57
(1938) gives a diagram by Jim Kewanytewa of the sunrise planting markers at
Oraibi on Third Mesa.
3.3 Systematic Records of Planting Dates
Parsons (1920) provided the dates of planting at her nine named markers, presumably for the year 1920 and Crow Wing (1920–1921, 1925) gave the dates of planting
in 1921 at eight of those nine markers. These two records of Hopi observations are
generally consistent and according to Parsons (Crow Wing, 1925: 120, n. 184),
Crow Wing’s further memoranda of planting and solstice dates for the period
1921–1924 were consistent to within a day or two. Searches of the Parsons archives
at the American Philosophical Society have not located these records.
3.4 Interpretation of the Ethnographic Evidence
These planting dates, when combined with astronomical calculations of sunrise and
satellite imagery, make it possible to explore the regions indicated by the computed
azimuths of sunrise. Google Earth provides several powerful tools to locate the
horizon markers. One is its computation of elevation profiles along lines from the
presumed location of an observer in the computed direction of sunrise. The highest
point on the elevation profile indicates the point on the horizon that is a possible
horizon marker. Once such a candidate marker has been identified, its height and
geographic coordinates and the height and coordinates of the observing station can
be extracted from a map and used to compute a precise azimuth of sunrise or sunset
on the recorded dates and a precise distance to the marker.
4
Google Earth’s ground
view provides a second tool, allowing us to compare the appearance of the horizon
(labeled at azimuths corresponding to the planting dates) with the appearance of the
horizon markers in drawings from the ethnographic literature, see Fig. 4. In many
cases, the name of the marker provides a description that can be compared with the
resulting imagery.
Since Sun’s houses (Tawaki) marking the solstices have been described as being
short distances across the valleys on either side of First Mesa (McCluskey, 1990), it
has commonly been assumed that, with few exceptions, the ethnographically
attested planting markers would also be found in similar locations, which would put
them atop the mesa some 9–13 km from the villages of First Mesa. While this is the
case for the Third Mesa village of Oraibi (Voth, 1901: 149–152; Titiev, 1938), at
First Mesa those horizon markers whose geographic locations have been identified
4 The National Geodetic Survey (2012) has produced a useful program for these computations,
INVERS3D, which is available as FORTRAN source code, as a PC executable file, or for online
interactive computation.
The Hopi Calendar and Some Archaeological Correlates of Horizon Markers
(1938) gives a diagram by Jim Kewanytewa of the sunrise planting markers at
Oraibi on Third Mesa.
3.3 Systematic Records of Planting Dates
Parsons (1920) provided the dates of planting at her nine named markers, presumably for the year 1920 and Crow Wing (1920–1921, 1925) gave the dates of planting
in 1921 at eight of those nine markers. These two records of Hopi observations are
generally consistent and according to Parsons (Crow Wing, 1925: 120, n. 184),
Crow Wing’s further memoranda of planting and solstice dates for the period
1921–1924 were consistent to within a day or two. Searches of the Parsons archives
at the American Philosophical Society have not located these records.
3.4 Interpretation of the Ethnographic Evidence
These planting dates, when combined with astronomical calculations of sunrise and
satellite imagery, make it possible to explore the regions indicated by the computed
azimuths of sunrise. Google Earth provides several powerful tools to locate the
horizon markers. One is its computation of elevation profiles along lines from the
presumed location of an observer in the computed direction of sunrise. The highest
point on the elevation profile indicates the point on the horizon that is a possible
horizon marker. Once such a candidate marker has been identified, its height and
geographic coordinates and the height and coordinates of the observing station can
be extracted from a map and used to compute a precise azimuth of sunrise or sunset
on the recorded dates and a precise distance to the marker.
4
Google Earth’s ground
view provides a second tool, allowing us to compare the appearance of the horizon
(labeled at azimuths corresponding to the planting dates) with the appearance of the
horizon markers in drawings from the ethnographic literature, see Fig. 4. In many
cases, the name of the marker provides a description that can be compared with the
resulting imagery.
Since Sun’s houses (Tawaki) marking the solstices have been described as being
short distances across the valleys on either side of First Mesa (McCluskey, 1990), it
has commonly been assumed that, with few exceptions, the ethnographically
attested planting markers would also be found in similar locations, which would put
them atop the mesa some 9–13 km from the villages of First Mesa. While this is the
case for the Third Mesa village of Oraibi (Voth, 1901: 149–152; Titiev, 1938), at
First Mesa those horizon markers whose geographic locations have been identified
4 The National Geodetic Survey (2012) has produced a useful program for these computations,
INVERS3D, which is available as FORTRAN source code, as a PC executable file, or for online
interactive computation.
The Hopi Calendar and Some Archaeological Correlates of Horizon Markers