The Las Labradas Petroglyphs are directly on the west coast of Mexico
at the GPS coordinates 23°37'12.60"N 106°46'05.35W. Las Labradas is
directly across from the southern tip of the Baja peninsula, Mexico,
which is divided into the Mexican States of Baja California (the north
State) and Baja Sur California (the south State), with the most
southerly point at Cabo San Lucas.
Near the southern tip of Baja Sur California, Mexico, near Punta San Cristóbal, we find the "Balanced Rock" in the desert at 22°58'31.76"N 110°2'53.19"W. See that link for a photograph. We have no way to be sure whether this is ancient or modern. We presume it was intended to mark the Tropic of Cancer (ca. 23.5°) where the Sun is directly overhead on the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a location which is not totally fixed by degree and decimal but can vary slightly over eras and inter alia passes through the following locations in Mexico: "States of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas". There is no information available online about the "Balanced Rock", other than that one online photograph, but the rock is right on a line we discuss in the next posting. That could be chance or not. We leave it to the archaeologists to tell us when that rock was put there.
As written at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), here in the Google translation from Spanish: "[Las Labradas] is located in the cultural Piaxtla River subregion, which comprises a portion of the central area of the state of Sinaloa; delimited transversely from the Presidio River to the St. Lawrence River and longitudinally, by the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Pacific Ocean; in the southern state of Sinaloa; on the coast of the Pacific Ocean 51 kilometers north of the city of Mazatlan and 29 kilometers north of the Tropic of Cancer." [emphasis added] That is pretty close for the ancients.
If we have correctly identified the cave painting at Burgos Municipality, Tamaulipas, Mexico as marking the stars of Taurus and Orion, then Las Labradas can logically only be Canis Major and its neighboring stars in the astronomical system that we have been revealing posting by posting.
Nevertheless, Las Labradas is more complicated than expected because the many stones and petroglyphs located there are on volcanic rocks on the beach, right on the water, and some apparently stem from different eras, also showing various styles typical to their era. Maybe the ancients marked the Summer Solstice here periodically, being essentially right on the Tropic of Cancer, for which the Summer Solstice was the main event.
For the stars of Canis Major, the bright star Sirius is the focus of a group of petroglyphs on one stone because we think it marked the Summer Solstice in the era around 1000 A.D., but on other stones the lower three stars of Canis Major seem to be focused as prominent, and they marked the Summer Solstice ca. 300 A.D. It just depends on where you draw the line. If you draw the line between the bottom stars of Canis Major and the "foot" of Puppis, discussed below, then you have something like 300 B.C. There should be older stones too.
Our focus here is not to concentrate on fixing dates, but rather to show which stars are represented by the petroglyphs. As more and more rocks at Las Labradas are deciphered, it will become more and more clear what the correct dates are. Right now, we do not know for all the stones. Only for some.
The Summer Solstice line in ca. 300 B.C. ran between the three bright lower stars of Canis Major and the here smaller than sometimes portrayed "foot" shape formed by the stars of Puppis to the left. That Solstice line might be marked by the arrow-shaped petroglyph between them.
To the left of Canis Major, there is a kind of hole or clearing in the Milky Way which has viz. is given the shape of a human foot, e.g in the Milton D. Heifetz Precession of the Equinoxes Historical Planisphere, that -- in spite of some divergence from our Starry Night Pro astronomy software -- we use for quick reference. Also the stars in and around that foot appear to be represented in Las Labradas petroglyphs, as in the stone deciphered below.
See, for example, Junk Boat Travels for a photograph of the stone portrayed in our illustration above.
And here a bit of etymology for fun, which is not critical for the foregoing analysis. Recall, researchers are still looking for the origin of Haplogroup X in Native America. We mention this because we have another ancient site, to be discussed later, which has a similar name confluence, in that case in Scotland.
The founding of the city of Culiacán is traditionally placed in the year 1531 as San Miguel de Culiacán, but of course the word Culiacán was by no means of Spanish origin. Indeed, it is known that an Indian settlement existed at that location already nearly 1000 years previous. Indeed, one can note that Sinaloa has retained the game ulama (Ōllamaliztli), pointing to ancient connections in Meso-America (Olmecs). Were they the original surveyors?
We think that the city of Culia-cán, contrary to its modern folk etymology (see the Wikipedia for that), could take its name from a similar origin as the mythical Irish Cú Chulainn, i.e. the "can-ine of Chulainn", i.e. "hound of Chulainn", so that the original "Culia-can" might also mean "hound of Culia", i.e. a variant form of the same word. CANis Major is long has been the large "hound" of the heavens near one traditional "end" of the Milky Way, as portrayed by ancient sources.
THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 15 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America
Las Labradas Petroglyphs Baja California Sur Mexico Balanced Rock Mark Tropic of Cancer Summer Solstice Canis Major and Surrounding Stars in Different Eras
Near the southern tip of Baja Sur California, Mexico, near Punta San Cristóbal, we find the "Balanced Rock" in the desert at 22°58'31.76"N 110°2'53.19"W. See that link for a photograph. We have no way to be sure whether this is ancient or modern. We presume it was intended to mark the Tropic of Cancer (ca. 23.5°) where the Sun is directly overhead on the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a location which is not totally fixed by degree and decimal but can vary slightly over eras and inter alia passes through the following locations in Mexico: "States of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas". There is no information available online about the "Balanced Rock", other than that one online photograph, but the rock is right on a line we discuss in the next posting. That could be chance or not. We leave it to the archaeologists to tell us when that rock was put there.
As written at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), here in the Google translation from Spanish: "[Las Labradas] is located in the cultural Piaxtla River subregion, which comprises a portion of the central area of the state of Sinaloa; delimited transversely from the Presidio River to the St. Lawrence River and longitudinally, by the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Pacific Ocean; in the southern state of Sinaloa; on the coast of the Pacific Ocean 51 kilometers north of the city of Mazatlan and 29 kilometers north of the Tropic of Cancer." [emphasis added] That is pretty close for the ancients.
If we have correctly identified the cave painting at Burgos Municipality, Tamaulipas, Mexico as marking the stars of Taurus and Orion, then Las Labradas can logically only be Canis Major and its neighboring stars in the astronomical system that we have been revealing posting by posting.
Nevertheless, Las Labradas is more complicated than expected because the many stones and petroglyphs located there are on volcanic rocks on the beach, right on the water, and some apparently stem from different eras, also showing various styles typical to their era. Maybe the ancients marked the Summer Solstice here periodically, being essentially right on the Tropic of Cancer, for which the Summer Solstice was the main event.
For the stars of Canis Major, the bright star Sirius is the focus of a group of petroglyphs on one stone because we think it marked the Summer Solstice in the era around 1000 A.D., but on other stones the lower three stars of Canis Major seem to be focused as prominent, and they marked the Summer Solstice ca. 300 A.D. It just depends on where you draw the line. If you draw the line between the bottom stars of Canis Major and the "foot" of Puppis, discussed below, then you have something like 300 B.C. There should be older stones too.
Our focus here is not to concentrate on fixing dates, but rather to show which stars are represented by the petroglyphs. As more and more rocks at Las Labradas are deciphered, it will become more and more clear what the correct dates are. Right now, we do not know for all the stones. Only for some.
CANIS MAJOR and SIRIUS at the SUMMER SOLSTICE
(we marked 750 A.D. because of various "pointers" in the petroglyphs
(we marked 750 A.D. because of various "pointers" in the petroglyphs
but ca. 1000 A.D. Sirius marked the Summer Solstice exactly)
The Three Bright Lower Stars of Canis Major
possibly at the Summer Solstice ca. 300 B.C.
The Summer Solstice line in ca. 300 B.C. ran between the three bright lower stars of Canis Major and the here smaller than sometimes portrayed "foot" shape formed by the stars of Puppis to the left. That Solstice line might be marked by the arrow-shaped petroglyph between them.
To the left of Canis Major, there is a kind of hole or clearing in the Milky Way which has viz. is given the shape of a human foot, e.g in the Milton D. Heifetz Precession of the Equinoxes Historical Planisphere, that -- in spite of some divergence from our Starry Night Pro astronomy software -- we use for quick reference. Also the stars in and around that foot appear to be represented in Las Labradas petroglyphs, as in the stone deciphered below.
The "Foot" Stars of Puppis to the left of Canis Major
And here a bit of etymology for fun, which is not critical for the foregoing analysis. Recall, researchers are still looking for the origin of Haplogroup X in Native America. We mention this because we have another ancient site, to be discussed later, which has a similar name confluence, in that case in Scotland.
The founding of the city of Culiacán is traditionally placed in the year 1531 as San Miguel de Culiacán, but of course the word Culiacán was by no means of Spanish origin. Indeed, it is known that an Indian settlement existed at that location already nearly 1000 years previous. Indeed, one can note that Sinaloa has retained the game ulama (Ōllamaliztli), pointing to ancient connections in Meso-America (Olmecs). Were they the original surveyors?
We think that the city of Culia-cán, contrary to its modern folk etymology (see the Wikipedia for that), could take its name from a similar origin as the mythical Irish Cú Chulainn, i.e. the "can-ine of Chulainn", i.e. "hound of Chulainn", so that the original "Culia-can" might also mean "hound of Culia", i.e. a variant form of the same word. CANis Major is long has been the large "hound" of the heavens near one traditional "end" of the Milky Way, as portrayed by ancient sources.
THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 15 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America
Las Labradas Petroglyphs Baja California Sur Mexico Balanced Rock Mark Tropic of Cancer Summer Solstice Canis Major and Surrounding Stars in Different Eras
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