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Muisca astronomy
This article describes the astronomy of the Muisca. The Muisca, one of the four advanced civilisations in the Americas before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, had a thorough understanding of astronomy, as evidenced by their architecture and calendar, important in their agriculture.
Various astronomical sites have been constructed on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, the territories of the Muisca in the central Colombian Andes, but few remain today. Many archaeoastronomical places have been destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores and replaced by their catholic churches. El Infiernito, outside Villa de Leyva, is the best known of the remaining sites. The Temple of the Sun in sacred City of the Sun Sugamuxi has been reconstructed.
Important scholars who have contributed to the knowledge of the Muisca astronomy were José Domingo Duquesne and Alexander von Humboldt in the late 18th and early 19th century and modern researchers as Eliécer Silva Celis, Manuel Arturo Izquierdo Peña, Carl Henrik Langebaek and Juan David Morales.
The Muisca were an advanced civilisation, who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and as southeastern part of that the Bogotá savanna before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, of what became known as Colombia today. The onset of the Muisca Period is commonly set at 800 AD, following the Herrera Period, and the reign of the Muisca lasted until the arrival of the Spanish in 1537.
On the fertile plains of the Andean high plateau the Muisca developed a rich economy consisting of agricultural technologies of drainage and irrigation, fine crafts of gold, tumbaga and ceramics and textiles and a religious and mythological society. The political organisation was rather loose; a set of different rulers who traded with each other in small communities. Trading and pilgrimage routes (calzadas) were built across the plains and through the hills of the Altiplano.
The most important and still remaining archaeological site of the Muisca, dates to the pre-Muisca Herrera Period; called by the Spanish conquerors El Infiernito. It is an astronomical site where at solstices the Sun lines up the shadows of the stone pillars exactly with the sacred Lake Iguaque, where according to the Muisca religion the mother goddess Bachué was born. Additionally, the site used to be a place of pilgrimage where the Muisca gathered and interchanged goods. Archaeologist Carl Henrik Langebaek noted that the festivities performed at El Infiernito date back to the Early Muisca Period (800-1200 AD) and that no evidence was found those celebrations existed in the Herrera Period. The true alignments of the pillar shadows are 91 (east) and 271 degrees (west). The eastern alignment points to the Morro Negro hill. El Infiernito at the equinoxes also announced the rainy seasons on the Altiplano.
Astronomy was an important factor in the organisation of the Muisca, both in terms of cycles of harvest and sowing and in the construction of their architecture. The temples and houses were built with an east–west orientation; aligning with the rise and set of the Sun, Moon and Venus. Also in the textiles of the people, the symbols for the Sun and Moon are visible. It is probable that the deities in the religion of the Muisca represented weavers of the Earth and the terrain.
The Muisca used gold for their art and rituals and the gold was considered "Semen of the Sun". At the ritual of the installation of the new zipa in Lake Guatavita, depicted in the famous Muisca raft, the new zipa would cover his naked body with gold dust and jump in the lake. Music was played and he was surrounded by four priests, representing two children of the Sun and two children of the Moon.
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Muisca astronomy
This article describes the astronomy of the Muisca. The Muisca, one of the four advanced civilisations in the Americas before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, had a thorough understanding of astronomy, as evidenced by their architecture and calendar, important in their agriculture.
Various astronomical sites have been constructed on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, the territories of the Muisca in the central Colombian Andes, but few remain today. Many archaeoastronomical places have been destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores and replaced by their catholic churches. El Infiernito, outside Villa de Leyva, is the best known of the remaining sites. The Temple of the Sun in sacred City of the Sun Sugamuxi has been reconstructed.
Important scholars who have contributed to the knowledge of the Muisca astronomy were José Domingo Duquesne and Alexander von Humboldt in the late 18th and early 19th century and modern researchers as Eliécer Silva Celis, Manuel Arturo Izquierdo Peña, Carl Henrik Langebaek and Juan David Morales.
The Muisca were an advanced civilisation, who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense and as southeastern part of that the Bogotá savanna before the Spanish conquest of the Muisca, of what became known as Colombia today. The onset of the Muisca Period is commonly set at 800 AD, following the Herrera Period, and the reign of the Muisca lasted until the arrival of the Spanish in 1537.
On the fertile plains of the Andean high plateau the Muisca developed a rich economy consisting of agricultural technologies of drainage and irrigation, fine crafts of gold, tumbaga and ceramics and textiles and a religious and mythological society. The political organisation was rather loose; a set of different rulers who traded with each other in small communities. Trading and pilgrimage routes (calzadas) were built across the plains and through the hills of the Altiplano.
The most important and still remaining archaeological site of the Muisca, dates to the pre-Muisca Herrera Period; called by the Spanish conquerors El Infiernito. It is an astronomical site where at solstices the Sun lines up the shadows of the stone pillars exactly with the sacred Lake Iguaque, where according to the Muisca religion the mother goddess Bachué was born. Additionally, the site used to be a place of pilgrimage where the Muisca gathered and interchanged goods. Archaeologist Carl Henrik Langebaek noted that the festivities performed at El Infiernito date back to the Early Muisca Period (800-1200 AD) and that no evidence was found those celebrations existed in the Herrera Period. The true alignments of the pillar shadows are 91 (east) and 271 degrees (west). The eastern alignment points to the Morro Negro hill. El Infiernito at the equinoxes also announced the rainy seasons on the Altiplano.
Astronomy was an important factor in the organisation of the Muisca, both in terms of cycles of harvest and sowing and in the construction of their architecture. The temples and houses were built with an east–west orientation; aligning with the rise and set of the Sun, Moon and Venus. Also in the textiles of the people, the symbols for the Sun and Moon are visible. It is probable that the deities in the religion of the Muisca represented weavers of the Earth and the terrain.
The Muisca used gold for their art and rituals and the gold was considered "Semen of the Sun". At the ritual of the installation of the new zipa in Lake Guatavita, depicted in the famous Muisca raft, the new zipa would cover his naked body with gold dust and jump in the lake. Music was played and he was surrounded by four priests, representing two children of the Sun and two children of the Moon.
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