This personal perspective on the development of archaeoastronomy over the last thirty years focuses on interpretative and methodological issues, picking up for example from the debate between Schaefer and Aveni at Oxford VII. How far we have actually progressed in the last three decades? Are we at last starting to achieve the correct fusion between the social science questions that our discipline addresses and the ‘hard science’ methods that are often involved in tackling them? In this paper I argue that the need for our hypotheses to be solidly grounded in social theory, which has rightly been recognised by most archaeoastronomers in recent years, is not an excuse for avoiding the need to be scientifically rigorous in assessing them against the actual evidence. I conclude that identifying robust methodologies for weighing together the different types of data with which the cultural astronomer is faced in different sitations, so as to infer the ‘best’ interpretation, remains at once the most challenging and the most pressing issue facing our ‘interdiscipline’ in the future.

This essay draws on the skeptical opinions that some historians of science have of archaeoastronomy, on historians' changing interpretations of proper historical method, and on their varied understandings of the nature of science to discuss how these methodological issues apply to archaeoastronomy. The essay argues that archaeoastronomical research should bear as much attention to the external context of early astronomies as it does to their internal content, suggesting specifically that insights into the origins of science can be gained by paying greater attention to the practitioners of early astronomies—to the skywatchers.

Like other features of the surrounding world, objects and events perceived in the sky were used to mediate between humans and specific meanings acquired in relation to them. Celestial bodies were often believed to act like human agents. In this way the skies became part of the social field of human beings—a heterogeneous space in which all important types of relationships could happen. For this reason, the study of the role celestial lore and skywatching played in human populations is a task appropriate to cultural astronomers rather than to astrophysicists or historians of science.

We present some methodological reflections based upon twelve years' experience working in South American ethnoastronomy. The aim is to propose a basis for a possible development plan for ethnoastronomy in this region. Taking as axiomatic that ethnoastronomy is a social science, we discuss issues such as the process of development of an academic discipline, the links between ethno- and archaeoastronomy, the idea of ‘otherness’, ethnographic methodology, the relevance of logics of practice, the relationship between orality and writing, and the dialectic relationship between change and continuity. In addition, we discuss possible ways to achieve the institutionalization of ethnoastronomy. We conclude by considering the importance of regional and international academic exchange.

Among the Western Tobas of the province of Formosa, Argentina, the asterism called Dapi'chi (the Pleiades) is highly important. Traditionally, it is related to the start of the annual cycle and it is also a very significant figure in terms of its symbolic meaning. In fact, this celestial representation offers a range of insights connected to winter frosts, a type of air carnation (Tillandsia spp.–Bromeliaceae) and also to the role of the warrior.

This paper focuses on the Ticuna interpretation of the iconography inscribed on ritual artifacts collected by the ethnographer Curt Nimuendaju in the early 1940s. The Ticuna describe certain celestial bodies depicted in the iconography of artifacts that are used in the Ticuna girls' puberty festival as ‘Worecü stars’. They relate these stars to various aspects of indigenous mythology expressed in ritual songs and speeches about worecü, a Ticuna word meaning the girl for whom the initiation is being performed. I hold that by incorporating Ticuna mediations into anthropological analysis we enrich this analysis by associating iconic images with mythical meanings transmitted generation by generation through ritual performances in which mythical thinking has the persuasive force of prescriptive action. In thinking about how the Ticuna read the iconography I avoid seeking a strict correlation between Western scientific explanations and the Ticuna's own knowledge about a special star known by them as the Woramacüri star. However, by postulating an association between the Worecü stars and the planets, we can examine the possibility that the Woramacüri Star is correlated with a particular planet at certain times, in specific circumstances.

The small community of the Tomárâho, an ethnic group culturally derived from the Zamucos, have become known in the South American and world anthropological scenario in recent times. This group, far from the banks of the Paraguay river, remained concealed from organized modern societies for many years. Like any other groups of people in close contact with nature, the Tomárâho developed a profound and rich world-view which parallels other more widely researched aboriginal cultures as well as showing distinctive features of their own. This is also apparent in their imagery of the sky and of the characters that are closely connected with the celestial sphere.

This paper is based on the lengthy anthropological studies of G. Sequera. We have recently undertaken a project to carry out a detailed analysis of the different astronomical elements present in the imagined sky of the Tomárâho and other Chamacoco ethnic groups. We will briefly review some aspects of this aboriginal culture: places where they live, regions of influence in the past, their linguistic family, their living habits and how the advancement of civilization affected their culture and survival. We will later mention the fieldwork carried out for decades and some of the existing studies and publications. We will also make a brief description of the methodology of this work and special anthropological practices. Last but not least, we will focus on the Tomárâho conception of the sky and describe the research work we have been doing in recent times.

In this paper we discuss the contemporary production of cosmological discourse, especially that concerning celestial space, among the aboriginal Toba and Mocoví communities of the Argentinian Chaco. Cosmology remains essential for Tobas and Mocovís at the present time. However, we shall demonstrate the importance of the emergence of new producers of cosmological discourse related to new actors in the struggle over leadership. We will also take into account the present contexts of discourse—the new interlocutors and communications technologies. Our goal is to understand cosmological terms in the context of the complex relations resulting from the structural subordination of these groups to national society.

In this paper, we present a study about cultural astronomy among European colonists who settled in the northern area of the Argentinean province of Santa Fe, which is part of the southern Chaco. These colonists arrived among waves of immigration occurring in Argentina in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Ethnographic field research among these rural immigrants and their descendants revealed that a set of asterisms were distributed according to the origins of the different European communities and also according to their uses in agriculture, animal husbandry and meteorology.

Sky observation in sub-tropical Andean areas, part of ancient Collasuyu, during the Inca empire (ca. 1470 A.D.) was characterized by the combined use of geographical, social, psychological and natural elements of the entorno (environment or landscape). From a phenomenological perspective, it would be understood as: the place (point of observation), the path (line or relation), the horizon (calendrical marker) and the zenith/anti-zenith (vertical projection) as an expression of ‘dwelling or living in the world’. I present results obtained from a spatio-temporal analysis of mountain worship which took place at the Atacama Indian community of Socaire, northern Chile (23° 35′ 28″S, 67° 52′ 36″W, 3274m AMSL). These indicate the existence of an animistic relationship between astronomical observations, the worship of mountains, and agricultural practices. The psychological phenomena of pareidolia, apophenia and hierophany also contribute to explain the mimetolith of the ‘Hand of God’ (formed by the Tumisa, Lausa, Chiliques, Ipira and Miñiques mountains) and the social categories of space and time in Socaire: ‘above, here, and down’; ‘right and left’; ‘female and male’; ‘noon and midnight’; ‘north and south’; and ‘visible and invisible’ (as complementary opposites or yanantin).

The aim of this work is to review and expand upon the model proposed by Father José Domingo Duquesne de la Madrid (1745–1821) regarding the calendar of the pre-Columbian Muisca culture of central Colombia. This model was dismissed by scholars in the late 19th century when it was called just a simple invention of a clergyman; however, a detailed analysis shows that his interpretation of the calendar was based on genuine ethnographic information. According to Duquesne, this calendar was based on a series of moons whose multiples are 5, 20 and 37. These multiples generate time series that can be comparable to our years (37 moons), centuries (740 moons, or 59.8 years) and millennia (14800 moons or 1196 years). According to the information provided, these long time spans can be tracked up to a period of 74000 moons (5978 years). The work of Duquesne provides us some clues about the state of timekeeping traditions in pre-Columbian societies of the Intermediate Area.

In 2007 a group was formed to study ‘Archaeoastronomy of Malargüe’. Its main objective is to contribute to the understanding of rock art records from the study of their variability, in order to understand their functionality in the context of regional archaeological problems. The research is addressed using an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological model, focusing on the characteristics of the site and location of the engravings, their relationship with the landscape, and the identification of possible representations of astronomical objects. In this paper, we discuss some of the theoretical and methodological tools we have used for the fieldwork and analysis, using as our case study work at the rock art sites of Agua Botada, Valle Hermoso, and Los Toscales del Payén in the south of Mendoza, Argentina.

While celebrating the International Year of Astronomy 2009, some government and private institutions in Bolivia pointed out the need to raise a petition to UNESCO and the IAU aimed at declaring the monument known as ‘La Horca del Inca’ (The Inca's Gallows) to be an astronomical World Heritage Site. The request was made because La Horca del Inca was assumed to be a pre-Columbian astronomical observatory. In this paper we analyze the reliability of that postulate through a twofold approach: 1) by examining the most relevant publications, both archaeological and astronomical, that conclude that the site was indeed a pre-Columbian astronomical observatory; and 2) by independently visiting and surveying the monument and its surrounding area.

In this essay we present a tentative archaeoastronomical analysis of the Moxos' Lagoons, a controversial and huge geographical network in the landscape of the Bolivian Amazon. In the late 1990s, a preliminary analysis of the orientation of a comprehensive and statistically significant number of lagoons showed that only human action could explain the peculiarities of their geometry, and especially their orientation according to a main axis aligned to an azimuth of 50° and its complementary angle. Since then, there has been an open debate on how these orientations could have been determined in practice. The absence of distinctive geographical features on the horizon strongly suggests that this peculiar pattern must have an astronomical justification. This short report presents a first approximation to the problem, suggesting that the lagoons could have been deliberately orientated in accordance with certain stellar positions which may have marked selected moments in the local climatic or economic cycle, a fact that could be corroborated by ethnohistoric references. The implications for new ethnographical research in the region are self-evident.

The authors have shown previously that, as viewed from an evident observing point to the west, and a plausible observing point to the east, the Thirteen Towers of Chankillo formed an artificial ‘toothed’ horizon that spanned the annual rising and setting arcs of the sun and provided a means to identify each day in the seasonal year by observing the position of sunrise or sunset against them. The Thirteen Towers thus constitute a unique solar observation device that is still functioning, and a remarkable example of a native form of landscape timekeeping that preceded similar facilities in imperial Cusco by almost two millennia. Yet the social, political, and ritual contexts in which Chankillo's astronomical alignments operated deserve further exploration. In this paper, we present new archaeoastronomical evidence that not only clarifies some aspects of the solar observation device but suggests a wider range of alignments visible from more publicly accessible parts of the ceremonial complex, and also suggests a possible interest in marking lunar alignments as well as solar ones. We also bring together archaeological evidence to suggest that the society that built Chankillo was differentiated. The Thirteen Towers may have served to regulate the calendar, solar and ritual, while the solar cult centred on them may have lent legitimacy and authority to a rising warrior elite through ceremony in an impressive sacred setting that brought society together while reproducing its growing inequality.

The towers, plazas, and fortified temple of Chankillo are analyzed within the context of Central Andean culture. Throughout the cultural area, staircases were apparently the scenes of ritual procession, perhaps mimicking shamanic-like movement between the three worlds. The double stairways of the thirteen towers of Chankillo may have been designed for ritual movement. The gradual rotation of the successively higher towers suggests shamanic ascent between the terrestrial and solar realms. The major astronomical feature of Chankillo is its solar axis, oriented to December solstice sunrise and June solstice sunset. Along this axis, to the east and west of the towers, there are prominent plazas in which public ceremonies may have been staged, particularly at the time of June solstice sunset. Celebrants who reached the highest tower on sunset of June solstice would have been silhouetted by the setting sun as viewed by spectators in the eastern plaza just below the tower. In the large plaza west of the towers, a similar public ceremony could have been associated with setting of the June solstice sun over the Temple of the Pillars to the west of the towers. The thirteen towers may have been stations of the moon for public ceremonies during the bright half of the lunar cycle. The presence of Spondylus shells suggests lunar ritual. The duality of private/public ritual, evident at Chavín and elsewhere, may have been present at Chankillo where public ceremonies may been observed from the plazas, while more restricted ceremonies may have occurred behind the walls of the fortified temple. If a horizon calendar had been developed using the profiles of the thirteen towers, it appears to have been an unintended consequence of the initial design of the towers. The monumental size of the towers is incommensurate with the small putative observing stations. The June solstice sun misses the lowest tower by 7 solar diameters, which would have been an unacceptable error if the tower had been built originally to mark June solstice. Another unsatisfactory feature would have been the equal spacing of the towers. If a meaningful calendar had been desired that marked divisions of the year perhaps based upon the moon, it would have involve variable spacing of the towers, with the largest spacing around equinox.

We provide a history and description of the Inca archaeological complex of Choquequirao, located high on a narrow ridge above the Apurimac River in a remote region of the Vilcabamba of Peru. We suggest that Choquequirao was built as a royal estate during the late 15th century by the Inca ruler, Topa Inca Yupanki, modeled after Machu Picchu. It was built in part by workers imported from Cachapoyas in Northern Peru. The site has alignments with the June and December solstices suggesting a strong solar focus and year-round ceremonial activities. A large truncated hill served as a ceremonial platform or ushnu. The platform was accessed through a double-jamb entranceway, indicating that passage was probably limited to those of high status. We suspect Choquequirao functioned as a ceremonial center. It shares with Machu Picchu the remoteness, ‘other worldliness’, and liminality that are found in many pilgrimage centers of the world. Though Choquequirao, high above the Apurimac River, has a location that is equally as dramatic as Machu Picchu, it lacks the formable geological material required to create imperial-style monumental structures and shaped stone huacas. Choquequirao was occupied during the early colonial years by the Neo-Inca, and was abandoned sometime after the death of the last Inca in 1572. It is a fascinating puzzle that Spanish travelers of the time apparently never reached or described this major Inca complex, which was the most impressive in the Vilcabamba. Somehow, the Inca managed to keep it secret although relatives and others journeyed back and forth to colonial Cusco.

Seen from the ‘ushnu’ platform in the palatial complex of Pueblo Viejo–Pucará, near Pachacamac, built by the Huarochirí people, the visual axis extends southwards towards two circular structures of the summit temple. Of these structures rising up from a monumental platform, one contains a sacred rock to which gold, silver and Spondylus princeps. were offered and the other housed a huanca-idol. These structures, and the ushnu, marked points and directions that are relevant for the organization of sacred geography, but whose location does not correspond to orientations that are astronomically relevant for calendrical calculations, contrary to the initial hypothesis.

This essay introduces the papers from the specially organized session on the theme ‘The 2012 phenomenon: Maya calendar, astronomy, and apocalypticism in the worlds of scholarship and popular culture’. The papers that follow address this topical theme in the contexts of Maya and Western cultures as well as academic and popular cultures.

Examining Ancient Maya notions about prophecies and their calendar cycles, we find that they predicted no ‘end of the Maya calendar’. Indeed, surviving texts and art indicate that they seem to have expected no change in the status quo whatever, for at least 4000 years into the future. This search also turned up evidence that different local schools of calendar-priests differed significantly from each other; it is entirely possible that priests in one city expected the End of the World, while their peers elsewhere believed the opposite.