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Watching the sky from the ushnu: the sukanka-like summit temple in Pueblo Viejo–Pucara (Lurin Valley, Peru)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2011

Krzysztof Makowski  and
Clive L. N. Ruggles
Krzysztof Makowski
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Department of Humanities–Archaeology, Av. Universitaria 1801, Lima 32, Peru email: [email protected]
Clive L. N. Ruggles
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Seen from the ‘ushnu’ platform in the palatial complex of Pueblo Viejo–Pucará, near Pachacamac, built by the Huarochirí people, the visual axis extends southwards towards two circular structures of the summit temple. Of these structures rising up from a monumental platform, one contains a sacred rock to which gold, silver and Spondylus princeps. were offered and the other housed a huanca-idol. These structures, and the ushnu, marked points and directions that are relevant for the organization of sacred geography, but whose location does not correspond to orientations that are astronomically relevant for calendrical calculations, contrary to the initial hypothesis.

Keywords

Inca Periodhorizon astronomyushnullama constellationLate Horizon summit templeHuarochirí
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Symposium S278: “Oxford IX” International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy , January 2011 , pp. 169 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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