Talk abstract details

Multiple temples with solar, lunar, and constellation alignments have recently been discovered at the Site of Buena Vista, Chillón Valley, Perú. Constructed before 2,000 BC, their offering chambers describe the earliest astronomical alignments in the Americas. One has seven reference points. They provided an agricultural and fishing calendar and appear to syncretize belief systems from valleys to the north, the mountains, and central coastal valleys. The astronomer-priests managed construction of these temples as well as of the oldest sculptures in the round in the Americas. One sculpture gazes menacingly at the winter solstice sunset. The pan-South American system of constellations is now known from this, their earliest date. A temple with an engraved fox at the door surrounded by a painted llama helps identify the alignment of its offering chamber with the head of the fox constellation, chasing a llama, before the summer solstice sunrise.The full body rises before the fall solstice sunrise. These events bracket the rise and fall of the Chillón River.