Observations on the Pecked Designs and other Figures Carved on the South Platform of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan

Dow J. , “Astronomical orientations at Teotihuacan: A case study in astroarchaeology”, American antiquity, xxxii (1967), 326–34.

For an updated list of references, see Aveni A. , Skywatchers: A revised and updated version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico (Austin, 2001). They are discussed on pp. 329–34.

Cf. Cabrera R. C. , “Las figuras punteadas al sur de la plataforma en ‘U’ de la P. de Sol” (ms. 12 Jan 2003); Matos E. M. “Excavaciones recientes en la Pirámide del Sol, 1993–4”, in La Pirámide del Sol Teotihuacan, ed. by Matos E. (Mexico, 1995).

Aveni A. Hartung H. and Buckingham B. , “The pecked cross symbol in ancient Mesoamerica”, Science, ccii (1978), 267–79.

Morante R. L. , “Evidéncias del conocimiento astronómico en Teotihuacan”, Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1996; “El ábaco teotihuacano: Una luz equinioccial sobre Teotihuacan”, Mexico desconocido, no. 346 (August 1997), 26–30; and “¿El ábaco teotihuacano?”, Estudios de cultura Nahuatl, xxvii (1997), 419–33.

Private communication, 27 April 2003. Cabrera conducted the excavation with the archaeologist Claudia M. López. I thank Carballo David (p.c. 29 April 2004) for updating me on Teotihuacan chronology.

Aveni Hartung and Buckingham , op. cit. (ref. 4).

E.g. TEO 25: Grazioso L. “Cruz punteada en el Grupo 5′ de Teotihuacán”, in VIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala , ed. by Laporte J. P. and Escobedo H. L. (Guatemala, 1995), 447–59.

Cf. Aveni A. , “Pecked cross petroglyphs at Xihuingo”, Archaeoastronomy , no. 14 (JHA, 1989), S73–115, and idem, “Out of Teotihuacan: Origin of the celestial canon in Mesoamerica”, in Mesoamerica's classical heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, ed. by Carrasco D. Jones L. and Sessions S. (Niwot, CO, 2000), 253–68. See also Cabrera (pp. 202–4) and Broda (pp. 419–22) in the same volume.

Grazioso , op. cit. (ref. 8).

On the other hand, Morante suggests the E-W axes of #28 and #39, visible at the lower left of Figure 8, were aligned equinoctially and that of #41 was solstitially aligned (cf. op. cit. (ref. 5), 144).

Aveni A. Hartung H. and Kelley J. C. , “Alta Vista (Chalchihuites): Astronomical implications of a Mesoamerican ceremonial outpost at the Tropic of Cancer”, American antiquity, xlcii (1982), 316–35.

Bennett W. and Zingg R. , The Tarahumara: An Indian tribe of northern Mexico (Chicago, 1935).

The Spanish chronicler, Duran D. (Book of the gods, rites and the ancient calendar, ed. by Heyden D. and Horcasitas F. (Norman, 1971), 302), gives a detailed description of the game and how it is played.

Morante , op. cit. (ref. 5). His classification scheme appears on p. 149.

Langley J. , Symbolic notation of Teotihuacan (British Archaeological Reports, International Series 313; Oxford, 1983), Sign no. 101, p. 264.

Ibid., no. 161c, p. 317. See also TEO 2, ibid.

Cf. especially Langley , op. cit. (ref. 16), no. 162, ref. 214, p. 279.

Since our last visit, Cabrera and Lopez have continued the excavation of the floor toward the east. They have uncovered another (incomplete) carved square (Cabrera, p.c., 27 April 2003). Given the presumed total length of the platform and the density of designs uncovered so far, we might expect to find more than 300 designs of the types described here on the South Platform alone.

Cf. Aveni , op. cit (ref. 9, 2000); Aveni A. and Hartung H. , “The pecked cross petroglyph: An ancient Mesoamerican astronomical and calendrical symbol”, Indiana, vi (1979), 37–54; Iwaniszewski S. , “La arqueología y la astronomía en Teotihuacán”, Arqueoastronomía y etnoastronomia en Mesoamerica, ed. by Broda J. Iwaniszewski S. and Maupome L. (Mexico City, 2001), 269–90; idem, “Mesoamerican cross circles and seasonal cycles”, in Readings in archaeoastronomy , ed. by Iwaniszewski S. (Warsaw, 1992), 98–104; idem, “Mesoamerican cross-circle designs revisited”, in Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s , ed. by Ruggles C. L. N. (Loughborough, UK, 1993), 288–97; and idem, “Ciclos adivinatorios y astronómicos del tiempo teotihuacano: Otra revisión de los marcadores astronómicos”, Tezontle: Boletín del Centro de Estudios Teotihuacanos, vii (2001), 3–10.

Aveni , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Aveni A. Dowd A. , and Vining B. , “Maya calendar reform? Evidence from orientations of specialized architectural assemblages”, Latin American antiquity, xiv (2003), 159–78.

Vail G. and Aveni A. , “Maya calendars and dates: Interpreting the structure of Maya almanacs”, in The Madrid Codex: New approaches to the understanding of an ancient Maya manuscript, ed. by Vail G. and Aveni A. (Boulder, 2004), 147–70.

It should be noted that some other astronomical counts, e.g. lunar synodic and sidereal periods, along with the eclipse year, have been proposed by other investigators. e.g. Morante , op. cit. (ref. 5). In our opinion this suggestion receives no significant support from a statistical analysis of the data in hand.

Cf. Nowotny K. Tlacuilolli : Die mexikanische Bilderhandschriften, Stil und Inhalt (Ibero-Amerikanische Bibliothek, Monumenta Americana 3; Berlin, 1961); and, later, Tedlock B. , Time and the highland Maya (Albuquerque, 1982).

Aveni , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Duran , op. cit. (ref. 14).

Aveni A. Morandi S. , and Peterson P. , “The Maya number of time”, Archaeoastronomy , no. 21 (JHA, 1996), S1–32.