Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D.

Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

Early Maya Astronomy and Urban

Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala
Ivan Šprajc
Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, [email protected]

Carlos Morales-Aguilar
Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, [email protected]

Richard D. Hansen
Idaho State University – Foundation for Anthropological Research and Environmental Studies (FARES),
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
Archaeoastronomical studies conducted thus far have shown that many important buildings
of prehispanic Mesoamerican cities were oriented on an astronomical basis, predominantly
to sunrises and sunsets on particular dates, allowing the use of observational calendars
that facilitated an eficient scheduling of agricultural and associated ritual activities in the
yearly cycle. The alignments in the urban layout of El Mirador, the largest Late Preclassic
site in the Maya Lowlands (ca. 300 B.C–A.D. 150), represent the earliest evidence of the
use of such observational schemes in the Maya area, and exemplify the signiicance of
astronomical and calendrical factors in the concepts dictating architectural design and urban
planning. Also relevant, particularly to the issues of cultural interaction in Mesoamerica, is
our inding that the so-called 17° family of orientations, the most widespread Mesoamerican
alignment group, did not originate in the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan, as commonly
held, but rather in the Maya area, most likely at sites within the Mirador Basin.

KEYWORDS: Maya archaeology, archaeoastronomy, architectural orientations, urban

patterning.

Introduction
Archaeoastronomical studies carried out in recent decades in different parts of Mesoamerica
have revealed that the orientations in monumental architecture exhibit a clearly non-random
distribution, indicating that civic and ceremonial buildings were oriented predominantly on
an astronomical basis. While some research has been conducted in the Maya area, the most
important early urban centers located in the Mirador Basin in northern Guatemala so far
have not been studied from this point of view. Our research at El Mirador, the largest site

ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 15 (3): 79–101.

ISSN 1408-032X
© Slovene Anthropological Society 2009

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in the area (Matheny 1980; Hansen 1990; 1998; 2000; 2001; Hansen et al. 2008) (Figure
1), has detected regularities in architectural orientations and urban layout, demonstrating
that complex rules related to astronomy and calendrics, and similar to those dictating urban
planning in other parts of Mesoamerica in later times, were already fully developed in the
central Maya Lowlands by the Late Preclassic period (ca. 300 B.C.–A.D. 200).
Most buildings of El Mirador are earthen and stone mounds covered by dense tro-
pical vegetation; their sizes, irregular shapes and vegetative cover do not allow architectural
orientations to be easily determined and the alignments in urban layout to be detected and
measured in the ield. However, the recently elaborated site map based on total-station surve-
ying (Hansen et al. 2006; Morales-Aguilar and Morales López 2005) is suficiently accurate
for archaeoastronomical considerations. In order to obtain true (astronomical) azimuths ne-
cessary for this type of research, the map’s orientation has been rectiied to true north: during
ield measurements in 2007, theodolite readings were taken along several long sight lines
connecting points easily and accurately identiiable on the map, employing astronomical ix
and methods described elsewhere (e.g.: Aveni 2001: 120–124; Ruggles 1999: 164–171).

Figure 1: Location of El Mirador and some other major archaeological sites in the
central Maya Lowlands

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala
Figure 2: Digital surface model and a contour map of El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala, showing the orientations and alignments
discussed in the text and pertaining to different groups (contour interval: 5 m; map by Depic-Guatemala & C. Morales-Aguilar;
digital model by C. Morales-Aguilar; © FARES – Mirador Basin Project, Project Director: Richard D. Hansen).
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As one can observe on the site map (Figure 2), the architectural orientations
manifest a consistent clockwise skew from cardinal directions, prevailing throughout
Mesoamerica (cf. Aveni 2001: 233; Aveni and Hartung 1986, 2000: 55; Šprajc 2001; Ti-
chy 1991). Also evident are several groups of orientations dominating different sectors of
the city layout. In general, Mesoamerican architectural alignments clearly cluster around
certain azimuthal values, a pattern for which ٬there can be no conceivable way of actually
laying out the chosen direction other than by the use of astronomical bodies at the horizon
as reference objects, (Aveni and Hartung 1986: 7–8).1
Furthermore, some geometrical patterns in the distribution of structures were
observed, including alignments running mostly in an east-west direction (Morales-Agu-
ilar and Hansen 2005; Morales-Aguilar and Morales López 2005: 74, Fig. 69). In other
words, a number of buildings and architectural groups are oriented to others. Upon closer
inspection of the map, we have found out that the azimuths of these alignments, rather
than being distributed randomly, cluster around the same values as the orientation groups
we have identiied (Figure 2). Both the east-west direction of the alignments we detected
and the disposition of the whole city along an east-west axis indicate a special importance
of the two directions or sides of the world (Hansen 2005; Morales-Aguilar et al. 2007).
It has been argued, on several grounds, that Mesoamerican architectural orientations are
related, in most cases, to the Sun’s positions on the horizon. One circumstance supporting
this conclusion is the fact that most of the east-west orientation azimuths lie within the
angle of annual movement of the Sun along the horizon (Aveni and Hartung 1986: 59–60;
2000: 55; Šprajc 2001: 25–26). At El Mirador, all of the east-west alignments are placed
within this angle, suggesting they refer to sunrises and sunsets on particular dates.
Since archaeoastronomical studies conducted in several Mesoamerican regions have
shown that the sunrise and sunset dates recorded by orientations at a particular site tend to be
separated by multiples of 13 and 20 days, which are basic periods of the Mesoamerican calen-
drical system, it has been argued that the alignments allowed the use of observational calendars
composed of calendrically signiicant intervals. Furthermore, the correspondence between the
most frequently recorded dates and crucial moments of the maize cultivation cycle suggests
that the reconstructed observational schemes facilitated a proper scheduling of agricultural
activities and associated ceremonies (Aveni and Hartung 1986; Aveni et al. 2003; Šprajc 2000a;
2000b; 2001; 2004b; 2008). It should be recalled that, since the Mesoamerican calendrical
year of 365 days, due to the lack of intercalations, did not maintain a perpetual concordance
with the tropical year of 365.2422 days, astronomical observations were always necessary.
The orientations, marking critical and canonized moments of the year of the seasons, not only
allowed their determination by means of direct observations; if the observational schemes
were composed of elementary periods of the formal calendrical system, it was relatively easy
to anticipate the relevant dates, knowing the structure of a speciic observational calendar and

1
While the astronomical motives represent the only viable rationale for the widespread orientation groups, they
are not suficient for explaining the characteristic clockwise skew of Mesoamerican architectural orientations from
cardinal directions. As argued elsewhere (Šprajc 2001: 88–91; 2004a), this tendency derives from a combination
of astronomical considerations and the symbolism related to world directions or parts of the universe.

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

the mechanics of the formal one. Particularly important for these purposes must have been the
260-day calendrical count, in which the cycles of 13 and 20 days were intermeshing, so that
every date had a name composed of a number from 1 to 13 and a sign in the series of 20. Given
the structure of this calendrical count, the sunrises and sunsets separated by 13-day intervals
and their multiples occurred on the dates with the same numeral, while the events separated by
periods of 20 days and their multiples fell on the dates having the same sign.2
In this paper, we argue that the alignments at Late Preclassic El Mirador relect the
use of observational calendars that were, both in structure and practical function, analogous
to those attested in other parts of Mesoamerica in later periods.

Alignment groups and their astronomical referents

The following analysis is based on the alignments connecting two or more promi-
nent buildings or architectural groups, because they are much more convenient for a reliable
astronomical assessment than the orientations of particular structures. While the latter, due to
the present state of most buildings, cannot be accurately determined, the alignments connect
structures and compounds placed relatively far away from each other; consequently, the
astronomically relevant alignment data can be determined with considerable precision from
the map. For each alignment, we have chosen the most appropriate observation point and the
point on the target structure assumed to have served as a marker of an astronomical event
(i.e. sunrise or sunset); both points always correspond to the uppermost parts of structures,
while for determining the direction in which an alignment must have been functional we
assumed that the target point needed to be higher than the background natural horizon line.
In order to identify astronomical phenomena possibly related to an alignment,
the corresponding declination (δ ) must be calculated, based on the observer’s geographic
latitude, the alignment azimuth (A) and the angular altitude (h) of the observed point above
the horizontal plane (on calculation procedures see: Aveni 2001: 119–120; Šprajc 2001:
45–51).3 The alignment data for El Mirador are listed in Table 1, arranged in groups whose
labels refer to the approximate clockwise azimuthal skew from cardinal directions. Decli-
nations of the points viewed to the east (δE) and west (δW), as well as the corresponding

2
The importance of intervalic time reckoning in Mesoamerica is attested both in central Mexican (Siarkiewicz 1995)
and in the Maya codices (Aveni et al. 1995; 1996); hence the patterns of dates separated by certain intervals must
have been well known to astronomers-priests. The mechanics of the 260-day count, as well as some mnemotechnic
aids that facilitate determination of dates on the basis of intervals separating them, are even nowadays familiar to
indigenous calendar-keepers in the Guatemala highlands, who use no written records; the knowledge possessed
and the procedures employed by prehispanic full-time specialists were obviously far more sophisticated (see the
whole argument and the corresponding bibliography in Šprajc 2001: 99–100, 151–155).
3
The azimuth is the angle measured in the horizontal plane clockwise from the north, having values from 0° to 360°,
while the declination expresses the angular distance measured from the celestial equator (imaginary circle on the
celestial sphere, placed in the plane of the Earth’s equator) to the north and south, having values from 0° to ±90°. Geo-
graphical coordinates of El Mirador were determined with a portable GPS receiver (El Tigre Pyramid: N17°45’21.8”,
W89°55’16.2”; Danta Pyramid: N17°45’05.6”, W89°54’10.3”). Angular elevations or altitudes of the observed points
were calculated from hypsometric data (contours at 1 m intervals) and distances on the original site map, employing
the formula ∆alt/d = tan h, where ∆alt is the difference in height above sea level between the observation and observed
points, d is horizontal distance between both points, and h is angular altitude of the observed point.

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sunrise and sunset dates,4 appear in separate columns, making clearer the directionality of
each alignment. Considering the degree of precision of the data obtained from the site map,
we estimate that possible errors in declinations do not exceed ±10’, which means that the
corresponding sunrise and sunset dates may have an error not greater than ± 1 day.
Our selection of the alignments connecting different buildings or architectural
groups might be disputable from the methodological point of view, were it not supported
by the orientations: in all cases, the direction (azimuth) of the alignment is indicated by

Table 1: Data on architectural alignments at El Mirador.

4
The dates listed in Table 1 are valid for the most likely time-span in which the alignments were in use, and are
given in the proleptic Gregorian calendar (i.e. reconstructed for the past before its actual introduction), because

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

the orientation of at least one of the structures or compounds involved. Figure 2 shows a
map of El Mirador with the alignments pertaining to the identiied groups; also marked
are the buildings whose orientations belong to particular groups. While not every building
whose orientation has been determined and marked in Figure 2 composes an alignment
with another one, it should be underscored that the alignments we have in fact detected
must have been designed intentionally: as our comments to each alignment group show
(below), the orientations clustering around the same azimuthal values have been found in
different parts of Mesoamerica.

Group of 8°
Alignment 1 corresponds to the east-west axes of two structures of the Tecolote Group and,
prolonged eastward, incorporates the Sanjol Group and Structure 3A6-1 of the Pava Group.
Of the two buildings of the Tecolote Group, the western one is taller and thus constitutes a
convenient observation point. Alignment 2 coincides with the east-west axis of symmetry
of the Cutz Group and, almost perfectly, also with the east-west axis of Compound A of the
Chicharras Group. Alignment 3 is nearly identical, but with a different observation point.
Alignments 4, 5 and 6, almost superposed, agree with the east-west axis of Compound B
of the Chicharras Group, as well as with the orientation of the south triadic compound of
the Puma Group, involved in Alignments 4 and 6. Alignment 7 coincides with the east-
west axis of the Kolomte’ Group, while Alignment 8 is indicated by the line connecting
lateral mounds of the South Acropolis, of which the western one is slightly taller, so that,
observing there, the structure in front was probably lower than – but aligned with – the
main building of the Guacamaya Complex in the background.
The orientations skewed about 8° clockwise from cardinal directions have been
found both in central Mexico (Šprajc 2001: 57–64) and in the Maya area (Aveni and Har-
tung 1986: 12–14, 73–82; Nalda 2004: 78–80; Šprajc 2008). It may be mentioned that the
orientations of the Danta Acropolis of El Mirador and of Structure 59 of Nakbe, a large
Preclassic site located about 11 km southeast of El Mirador, seem to pertain to the same
group (Šprajc and Morales-Aguilar 2007: 128–129). Since the association of Structure 59

the Gregorian calendar maintains concordance with the tropical year for long periods and considering that, in our
context, it is the moments of the tropical year that are relevant. Due to the intercalation system in the Gregorian
calendar, as well as to precessional variations in the obliquity of the ecliptic and in the heliocentric longitude of
the perihelion of the Earth’s orbit (the latter element determining the length of astronomical seasons), one and
the same solar declination does not necessarily correspond in any time span to exactly the same Gregorian date.
The dates corresponding to the Sun’s declinations in the past can be obtained, for example, with the ephemeris
calculator of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, available online (http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons). The
sunrise and sunset dates given in Table 1 were determined for the second century B.C., an epoch in which, ac-
cording to the available datings, most buildings of El Mirador were in use (Copeland 1989; Forsyth 1989; 1993;
Hansen 1990; 1992; Howell 1989; Matheny 1980; 1986). The exact dating of every structure or alignment does
not have major relevance, because the dates corresponding to certain declinations remain the same during at
least two or three centuries.

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of Nakbe with an architectural assemblage resembling Group E of Uaxactun appears to be

replicated at El Mirador, where the Danta Acropolis exhibits a similar spatial relationship
with the same type of architectural compound on the Pava Acropolis (Figure 2), it seems
signiicant that both buildings also appear to share the same orientation.
Inspecting the alignment data on this group at El Mirador (Tab. 1), we can notice
that the difference between the extreme declinations of the points observed to the east
(–7°04’ and –6°48’) is only 16’, whereas the corresponding azimuths exhibit larger varia-
tions (from 97°22’ to 97°50’). This suggests that astronomical factors were more important
for designing these alignments than geometrical ones; furthermore, if our supposition
concerning the directionality of alignments, based on the altitude of the observed points
with respect to natural horizon (see above), is correct, we can notice that most alignments
of this group were functional to the east. Indeed, considering that only two possibly
west-working alignments have been identiied and that the corresponding declinations
differ notably, it is possible that none of the two was observationally functional and that
this group of alignments was intended to record sunrises only. The idea is supported by
the corresponding dates and intervals: while the sunset dates (Alignments 5 and 6) are
not separated by calendrically signiicant intervals, the east-working alignments appear
to have been intended to record the dates separated by intervals of 143 (from October 11
to March 3) and 221 days (from March 3 to October 10), both of which are multiples of
13 days (143 = 11 × 13; 221 = 17 × 13). Considering the estimated margin of error in the
alignment data (see above), it is also possible that all alignments of this group recorded
only one of the two pairs of dates.

Group of 12°
Alignments 9a and 9b – identical, but functioning in opposite directions – coincide with
the east-west axis of Structure 3A6-2 of the Pava Group, and possibly also agree with the
orientation of the Tigre pyramid, even if the latter cannot be established with precision.
Alignments 10a, 10b and 11 reproduce the east-west orientation of the triadic group on
the Monos Pyramid; as one can observe on the site map, the orientation of this compound,
clearly indicated by the array of its two lateral mounds incorporated in Alignments 10a and
10b (identical, but with different directionality), differs from the one manifested in the basal
platform of the pyramid and pertaining to the group of 14° (see below). Most probably, the
two distinct orientations belong to different construction phases, as suggested by Copeland
(1989: 59). Alignments 12a and 12b (identical, differing only in directionality) correspond
to the orientation of the northern triadic compound of the Puma Group, indicated by the
two lateral mounds incorporated in both alignments.
The orientations of the group of 12° are found in both central Mexico and the
Maya area (Šprajc 2001: 57–64; 2004b; 2008; Aveni et al. 2003). At Nakbe, one of the
earliest urban centers of the Mirador Basin, such an orientation seems to be incorporated
into Structure 47 (Šprajc and Morales-Aguilar 2007: 130-131). At El Mirador, some
alignments of this group could have been functional to the east and others to the west.
Signiicantly, the interval from October 22 to February 19 is 120 (= 6 × 20) days, while the

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

distance from August 23 to April 20 is 240 (= 12 × 20) days. It is worth noting that Aveni
et al. (2003: 162) also found a concentration of dates around February 19 and October 22
in their analysis of orientations of Group-E-type architectural complexes. However, since
the interval from October 23 to February 18 is 247 (= 19 × 13) days, it is not impossible
that Alignment 12b was intended to record precisely this pair of dates.

Group of 14°
Alignment 13 reproduces the orientation of the south pyramid of the Pava Acropolis, since
it incorporates the two mounds aligned along the north edge of the upper level of its basal
platform, and also coincides with the east-west axis of Structure 3D2-1, located in the
western sector of the Central Acropolis. Alignments 14 and 15 are practically parallel to
the former one, connecting the topmost structure (2A6-3) on the south pyramid of the Pava
Acropolis with Structures 3D2-6 of the Central Acropolis and 3D3-3 of the Tigre Complex,
respectively. Also the latter two buildings seem to have been oriented with their east-west
axes along both alignments. This is suggested by their contours observed on the original
site map, as well as by the spatial arrangement of structures in this part of the city: those
enclosing the plaza northwest of Structure 3D3-3 and south of the Tigre Pyramid appear
to be disposed along an axis parallel to Alignment 15, underscoring its importance, while
immediately east of Structure 3D3-3, another structure (3D3-2) is placed along Alignment
15. Furthermore, the north-south axis of symmetry of the basal platform of the Monos
Pyramid, prolonged northward, passes between the latter two buildings and perpendicularly
to Alignment 15 (Figure 2). It should be recalled that, while the basal platform of the Monos
Pyramid is skewed about 14° clockwise from cardinal directions, the upper triadic group
possesses a different orientation pertaining to the group of 12° (see above).
The importance of orientations of the 14° group is attested in the distribution
of architectural alignments in the Maya area in general: Aveni and Hartung (1986: 17;
2000: 55) observed a prominent peak centered at the clockwise skew of 14° from cardinal
directions. This orientation group prevails in southeastern Campeche, Mexico, i.e. in the
area just north of the Mirador Basin (12 of the 23 analyzed structures at 11 sites exhibit
such orientations: Šprajc 2008), and it is also noteworthy that, according to Nalda (2004:
78-80), a major part of the urban layout of Kohunlich, Quintana Roo, Mexico, is dominated
by orientations skewed about 13° east of north.
In southeastern Campeche, the orientations of this group correspond to sunrises
around February 12 and October 30 (Šprajc 2008: 235). This pair of sunrise dates is
marked also by Structure I of Becán, in the Río Bec region, as well as by a number of
orientations in central Mexico (Šprajc 2000a; 2001; 2004b). In the light of these analogies,
and considering that at El Gallinero and Yaxnohcah, in southeastern Campeche, two pairs
of structures skewed around 14° clockwise from cardinal directions compose alignments
marking sunrises on February 12 and October 30 with accuracy (Šprajc 2008: 238–239), it
is highly likely that also the alignments at El Mirador, functional to the east (Tab. 1), were intended
to record precisely this pair of dates. Signiicantly, the interval from February 12 to October 30 is
260 (= 20 × 13) days, equivalent to the length of the Mesoamerican ritual calendrical cycle.

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Group of 4°
The axis of symmetry of the Tres Micos Group, prolonged eastward and westward, passes
over the tops of Structure 2A6-3 of the Pava Acropolis and of Structure 2D3-2 of the Monos
Pyramid, respectively. Depending on the placement of observation and observed points,
we are actually dealing with three alignments (16, 17 and 18; Table 1).
The intervals separating the dates corresponding to the 4° group of alignments
suggest that only Alignments 16 and 18 were observationally functional: the distance from
March 14 to September 30 is 200 (= 10 × 20) days, while the interval between October 2
and March 11 is 160 (= 8 × 20) days. The intentionality of these alignments, even if we
have not identiied others with similar azimuths at El Mirador, is supported by the fact that
one concentration of dates recorded by the Group-E-type complexes analyzed by Aveni et
al. (2003: 162) is centered on March 11 and October 2.

Observational calendars and their use

As already mentioned, the sunrise and sunset dates corresponding to architectural orientations in
Mesoamerica tend to be separated by multiples of 13 and of 20 days (elementary periods of the
Mesoamerican calendrical system), and this peculiarity also characterizes the dates marked by
most of the alignments we have detected at El Mirador. For a number of sites in central Mexico,
it was possible to reconstruct observational calendars composed of calendrically signiicant inter-
vals between the dates recorded by different alignments (Šprajc 2000a; 2000b; 2001). Two such
observational schemes that may have been in use at El Mirador are shown in Table 2. In the irst
scheme, all of the intervals, except the one of 125 days, are multiples of 20 days, while the second
one incorporates multiples of 13 days, being the one of 118 days the only exception.5
It may not be a coincidence that the two reconstructed observational calendars are
associated with different buildings: none of the structures incorporated in the alignments
appearing in one scheme is involved in those listed in the other one. One possible explana-
tion is that different observational schemes were in use simultaneously, perhaps related to
distinct social groups; another possibility is that they were used at different times, which
could be veriied only with more precise dating of the buildings involved. Notably, the
dates recorded by the 14° group of alignments are not included in any of the two schemes,
because they are not separated from those marked by other alignments by calendrically
signiicant intervals. Considering that the interval from February 12 to October 30 equals
the length of the 260-day calendrical cycle (multiple of both 13 and 20 days), the two dates
may have composed an observational calendar of its own, but it is also possible that we
have simply failed to recognize alignments marking dates that could be combined with
those corresponding to the group of 14°.

5
Since the length of the tropical year is 365.2422 days, while the sum of all intervals in each observational
scheme is 365 days, the observer would obviously have noted a one-day increment in one of the intervals ap-
proximately every four years.

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Comparative data from other parts of Mesoamerica reveal that the observational
calendars based on architectural orientations and composed of calendrically signiicant
intervals were used for determining the most important moments of the annual climatic
cycle and, consequently, for a proper scheduling of agricultural activities (cf. Aveni and

Table 2: Schemes of two possible observational calendars of El Mirador

(dates and intervals are to be read in the counter-clockwise direction).

Hartung 1986; Aveni et al. 2003; Šprajc 2001). The most compelling evidence supporting
this afirmation is, beyond doubt, the large number of orientations recording the dates
February 12 and October 30.
The alignments of this group belong to the so-called 17° family of orientations,
widely spread throughout Mesoamerica. A systematic research accomplished in central
Mexico disclosed that this alignment family is actually composed of two groups of orienta-
tions recording two slightly different sets of dates.6 Both groups occur simultaneously at
several sites, most prominently at Teotihuacan and Xochicalco. The sunrise/sunset dates
recorded by one group tend to be February 12 and October 30/April 30 and August 13. In
view of abundant evidence suggesting an agricultural signiicance of the four dates, they
must have marked four critical moments in the maize cultivation cycle, corresponding to
the preparation of ields (February), the onset of the rainy season and the time of plant-
ing (around May 1st), the appearance of the irst corn cobs or elotes (August), and the
end of the rainy season and the beginning of harvest (around November 1st). However,

6
Depending on the dates they record, and geographic latitude and horizon altitude, the azimuths of these align-
ments exhibit considerable variations, mainly between 104°/284° and 108°/284°. Even if, therefore, their mean
clockwise skew from cardinal directions is not 17°, the designation for the ٬17° family of orientations, has become
conventional (cf. Aveni 2001: 234; Šprajc 2001: 27).

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an additional peculiarity of the four dates is that they delimit intervals of 260 days (from
February 12 to October 30, and from August 13 to April 30), equivalent to the length of
the Mesoamerican ritual calendrical cycle. It has thus been argued that these dates must
have been crucial moments of a ritual or canonical agricultural cycle (Šprajc 2001: 79–88,
107–120). Among ethnographic data supporting this conclusion, we can mention the
popularity, among present-day indigenous communities, of Candlemas (February 2), Holy
Cross (May 3), Virgin of Assumption (August 15) and All Saints and All Souls (November
1 and 2) festivals, whose ritual contents are patently agricultural; furthermore, a canonical
agricultural cycle of 260 days continues to be in use among the K’iche’ of Momostenango,
Guatemala (Tedlock 1991).
However, while in central Mexico, in some cases, one and the same orientation
records both sunrises on February 12 and October 30 and sunsets on April 30 and August
13, such alignments have not been found in the Maya area. For the four dates to be re-
corded by one and the same orientation, appropriate horizon altitudes are required, such as
those found in mountainous regions of central Mexico; in the Maya Lowlands, however,
where horizon elevations are close to 0°, these four dates cannot be marked by a single
alignment. In southeastern Campeche, Mexico, the sunrise dates recorded by the most
numerous orientations tend to be February 12 and October 30, whereas the sunset dates
corresponding to the same orientations do not cluster around April 30 and August 13 but
rather around April 26 and August 18. Since the intervals separating April 26 and August
18 (114/251 days) do not seem signiicant, these orientations were likely intended to record
only the sunrises on February 12 and October 30, separated by 260 days. The hypothesis
is reinforced by two pairs of structures at El Gallinero and Yaxnohcah, skewed around
14° clockwise from cardinal directions and composing alignments whose azimuths and,
therefore, the corresponding sunrise and sunset dates can be accurately determined: both
alignments record the dates February 12 and October 30 on the eastern horizon, and April
26 and August 17 on the western horizon (Šprajc 2008: 238–239). Even if the possibility
that these alignments were functional (also) in the western direction cannot be discarded,
analogous cases from other parts of Mesoamerica do not support the idea: while numerous
orientations in central Mexico record sunrises on February 12 and October 30, the impor-
tance of the dates April 26 and August 17 has not been attested (cf. Šprajc 2001).
In the light of this evidence, it is highly likely that, also at El Mirador, the alignments
of the 14° group were functional only to the east, and this conclusion is further supported by
their directionality: the structures on their western ends, due to their low heights (Figure 2),
would have hardly served as appropriate markers of astronomical phenomena.
Ethnographic analogies suggest that the dates corresponding to other alignment
groups at El Mirador (late February and early March, April, September, October: Table 1) may
have also been related with the agricultural cycle. For modern descendants of the ancient
Maya, such as the Q’eqchi’ and the Lacandones, February and March are the months for
preparatory works in cultivation plots and the corresponding rites, April is the time when
planting starts, while the irst young corn cobs appear in August or early September (Hatse
and De Ceuster 2001: 89–124, 159–164; Marion 1999: 343, 356).

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

It should be emphasized that the dates recorded by alignments, assuming they were
related to agriculture, must have had a canonical importance; while they probably marked
critical moments for performing appropriate ceremonies, the exact scheduling of agricul-
tural labors depended on additional, both practical and religious considerations. Modern
ethnographic evidence indicates that exact moments of planting and harvesting vary from
year to year, depending not only on speciic climatic circumstances and maize varieties but
also on the lunar phases and – where fragments of prehispanic calendar survive – even on
the auguries of particular days. The canonical or ritual meaning of the dates recorded by
alignments is attributable both to their approximate concomitance with important phases
of agricultural year and to the properties of the intervals separating them: the multiples of
13 and 20 days not only facilitated manipulation of observational calendars; the fact that
they were constitutive periods of the sacred 260-day cycle must have been the motive for
which also the dates separated by these intervals became sacralized (Šprajc 2001: 79–88,
107–120, 151–155).
However, not necessarily all of the dates marked by alignments had an immediate
relationship with crucial moments of the agricultural year. Some of them may have had
the role of facilitating prediction of the most important days by means of easily manage-
able intervals. As the studies accomplished thus far suggest, the most important feature of
observational calendars was precisely their anticipatory aspect related to their practical
function (Aveni et al. 2003: 162–163; Šprajc 2001: 79–88, 107–120, 151–155; for illus-
trative ethnographic analogies from the US Southwest, see Zeilik 1985: S3, S17, S21):
if the astronomers-priests could rely on various alignments, they had a better chance to
accurately predict the ritually important moments of the agricultural cycle, even if direct
observations of the Sun on the key dates were hindered by unfavorable weather conditions.
Quite obviously, the dates appropriate for performing certain agricultural labors and related
ceremonies had to be determined with due anticipation.
As argued for central Mexico (Šprajc 2001: 106), different versions of observa-
tional calendars were likely in use also in the Maya area; while based on the same principles
and serving the same practical needs, they had slightly different structures and canonical
dates. Discussing observational calendars in the Maya area, Aveni and Hartung (1986: 57)
comment that local variants can be understood in terms of a relative autonomy of political
entities, as well as of environmental variations. Considering that contemporary buildings
frequently exhibit differing orientations, it can also be assumed that, even in one and the
same community, different observational calendars were in use simultaneously, involving a
broader range of dates and allowing a more reliable scheduling of activities in the seasonal
cycle. Consequently, the presence of different orientations at one and and the same site
does not necessarily mean that they belong to different periods. On the other hand, it is
also likely that time-dependent variations observed in orientation patterns relect changes
in observational practices, which can be accounted for by both cultural interaction among
different regions and innovations imposed by rulers or the priestly class. The Great Temple
of the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan represents an illustrative example. The change in
orientation of this building, observed since its Phase III commissioned by Itzcóatl, can

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be understood as forming part of the ambitious program of reforms for which this ruler is
well known (Šprajc 2000b; 2001: 390).
In relation with the calendrical interpretation of alignments, it should be noted
that, according to Aimers and Rice (2006: 83), the Mayas had no need to rely on astro-
nomical phenomena to determine precise agricultural dates, because ٬weather and visible
,
growth cycles clearly indicate when it is time to perform certain tasks ; a similar opinion
had been expressed formerly by Thompson (1974: 94–95; cf. Aveni and Hartung 1986: 8).
Nonetheless, the following ethnographic record obtained among the Mayas of Quintana
Roo casts doubt on such afirmations, suggesting that seasonal changes in the nature are
not suficiently exact and reliable indicators of the moments appropriate for initiating
certain activities:

El agricultor, por su parte, ha de procurar que la quema se lleve a cabo antes

de que lleguen las primeras lluvias, pues, de lo contrario, quedaría impo-
sibilitado para hacerlo, perdiendo así la ocasión de usar el terreno talado.
Para preservarse de este peligro, el milpero suele acudir a alguno de los dos
escribas que hay en el cacicazgo, el cual, usando un almanaque impreso en
Mérida, le puede anunciar la clase de tiempo que ha de hacer en cada uno
de los meses venideros (Villa Rojas 1978: 315–316).

If modern peasants, in spite of their knowledge about cyclical changes in the

natural environment, use a published almanac, it is obvious that in prehispanic times, in the
absence of a formal calendar maintaining a permanent concordance with the tropical year,
the regulation of agricultural works must have been based on astronomical observations.
Currently, when practically all indigenous communities use Christian calendar, whose saints
and feasts constantly mark the dates at which certain labors and associated ceremonies
must be carried out, it may be dificult to assess or understand adequately the importance
that astronomical observations must have had in the practical life of prehispanic societies.
However, the K’iche’ of Momostenango continue to regulate their agricultural cycle by
observing celestial bodies (Tedlock 1991), and there are other ethnographically documented
examples of the same practice (see bibliography in Šprajc 2001: 151–155).

Other implications of the alignments at El Mirador

The alignment patterns detected at El Mirador shed light on an important, though little
studied problem of astronomical practices in Mesoamerica. Clearly, various buildings and
architectural groups were not only oriented but also located with respect to each other
deliberately, in order that, by observing from one, the other one situated suficiently far
away could have served as an exact marker of the Sun’s position on important dates. In
mountainous regions, prominent peaks on the natural horizon were used in a similar way:
in central Mexico, for example, a number of astronomically oriented buildings have been
found to be aligned to hilltops on the local horizon, which facilitated observations and
even conditioned the selection of localities for construction of the most important temples
(Šprajc 2001: 57). The inhabitants of El Mirador, and probably of other cities in the Maya

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

Lowlands, where few natural features offer such possibilities, apparently found a solution
in the appropriate distribution of buildings that shaped an artiicial horizon. While further
systematic studies are required to establish how common this practice was, it has already
been mentioned that two alignments of this kind have been found at El Gallinero and
Yaxnohcah, important Maya centers in the neighboring southeastern Campeche, Mexico
(Šprajc 2008: 238–239). Another example is the Governor’s Palace at Uxmal, Yucatán,
Mexico, oriented to the main pyramid of Cehtzuc, a small site lying about 4.5 km southeast
of Uxmal: observing from Cehtzuc, Venus as the evening star, whenever it reached northerly
extremes, which heralded the onset of the rainy season, could be seen setting behind the
Governor’s Palace of Uxmal (Šprajc 1993: 45–47; 1996: 173–178).
The fact that several buildings of El Mirador do not face in directions we have
assumed to have been astronomically functional (Figure 2) agrees with analogies from
central Mexico and southeastern Campeche, which allow us to conclude that the place-
ment of the main façade or access to a building does not indicate the direction in which
its astronomical orientation was functional, but was rather dictated by the symbolism and
ritual associated with a particular structure, as well as by general factors of urban planning
(cf. Šprajc 2001: 69–71; 2008: 240–241).
Indeed, the astronomical alignments embedded in Mesoamerican architecture
and urban layouts must be interpreted as having not only a practical function but also a
very important symbolic signiicance. The mere objective of measuring time by means of
observation of celestial bodies could have been achieved without constructing monumen-
tal buildings and orienting them accurately. Hence, the astronomically oriented buildings
should not be interpreted as observatories, in the modern sense of the word; while they did
serve for monitoring certain celestial events, these buildings were, more than instruments
for observation, a result of astronomical knowledge and, considering their political and
ritual signiicance, must have had an important place in the world view and even in the
cosmologically substantiated political ideology. Since the celestial order, apparently immu-
table and perfect, was viewed as superior to the one reigning on the earth, the parallelism
between the motion of celestial bodies and cyclical changes in natural environment was
interpreted in terms of cause and effect, giving rise to the beliefs according to which the
events in the sky conditioned seasonal transformations in the nature. Since architectural
orientations to signiicant rising and setting points of celestial bodies represented spatial
referents of the most important moments of cyclical time, they reproduced the ideal co-
smic order that guaranteed the survival of humans and of which the rulers, as men-gods,
pretended to be responsible. Consequently, the astronomical alignments incorporated in
temples, elite residences and other monumental buildings can be understood as a manife-
station of the attempts of the rulers to recreate and perpetuate the divine heavenly order in
their earthly environment. If astronomical phenomena were observed on predicted dates,
they sanctioned the ideology of the ruling class and contributed to the legitimation of its
power and the preservation of the existing political order (Aveni 2001: 217–222; Aveni
and Hartung 1986: 8; Broda 1982; 1991; Iwaniszewski 1989: 30–31; Šprajc 1996: 21–22,
198–203; 2001: 121–122, 154–155, 411–415; 2005).

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Apart from disclosing the astronomically-derived practical and symbolic motives

underlying urban planning at El Mirador, the results of our analysis have another very
important implication. In southeastern Campeche, Mexico, some orientations of the 14°
group are embedded in the so-called triadic groups, dated to the Late Preclassic period;
it has therefore been suggested (Šprajc 2008: 238–239) they predate the urban layout of
Teotihuacan, designed at the beginning of the current era and so far considered as a proto-
type of the so-called 17° family, to which this orientation group belongs (Aveni 2001: 234;
Šprajc 2000a; 2001: 203–231).7 Now that these alignments have been found at El Mirador,
involving structures securely dated to a time no later than the second century B.C., and in
the absence of earlier cases elsewhere in Mesoamerica, it is much more likely that their
origin was, in fact, in the Maya area, possibly at El Mirador itself, pending our studies of
even earlier centers within the region.
The chronological priority of the alignments of this group in the central Maya
Lowlands agrees with what has been stated about their directionality. If both at El Mirador
and in the neighboring southeastern Campeche they were functional only to the east, as
argued above, they allowed the use of a relatively simple observational calendar, which may
well have been the earliest version of complex observational schemes developed later and
materialized in the widespread 17° family of orientations, whose most prominent exam-
ples are found at the central Mexican sites of Teotihuacan and Xochicalco (Šprajc 2000a;
2001). Such a scenario is supported by the fact that, according to the available data, the
alignments corresponding to sunsets on April 30 and August 13 appear in the Maya area
only in later periods, being incorporated, for example, in the Late Classic Structure X of
Chicanná (Šprajc 2004b) and in Terminal Classic and Postclassic architecture of Chichén
Itzá and Mayapán (Aveni et al. 2004).8
While we can offer no deinite answer concerning the place of origin of the 14°
group of orientations, an allusion to it may be materialized at the huge Classic period me-
tropolis of Calakmul, located in southeastern Campeche, about 40 km north of El Mirador.
Structure I, the second highest pyramid of Calakmul, is skewed 14°19’ clockwise from
cardinal directions; its east west orientation corresponds to sunrises on February 12 and
October 30 (Šprajc 2008: 235), whereas its north-south axis prolonged southward passes
exactly over the colossal Danta pyramid of El Mirador, visible from Calakmul as a small
bump on the southern horizon. If there was a purpose underlying this alignment, it must
have inluenced the location of Structure I of Calakmul, which obviously postdates the
Preclassic Danta Complex of El Mirador: in order to incorporate both the astronomically

7
Recent excavations in the Moon Pyramid of Teotihuacan have revealed that the orientation of the earliest
building, constructed around A.D. 100, differs radically from the alignments of the 17° family adopted by the
later overall grid system (Sugiyama and Cabrera Castro 2007: 116). Malmström (1981: 251–252; 1997: 91–95)
and Tichy (1991: 99) suggested an earlier origin of these alignments at other sites; however, since they give no
precise alignment data, their afirmations cannot be conirmed.
8
According to Malmström (1981; 1997), the Pyramid of the Sun of Teotihuacan and other buildings oriented
to sunsets on August 13 were intended to commemorate the initial date of the Maya Long Count in 3114 B.C.
However, the hypothesis is weakened by the fact that, in the Maya area, no early orientations have been found
that could be conidently related to this date.

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

functional east-west orientation and the alignment to the Danta pyramid of El Mirador
into a structure with a rectangular ground plan, i.e. with its north-south and east-west axes
intersecting at right angles, the builders had to ind an appropriate spot where the two
relevant directions were perpendicular to each other. In fact, such a design, possibly inten-
ded to indicate the place of origin of the astronomical orientation embedded in Structure
I, is not unlikely, considering that comparable symbolic alignments are found in central
Mexico: many buildings with astronomical east-west orientations have their north-south
axes aligned to prominent hilltops on the northern or southern horizon (Šprajc 2001: 57),
relecting the importance of mountains and of their aquatic and fertility symbolism in the
Mesoamerican worldview (cf. Broda 1991).
Regarding the possible intentionality and meaning of the alignment discussed
above, there is yet another piece of evidence worth mentioning. It has been argued that the
Kaan dynasty, ruling in the Late Classic period from Calakmul, originally had its seat at El
Mirador (Hansen and Guenter 2005: 60–61; Hansen et al. 2008; Martin 1997; Šprajc and
Grube 2008: 273–274). Was the north-south alignment of Structure I of Calakmul intended
to memorialize not only the source of innovations in astronomical practices but also the
homeland of one of the most powerful dynasties of the Maya world?

Final remarks
The analysis and arguments exposed above lead to the conclusion that the alignment pat-
terns found in the urban layout of El Mirador represent a material remnant of observational
calendars whose function can be interpreted in terms of a proper scheduling of agricultural
and related ritual activities. While more elementary astronomical orientations, particularly
to solstitial sunrises and sunsets, were incorporated in Mesoamerican architecture from
earlier times (Aveni and Hartung 2000; Aveni et al. 2003: 163; Tichy 1991: 55–56; Šprajc
2001: 74–75; 2008: 236–237), the regularities detected in the Late Preclassic urban pat-
tern of El Mirador constitute the earliest evidence known so far of the use of complex
observational schemes attested in other parts of Mesoamerica in later periods. While some
of the dates recorded by alignments marked crucial moments of a canonical agricultural
cycle, others may have had an auxiliary function; since the intervals separating them were
multiples of basic periods of the calendrical system, it was relatively easy to predict the
most important dates, knowing the sequence of intervals involved and the mechanics of
the formal calendar. This anticipatory aspect of observational calendars must have been
of foremost importance, considering that cloudy weather occasionally impeded direct
observations of sunrises and sunsets and that the agricultural activities and ceremonies
needed to be scheduled ahead of time.
However, the astronomical alignments cannot be adequately understood only in
terms of their practical function. Both at El Mirador and elsewhere in Mesoamerica they
are incorporated in important civic and ceremonial buildings, revealing that the utilitarian
function of astronomy was embedded in ritual and intimately related with social life,
religion, and political affairs of prehispanic societies.
Archaeoastronomical investigations offer answers to a number of questions con-

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cerning the nature of the concepts underlying Mesoamerican architecture and urbanism,
their meaning with respect to the speciic natural environment and cultural context, and
their consequent role in the world view and political ideology (cf. Šprajc 2005). Moreover,
as exempliied by the problem of origin of the 14° orientation group, the study of alignment
patterns and their development and similarities in different Mesoamerican regions can also
contribute to the understanding of processes of cultural interaction, i.e. to the solution of
questions of broader signiicance and general interest in Mesoamerican archaeology. If
further research conirms that the orientations to sunrises on February 12 and October 30
had their origin, indeed, in the Maya Lowlands, as their early appearance at El Mirador
suggests, they will have to be added to the corpus of data that, as Marcus (2003: 91) points
out, require a reconsideration of the alleged Teotihuacan inluences in the Maya area.

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 Ivan Šprajc, Carlos Morales-Aguilar, Richard D. Hansen: Early Maya Astronomy and Urban Planning at El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala

POVZETEK
Doslej opravljene arheoastronomske študije so pokazale, da so bile mnoge pomembne
stavbe v predšpanski Mezoameriki astronomsko usmerjene, predvsem proti Sončevim
vzhodom in zahodom na določene datume, tako da so omogočale uporabo observacional-
nih koledarjev, ki so olajševali učinkovito načrtovanje poljedelskih in s temi povezanih
obrednih dejavnosti v letnem ciklu. Orientacije v urbani trasi El Miradorja, največjega po-
znopredklasičnega mesta v majevskih nižavjih (ok. 300 pr. n. št. – 150 n. št.), predstavljajo
najzgodnejši dokaz uporabe takšnih opazovalnih shem na območju Majev in ponazarjajo
pomen astronomskih in koledarskih dejavnikov v pojmovanjih, ki so narekovala arhitek-
tonsko in urbano načrtovanje. Prav tako pomembno, predvsem za razumevanje kulturne
interakcije v Mezoameriki, je naše odkritje, da izvor t. i. družine 17°, najbolj razširjene
mezoameriške skupine orientacij, ni bil v osrednjemehiškem mestu Teotihuacanu, kot je
bilo doslej splošno mnenje, temveč na območju Majev, najverjetneje prav v Miradorskem
bazenu.

KLJU^NE BESEDE: arheologija Majev, arheoastronomija, orientacije v arhitekturi, ur-

banizem

CORRESPONDENCE: IVAN ŠPRAJC, Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies,

Scientiic Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Novi trg 2,
SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. E-mail: [email protected].

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