from de Graz. tor earth

One preplexed writer suggested that the Mesoamerican Olmecs aligned their
structures with the Big Dipper. When neither the north-south axis nor the
solar behavior nor a constellation fits the orientation, then it is that
the ancients could not tell directions well, or that the matter in any
case was not important to the builders.

What is absent from such reasoning? First, there is a failure to
appreciate that the desire to orient to the skies was an obsession, a
compulsion, an inescapable tradition, a sacred obligation, a proud duty.
Second, the ancients, as far back as we can discover their humanity, could
calculate readily and exactly the course of heavenly bodies and orient
themselves thereto. Many examples of this are presented in G. de
Santillana and H. von Dechend's book, Hamlet's Mill