The Kalasasaya enigma and the calculations of Arthur Posnansky
The architect-priests who built the Kalasasaya knew the concepts of aphelion and perihelion at least 2,000 years before Kepler.
Austrian archaeologist Arthur Posnansky (1873–1946) faced harsh criticism from the scientific and academic establishment because, according to his calculations, the stone city we now call Tiahuanaco (ancient Taypikala) was founded as early as 15,000 BCE.
This claim disrupts all universally accepted notions in academic archaeology, which dates Tiahuanaco's foundation to a few centuries before Christ, based on results from radiocarbon dating of some organic remains.
Recently, I had the opportunity to delve deeper into Posnansky’s archaeoastronomical theory, as I happened to come across a copy of his famous book, Tiahuanaco, the Cradle of American Man, published by J.J. Augustin in New York City in 1945.
The book is highly complex and specialized, as it represents approximately 50 years of extensive research.
In the first part of the book, Posnansky described, from a geological and iconographic perspective, his theory about Tiahuanaco’s foundation. According to him, Tiahuanaco went through three periods, with at least the first two being antediluvian.
Posnansky did not propose a date for the construction of the three oldest structures—the Akapana pyramid, the subterranean temple, and the Puma Gate (Puma Punku). According to his view, these structures belong to the first period of antediluvian Tiahuanaco.
Still according to Posnansky, during the first and second periods, Tiahuanaco was located on a plateau at a lower altitude than today’s 3,843 meters (12,605 feet) above sea level—at least 300 meters lower. He also asserted that Tiahuanaco was situated on the shores of a lake, functioning as a port city.
The first part of the book also includes an in-depth study of the complex iconography of Tiahuanaco’s symbols, especially those carved into the Gate of the Sun. Through iconographic analysis of these symbols, Posnansky interpreted in the second part of the book a 12-month calendar that, according to him, is represented on the Gate of the Sun.
However, it is the archaeoastronomical study of the Kalasasaya temple (standing stones) that stands out as the most important for dating the foundation of the second period.
The Kalasasaya is a rectangular structure measuring 128.74 meters (422.4 feet) in length and 118.26 meters (388.1 feet) in width. The orientation of its four walls is as follows:
- East wall: 358º 58'30''
- West wall: 358º 53'30''
- North wall: 89º 20'
- South wall: 89º 18'
As we can see, the stone structure is not perfectly aligned with the meridian.
Posnansky argued that when the Kalasasaya was built, it was perfectly oriented to the meridian and thus to true north. According to his theory, only after the cataclysmic events of the Great Flood (his opinion) did the structure shift slightly from its axis.
The astronomical function of the Kalasasaya is well known.
During the winter solstice (June 21, as Tiahuanaco is in the Southern Hemisphere), the Sun rises (for an observer positioned at the middle of the west wall with their back to the wall, referred to hereafter as Point A) at the northeast corner of the temple.
During the summer solstice (December 21), the Sun rises at the southeast corner.
During the two equinoxes (autumn, March 21, and spring, September 21), the Sun rises at the center of the temple’s main entrance gate, which is offset by 1.116 meters to the north from the geometric center. This displacement has a specific reason, which will be explained later.
According to Posnansky, the Kalasasaya was, in fact, a stone calendar that preserved valuable knowledge for future generations, such as the dates of the solstices and equinoxes. These were crucial for determining the proper timing for sowing crops (e.g., maize, quinoa) and for managing the breeding cycles of Andean camelids.
The elite caste of Tiahuanaco, composed of astronomer-priests with profound mathematical knowledge, used this calendar to control the masses of farmers and herders. This allowed them to govern the most powerful kingdom in the New World during the antediluvian era.
Returning to the orientation of the Kalasasaya’s walls, Posnansky argued that the difference between the current alignment (358º) and the original meridian alignment (0º) was caused by cataclysmic forces of unprecedented magnitude during the Great Flood. According to him, the Kalasasaya was built as an authentic and precise stone almanac, which not only indicated the solstices and equinoxes but also showed the difference between the winter and summer halves of the year.
It is well known that the Sun is not located exactly at the center of Earth’s orbit but at one of the foci of the ellipse (as Earth’s orbit is elliptical). As a result, Earth takes more time (186 days) to travel from the autumn equinox (March 21 in the Southern Hemisphere) to the spring equinox (September 21) than it does to travel from the spring equinox to the autumn equinox (178 days).
There is therefore a difference of 7 days and 16 hours between the winter and summer halves of the year. To ensure that the Sun, at its rising, appeared exactly at the center of the staircase facing east during the equinoxes, the builders positioned the Kalasasaya’s gate 1.116 meters to the north. They recognized that the Sun took longer to travel from the northeast corner to the center of the building than from the center to the southeast corner.
This is evidence that the ancient builders of Taypikala (Tiahuanaco) were familiar with the concepts of perihelion and aphelion, namely the eccentricity of Earth's orbit.
In the second part of his book, Posnansky provides the mathematical explanation for why he believed the foundation of Tiahuanaco dates back to 15,000 BCE.
In 1930, Posnansky observed that during the winter solstice (June 21) and summer solstice (December 21), the Sun did not rise exactly at the northeast and southeast corners of the Kalasasaya. Instead, there was a slight discrepancy.
He hypothesized that the Kalasasaya, when originally built, was perfectly aligned with the meridian and that the Sun would have risen exactly at the northeast and southeast corners during their respective solstices.
To calculate the Sun's amplitude within the temple, he drew a triangle using the east wall of the temple as the base. The other two sides extended from the northeast and southeast corners, converging at a point located precisely in the middle of the west wall of the temple.
The angle formed at the west wall represented the Sun's amplitude as originally conceived by the architect-priests, measured at 49º22’6’’. However, he observed that in 1930, the Sun’s amplitude was 49º59’6’’.
Posnansky knew that the obliquity of the ecliptic in 1930 was 23º27’8.26’’. He then calculated the obliquity of the ecliptic based on the Sun's amplitude as it would have been when the Kalasasaya was constructed, likely using the following formula:
Where:
- z = Sun’s amplitude
- e = obliquity of the ecliptic
- \phi = latitude
He derived an obliquity of the ecliptic equal to 23º8’48’’.
It is known that the obliquity of the ecliptic varies in a cycle of 41,000 years. According to calculations presented at the Paris Conference in 1911, this value corresponds to 15,000 BCE.
As expected, this dating has faced significant criticism, as its confirmation would disrupt the entire history of humanity on Earth.
Critics argue that Posnansky’s hypothesis rests on an unverified assumption: that the Kalasasaya was constructed perfectly aligned with the meridian.
This assumption is something we cannot verify. Furthermore, Posnansky attributed the current imperfection in the temple’s alignment to colossal upheavals, such as the “Great Flood.”
What is certain, however, is that only 50 hectares of Tiahuanaco’s total 450 hectares have been excavated and studied. This leaves many unanswered questions, and many of the answers that have been provided remain unconvincing.
YURI LEVERATTO
