Mysteries of the Hopewell: Astronomers, Geometers, and Magicians of the Eastern Woodlands

4. Hopewell Astronomy

Chapter 4 H O P E W E L L A S T R O N O M Y Consider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles, very sparsely scattered, rising through a vast black sea. We rule some of the bubbles. Of the waters we know nothing. —Niven and Pournelle, The Mote in God’s Eye In the dream world existence between conception and birth, each of us floated in a formless darkness surrounded by warm amniotic fluid. Suspended between consciousness and eternity, we had little or no awareness of up and down, front and back, left and right, future or past. We did not relate to the universe in those terms. All that changed, however, when we entered the world of airbreathing creatures. Confronted with the openness of space and an ever-changing present, we needed to orient ourselves. Of course, it was easy to orient ourselves in space—after all, our bodies have a front and back, left and right, top and bottom. Imposed on the world around us, these directions provide the spatial references we need to function effectively . As it happens, these directions are at right angles to each other. And so from these directions we can further establish the cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west, as well as the zenith and nadir. Orienting ourselves in time was a bit more involved. Looking to nature, we found oscillating, cyclic phenomena that gave us a way to 101 relate to the future and the past. Night and day, the monthly changes of the moon, and the advance of the seasons—these phenomena gave us a sense of time. Moreover, because the sun and moon, and some of the stars and planets, have predictable rising and setting positions on the horizon, these celestial bodies allow us to orient not only ourselves but also our sacred structures in time and space. In some instances, we aligned our structures to the rising or setting of the sun at the solstices or equinoxes. In other instances, we aligned our structures to the lunar maximums or minimums. Other times, we aligned our structures to a star like Sirius or a planet like Venus. Regardless of what celestial body we used, though, the effect of orienting our structures to oscillating celestial phenomena was to bring our sacred structures into harmony with the great cycles of time and into harmony with the visible universe. In earlier chapters, I proposed a possible sequence of events involved in building a sacred structure. First, a location is identified that is in some way sacred or special. Second, a shape is given to that place; that is, we define the geometric form of the area. Next, we establish the size of the space. This is the step that allows us to bring our abstract geometric shape into the physical world. Finally, we give a direction to our shape. In other words, the final step is to decide in what direction our geometric figure will face. In the case of the Hopewell, it is clear that they aligned many of their earthworks to the sun and moon. In this chapter, we will look at these celestial alignments in some detail. But first, it might be useful to consider some of the mechanics that are involved. solar and lunar mechanics The annual movement of the sun from north to south and back again and the way this apparent movement defines the solstices and equinoxes is generally understood by most people. Figures 4.1 and 4.2 show how the solstice positions in particular are defined by various rising and setting azimuths. The important point is that, by watching the sun over a period of just a couple of years, we can easily identify these solstice and equinox 102 p h y s i c a l pa r a m e t e r s positions on the horizon. Once these positions are identified, it is then a simple matter to align a building, or a wall, or an enclosure to any of these points on the horizon. The motions of the moon are more complicated. The most obvious lunar cycle is its monthly metamorphosis from new moon to waxing , to full, to waning, and back again to new. On another scale, though, there is a lunar cycle that is counted in years. This cycle is...