First use of geometry may be traced to ancient cliff dwellers
Ancient Colorado structures remain remarkable for design, construction
MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, Colo. — Seen from the air, the structure is a D-shape, perched on the lip of a mesa that overlooks the famous “Cliff Palace” dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park. Scientists call it the Sun Temple.
But what is it? An 800-year-old observatory? A ceremonial structure? A mix of both?
“There are a lot of theories out there, but really, people don’t know,” said Tim Hovezak, an archaeologist at Mesa Verde National Park. The only people who would know are the Ancestral Puebloans — also known as the Anasazi — who built structures across the Southwest and then started abandoning them in the 13th century.
In a recent paper, an Arizona State University mathematician examined aerial imagery and concluded that the Sun Temple contains sophisticated geometric patterns, including Pythagorean triangles and other shapes used by other ancient civilizations. The mathematician, Sherry Towers, also concluded the Sun Temple’s builders had used a common unit of measurement — roughly 30 centimeters — in designing the site.
No written language
“These findings represent the first potential quantitative evidence of knowledge of advanced geometrical constructs in a prehistoric North American society,” Towers wrote in her paper, published in the April edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports. This knowledge is “particularly remarkable,” she added, “given that the ancestral Pueblo peoples had no written language or number system.”
Towers’ conclusions are not universally accepted. Hovezak says it is too early to know whether the Anasazi intentionally incorporated sophisticated geometry into the Sun Temple design. Towers agrees, but as she noted in her paper, “The relationship of those geometric constructs to the apparent common unit of measurement at the site is extraordinarily unlikely to occur by mere random chance.”
The forerunners of the modern Pueblo people, the Anasazi are known for their remarkable cliff dwellings and structures such as Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in New Mexico.
Scientists have theorized that the Anasazi started occupying the Cliff Palace in the mid-1000s, then built the Sun Temple sometime later. Originally, the Dshaped structure may have had walls 11 feet high, with four circular towers — or kivas — rising from the site.
Towers originally became interested in the Sun Temple because of the possibility that it served as an astronomical observatory.
Analyzing aerial photography, Towers found that the interior of the Sun Temple was laid out with some precise geometric shapes, including “golden rectangles.” Golden rectangles have a precise ratio between their longer and shorter sides and were incorporated into architecture by many ancient civilizations, including Greeks, who considered them to be visually pleasing.
Research ‘intriguing’
Hovezak, who has been working at Mesa Verde for 12 years, said Towers’ research had helped firm up the evidence that the Ancestral Puebloans had used some kind of system of measurement in their constructions. In Mesa Verde alone, there are over 600 cliff dwellings, with hundreds of others — some barely studied or preserved — scattered across the Southwest.
“I find Towers’ research fascinating,” Hovezak said. “I am not entirely sold on it, but it is intriguing.”