OUTLINE OF CHAPTER THREE Allurement via Astronomically-Aligned Architecture: Sky Phenomena, Calendars, Prediction and the Enhancement of Nature (Priority I-C)...............................................................337 I. Astronomical Orientation as a Complementary Strategy of Allurement: Integrating Celestial Phenomena into the Ritual-Architectural Context...................................338 A. Mounting but Modest Appreciation of Ancient Oaxaca Astronomy: From Amateur to Academic Assessments of Astronomical Prowess...........................341 B. The Order and Agenda of the Chapter: Astronomy in Conjunction with Homology, Conventionality and the Enhancement of Nature..............................348 II. Astronomy in Conjunction with Homologized Orientation (priority I-A): The Creative, Purposeful and Hermeneutical Experience of the Sky.......................................353 A. The Homology-Astronomy Pairing as a Cross-Cultural Phenomenon: The Sky as a “Cipher” for the All-Embracing Order of the World...............................355 B. The Homology-Astronomy Pairing in Mesoamerica: Cosmovision, Ritual and the Pursuit and/or Pretense of the Perfect Order..........................................362 C. The Homology-Astronomy Pairing at Monte Albán: The Supporting Role of Celestial Observations and Alignments in the Symbolic City.........................368 1. The Strategic Siting of Monte Albán: Mountain Access to the Sky, and thus to the Sacred..........................................................................369 2. The Strategic Configuration of Monte Albán Architecture: Revisiting the Unification of Calendrical Time and Architectural Space..........................373 3. The Strategic Timing of Monte Albán Rituals: Increasing the “Symbolic Relevance” and “Ritual Value” of Murals and Buildings.................................377 III. Astronomy in Conjunction with Conventionalized Orientation (priority I-B): Natural Sky Phenomena and Humanly-Constructed Calendars...............................................379 A. The Astronomy-Conventionality Pairing as a Cross-Cultural Phenomenon: The Socio-Cultural and Religious Aspects of Calendars..............................................381 B. The Astronomy-Conventionality Pairing in Mesoamerica: Orientation to Celestial Phenomena and/or Astro-Calendrical Conventions........................................384 C. The Astronomy-Conventionality Pairing at Monte Albán: Oaxaca’s Typical and Prototypical Astro-Calendrical Conventions..........................................................388 1. A Dual Incentive: Monte Albán’s Astro-Calendrical Alignments as Characteristically Mesoamerican and/or Uniquely Oaxacan............................394 2. A Oaxaca Origin for the 260-Day Count: From Operative Astronomical Alignments to Conventionalized Prestige.........................................................400 3. Zapotec Astro-Calendrical Conventions at Teotihuacan: Reasserting a Local Oaxacan Identity in a non-Oaxacan Context........................................407 4. Zapotec Astro-Calendrical Conventions at Monte Albán: Retaining Zapotec Identity in the Geodesic Vertex Group................................................414 IV. Astronomy in Conjunction with Predictable Sky Phenomena: Celestial Prognostications and the Ritual-Architectural Enhancement of Nature...............................................................421 A. The Ritual-Architectural Enhancement of Nature as a Cross-Cultural Phenomenon: From (Sensations of) Passive Harmony to Active Control...................423 B. The Ritual-Architectural Enhancement of Nature in Mesoamerica: Allurement via Celestial Prediction and Choreography................................................427 C. The Ritual-Architectural Enhancement of Nature at Monte Albán: The Two Most Prominent Cases...................................................................................434 1. Building J at Monte Albán and Building O at Caballito Blanco: A Strategic Juxtaposition of Astronomic Allure and Political Content............435 a. A Brief History of Ideas about Building J: The Seeming Contradiction of Astronomic and Politico-Militaristic Purposes..........438 b. Astronomical Hypotheses and Morphological Consequences: Periodic and Permanent Modes of Astro-Architectural Allurement.....444 c. The Relationship of Building J to Building O at Caballito Blanco: Prototype, Imitator, Contemporary and/or Complement.......................449 d. Astronomy and Politics: Building J as a Perfect Exemplar of the Twofold Pattern of a Ritual-Architectural Event............................452 2. Building P at Monte Albán: “Zenith Tubes,” “Astronomical Commemoration Complexes” and/or Horizontal Observatories.......................454 a. Building P as a Vertical “Sighting Tube”: Subterranean Viewing Chambers and the Architectural Enhancement of Sunlight..................455 b. Building P as a “Horizontal Observatory”: “Astro-Commemoration Complexes” and Artificial Horizons.....................................................458 V. Closing Thoughts: Astronomically-Aligned Architecture as a Strategy of Ritual-Architectural Allurement................................................................................................464 A. Interrogating the Layout of Monte Albán: Three Distinct, but also Complementary, Modes of Orientation.........................................................................462 B. From Strategies of Allurement to Matters of Substantive Content: The Only-Preparatory Role of Astro-Architectural Alignments...................................467 CHAPTER THREE Allurement via Astronomically-Aligned Architecture: Sky Phenomena, Calendars, Prediction and the Enhancement of Nature (Priority I-C) “The sky, of its very nature, as a starry vault and atmospheric region has a wealth of mythological and religious significance. “Height,” “being on high,” infinite space—all these are hierophanies of what is transcendent, what is supremely sacred.” Mircea Eliade, 19581 “Since cosmos and society were conceived as a unity in ancient Mesoamerica, the purpose [of observing astronomical phenomena] was to learn about the laws of nature, not only to discover them, but to regulate social life as well. This conception was fundamentally different from that of the modern scientific mentality.” Johanna Broda, 19822 “The results of the present work [in Oaxacan archaeoastronomy] show that the Zapotecs, while participating in pan-Mesoamerican orientation principles, used their own orientation, also based on calendar properties. For example, they erected buildings that simultaneously synthesized several of these orientations. This [synthesis of pan- Mesoamerican and Oaxaca-specific astro-calendrical principles] was a remarkable innovation that demonstrates the subtle genius of the Zapotecs, who, as insightful observers of nature, chose this peculiar form of cult to the continuity of time, with which they ingratiated themselves with the gods who had granted a benefit as precious as the calendar.” Jesús Galindo Trejo, 20083 * Note that I have managed the footnotes in ways that respect “the first citation” (which is thus a full bibliographical citation) in this chapter, irrespective of whether that work was cited in a previous chapter. Also, to avoid confusion in this typescript, I have retained the quotation marks on all quotes, including those that are formatted as block quotations. 1 Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, trans. Rosemary Sheed (London: Sheed and Ward, 1958), 109. 2 Johanna Broda, “Astronomy, Cosmovisión, and Ideology in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica,” in Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics, eds. Anthony F. Aveni and Gary Urton (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1982), 100. 3 Jesús Galindo Trejo, “Calendario y orientación astronómica: una práctica ancestral en la Oaxaca prehispánica,” en La pintura mural prehispánica en México, Beatriz de la Fuente, coord., vol. III, Oaxaca, tomo III (México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 2008), 345; my translation. Chapter 3: “Orientation via Astronomically-Aligned Architecture (priority I-C);” p. 338 This chapter is devoted to asking and answering the question: How and to what extent is the so-termed astronomy priority (I-C) relevant to the orientation and religion of Monte Albán? Recall that, as outlined in The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture, I use “astronomy” to refer in the broadest strokes to ritual-architectural configurations that are aligned or referenced with respect to celestial bodies—the sun, moon, planets or stars.4 Of the eleven main priorities in my morphology, the cross-culturally comparative relevance of this one is the most uneven insofar as alignments with respect to sky phenomena play no role whatever in many religious architectures while, in others, purposeful astronomic references are a matter of intense importance. Pre- Columbian Mesoamerican architecture, as we’ll quickly see, is among the latter. This is an ambience in which the abundance of open-air ceremonial precincts is, perhaps without exception, configured in ways that afford natural celestial phenomena a prominent place in the choreography of periodic ritual-architectural events. I. ASTRONOMICAL ORIENTATION AS A COMPLEMENTARY STRATEGY OF ALLUREMENT: INTEGRATING CELESTIAL PHENOMENA INTO THE RITUAL-ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT From the earliest systematic study of indigenous Mesoamerican peoples, investigators have been