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Inca
Calendar
The
inca calendar day by day counting system was
follow from observation stations, where all movements
of the sun, moon, stars, solstice, equinox and all types of celestial
phenomenons were observe, register and predicted; The inca observation
stations are know today as Intihuatanas, but their real name is
Intiguata, word that splits in Inti, that mean sun and Guata that mean
year.
Each Intiguata had many Yancas (kind of inca astronomers) working in 24
hours shifts, they were responsible of the inca calendar; One type of
intiguata was an empty square building, were the Yanca, sit in a place
carve in the wall and observe trough windows the movement of the sun,
different sits, different months of the year; Other type of intiguata,
were flat areas on top of a hill, with floors of stone, the floors have
holes of different shapes, this holes were fill up with water and use
as mirrors to see the night sky in the reflexion of the water.
The knowledge of the Yancas was not exclusive for the inca calendar,
the yancas knowledge was use as well by the inca architects, because
all the inca constructions were oriented with the stars, all the
religious ceremonies start when the Yancas say so, the yancas advice
when the lands has to be prepare for agriculture and even the day when
they have to seed the fields; Basically nothing was done, before asking
for advice to the yancas. All what the yancas say was recorded in
quipus, by men call Quillauataquipoc.
The inca calendar was calculated in two ways: First, the yancas divide
the year in 180 days plus 185 days, each part divided in two to set the
four seasons of the year; The second calculation had four groups 182,
183, 186 and 179 days, in reference of a double count of 365 days each,
it was use to predict when the religious ceremonies has to be
celebrate, for agriculture purpose, prediction of eclipses, solstices,
equinoxes, etc.
The inca
government build hundreds of
Intiguatas all over the kingdom,
with literally hundreds of Yancas and Quillaguataquipoc working in
there; It was because, each inca calendar was design for that specific
area of the kingdom, dealing with different temperatures, altitudes and
traditions of the people that live there, all calendars in the kingdom
had the same amount of days per year but different ways to count the
months, different ways to count the week and even different days of
beginning and end of the year.
The common days all over the kingdom when special celebrations were
perform are: Solstice: December 22. Zenit: Feb 24. Equinox: March 21.
Anti-Zenit: April 16. Solstice: June 22. Anti-Zenith: Aug 28. Equinox:
Sept 23. Zenit: Oct 19; All this were the constant dates all over the
inca territory; The once a year, inca adoration to the god sun is
celebrate on the summer solstice, every June 22; This monumental
celebration still is perform in Cuzco and each year, attract more and
more tourist from all over the world.
The technology use in the inca calendar was not invented by the incas,
it was collected from older civilizations; There is archaeological
evidence, that the towers of Chankillo ruins at 400 km north from Lima,
are a 2300 years old sun observatory and calendar; It belong to the
Chavin the huantar pre
inca
culture, the design of the
observatory
could allow to thousands of people, to witness all kinds of celestial
phenomenons, it is believe that the temple had a clear religious
purpose.
In 1992, the inca calendar was accepted again by Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia, North of Chile and North of Argentina, the calendar has been
accepted to unify the region and for the archaeologist, to start to
talk about time, using the same language; The incas calendar set us
today in the year 5511, more than twice the world wide official
calendar, fact that let us speculate, that there is more history,
waiting to be discover, deep in the mountains of the andes.
See
Inca Calendar Tours
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