo, a Peruvian "Stonehenge", has 13 towers in a straight line. No-one knows why. Now, Amelia Sparavigna at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy ... show[s] that the first tower lines up with sunrise on 21 June and the last tower lines up with the sunrise on 21 December ...[and] the shadows point north for half the year and south for the other half. What's more, when there are no shadows the sun is at its zenith.... [T]his would have been important information for a farming community, which would need to know when to plant seasonal crops.... However, many questions remain, not least of which is why there are 13 towers?

[rjbemsha]

A solar observatory?

At June and December solstices

Why 13 towers? One of the comments suggests: "...365 days and change when broken up into reasonably sized units (on order 10), divides most evenly into 13 yielding 28 day months. So, every 28 days, build a tower, mark where the sun shines and you have a calendar device."

[Pontiac]

Ping

[SMARTY]

[SampleMan]

The leap day was really the only issue that the ancients had with creating a calendar. And that change is barely perceptable during an adult life span. However, resetting to zero every year solves that problem.

[Hot Tabasco]

why there are 13 towers?

They wanted 15 but ran out of stones?

[joe fonebone]

incompetent government contractors????

some things never change

[Steely Tom]

Looks like a small section of an analemma.

[muawiyah]

The Constitution speaks of months and years, but the Founders started off using ACCOUNTING PERIODS. These are 28 days long. There are 13 of them in a Federal Fiscal Year. With weekends wiping out half your problem (Over time) it is a very useful device.

The Post Office Department used that structure (and it had all the federal employees anyway) and the practice was continued at the USPS until about 2000 when they switched to the more cumbersome monthly system.

These people obviously saw the advantages and built accordingly.

[Mad Dawg]

FR needs a ‘like’ button.

[bgill]

Pablo the Tower Builder must have been smoking too much peyote if that’s a straight line.

[Paradox]

yep, sounds like lunar months to me, no mystery.

[Vroomfondel]

What's more, when there are no shadows the sun is at its zenith

Not only that, but when they're wet, it's raining!

(sorry; couldn't resist)

[phockthis]

The moon cycles every 4 weeks which means there are 13 cycles per year.

Maybe that is why there are 13 stones???

[zeugma]

Instructions for analysing weather with the weather stone

• If the rock is wet, it's raining.
• If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing.
• If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
• If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
• If the rock is not visible, it is foggy.
• If the rock is white, it is snowing.
• If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost.
• If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
• If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
• If the rock is under water, there is a flood.
• If the rock is warm, it is sunny.
• If the rock is missing, there was a tornado.
• If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.

PS, Lots of D. Adams fans here.

[muawiyah]

There’s enough deviation in the lunar cycle to make it unreliable year to year. This is simply 13 months and the free days at the end of the year wrapping up into a baccnal of some sort ~ probably with corn beer!

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Pontiac. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Rebelbase]

Another perspective:

[Rebelbase]

[wildbill]

When you look at the picture of the ridge line of the mountain, you begin to wonder how they found and picked out the exact ridgeline/mountain with a curve that would work out to the solstice measurements.

[The Cajun]

However, many questions remain, not least of which is why there are 13 towers?

Hey, they took a shot, they weren't rocket scientist back then.