A Stone Pillar of a Condor Marked the Equinox at the Site of Buena Vista, Peru at 2200 BC

Authors

  • R.A. Benfer Jr. University of Missouri-Columbia
  • Lucio Laura Museo de Antropolgía, La Molina

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.40025

Keywords:

animated mountain peaks, Buena Vista, Condor, Fox, incisings, Late Preceramic, monumental architecture, Peru, stone pillars

Abstract

The thesis of this study is that a well-attested mythological trope concerning the Fox and the Condor is apparent in archaeological features at Buena Vista in Chillón Valley, a site in Peru dating to 2200 BC. The myth identifies the Fox as an observer of human ritual activities who reports them to the Condor, who in turn flies up to the animate mountain peaks (apus) to inform them of these activities. With that information, the apus mete out punishments or rewards based on whether the rituals were adequate. At Buena Vista, this is expressed by an equinoctial alignment between a temple with an incised fox and a stone pillar carved into the shape of a condor.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • R.A. Benfer Jr., University of Missouri-Columbia

    R.A. Benfer Jr, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, USA.

  • Lucio Laura, Museo de Antropolgía, La Molina

    Lucio Laura, Museo de Antropolgía, Agricultura Andina, Biodiversidad y Alimentación, Universidad Nacional Agraria – La Molina Perú.

References

Abercrombie, T., 1998. Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History Among an Andean People. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Adkins, L. R. and R. A. Benfer, 2009. “Lunar Standstill Markers at Preceramic Temples at the Buena Vista Site in Peru”. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 409: 267­–278.

Arnold, D. Y. and J. de D. Yapita Moya, 1992. “Fox Talk: Addressing the Wild Beasts in the Southern Andes”. Latin American Indian Literatures 8 (1): 9–37.

Aveni, A. F., 2002. Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures (revised edition). Boulder: University of Colorado Press.

Bauer, B. S. and D. S. P. Dearborn, 1995. Astronomy and Empire in the Ancient Andes: The Cultural Origins of Inca Sky Watching. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Benfer, R. A., 2007. “Early Villages in South America”. In Encyclopedia of Archaeology, edited by D. M. Pearsall, 269–284. New York: Academic Press.

Benfer, R. A., 2011. “Giant Preceramic Animal Effigy Mounds in South America?” Antiquity Gallery [online]. Accessed May 2019, http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/benfer329/

Benfer, R. A., 2012. “Monumental Architecture Arising from an Early Astronomical/Religious Complex in Peru”. In The Origins of New World Monumentality, edited by R. M. Rosenswig and R. L. Burger, 313–363. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. https://doi.org/10.5744/florida/9780813038087.003.0012

Benfer, R. A., 2013. “Early Mounds in Peru that Resemble Mythical Animals have Astronomical Orientations and Alignments”. In Ancient Cosmologies and Modern Prophets: Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture, edited by I. Šprajc and P. Pehani, 359–377. Ljubljana: Slovene Anthropological Society.

Benfer, R. A., 2018a. “A Condor Shaped Stone that Marked the Equinox 4,000 Years Ago at the Andean Site of Buena Vista”. Paper presented at the Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture, Graz, Austria, 27th August–1st September.

Benfer, R. A., 2018b. “Late Preceramic Peruvian Effigy Mound Imagery”. Paper presented at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC, 11th–15th April.

Benfer, R. A., 2019 “Astronomical Meanings in Hearths from the Middle Preceramic Villages of Paloma and the Late Preceramic site of Buena Vista in Central, Coastal Peru.” Paper presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM, 10th–14th April.

Benfer, R. A. and L. R. Adkins, 2008. “The Americas’ Oldest Observatory”. Astronomy Magazine 35: 40–43.

Benfer, R. A. and L. R. Adkins, 2009. “Las alineaciones astronómicas y orientaciónes astronómicas en el preceramico y en Periods Tardios de el Peru”. Paper presented to the XVI Congreso Peruano del Hombre y la Cultura, Lima, 26th–31st October.

Benfer, R. A. and L. R. Adkins, 2011. “Quartz Mines with Early Astronomical Orientations in the Valleys of Casma and Chillón”. Paper presented at the 9th Oxford Symposium of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy (Oxford IX), Lima, Peru, 5th–12th January.

Benfer, R. A. and L. R. Adkins, 2018. “Eclipses Associated with Abandonment of Temples at the Archaeological Site of Buena Vista, Peru: 2300 BC–1730 BC”. Paper presented at the joint 10th Meeting of the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena (INSAP X), 11th Oxford Symposium of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy (Oxford XI) and 25th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC XXV), Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 18th–22nd September.

Benfer, R. A., L. Furbee, and H. R. Ludeña, 2011. “Four Thousand Years of the Myth of the Fox in South American Cosmology”. Journal of Cosmology 13: 3726–3742 [online]. Accessed May 2019, http://journalofcosmology.com/AncientAstronomy120.html

Benfer, R. A., A. Ocas Q., B. Guerro, B. Ojeda R., N. Craig, G. Villarreal, O. Venacilla, and A. Rivera, 2014. “Monticulos Tempranos de los Valles Costeros Peruanos que Semajan Animales Míticos y Tienen Asociaciones Astronómicas”. Sociedád y Arqueología 27: 59–93.

Benfer, R. A. and B. Ojeda, 2007. “Preceramic Astronomical Instruments: The Solstice Light Chambers from Buena Vista, Chillón Valley, Peru”. Paper presented at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin, Texas, 25th–29th April.

Benfer, R. A., B. Ojeda, N. A. Duncan, L. R. Adkins, H. Ludeña, M. Vallejos, V. H. Rojas, A. Ocas, O. Ventocilla. and G. Villarreal, 2010. “La tradición religioso-astronómica en Buena Vista”. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 11: 53–102.

Bonnier, E., 1997. “Preceramic Architecture in the Andes: The Mito Tradition”. In Archaeological Peruana, vol. 2: Prehispanic Architecture and Civilization in the Andes, edited by E. Bonnier and H. Bischof, 120–144. Mannheim: Mueso de Mannheim.

Bruhns, K., 1976. “The Moon Animal in Northern Peruvian Art and Culture”. Ñawpa Pacha 14: 21–39. https://doi.org/10.1179/naw.1976.14.1.002

Burger, R. L., 1995. Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization. London: Thames & Hudson.

Burger, R. L. and L. Salazar-Burger, 1986. “Early Organizational Diversity in the Peruvian Highlands: Huaricoto and Kotosh”. In Andean Archaeology: Papers in Memory of Clifford Evans, edited by R. Matos Mendieta, S. Turpin, and H. Eling, 65–82. Los Angeles: Institute of Archaeology, University of California.

Cardenas M. M., 1979. A Chronology of the Use of Marine Resources in Ancient Peru. Lima: Pontifica Universidad Catolica, Volkswagenwerk Stiffung.

De Silva, J., 1996. Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Chillón River Valley, Peru. Phd diss., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Dearborn, D. S., K. J. Schreiber and R. E. White, 1987. “Intimachy: A December Solstice Observatory at Machu Picchu, Peru”. American Antiquity 52: 346–352. https://doi.org/10.2307/281786

Dolfus, O., 1960. “Note sur une crise climatique récente dans le désert péruvien a partir de l’analyse d’ossements humains au C. 14”. Bulletin de l’Association de Giographes Fransais 294–295: 187–192. https://doi.org/10.3406/bagf.1960.5535

Duncan, N. A., D. Pearsall and R. A. Benfer, 2009. “Gourd and Squash Artifacts Yield Starch Grains of Feasting Foods from Preceramic Peru”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 196: 13202–13206. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903322106

Eeckhout, P., 1998. “La Renarde Yunga: une figure symbolique préhispanique”. Revista Españolade Antropología Americana 28: 119–148.

Engel, F. 1966. Le complexe précéramique d’El Pariso (Pérou). Journal de la Société des Américaniste 55: 43–95.

Engel, F., 1987. De las begonias al maíz: Vida y producción en el Peru antiguo. Universidad Nacional Agraria, La Molina, Lima: Centro de Investigaciones de Zona Aridas,

Franco, R., C. Gálvez and S. Vásquez, 2001. “La Huaca Cao Viejo en el Complejo El Brujo: una contribución al estudio de los Mochicas en el valle de Chicama”. Arqueológicas (Lima) 25: 123–173.

Fuchs, P. F. and B. Lorenz, 2009. “Sechín Bajo, the Origin of Ceremonial Circular Sunken Plazas in Costal Peru?” Paper presented at the 28th Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, New Paltz, NY, 3rd–4th October.

Fuchs, P. F. and B. Lorenz, 2011. “New Findings of an Earlier December Solstice Alignment to the Sunrise in the Earlier Occupation of Sechín Bajo, Whose Later Occupation Is Oriented Towards the June Solstice Sunrise”. Paper presented at the 9th Oxford Symposium of Archaeoastronomy and

Ethnoastronomy (Oxford IX), Lima, Peru, 5th–12th January.

Fufell-Smith, P., 2005. Practical Astronomy with Your Computer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ghezzi. I. and C. L. N. Ruggles, 2007. “Chankillo: A 2300-Year-Old Solar Observatory in Coastal Peru”. Science 315 (5816): 1239–1243. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136415

Google Earth Pro v.7.3.2.5776. Accessed May 2019, https://www.google.com/earth/

Haas, J. and W. Creamer, 2006. “Crucible of Andean Civilization”. Current Anthropology 47 (5): 745–775. https://doi.org/10.1086/506281

Howard-Malverde, R., 1984. Achkay, una tradición Quechua del Alto Marañón. Paris: Chantiers Amérindia.

Itier, C., 1997. “El zorro del cielo: Un mito sobre el origin de las plantas cultivadas y los intercambios con el mundo sobrenatural”. Bulletín Instituto Français études Andene 26: 307–346.

Kelley, D. and E. Milone, 2005. Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy. New York: Springer.

Kelley, D. and E. Milone, 2011. Exploring Ancient Skies: A Survey of Ancient and Cultural Astronomy (2nd edition). New York: Springer.

La Riva, P., 2003. “La renarde mutilé, le renard ēclaté: Répresentations de la fertileté dans les Andes du sud de Pérou”. Ethnographies du Cuzco 25: 17–39. https://doi.org/10.4000/ateliers.8704

Lockyear, J. N., 1894. The Dawn of Astronomy: A Study of the Temple Worship and Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians. London: Cassell. https://doi.org/10.1086/120807

Ludeña, H. R., 1975. Secuencia cronológia y cultural del valle de Chillón. PhD diss., Universidad Nacional Mayor San Marcos.

Ludeña, H. R., 2006. “Ethnohistoric and Ethnographic Sources for the Sculptures at Buena Vista”. Paper presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 26th–30th April.

Malville, J. M., 2011. “Astronomy and Ceremony at Chankillo: An Andean Perspective”. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 7 (S278): 154–161. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921311012579

Meddens, F. M., N. P. Branch, C. V. Pomacanchari, N. Ridiford and R. Kemp, 2008. “High Altitude Ushnu Platforms in the Department of Ayacucho Peru, Structure, Ancestors and Animating Essence”. In Pre-Columbian Landscapes of Creation and Origin, edited by J. Staller, 315–355. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76910-3_10

Meeus, J., 2005. Astronomical Algorithms (2nd edition). Richmond, VA: Willmann-Bell.

Milla Villena, C., 2008 [1978]. Génesis de la Cultura Andina (5th edition). Lima: Amaru Wayra,

Moseley, M. M., 1992. The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru. London: Thames and Hudson.

Moyano, R. F., 2007. “The Ushnu of Viña del Cerro as a Site for Astronomical Observation and Worship in Atacama”. Paper presented at the 35th Annual Midwest Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Carbondale, IL, 10th–11th February.

Pino Matos, J. L., 2005. “El Ushnu y la organización espacial astronómica en la Sierra Central de Chinchaysuyu”. Estudios Atacemeños 29: 143–161. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-10432005000100007

Piñasco, C. A., 2007. With the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Lima: Instituto Peruano de Etnociencias.

Pozorski, S. and T. Pozorski, 1987. Early Settlement and Subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20h6sr0

Quilter, J., 1985. “Architecture and Chronology at El Paraiso, Peru”. Journal of Field Archaeology 12 (3): 279–297. https://doi.org/10.1179/009346985791169733

Quilter, J., 1991. “Late Preceramic Peru”. Journal of World Prehistory 5 (4): 387–438. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00978475

Régulo F., C. Gálvez Mora and S. Vásquez, 2001. “La Huaca Cao Viejo, en El Complejo El Brujo: una construción al estudio de los Mochicas en el Valle de Chicama”. Arqueológicas 25: 123–173.

Rojas, V. H., 2017. Final Report on Backfilling Buena Vista to the Ministry of Culture. Unpublished report, Lima.

Roselló, L. T., 1978. “Sistemas Astronómicas de Campos de Rays”. Actas y Trabajos del III Congreso Peruano El Hombre y la Cultura Peruana 2: 521–534.

Roselló, L. T., 1997. Canto Grande y su relación con los centros ceremoniales de planta en U. Arqueología de la Costa Central. Santa Rosa, Lima: Talleres de Mundo Gráfico.

Roselló, L. T., C. H. Manco, and L. Mazzotti, 1985. “Rayas y Figuras en la Pampa Canto Grande”. Revista del Museo 39: 41–58.

Salomon, F. and G. Urioste, trans., 1991. The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Sánchez Gafarra, R., 2008. “El Zorro entre los Mundos”. Revista Túpac Yawri 1: 109–151.

Sánchez Gafarra, R. and R. A. Benfer, 2012. “Revalaciones Simbólicas del Precerámico.” El Antoniano 22: 41–54.

Sandweiss, D. K., K. A. Maasch., R. L. Burger, J. B. Richardson III, H. B. Rollins and A. Clement, 2001. “Variation in Holocene El Niño Frequencies: Climate Records and Cultural Consequences in Ancient Peru”. Geology 29 (7): 603–606. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0603:VIHENO>2.0.CO;2

Staller, J. E., 2008. “Dimensions of Place: Significance of Centers of the Development of Andean Civilization: An Exploration of the Ushnu Concept”. In Pre-Columbian Landscapes of Creation and Origin, edited by J. Staller, 269–312. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76910-3_9

Steele, P. R and C. J. Allen, 2004. Handbook of Inca Mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Stellarium 0.15.0 (2016) [online]. Accessed August 2016, http://www.stellarium.org/de/

Sullivan, W. A., 1996. The Secret of the Incas: Myth, Astronomy, and the War against Time. New York: Crown Publishers.

Thompson, L. G., E. Moseley-Thompson and P. A. Thompson, 1995. “Reconstructing Interannual Climate Variability from Tropical and Subtropical Ice-Core Records”. In El Niño: Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation, edited by H. Diaz and V. Margraf, 194–322. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Urton, G., 1981a. “Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe”. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 125 (2): 110–127.

Urton, G., 1981b. “The Use of Native Cosmologies in Archaeoastronomical Studies: The View from South America”. In Archaeoastronomy in the Americas, edited by R. A. Williamson, 85–304. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers 222. Socorro, NM: Ballena Press.

Urton, G., 1982. “Astronomy and Calendrics on the Coast of Peru”. In Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics, edited by A. F. Aveni and G. Urton, 231–247. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 85. New York: New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb34267.x

Urton, G., 1991. At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Urton, G and A. F. Aveni, 1983. “Archaeoastronomical Fieldwork on the Coast of Peru”. In Calendars in Mesoamerica and Peru: Native American Computations of Time, edited by A. F. Aveni and G. Brotherson, 221–234. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 174. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

US Department of Commerce, 2019. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [online]. Accessed May 2019, https://www.noaa.gov/

Vega-Centano, B. I. 2010. “Reconciliación con la Vida: Celebración del Solsticio de Invierno en el Sur Andino del Perú”. Perspectivas latinoamericanas 7: 85–94 [online]. Accessed October 2019, https://nanzan-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=436&file_id=22&file_no=1

Villar Cordova, E., 1935. Las culturas pre-hispanicas del Departamento de Lima. Lima, Peru: La Antigua Ciudad de los Reyes.

Walker, J., 2015. Fourmilab Calendar Converter [online]. Accessed May 2019, https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/

Wheeler, J. C., 1995. “Evolution and Present Situation of the South American Camelidae”. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 54 (3): 271–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-4066(95)90021-7

Williams, L. C., 1985. “A Scheme for the Early Monumental Architecture of the Central Coast of Peru”. In Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited by C. Donnan, 227–240. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Williamson, R. A. 1981. Archaeoastronomy in the Americas. Ballena Press Anthropological Papers 33. Los Altos, CA: Ballena Press.

Zeidler, G. R. and K. Malville, 2013. Machu Picchu’s Sacred Sisters: Choquequirao & Tapata. Portland, MD: Johnson Books. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_254

Zuidema, T. R., 1990. Inca Civilization in Cuzco. Translated from the French by J.-J. Decoster. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Published

2020-03-21

Issue

Section

Research

How to Cite

Benfer Jr., R., & Laura, L. (2020). A Stone Pillar of a Condor Marked the Equinox at the Site of Buena Vista, Peru at 2200 BC. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, 5(2), 123-150. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.40025