Eclipses Associated with Abandonment of Temples at the

Archaeological Site of Buena Vista, Perú: 2230 BC — 1730 BC

Robert A. Benfer
Anthropology, University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65203, USA

and

Larry R. Adkins+
Astronomy & Physics, Cerritos College, Norfolk, CA, USA

Paper presented at European Society for Astronomy in Culture, Santiago de

Compostela, Spain, 2018

ABSTRACT

Five total solar eclipses occurred between 1728 BC and 2188 BC at the Late

Preceramic site (1730 BC to 2230 BC) of Buena Vista, Chillón Valley, Perú (Figure 1),

a site known for numerous astronomical alignments. These solar eclipses occur in the

time when three temples and a special chamber were abandoned. Five solar eclipses in

such a short period of time would not be expected by chance (p < 0.02). Radiocarbon

dates suggest that two possible feasts and a special chamber for offerings were

associated with the eclipses and the abandonment of the temples. Ethnography and

ethnohistory support this interpretation. We have associated a variety other

astronomical phenomena with monumental sites in coastal valleys of Perú including

1
solstices, lunar standstills, and eclipses. Here we focus on eclipses at the most studied

site, Buena Vista, here.

I. Introduction

The Preceramic archeological site at Buena Vista, located approximately 40 km

north of Lima, Perú (11°43'49.68" S 76°58'6.97"W), was constructed with numerous

astronomical orientations (Benfer and Adkins 2008; Adkins and Benfer 2009; Benfer

2011, 2012; 2013; Benfer et al 2010; Benfer et al. 2014). Although other

archaeologists had mentioned Buena Vista (Villar Cordova 1935, Ludeña R. 1975, De

Silva 1996, Dolfus 1960), it was Frederic Engel who first identified the site’s

monumental architecture as being from the Late Preceramic Period (Engel 1987). The

total occupation spans the interval from a median rounded radiocarbon date of a

midden of 6590 BC (radiocarbon date 7750 BP +/- 100; Calib Rev. 7.1) to an Inca

road. Buena Vista was an optimal location for early farmers. It is one of two locations

in the Chillón River Valley where water in the river year flows year around and so was

available for irrigation. It is an ideal location for growing cotton, most valuable for

nets, and coca, whose leaves became available for mastication and ritual offerings

after being introduced sometime after 2000 BC.

2
 We present the probable association of a cluster of total eclipses of the sun

associated with the radio-carbon dated abandonments of Late Preceramic and

Formative special structures in the site

RESULTS: Architecture

Although we made test excavations throughout the site, we investigated three principle

three mounds intensively (M-I, M-II, M-III). (Fig. 1). A map of all architecture of the

site is presented elsewhere (Benfer 2012: Fig. 1). The mounds contain four special

contexts discussed here (Fig. 2).

M-I

1. The Temple of the Fox. We excavated a structure we named the Temple of the Fox. It has an

incised fox in the exit to a recessed temple. The temple atop a 11 m tall stepped mound (Benfer and

Adkins 2009) contained a semi-subterranean chamber, identified as an offering table by the small

hearth found on its floor, presumably for repeated liquid and burned offerings to the earth (Benfer et

al. 2010: Fig. 13), The entire chamber was filled to the brim in one last ceremony that we have

interpreted as a feast (Duncan et al. 2009; Fig. 1A). However, some items from the chamber's last use

are more often associated with offerings, such as two bone pins, a circle of shells, and layers of

pebbles (Fig. 2A and 2B)., Such a layering of pebbles, an ushnu, has that connotation among

contemporary indigenous people of the central Andes (Pino-Matos 2005) above Buena Vista. These

layers were found in the chamber of the Temple of the Fox and the Recinto, another chamber, to be

discussed below. Nonetheeless, ehnobotannical analysis indicated that the debris that filled it was

3
primarily from inedible portions of food items, suggesting a celebration, not a feast (Duncan et al.

2006),

Figure 1: A: Mound M - 1; B: M - II and M - III;

Contexts 1 - 4

4
Figure 2: A Profie and B Photograph of Chamber of Temple of the Fox; C
Menacing Disk Formerly Gazing through Entryway to June Solstice Sunset in
corredor filled by construction of Solstice Chamber; D Solstice Chamber
Receiving Light from December Solstice Sunrise that Brackets Niche (horizontal
shadows are re-bar from roof)
.

The principle stairs of M - I leading up to the Temple of the Fox were oriented to the southern

major lunar standstill over a ridge to the east (Adkins and Benfer 2009). A fox figure was incised into

a painted llama body and wrapped around the left-most jamb of the western exit of the Temple of the

Fox (Adkins and Benfer 2009; Benfer et al. 2011; Sánchez and Benfer 2012),. Fragments of paint on

5
the more deteriorated northern jamb suggest another mural was painted and incised there. The temple

on top was oriented to the rising of the Andean Fox constellation before sunrise on December 21,

2010, when the Chillón river would rise. A fully risen Fox constellation would have been visible after

sunset on March 21, when it would begin to subside (Benfer et al. 2011). Sunrise after the Fox had

risen would have been seen over a rock carved into a human head (Benfer et al. 2011: Fig. 28).

Entering the Fox temple one finds a stepped down offering chamber (Fig. 1A) with a small

hearth at the bottom (Benfer et al. 1999, Fig.14), as is typical of Mito-style temples (Bonnier 1997).

The tradition of Mito temples at Buena Vista and the lower valley Late Preceramic site of El Paraíso, found in

recent excavations by Marco Guillen (personal communication), represents a coastal, Astronomer-Priest

(Benfer et al. 2011) earlier variant of the Kotosh Religious Tradition (Moseley 1992), although many fewer

astronomical associations were found (Burger and Salazar-Burger 1986). The Andean tradition has nnothing

like the complex gallery at Buena Vista (Benfer et al. 2010: Fig. 7) The Kostosh Religious tradition is thought

to have managed by a priestly elite (Moseley1992; Bonnier 1997) whose origin was formerly thought to be to

the north. We named the earlier Buena Vista tradition the Buena Vista Astronomer Priest Tradition to

differentiate it from later traditions less dependent on astronomy in their cosmology. The second Late

Preceramic platform mound, M - II (Fig. 1) excavated produced a very different set of astronomical symbols--a

disk-like sculpture staring at the June solstice sunset (Fig. 2C and D) and a special stone chamber that captured

the June solstice sunrise (Fig. 2E and F). The mud plaster disk flanked by two foxes is the oldest three

dimensional sculpture in the Americas (Benfer and Adkins 2009).

M - II

Context II. The Sculpture of the Menacing Disk. The Menacing Disk painted mud-plaster

sculpture may represent Kon, the first diety (Benfer et al. 2011) or possibly a more local deity; a

similar image in the form of a carved bone was excavated by Frederic Engel and reported by Bishof

(1994) from El Paraíso, another Late Preceramic site in the same valley as Buena Vista. Such images

6
did not become widespread until several thousand years later, in Moche (e.g., Franco et al. 1994,

2001) and Recuay times. In a Recuay site, some statues resemble the Menacing Disk at Buena Vista

(DeLeonardis and Lau 2004, p. 89)

The sculpture is a mud plaster painted disk sculpture with two flanking mythical figures,

foxes. We obtained fiber from its base for radiocarbon determination (Table 2) was constructed

several centuries after the abandonment of the Temple of the Fox. Like the Temple of the Fox, the

Temple of the Menacing Disk marked both the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset,

in its case, with solar round and lunar crescent eyes (Benfer 2012).

Context 3. The Solstice Chamber. The chamber is located in a sealed entryway to the Disk (Fig. 2C

-D). We noticed that the angle by which light could enter from above corresponded to the altitude of

the ridge to the east (Fig 2C). The entryway had been opened as if to accept a solar sunrise at 112º

over that ridge, although the Temple of the Menacing Disk was oriented to 114º. Accepting these

measurements as a hypothesis that the function of the chamber was to accept the rays of the

December solstice sunrise into the niche in the chamber, we removed the roof and waited for the

December sunrise. The solstice chamber did function as designed---it captured the image of the rising

solstice sun centered on a niche (Fig. 2D). We dated the structure from fibers in fallen mud plaster

from the roof (Table 1) to a median date of 2000 BC. This dates the abandonment of the chamber,

which we found half-filled with aeolian dust, suggesting it was left open for some time before being

covered over with another floor. Since the chamber sits in a former entryway for the Disk to view the

solstice sunset, it also provides a conservative date for the abandonment of the Disk temple. We

found abundant coca leaves but little else in the dust. Coca leaves are the classical ingredientt for an

Andean offering to mother earth. We present important architectural changes that will be associated

with total solar eclipses.

7
M-III

Context 4. Another temple is found in M-III. It is the Temple of El Paraíso del Valle (Fig. 1), located

down a stairwell below the entryway to the disk. As can be seen from the map. It is a more open

temple with friezes on the wall, a central hearth, and three circular subterranean offering chambers.

Given the symmetry expressed in Late Preceramic sites, a fourth unexposed chamber probably lies

under 5 m of unexcavated fill. Such a temple lends itself to viewers of a ceremony whereas the Fox

and Disk restricted access to a few priests. One round chamber, the most northerly, was excavated

and produced typical offering materials such as coca leaves and bones of a probable Guinea Pig.

An imaginary line to the June solstice sunrise runs from the center of the western entryway of

the Temple del Paraíso, bisects the central hearth (Fig. 1), the center of the stairs up to the Menacing

Disk sculpture, the Solstice Chamber, the center of the Menacing Disk, then continues on to the

center of a platform pecked in the living rock on the ridge to the east, finally crossing a prehistoric

quartz mine. To the west, the disk figure gazed towards the June solstice sunset.

The "Recento" is a rectangular box-like structure also located in M - III (Fig 1 D - E). Itis

about 2 m in depth and was set against a former entry to the plaza of the Temple of El Paraíso del

Valle. It was suubsequentely covered over with a thin floor with early ceramics on the surface. Its

contents (Fig. 1F) resemble those of the chamber of the Temple of the Fox, and they include plants

and sea shells, but also some non-diagnostic ceramics. The presence of large agricultural wooden

tools (Fig. 1E) would not be expected in a feast. The ceramics indicates a later date than the other

contexts, probably deposited some time after 1800 BC when ceramics were first known from this

region (Quilter 2008). We have no radiocarbon date for the Recinto but it must

have been after later than 1730 BC, the last date we associate with M - III, and a date that

would just accommodate the ceramics in the Recinto.

8
 Figure 3: Probability distributions of radiocarbon dates (Calib. 7.0.1) associated with
architectural events and eclipse dates.

GX- Offering Chamber, Temple 3790 ± 2467-2022 cal BC 2230 BC Interment of Temple of the Fox in
32177 of the Fox, Level 400, 80 M I; lowest stratum
carbonized twigs below

9
 level of rocks

GX- Offering Chamber, Temple 3770 ± 2461-1878 cal BC 2220 BC Interment of Temple of the Fox in
31276 of the Fox, Level 300, 80 M - I; upper stratum
carbonized tigs below level
of rocks

GX- Temple of the Menacing 3660 ± 2290-1850 cal BC 2040 BC Construction of Temple of the
31920 Disk, plant fibers from mud 90 Menacing Disk in M II
plaster in the base of the
sculpture

UGAMS Solstice light chamber, 3600 ± 2030-1800 cal BC. 1960 BC Abandonment of Temple of the
2685 plant fibers from mud 30 Menacing Disk, followed by
plaster from fallen Construction Solstice Light
fragments of ceiling Chamber in M II

UGAMS Temple of El Paraíso del 3450 ± 1780-1690 cal BC 1760 BC Use of Temple of Paraíso del Valle
3127 Valle, carbonized twigs 25 in M III; hearth offering
from a central hearth in
Level 300

UGAMS Temple of El Paraíso del 3490 ± 1886-1746 cal BC 1820 BC Use of Temple of Paraíso del
3126 Valle, carbonized twigs 25 Valle in M III
from floor, Level 200

UGAMS Temple of El Paraíso del 3420 ± 1770-1660 cal BC 1720 BC Abandonment of Temple of
3129 Valle, carbonized twigs 25 Paraíso del Valle in M III; ultimate fl
from between one floor
and ultimate floor

Table 1. Radiocarbon Dates Buena Vista

Lab # Context 14C Yr Cal. 2-Sigma Yrs. Calibrated Median Architectural Event

Year Julian Time Altitude Azimuth Notes

(BC) Date
2188 23-Jan 10:22 59° 116° Diamond ring

10
2010 1-Jul 16:43 12° 297° Horizon 7"; ~June.
solstice sunset

1975 2-Feb 5:28 17° 252° Horizon 7", ~Dec.

solstice sunset; 99%+
corona, extremely
small sliver of light

1956 2-Aug 4:15 21° 299°

1728 5-May 11:18 26° 64° 99% corona visible:

Horizon 23º; June
solstice sunset

Table 2. Total Solar Eclipses at Buena Vista 2088 BC – 1956 BC;

our calculations
The architectural events described above are associated with radiocarbon dates (Table 1).

RESULTS: Radiocarbon Dates

Due to the breadth of the probability distribution of the calibrated dates, they cannot be

precisely associated with the solar eclipse dates (Table 1), although their median calibrated dates do

tend to associate the eclipses. For example, the median dates of two samples from the Temple of the

Fox, 2230 and 2220, are quite close to the total eclipse date of 2188. Likewise, the Menacing Disk

median date of 2030 and the solstice chamber, which marks the end of the Disk's function of 2000 BC

are both close to the eclipse of 2010. The three dates that mark the end of the function of the Temple

of the El Paraíso del Valle, 1780, 1750, and 1730 BC may have marked the abandonment of the

Temple with the Eclipse of 1728 BC.

The clipses are more securely known than the radiocarbon dates.

RESULTS: Total Solar Eclipses

11
 Five total solar eclipses occurred during the occupation and abandonment of

temples during Late Preceramic occupation of Buena Vista (Table 1). In addition, one

impressive annular eclipse occurred, and although it could have been noted by

projected images from the straw mat roofs we excavated and its brief ring of fire, it

would have been less impressive than the total eclipses. The two eclipses previous to

the first one at Buena Vista, (2188 BC), those of 2250 BC and 2260 BC, were partial

and would not have been so notable.

The date and time of these eclipses were calculated and further verified using the

Starry Night and Stellarium planaterium programs. The Stellarium program had to be

adjusted one year less than our calculated date or that of Starry Night to produce

corresponding results. That five total eclipses (Table 1) occurred within a span of 460

years (1728 BC to 2188 BC) years was an extremely rare cluster (p < 0.02 by

Binomial Expansion. Can it be a coincidence that this cluster coincided with the rise

and fall of monumentality in the Chillón Valley between 2200 BC and 1700 BC

(Benfer 2012)?

Although all of these eclipses (Table 2) were in viewable times, what about ther

view being impeded by fog? The lower central coastal valleys of Perú rarely receives

rain (Buena Vista lies at 450 m amsl). Due to the Andean rain shadow, the Peru

current, and the Walker circulation of air, dense fog occurs between late May and mid-

October at some locations especially in the coastal region, such as Lima, although fog

12
is found at higher elevations at a few locations. In our excavations, we found well

preserved organic materials immediately below the surface in most contexts,

suggesting rain had never seeped through them.

Fog can occur from the early evening to the morning during the Austral winter.

The eclipse is the only one that falls in winter when an eclipse would be less dramatic.

However, a review of Buena Vista Project photos taken over a five-year period show

sharp shadows during virtually every day of excavations in June, July, and August. In

any case, even with fog, a total eclipse would have turned day into night and been a

remarkable spectacle, especially for people who believed there was a constant struggle

between the sun and the moon (Sánchez and Benfer 2012).

Results shown in Figure 2 show that there is a possible association of these

eclipses with architectural events that signaled feasts and/or offerings. Of course, the

broad confidence limits of the radiocarbon dates does not permit a one-to-one

correspondence, but neither do they negate the possibility that strong action was taken

due to solar eclipses, action possibly predictable by the cosmology of people, such as is

known from ethnography, ethnohistory, and art at later sites?

Ethnography and Ethnohistory

In Andean valleys and highlands above the coast, the sun was venerated over the

moon . In the highlands, both eclipses of the sun and moon were times of great fear and

sacrifices for the Incas (Cobo and Hamilton [1653] 1990).

13
 Peruvian coastal peoples, to the contrary, celebrated the eclipse of the sun and

lamented eclipses of the moon, as the extensive review by Eechout shows (1998: 126)

The fox, associated with the moon was an important mythological creature (Itier 1997)

and known from representations at two temples at Buena Vista. The left tail is marked

with a chevron, which Andean mythology says was acquired when it was dipped

during a cataclysmic flood (Steele and Allan 2004, p. 69). ) but coastal tales suggest

the ocean as a source of the streak (Rostoworwski de Diez Canseco 1989). The fox

also brought cultigens and irrigation to the coastal alleys (Salmon and Urioste 1991:

63); Palmira 2003) as well as distant from Cuzco (Pino Matos 2005). The fox myth is

still narrated today among the people of the central Andes (Golte, 2003, p. 185). The

moon was the central figure in an important Moche murial painted about 2,000 years

ago (Franco and Vásquez 2001; Sánchez Garrafa 2012: 122) where he is known as a

moon figure (Bruhns 1976). This figure is represented by pairs of foxes divided by a

central figure, a pattern described below for Buena Vista.

The casting out of shadow by light is one clear continuity between the

cosmology expressed at Buena Vista and that built into the more substantial

architecture of the Inca, who also used the casting out of shadows in their heartland.

The special niched chamber at Buena Vista functioned as a shadow chamber (Fig. 2C),

like the much later long corridors at Llactapata (Malville et al. 2004, p. 17) or niches at

Huánaco Pampa (Pino M. 2005, p. 151), Cuzco (Fink 2009), Incallacta (Hyslop 1990),

14
Ingapirca (Ziólowski and Sadowski 1989, Fig. 8), or other Inca sites (Pino Matos

2005; Dearborn et al. 1987). Zuidema et al. 2008) as well as from ethnohistory

(Guaman Poma de Ayaula [1615] 1956; Fink 2009) and ethnography (Reichel-

Dolmatoff 1990; Krupp 2003). No light chamber is previously known from such an

early context as Buena Vista. A radiocarbon sample, from fibers from mud plaster

collapse inside the instrument, dates the construction of the chamber to a median date

of 2,000 BC. Note the filling of the entryway to the Disk and construction of the

Chamber (Fig. 2C) shifts cosmological interest from the sunset to sunrise (Fig. 2D).

An important source of evidence for whether the abandonments were offerings

or feasts is available from ethnography. In a survey of indigenous peoples immediately

to the north of the Chillón Valley, Pino Matos (2005) found that Ushnu is a term for

smooth pebbles used for liquid offerings. An Ushnu can also be an archtectural feature

that was is still used for offerings to the earth and reckoning of sky events (Staller

20088).

Both the Temple of the Fox chamber and the Temple of the Menacing Disk

Recinto have such layers (Fig. 2A-B and 2E). Although the Temple of the Fox shows

indications of feasting, it, like the Recinto, had shells placed in a niche as if an

offering. The Recinto had both clam and mussel shells, the Fox chamber only mussel

plus small fish bones. The Recinto had Pacay leaves, another common offering but

none were found in the Fox. The ribs of a sea mammal topped the contents of the

15
Recinto but no mammal bones were found in the Fox. We do not have an

ethnobotanical study of the contents of the Recinto so cannot determine whether it was

filled with food item debris or not. So the question of whether the final ceremony was

an offering, feast, or combination, remains open, based on contents alone. The Solstice

Chamber has only evidence of offerings, in the numerous coca leaves found in the dust

in the chamber.

Another source of evidence related to abandonments is the art. We interpret the

Buena Vista art as designed by astronomer priests to represent a lunar-solar cult

(Adkins and Benfer 2009; Benfer et al. 2011). Such a cult could be expected for

peoples whose primary animal protein came from the sea but who farmed cotton

intensively for fishing nets; other cultigens were also of considerable dietary

importance (Duncan et al. 2009).

Two of the temples have fox representations (Benfer and Adkins 2008; Benfer

2012). This is important because, as noted above, the fox is associated with the moon

in South American folklore and prehistory. It's importance to cultivated food and

irrigation is known from ethnohistory, and archaeology. The association with the

moon leads us to consider whether solar eclipses would suggest a feast, as expected

from the joyous reaction known from ethnography.

The evidence here (Tables 1 and 2; Fig. 3)suggests that the Abandonment of the

Temple of the Fox is associated with one or both**** solar eclipses, so we would

16
expect a feast. The ritual reinterment of the Menacing Disk after its construction,

staring at he dark of a sunset, in favor of a chamber that captured the solstice sunrise,

suggests the possibility that the abandonment of the disk and construction of the

solstice chamber might best be interpreted as a lunar phenomenon. There is no

evidence of a feast but evidence of offerings in the chamber. Two total lunar eclipses

occurred in 2016 and 1998 BC, bracketing the solar eclipse of 2010 BC. Recall lunar

eclipses were for coastal peoples times of lamentation.

The filling and sealing of the last chamber, the Recinto, in M - III, could have

been in response to a series of lunar eclipses, which occurred in 1979 BC, 1977 BC,

1958 BC, and 1958 BC, rather than the 1975 BC solar eclipse. However, as Figure 3

shows, there was one solar eclipse, 1728 BC, at the center of the times suggested by

radiocarbon dating (Fig. 3) for the time of abandonment of the Temple of El Paraíso

del Valle. If the mythology of today corresponds to beliefs at the time of abandonment,

then we must accept the solar eclipses as having been more important.

Could eclipses have been predicted by residents of Buena Vistau? The major

lunar standstill, the furthest south of a full moon rise, occurs once every 18.6 years.

The principal stairway to the tope of M - I is oriented to that sunrise over ridge to the

east (Adkins and Benfer 2009). At Buena Vista, in a standstill year, the rising of the

full moon over a rock set on a ridge to the east from the Temple of the Fox or a

17
platform in living stone from the Menacing Disk could warn that near one or both of

the equinoxes, eclipses might occur.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ****REWRITE***

The broad probability distributions of radiocarbon dates do not alone permit the

architectural events to be linked precisely to solar eclipses (Fig. 1A). Likewise the coca

leaves and probably Guinea pig bones in the Solstice chamber, standard offerings, can

not be linked directly to the tight cluster of lunar eclipses that preceded and followed

the solar eclipse of 2010, those of 1998 and which followed so close to the solar

eclipse of 2010..

There is ethnohistoric and ethnographic and archaeological evidence for the

importance of the moon over the sun. At Buena Vista, the images of the Fox and the

orientation of the principle stairway of the principle mound to the Major lunar

standstill argue for the moon's importance. Feasting events were plausibly stimulated

by eclipses of the enemy sun and offerings by eclipses of the moon. The construction

of an the special chamber to capture the December solstice sunrise after covering the

entryway for the June solstice sunset that formerly the disk figure must be related to

lunar or solar eclipses near the date of abandonment since two lunar eclipses (2016 BC

and 1998 BC) and one solar eclipse (2010 BC) occurred close to its closure (median

radiocarbon dates of 2000 and 2030 BC). The shift represented a cosmological one,

from lunar, staring at the gathering darkness, to the solstice sunrise. Further

18
investigation of lunar and solar eclipses associated with offerings and feasts and

architectural and artistic representations of solar and lunar cults is required.

Late Pre-ceramic temples often were ritually covered at closing (Burger and

Salazar-Burger 1986; Quilter 2008). . Ethnography and ethnohistory strongly suggests

there would have been a response to these eclipses. Eclipses may have impelled such

temple abandonment. The alternative hypothesis is that these peculiar architectural

shifts were unrelated to the rare cluster of eclipses. However, a second instance of a

cluster of eclipses associated with a final ceremony has recently been proposed (Benfer

and Ocas 2017), which lends further credence to the interpretations advanced here and

suggests further research into dating archaeological events and investigating whether

they can be linked to eclipses.

However, it is clear that many radiocarbon dates would be necessary to associate

such a date with the precise date of an eclipse.

CONCLUSIONS

1. There is a correspondence with the expected radiocarbon dates and architectural

shifts.

2. Eclipse dates fall within the confidence limits of dates and median values lie close to

eclipses.

3. Both feasts and offerings were probably associated with abandonments stimulated

by the eclipses,

19
4. Costal ethnography and ethnohistory support an expected feast or offering ceremony

with solar or lunar eclipses, although it is possible that both Andean and Coastal

groups were in the vallley, since such a pattern is known from ethnohistory

(Rostwororoski de Diez van Seco 1997). The mark in the two fox figures is described

by the nearby Huarichirí valley source as do to dunking his tail in the ocean.

5. The pattern of four total solar eclipses in 23 years that we have reported elsewhere

(Benfer and Ocas 2017) as probably associated with the final use of a hearth suggests

that eclipses should be investigated wherever there is a datable abandonment, feast, or

offering event.

Although the association of radiocarbon dates and eclipses can never be of high

precision, like Darwin, who argued from analogy of plant and animal breeders to

explain natural selection, we propose that ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources

provide sufficient information for a plausible case. Only a large number of radiocarbon

dates would be definitive.

20
Adkins, L.R. and Benfer, R.A. 2008. "Lunar Standstill Markers at Preceramic

Temples at the Buena Vista Site in Peru." Cosmology Across Cultures,

Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, 409: 267-271.

Benfer, Robert A. and Andrés Ocas 2017. "A Prehistoric Pyramid in the Shape of a

Volcanic Cinder Cone, Nepeñ a Valley, Perú ." Archaeology Gallery, 90. June.

Benfer, Robert A. 2012. "Monumental Architecture Arising from an Early

Astronomical/Religious Complex in Perú ." In The Origins of New World

Monumentality, edited by R.M. Rosenswig and R. L. Burger, 313-363.

Gainesville, University of Florida Press.

Benfer, Robert A. and Larry R. Adkins 2008. "The Americas Oldest Observatory."

Astronomy Magazine 35:40-43.

Benfer, Robert, Louanna Furbee and Hugo Ludeñ a R. 2011. "Four-Thousand

Years of the Myth of the Fox in South America." Journal of Cosmology, 16

(http://journalofcosmology.com/AncientAstronomy120.html),

Bonnier, Elizabeth 1997. Preceramic Architecture in the Andes: The Mito

Tradition. In Archaeological Peruana 2, Prehispanic Architecture and

Civilization in the Andes, edited by E. Bonnier and H. Bishop, pp. 120<n>144,

Mannheim , Mueso de Mannheim

21
Bruhns, K. 1976. The Moon Animal in Northern Peruvian Art and Culture. Ñawpa

Pacha 14, 21-39.

Burger, R., Salazar‐Burger, L. 1986. Early Organizational Diversity in the Peruvian

Highlands: Huaricoto and Kotosh, In: Matos, R., Turpin, S. A., Eling, H. H.

(Eds.), Andean Archaeology: Papers in Memory of Clifford Evans, Institute of

Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, pp. 65‐82. Andean

Archaeology: Papers in Memory of Clifford Evans, Institute of Archaeology,

University of California, Los Angeles, pp. 65‐82.

Duncan, N.A., Pearsall, D.M., and Benfer, R.A. 2009. "Gourd and Squash Artifacts

Yield Starch Grains of Feasting Foods from Preceramic Peru." Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences, 196:13202-13206.

Eeckhout, P. 1998. "La renarde yunga: une figure symbolique préhispanique." Revista

Españolade Antropología Americana, 28, 119-148, Madrid.

Franco, Régulo, C. Gálvez, and Segunda Vásquez 2001. La Huaca Cao Viejo, en el

Complejo El Brujo: una Contribución al Estudio de los Mochicas en el Valle de

Chicama. Arqueológicas 2: 122-173, Lima.Andines 79, Lima.

Golte, J. (2003). Divinidades femininas Moche. Anuario de Ciencias de la Religión:

Las Religiónes en el Perú de Hoy (UNMSM, Lima,) pp. 165-220.

22
Guaman Pomo de Ayala [1615) (Roland Hamilton, trs.). The First New Chronicle and

Good Government: On the History of the World and the Incas up to 1615.

University of Texas Press: Austin.

Henry, Liz 2016. Skyscape Archaeology: An Emerging Interdisciplne for

Archaeoastronomers and Archaeologists. Journal of Physics: Conference Series

68 5(http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/685/1/012003/pdf).

Itier, C. 1977. El Zorro del cielo: Un mito sobre el orígen de las plantas cultivadas y

los intercambios con el mundo sobrenatural. Bulletin de l’Institut Français

d’Études Andines, (Lima), 26, 307-346.

Moseley, M. E 1992. The Incas and Their Ancestors. London:Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Palmira La Riva. 2003. La renard mutilé, le renard ēclaté: Répresentations de la

fertileté dans les Andes du sud de Pérou, Ethnographies du Cuzco, Atelier

25:17-39.

Pino-Matos, JL 2005. El Ushnuˆy la Organización Espacial Astronómica en la Sierra

Central del Chinchasuyu. Estudias Atacameños 29: 143-161.

Quilter, Jeffrey 2008. The Ancient Central Andes. Routledge: NY.

Régulo F., Gálvez, C., Mora, and S. Vásquez, S., 2001. La Huaca Cao Viejo en el

Complejo El Brujo: Una Contribucion al Estudio de los Mochicas en el Valle de

Chicama. Arqueológicas 25: 122-173.

23
Rostworowski, María 1997. Costal Peruan Prehispánica: Obras Completas III. Lima:

Historía Andina 26, IEP Ediciones.

Salomon, F., Urioste, G. L. (Eds.)

1991 The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of

Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Sánchez Garrafa, R. (2008). El Zorro entre los Mundos. Revista Tupac Yawri N°1.

Atoq Editores, Cuzco.

Sánchez, Rudólfo and Robert A. Benfer 2012. Revalaciones Simbólicas del

Precerámico El Antoniano 22: 41-54.

Staller, John Edward 2008 Dimensions of place: The Significance of Centers in the

Development of Andean Civilization: An Exploration of the Ushnu Concept IN

Pre-Columbian Landscapes of Creation and Origin, Ed. By John Edward Staller,

pp. 315-357, New York:Springer.

Steele, P. R., Allen, C. J. (2004) Handbook of Inca Mythology. ABC-CLIO, Santa

Barbara, CA.

24