114 astronomy: The Americas In most of the Americas the study of astronomy and archaeoastronomy is enhanced by the ability to question historic descendants of pre-Columbian peoples and then work backward in time in the attempt to set historical analogues Solar, celestial, or directional symbolism is encoded in many historic period, or post–European contact, Native American practices, including ceremony, myth, and architecture, with antecedents probably reaching back many hundreds if not thousands of years Navajo sand paintings depicting the cosmos, Pawnee star maps painted on buckskin containing hundreds of four-pointed star symbols, notched Winnebago sticks tracking months by integrating solar and lunar periods, and the dome shape of the Skidi Pawnee lodge representing the structure of the heavens are historic period examples that, combined with astronomical data inferred from sources such as prehistoric petroglyphs, suggest a long tradition of stargazing and horizon dwelling Native North American tribes share a belief in the essential oneness of the cosmos wherein all things are interrelated, including plants, rocks, trees, animals, and even the sun, moon, and stars Anasazi (ca 900–ca 1300) petroglyphs found at Chaco, New Mexico, seem to depict an unusually bright star beside a crescent moon It has been proposed that this is a record of a great supernova that became visible on July 5, 1054 Written records from China record the same event, noting that it was as bright as Venus and that it lasted 23 days Similarly, a ceramic bowl from the Mimbres Valley of the Mogollon people (ca 500–ca 1400) in southern New Mexico also may be a recording of the supernova The bowl shows a rabbit, associated with the moon, bent into a crescent position with its back foot touching a round disk with 23 linear spokes radiating outward, the same as the number of days of visibility of the star recorded in the Far East record Other North American examples of astronomical use include the 13th-century settlement of Cahokia, located near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, where earth mounds were organized along the cardinal directions and a sophisticated solar calendar was developed Mound alignments there imply that the sun was the principal object of attention It has also been proposed that the Pleiades, along with other star groups, served as celestial templates for clusters of conical mounds at other sites in the Midwest, as first seen in the earlier Hopewell culture (ca 200 b.c.e.–ca 400 c.e.) mounds at Newark, Ohio It has also been proposed that the Pleiades celestial schedule helped set the agricultural timetable for communities as diverse as southwestern Pueblo agrarians and northeastern Algonquians and Iroquois For the Mayan inhabitants of Mesoamerica, perhaps the keenest stargazers, time was a princely concern and controlling time meant deep knowledge of celestial cycles Court specialists schooled in celestial workings and the calendar advised Mayan rulers on armed conflict, marriage, royal accession, and ritual payment to the gods for agricultural good fortune and for healthy children The Maya inscribed their astronomical knowledge in written documents, architecture, and carved monuments The finest document is called the Dresden Codex and is believed to be copied from Late Classic (ca 650–ca 900) The Madrid Codex and the Paris Codex, though of poorer quality, also offer astronomical data; for instance, the Paris Codex shows a pictorial zodiac containing a host of sky animals, which demonstrates a concern with following the movement of the planets relative to the stars The Dresden Codex contains tables of computed positions of Venus and Mars, along with an eclipse-warning table and a season-reckoning table The lunar table used to predict eclipses covers 405 lunations, or lunar months, arranged day by day for 11,958 days In the Venus table, set up like the lunar table, pictures mark events, and numbered intervals record the length of time between the appearance and disappearance of Venus The table is accurate to within one day over 500 years Venus was often associated with the war god, and specialists could have used the table to determine providential times for warring Astronomical evidence also is encoded in Mayan architecture After the collapse of Mayan settlements in Mexico’s southern Yucatán and Guatemala at the end of the Classic Period (ca 150–650), Chichén Itzá grew into a major Postclassic (ca 900–1521) power by the 10th century The Caracol Tower at Chichén Itzá is conspicuously out of line with other buildings at the site, leading researchers to speculate that astronomical observations account for its peculiarities The large front stairway of the platform, atop which the tower rests, faces 27.5 degrees north of west; this puts it to within degrees of sunset at the summer solstice and even closer to the northern standstill of Venus In the tower itself two more Venus observations have been noted through thin rectangular windows whose purpose seems to be limited to making specific observations of Venus at its northerly and southerly standstills along the horizon At Bonampak in the central Mayan territory near what is today the Guatemala–Mexico border in Chiapas, murals dated to shortly before 800 in the so-called Great Palace (also called Temple of the Murals) are decorated with zodiacal symbols associated with Venus and star glyphs—the same ones from the Dresden Codex—filling a band surmounting a scene that shows the aftermath of a battle The murals commemorate the victories of the eighth-century king Chaan Muan, who is pictured with a group of captives in supplication at his feet Four constellations depicted above him suggest a celestial context for the war scenes Carved dates on