The hidden patterns of America's first temples: Ancient Pueblo people built geometric structures despite having no written language or number system
- The sophisticated structures were found at Sun Temple, built around AD 1200
- The Southwestern Pueblo people had no written language or number system
- But, site has equilateral triangles, squares, and 45-degree right triangles
- It also contains Pythagorean triangles and the common 'Golden rectangle'
Hundreds of years ago, the ancient Southwestern Pueblo people built complex geometric structures with near-perfect accuracy, creating equilateral triangles, 45-degree right triangles, and even the ‘Golden rectangle.’
And, they did it all without writing any numbers down.
At the Sun Temple archaeological site in Colorado, constructed around AD 1200, researchers discovered a slew of sophisticated shapes that are still familiar today, revealing architectural ‘genius’ that they say would be almost impossible to replicate.
At the Sun Temple archaeological site in Colorado, constructed around AD 1200, researchers have discovered a slew of sophisticated shapes that are still familiar today, revealing architectural ‘genius’ that they say would be almost impossible to replicate
The remarkable structures were uncovered by a professor at Arizona State University, who spent years studying the site in Mesa Verde National Park.
‘The site is known to have been an important focus of ceremony in the region for the ancestral Pueblo peoples, including solstice observations,’ said Dr Sherry Towers, a professor with the ASU Simon A. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center.
‘My original interest in the site involved looking at whether it was used for observing stars as well.’
Upon closer examination, the researcher began to notice patterns in the layout and architecture.
‘I noticed in my site survey that the same measurements kept popping up over and over again,’ she says.
‘When I saw that the layout of the site’s key features also involved many geometrical shapes, I decided to take a closer look.’
Some of these same constructs were also found in Pueblo Bonito, another ancestral Pueblo ceremonial site in new Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historic Park (pictured)
Further study revealed a number of known geometrical shapes: equilateral triangles, squares, 45-degree right triangles, and Pythagorean triangles.
The site even held the ‘Golden rectangle’ – a shape with ‘pleasing proportions’ that was commonly used by architects in ancient Greece and Egypt, and in Western art.
While the Greeks and Egyptians had written language and number systems to their aid, the Pueblo people did not.
Still, they were able to build the complex structures with measurements that have a relative error of less than one percent.
‘This is what I find especially amazing,’ Towers says. 'The genius of the site’s architects cannot be underestimated.
Hundreds of years ago, the ancient Southwestern Pueblo people built complex geometric structures with near-perfect accuracy. They have been found at Sun Temple in Colorado, and Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico
'If you asked someone today to try and reconstruct this site and achieve the same precision that they had using just a stick and a piece of cord, it’s highly unlikely they’d be able to do it, especially if they couldn’t write anything down as they were working.’
The researcher also noted that the site relies on a common unit of measurement, which equals just over 30 centimeters in length (about a modern-day foot).
Some of these same constructs were also found in Pueblo Bonito, another ancestral Pueblo ceremonial site in New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historic Park.
‘Further study is needed to see if that site also has the same common unit of measurement,’ Towers says.
‘It’s a task that will keep us busy for some years to come.’
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