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The impressive construction of sites during the years AD 900 - 1200 in the four corners area of the US holds many mysteries. The people who inhabited these sites for over 13 generations had no written language. They also left behind very few grave sites, and the trash heaps that might suggest facts about daily life consist mostly of broken pots. The breaking of pots occurred during certain rituals. It appears that hardly anybody actually lived in these fantastic sites, which seem to have been built for ritualistic purposes exclusively.

What we do have, and what archeologists spend their careers on, is the geographical layout of these sites. They were meticulously planned around the apparent motions of the sun and the moon. The relationship among sites, and features within them, are closely coordinated with the rising and setting of the sun at the solstices and equinoxes. Since these locations on the horizon can be found annually, it would be possible to gather relevant positioning information over a few years. More amazing is that some of these sites are miles apart and separated by rugged terrain, yet they are laid out in relation to each other with great accuracy.

Even more amazing is that some sites are arranged to fit the rising and setting of the moon at the end of its 18.6 year cycle, during which the angle of the moon’s orbit appears to change in relation to the equator. It would take a lifetime of observation to determine these locations. Even knowing of the periodic existence of this annual “wandering” of the moon would require a lot of keen observation.