Abstract Archaeoastronomical studies accomplished in recent decades have revealed that the important civic and ceremonial buildings in the Maya area and elsewhere in Mesoamerica were oriented on astronomical grounds. The dates recorded by solar orientations, which prevail, and the intervening intervals composed easily manageable observational calendars that facilitated the planning of agricultural and related ceremonial activities in the yearly cycle. Here we argue that the orientations of several major buildings we measured at the archaeological site of El Palmar, Campeche, Mexico, either in the field or on visualizations of the lidar-derived relief model, reflect the same principles because they belong to widespread solar alignment groups previously identified in the Maya Lowlands. We also present ethnographic and ethnohistorical evidence that supports our interpretations. In addition, our results show that the orientations of more than a hundred minor structures in a broader area of El Palmar conform to those of major buildings, indicating that even less important structures reproduced, although approximately, the astronomically functional alignments. Along with several other Mesoamerican sites and areas where such emulations have been observed, the case of El Palmar demonstrates that the astronomically and cosmologically significant directions materialized in the built environment allow us to understand some prominent aspects of pre-Hispanic cultural landscapes.
Šprajc et al. (Tue,) studied this question.