Knowledge of the Sky among Indigenous Peoples of the South American Lowlands—First Archaeoastronomical Analyses of Orientations at Mounds in Uruguay

Abstract

We analyzed, from a cultural astronomy perspective, the relationship between the orientations of five mound sites and different astronomical events in the lowland region of Uruguay. We found significant relationships between the orientations of the mounds and the Southern Cross/Milky Way and the full Moon during the winter solstice ca. 3000 years BP. These relationships, meanings and senses to different native peoples of South America were explored from the literature of travelers’ and naturalists’ chronicles, alongside the ethnohistorical, ethnographic and archaeological literature. In particular, we highlighted the link among those peoples of the area of the Southern Cross/ Milky Way with a mythical Ñandú (Rhea americana). Such an interpretation has allowed us to raise the possibility that we are being faced with the integration of knowledge of the sky in the form of the social construction of inhabited space and the configuration of the landscape.

Evaluación de riesgo y vulnerabilidad de montículos indígenas en contextos de producción agropecuaria en la región de India Muerta, Uruguay

“…Los montículos tuvieron diferentes funciones: plataformas de habitación, cementerios, estructuras ceremoniales, espacios de cultivo y marcadores territoriales (López-Mazz, 2001;Gianotti, 2005;Bracco, 2006;Iriarte, 2006). Investigaciones recientes, en torno al uso como marcadores territoriales y visuales, proponen que los montículos también marcarían espacios significativos en la conexión cielo -tierra, en el que su emplazamiento se vincula con la posición de la Vía Láctea y la Cruz del Sur (Gianotti et al, 2023a).…”