Did pre-Columbian Americans know the spherical shape of the Earth? Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara Planned maintenance scheduled April 23, 2019 at 23:30 UTC (7:30pm US/Eastern)How much did we know about heredity pre-Mendel?What did Native Americans know, or speculate, about the Old world?What, if anything, did Native Americans know about the rest of the world?Did Native-Americans Have Horses?How did pre-Columbian Americans shear their alpacas?How did the mortality of the Native Americans happen?Why did Pre-Columbian Americans not build city walls?Pre-columbus, what tools did Native Americans use to shave their heads and faces?Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?Apart from the Inuit, and candlefish on the northwest coast, did pre-Columbian America have lamps or candles?
If Windows 7 doesn't support WSL, then what is "Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications"?
Can you force honesty by using the Speak with Dead and Zone of Truth spells together?
What are the main differences between the original Stargate SG-1 and the Final Cut edition?
Why is std::move not [[nodiscard]] in C++20?
As a dual citizen, my US passport will expire one day after traveling to the US. Will this work?
Simple Http Server
How can a team of shapeshifters communicate?
New Order #6: Easter Egg
Is it dangerous to install hacking tools on my private linux machine?
What is the origin of 落第?
Why do early math courses focus on the cross sections of a cone and not on other 3D objects?
Asymptotics question
Weaponising the Grasp-at-a-Distance spell
Getting out of while loop on console
Sally's older brother
The test team as an enemy of development? And how can this be avoided?
Tips to organize LaTeX presentations for a semester
Putting class ranking in CV, but against dept guidelines
Resize vertical bars (absolute-value symbols)
Can an iPhone 7 be made to function as a NFC Tag?
Trying to understand entropy as a novice in thermodynamics
What is the "studentd" process?
Caught masturbating at work
AppleTVs create a chatty alternate WiFi network
Did pre-Columbian Americans know the spherical shape of the Earth?
Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara
Planned maintenance scheduled April 23, 2019 at 23:30 UTC (7:30pm US/Eastern)How much did we know about heredity pre-Mendel?What did Native Americans know, or speculate, about the Old world?What, if anything, did Native Americans know about the rest of the world?Did Native-Americans Have Horses?How did pre-Columbian Americans shear their alpacas?How did the mortality of the Native Americans happen?Why did Pre-Columbian Americans not build city walls?Pre-columbus, what tools did Native Americans use to shave their heads and faces?Did medieval scholars believe the Earth was round?Apart from the Inuit, and candlefish on the northwest coast, did pre-Columbian America have lamps or candles?
The Maya are known for their astronomy and mathematics, most notably their famous calculation of the length of a year. I was surprised to learn that they supported a flat Earth model, though to be fair, a spherical Earth wasn't yet fully accepted in the Old World, either.
Do we know if other pre-Columbian societies knew the true shape of the Earth? It doesn't look like there's much research on this topic, which is maybe not surprising given the lack of written records. I'm interested in knowing what oral tradition says about this. In any case, you don't need advanced technology to discover that the Earth is a sphere, and the conclusion may have been reached independently many times in Eurasia.
science native-americans geography history-of-ideas precolumbian-era
New contributor
add a comment |
The Maya are known for their astronomy and mathematics, most notably their famous calculation of the length of a year. I was surprised to learn that they supported a flat Earth model, though to be fair, a spherical Earth wasn't yet fully accepted in the Old World, either.
Do we know if other pre-Columbian societies knew the true shape of the Earth? It doesn't look like there's much research on this topic, which is maybe not surprising given the lack of written records. I'm interested in knowing what oral tradition says about this. In any case, you don't need advanced technology to discover that the Earth is a sphere, and the conclusion may have been reached independently many times in Eurasia.
science native-americans geography history-of-ideas precolumbian-era
New contributor
add a comment |
The Maya are known for their astronomy and mathematics, most notably their famous calculation of the length of a year. I was surprised to learn that they supported a flat Earth model, though to be fair, a spherical Earth wasn't yet fully accepted in the Old World, either.
Do we know if other pre-Columbian societies knew the true shape of the Earth? It doesn't look like there's much research on this topic, which is maybe not surprising given the lack of written records. I'm interested in knowing what oral tradition says about this. In any case, you don't need advanced technology to discover that the Earth is a sphere, and the conclusion may have been reached independently many times in Eurasia.
science native-americans geography history-of-ideas precolumbian-era
New contributor
The Maya are known for their astronomy and mathematics, most notably their famous calculation of the length of a year. I was surprised to learn that they supported a flat Earth model, though to be fair, a spherical Earth wasn't yet fully accepted in the Old World, either.
Do we know if other pre-Columbian societies knew the true shape of the Earth? It doesn't look like there's much research on this topic, which is maybe not surprising given the lack of written records. I'm interested in knowing what oral tradition says about this. In any case, you don't need advanced technology to discover that the Earth is a sphere, and the conclusion may have been reached independently many times in Eurasia.
science native-americans geography history-of-ideas precolumbian-era
science native-americans geography history-of-ideas precolumbian-era
New contributor
New contributor
New contributor
asked 1 hour ago
ObusObus
91
91
New contributor
New contributor
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Firstly, it is important to be aware that our understanding of the civilisations and culture of Pre-Columbian America is far from complete. Secondly, I don't propose to attempt to cover every civilisation, so this will - at best - be only a partial answer.
However, with those caveats:
As far as I am aware, we have no evidence that any pre-Columbian cultures or civilisations knew the true shape of the Earth. All the evidence we do have supports the idea that they all supported a flat-Earth model. What is more, there seems to be a considerable degree of overlap in the cosmologies of the major civilisations.
Aztec:
The Aztecs believed that the Earth had the approximate shape of a giant disk. That disk was divided into four cardinal directions. Above the Earth were 13 heavens, while below the Earth were the 'nine Hells of Mictlan'.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Miguel León Portilla: Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind
Maya:
The Mayans also believed that 13 heavens were stacked in layers above the Earth. The Earth itself was flat and four-cornered, and carried on the back of a giant reptile (probably a crocodile) which was, in turn,floating on the ocean. Below the Earth were nine underworlds once again.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Canadian Museum of History
Inca:
The Inca called their land "Tahuantinsuyu" which (according to the course notes for Lecture 4 of Astronomy 161 at Ohio State) means "The Four Quarters of the Earth". This suggests that they had similar views to those of the Aztec and the Maya. In his paper Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe, Gary Urton observed:
"... the celestial River is believed to carry into the sky the actual water which flows through the Vilcanota River. As the Vilcanota River flows from the southeast to the northwest, it carries terrestrial water to the edge of the earth. The water then flows into the mar, the cosmic sea, which completely encircles the earth.
- p 111 (my emphasis)
Again, this suggests that the Inca also believed that the Earth was flat and four-cornered.
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "324"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);
else
createEditor();
);
function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);
);
Obus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f52223%2fdid-pre-columbian-americans-know-the-spherical-shape-of-the-earth%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Firstly, it is important to be aware that our understanding of the civilisations and culture of Pre-Columbian America is far from complete. Secondly, I don't propose to attempt to cover every civilisation, so this will - at best - be only a partial answer.
However, with those caveats:
As far as I am aware, we have no evidence that any pre-Columbian cultures or civilisations knew the true shape of the Earth. All the evidence we do have supports the idea that they all supported a flat-Earth model. What is more, there seems to be a considerable degree of overlap in the cosmologies of the major civilisations.
Aztec:
The Aztecs believed that the Earth had the approximate shape of a giant disk. That disk was divided into four cardinal directions. Above the Earth were 13 heavens, while below the Earth were the 'nine Hells of Mictlan'.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Miguel León Portilla: Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind
Maya:
The Mayans also believed that 13 heavens were stacked in layers above the Earth. The Earth itself was flat and four-cornered, and carried on the back of a giant reptile (probably a crocodile) which was, in turn,floating on the ocean. Below the Earth were nine underworlds once again.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Canadian Museum of History
Inca:
The Inca called their land "Tahuantinsuyu" which (according to the course notes for Lecture 4 of Astronomy 161 at Ohio State) means "The Four Quarters of the Earth". This suggests that they had similar views to those of the Aztec and the Maya. In his paper Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe, Gary Urton observed:
"... the celestial River is believed to carry into the sky the actual water which flows through the Vilcanota River. As the Vilcanota River flows from the southeast to the northwest, it carries terrestrial water to the edge of the earth. The water then flows into the mar, the cosmic sea, which completely encircles the earth.
- p 111 (my emphasis)
Again, this suggests that the Inca also believed that the Earth was flat and four-cornered.
add a comment |
Firstly, it is important to be aware that our understanding of the civilisations and culture of Pre-Columbian America is far from complete. Secondly, I don't propose to attempt to cover every civilisation, so this will - at best - be only a partial answer.
However, with those caveats:
As far as I am aware, we have no evidence that any pre-Columbian cultures or civilisations knew the true shape of the Earth. All the evidence we do have supports the idea that they all supported a flat-Earth model. What is more, there seems to be a considerable degree of overlap in the cosmologies of the major civilisations.
Aztec:
The Aztecs believed that the Earth had the approximate shape of a giant disk. That disk was divided into four cardinal directions. Above the Earth were 13 heavens, while below the Earth were the 'nine Hells of Mictlan'.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Miguel León Portilla: Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind
Maya:
The Mayans also believed that 13 heavens were stacked in layers above the Earth. The Earth itself was flat and four-cornered, and carried on the back of a giant reptile (probably a crocodile) which was, in turn,floating on the ocean. Below the Earth were nine underworlds once again.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Canadian Museum of History
Inca:
The Inca called their land "Tahuantinsuyu" which (according to the course notes for Lecture 4 of Astronomy 161 at Ohio State) means "The Four Quarters of the Earth". This suggests that they had similar views to those of the Aztec and the Maya. In his paper Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe, Gary Urton observed:
"... the celestial River is believed to carry into the sky the actual water which flows through the Vilcanota River. As the Vilcanota River flows from the southeast to the northwest, it carries terrestrial water to the edge of the earth. The water then flows into the mar, the cosmic sea, which completely encircles the earth.
- p 111 (my emphasis)
Again, this suggests that the Inca also believed that the Earth was flat and four-cornered.
add a comment |
Firstly, it is important to be aware that our understanding of the civilisations and culture of Pre-Columbian America is far from complete. Secondly, I don't propose to attempt to cover every civilisation, so this will - at best - be only a partial answer.
However, with those caveats:
As far as I am aware, we have no evidence that any pre-Columbian cultures or civilisations knew the true shape of the Earth. All the evidence we do have supports the idea that they all supported a flat-Earth model. What is more, there seems to be a considerable degree of overlap in the cosmologies of the major civilisations.
Aztec:
The Aztecs believed that the Earth had the approximate shape of a giant disk. That disk was divided into four cardinal directions. Above the Earth were 13 heavens, while below the Earth were the 'nine Hells of Mictlan'.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Miguel León Portilla: Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind
Maya:
The Mayans also believed that 13 heavens were stacked in layers above the Earth. The Earth itself was flat and four-cornered, and carried on the back of a giant reptile (probably a crocodile) which was, in turn,floating on the ocean. Below the Earth were nine underworlds once again.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Canadian Museum of History
Inca:
The Inca called their land "Tahuantinsuyu" which (according to the course notes for Lecture 4 of Astronomy 161 at Ohio State) means "The Four Quarters of the Earth". This suggests that they had similar views to those of the Aztec and the Maya. In his paper Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe, Gary Urton observed:
"... the celestial River is believed to carry into the sky the actual water which flows through the Vilcanota River. As the Vilcanota River flows from the southeast to the northwest, it carries terrestrial water to the edge of the earth. The water then flows into the mar, the cosmic sea, which completely encircles the earth.
- p 111 (my emphasis)
Again, this suggests that the Inca also believed that the Earth was flat and four-cornered.
Firstly, it is important to be aware that our understanding of the civilisations and culture of Pre-Columbian America is far from complete. Secondly, I don't propose to attempt to cover every civilisation, so this will - at best - be only a partial answer.
However, with those caveats:
As far as I am aware, we have no evidence that any pre-Columbian cultures or civilisations knew the true shape of the Earth. All the evidence we do have supports the idea that they all supported a flat-Earth model. What is more, there seems to be a considerable degree of overlap in the cosmologies of the major civilisations.
Aztec:
The Aztecs believed that the Earth had the approximate shape of a giant disk. That disk was divided into four cardinal directions. Above the Earth were 13 heavens, while below the Earth were the 'nine Hells of Mictlan'.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Miguel León Portilla: Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind
Maya:
The Mayans also believed that 13 heavens were stacked in layers above the Earth. The Earth itself was flat and four-cornered, and carried on the back of a giant reptile (probably a crocodile) which was, in turn,floating on the ocean. Below the Earth were nine underworlds once again.
- Encyclopedia Britannica 'Pre-Columbian civilizations'
- Canadian Museum of History
Inca:
The Inca called their land "Tahuantinsuyu" which (according to the course notes for Lecture 4 of Astronomy 161 at Ohio State) means "The Four Quarters of the Earth". This suggests that they had similar views to those of the Aztec and the Maya. In his paper Animals and Astronomy in the Quechua Universe, Gary Urton observed:
"... the celestial River is believed to carry into the sky the actual water which flows through the Vilcanota River. As the Vilcanota River flows from the southeast to the northwest, it carries terrestrial water to the edge of the earth. The water then flows into the mar, the cosmic sea, which completely encircles the earth.
- p 111 (my emphasis)
Again, this suggests that the Inca also believed that the Earth was flat and four-cornered.
edited 58 mins ago
answered 1 hour ago
sempaiscuba♦sempaiscuba
55.1k6188237
55.1k6188237
add a comment |
add a comment |
Obus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Obus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Obus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Obus is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f52223%2fdid-pre-columbian-americans-know-the-spherical-shape-of-the-earth%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown