[Aztlan] orientations of churches

Tue Jun 9 10:43:55 CDT 2009

Dear Drs. Sprajc and Diehl,

	I wanted to take this opportunity to direct each of you to research specific to astronomically significant solstice, equinox, and feast day (solar/lunar) illuminations and meridiana of Spanish colonial era churches that I have undertaken since 1997, and
have since published and presented in a variety of venues.  Please note that Robert Benfer first became aware of my work some two or more years ago, and at that time he wrote to request materials which I remitted to him in the spirit of collegial
exchange.  Dr. Benfer has been made aware of at least two publications, including my treatment in "Sacrament of the Sun: Eschatological Architecture and Solar Geometry in a California Mission" (California Mission Studies Association BoletÃn), and my
invited Forward to Mardith Schuetz-Miller's work regarding sacred geometry titled "Hispanic Sacred Geometry and the Architecture of the Divine" (Journal of the Southwest).

	It should be noted that the politics and challenges of presenting such work once again made itself apparent when my recent submission to the "Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest" (see below) went unread or unreviewed.  Perhaps it
was the failure of the review committee to appreciate that my paper in fact concerns those indigenous sources that underlie the phenomenon in question that led them to reject the paper as irrelevant to the archaeoastronomy of the Southwest, or the
perhaps the paper's emphasis on Spanish colonial church architecture appeared out of place among so august a collection of papers concerned with the archaeoastronomy of rock art.  

	Given that some 100,000 colonial era churches were constructed in the Americas over the course of the 300 year rule of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, I suspect that the study of the phenomenon in question will occupy many of us for generations to come. 
As for my part, I continue to discover, photo-document, and videotape new sites and astronomically-significant solar geometry phenomena every year...and continue to do so without the type of major funding that so often propels such work well into the
frontier.  Ultimately, I know this work to be significant, although I must confess that I continue to meet with more detractors and charlatans than supporters.  PS: Please see below my Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest abstract, a
PDF version of a story written for the website of the Diocese of Monterey regarding my work along these lines may be accessed at http://www.oldmissionsjb.org/pdf/New%20light.pdf.  Also, please note the references to the CMSA BoletÃn paper, as well as
that that constituted a Forward to the Mardith Schuetz-Miller work, at the bottom of the linked PDF article written for the Diocese of Monterey.  I do hope that these references help with contextualizing the history of scholarship related to the solar
geometry of the Spanish colonial churches of the Americas.

With Utmost Regards, 

RubÃ©n G. Mendoza, PhD
CSU Monterey Bay

Conference on Archaeoastronomy of the American Southwest, 2009

ABSTRACT

Archaeoastronomy and Solar Eucharistic Worship in the Millennial New World

The conquest of the New World fueled the rise of a host of hybrid or syncretic re-conceptualizations of Hispanic Catholic doctrine centered on the Book of Revelation and the End of Days.  JerÃ³nimo Mendietaâ€™s Historia EclesiÃ¡stica Indiana was but one
of a host of treatments that sought to leverage the icons of Armageddon to the ends of indigenous conversion.  Inherent to this prophetic doctrine was the imminent return of Cristo Helios, the Solar Christ, and solar Eucharistic worship in both precept
and practice.  This paper will review findings from nearly a decade of exploration and discovery centered on the astronomically-significant meridian alignment and solar illumination of Colonial era (AD 1521-1822) Hispanic and Mexican (AD 1822-1834)
Catholic missions, church iconography and tabernacle enclosures, from throughout the Southwest and Mesoamerica. To date, the Mission Solstice Survey has resulted in the discovery and documentation or identification of astronomically and liturgically
significant feast day illuminations and meridian alignments at twelve of twenty-one California missions and related sites, fourteen of twenty-one New Mexico churches, two Texas sanctuaries, and one Arizona mission site.  Related phenomenon has been
documented within the missions and churches of northern Sonora Mexico, the Sierra Gorda of Queretaro, the state of Puebla and the Valley of Mexico, and has in turn inspired similar studies in other areas of the US Southwest, Mesoamerica, and Peru.  Given
preliminary findings from within a select few of the over 100,000 Colonial era churches constructed in the Americas, the author contends that fully one third to one half of those sites constructed during the three-hundred year span in question were in
effect planned and constructed with heliocentric, and or heliometric calendrical and or solar eucharistic, considerations as key to their syncretic and millenarian elaboration and architectonic layout.

"Ivan Sprajc" <sprajc at zrc-sazu.si> writes:
>
>In his study of colonial urban layout of Cholula, George Kubler (1967, in
>Estudios de Cultura Novohispana 2: 111-127) mentions that the Franciscan
>church of San Gabriel is oriented to true east, while other churches may
>have followed the orientations of underlying prehispanic structures. Also
>Franz Tichy (1981, in E. P. Benson, ed., Mesoamerican Sites and World-Views,
>Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 217-245; 1991, Die geordnete Welt
>indianischer VÃ¶lker, Stuttgart: F. Steiner) and Karl-Ludwig Storck (1980, in
>Lateinamerika-Studien 6: 139-163), who studied early colonial church
>orientations in central Mexico and Oaxaca in a more systematic way, suggest
>that many churches adopted the most common orientations incorporated in
>prehispanic architecture and cultural landscape. This general idea seems to
>be supported by their histograms showing the distribution of azimuths of
>churches' orientations, even if their measurements were based largely on
>maps and the results are, therefore, not sufficiently precise to support
>their hypotheses about the prehispanic orientation principles. To explain
>the orientations of individual churches, further systematic studies should
>be undertaken, based on precise measurements and considering archaeological
>and historical evidence in every particular case. The results could
>obviously reveal many interesting details about colonial ecclesiastical
>practices and the continuity of sacred places, but would also have important
>implications for understanding prehispanic orientation rules.
>
>W/ best wishes,
>
>Ivan Å prajc
>Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies
>Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
>1000 Ljubljana
>Slovenia
>http://iaps.zrc-sazu.si/index.php?q=en/node/39
>
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009 12:17:49 -0500
>From: "Diehl, Richard" <rdiehl at as.ua.edu>
>Subject: [Aztlan] request for help
>To: "aztlan at lists.famsi.org" <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
>Message-ID:
>	<B377FA740A68F2448A26806A414757E32EA4A4B7 at MAIL1.ua-net.ua.edu>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>Dear Listeros,
>
>I recently received a query from a friend and former colleague named Robert
>Benfer (Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia)
>that I cannot deal with properly. Perhaps some of you can help. Bob spends a
>considerable amount of time in San Cristobal (now DON Cristobal?) de las
>Casas, Chiapas and has noted that while Colonial churches in the region are
>generally oriented east-west, Indian Colonial churches or their convents to
>the solstices or crossing days. He asked me if I know anything about this or
>know anyone who does. The answer to both is no but perhaps some of you can
>help. If so, please contact him off-line at bob.benfer at gmail.com. We both
>appreciate your help and thank you in advance.
>
>Saludos, 
>
>Dick Diehl

Best Regards,

Ruben G. Mendoza, Ph.D., Director
Institute for Archaeological Science, Technology and Visualization
Social and Behavioral Sciences
California State University Monterey Bay
100 Campus Center
Seaside, California 93955-8001

Email: archaeology.csumb at gmail.edu
Voice: 831-582-3760; Fax: 831-582-3566
http://archaeology.csumb.edu; http://archaeology.csumb.edu/wireless/
Recent Publications: http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid1871.htm; http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid1872.htm; and http://www.springer.com/west/home/generic/search/results?SGWID=4-40109-22-173696923-0

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