Zempoala: archaeological site and historical significance

Zempoala

The early people of Mesoamerica saw the world as existing in repeating cycles (Foster 13). They believed that what had happened once was bound to happen again at some point. To find these cycles their priests looked to celestial movements, hoping that they could understand and have some control over events which occurred (Foster 11). One of these cycles they determined was the cycle of eclipses (Foster 13). To help the priests in determining cycles, structures were often built. One such structure is located in Zempoala, Mexico. This paper will describe the structure of stone rings there and the connection it has with astronomy through the prediction of eclipses.

The structure of stone rings is found in the northeastern corner of Zempoala, below the pyramids found there. There are three rings of stone, each made out of beach cobbles that together form small, stepped pillars. The largest ring has 43 stepped pillars, the medium ring has 28, and the small ring has 13. The largest ring is divided at its north, south, west, and east points into quarters, with each quarter containing ten single-stepped pillars. All these steps face the same direction. In the northeasterly and southwesterly quadrants, they face clockwise and counter-clockwise in the southeasterly and northwesterly quadrants. (Malmstrom, "A New Interpretation of the Stone Rings of Zempoala")

The three rings were used to figure out different astronomical cycles. It might be that they moved a marker from one pillar to the next each day; in which case, the builders of the structure were trying to figure out some celestial cycle that fit in a 40 to 46 day period. It is probable that the larger ring was used in conjunction with the smaller ring, which in combination would give a cycle lasting 520 days. This is equal to three eclipse half-years and would give the Totonac priests an interval to predict eclipses, with the average interval between extreme rising positions of the moon being about thirteen days. (Malmstrom, "A New Interpretation of the Stone Rings of Zempoala")