calendars and clocks: The Americas 159 found at ruins called Great Zimbabwe The site consists of hundreds of stone megaliths, or monuments, spread out over a 200-square-mile area in Zimbabwe In fact, Zimbabwe, which means “houses of stone,” is named after the ruins Construction of the stone megaliths probably began in about 400 but continued into several subsequent centuries, with many of the megaliths erected from the 11th through the 15th centuries At its most populated the area was home to perhaps 18,000 people, many of whom were engaged in the gold trade The ruins comprise three groups: the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure Archaeological investigators have debated the purpose of the megaliths, but they are particularly intrigued by the Great Enclosure Some argue that it was an astronomical observatory and thus a kind of calendar marking the passage of time by the movements of heavenly bodies A large stone wall encloses the site, and the sun bisects a chevron pattern on one portion of the wall on the summer solstice (the first day of summer) Further, a passageway in the wall is constructed so that a person inside, with a limited view of the sky, can see only the Milky Way on the summer solstice Other stones at the site appear to be markers for the spring and autumn equinoxes These peculiarities strongly suggest that the Great Zimbabwe ruins and similar megaliths were used as astronomical observatories and thus as calendars Medieval sub-Saharan Africans had a concept of time that differed from that of people in modern Western nations Under the influence of science and technology, modern people think of time in strictly rational terms Time is measured accurately to parse the day Television and radio shows begin and end at certain prescribed times, people are expected to arrive at and leave work at certain times and to keep appointments “on time.” In medieval Africa, however, time had a more spiritual significance That was particularly the case among various Bantu peoples who lived in the southernmost parts of Africa In South Africa, where the Gitlane River is met by its northern tributary, the Makgemeng River, archaeologists have made an interesting find: a complex of stone structures that may have incorporated an astronomical observatory and perhaps served a timekeeping purpose The structures, made of dolorite stone, are arranged in the shape of a sickle They are located on a hill called Thota naka ed Fedile, which means “Time is up the hill.” The structures are not particularly large At their base they are 5.6 feet thick, and they taper to a thickness of about 2.3 feet Overall they are about 3.3 feet tall The complex is marked by various doors, altars, and walls It remains unclear when the complex was built, but artifacts found at the site show that the place was a center of trade with India and suggest that it was built sometime around the late first or early second millennium The entire complex is arranged in such a way that the movements of both the sun and the moon traverse the sickle at particular points, leading investigators to believe that the complex was a large calendar and astronomical observatory The purpose of the site, however, was not simply to mark the passage of time It is believed that it was intended to serve as a point of transition between earthly life and the afterlife and be, in effect, a meeting place for people and their deceased ancestors Its builders were men who had absorbed some of the religious traditions of the Indians with whom they traded They lived in what amounted to a monastery, and they could be called monks Whatever terminology is used, they were holy men who were interested in, among other things, easing the passage of people and purifying them for entry into the afterlife The entire complex was referred to as the Moon Sickle, with the word sickle used to suggest the notion of people being cut down by time and entering the afterlife The Americas by Angela Herren Throughout the Americas an awareness of seasons and the basic movements of the sun and moon played an important role in life wherever settled agriculture was practiced By the first millennium c.e many cultures in the Americas erected monuments marking astronomical events, developed sophisticated calendar counts, and established ritual activities in veneration of and propitiation toward supernatural deities associated with natural phenomena No clocks from the ancient period of the Americas exist, but 16th-century authors indicate a pre-Hispanic awareness of the daily movement of the sun and of cast shadows In North America cultures like the Anasazi of the American Southwest (ca 900–ca 1300) developed ritual practices aimed at regulating and controlling the seasonal rainfall necessary for the cultivation of crops Like their descendants, the Anasazi probably carried out dances, rites, and festivities in the communal space near their brick and stone multiple-family dwelling units Older men probably trained and initiated younger men in circular or rectangular underground spaces known as kivas Painted plaster frescos in many kivas feature rainmaking ceremonies and anthropomorphized cultigens, such as squash and maize, indicating the agricultural nature of the ritual practices learned in these sacred spaces Historical records and architectural structures in South America indicate a basic knowledge of astronomy in the Andean region By the time of the Inca civilization (ca 1450– 1532) many stone monuments and temples celebrated the agricultural and supernatural role of the sun in society, and some appear to have marked actual astronomical events Ac-