Painted Stone Site: Location of the Calendar on the Stone

The ‘Painted Stone’ of Calderas, which appears above these lines, is comparable in size to the Polanco stone, but has many more drawings than that one. This stone was studied during the twentieth century by several national and foreign archaeologists, who left some literature behind them. For example, in March 2000 I read a book by Neville A. Harte (published decades ago) on the petroglyphs in Panama, and in it appeared many drawings of Panamanian petroglyphs, including one (accidentally upside down) of the petroglyphs of the Painted Stone. Curiously, what I call a calendar today appears in that drawing. Harte, however, gives no interpretation of it. Rather, he explains that the petroglyphs in Panama had an artistic, religious and narrative role for the indigenous people who made them.

According to my interpretation, this petroglyph has an astronomical role, as a calendar of months, solstices and equinoxes. Here is my hypothesis:

The Calderas ‘Painted Stone’ was chosen by the pre-Columbian indigenous people to carve a calendar that would help them understand and follow the passing of the months, the solstices and the equinoxes. Their interest might be due to a desire to remember the right moments for sowing and harvest, or to religious-mystical reasons coinciding with these celestial events.

They chose for the calendar the West face of the stone, which is the one that, when you look at it, has the East in the background. This might indicate that East and West were for them the most important cardinal points, because the Sun rose and set through them. This is also the case with many other petroglyphs in Panama and the world, such as Polanco and Los Olivos. In the case of the ‘Painted Stone,’ the West face is well suited for drawings, because of its great size and its nearly vertical position.

It is my opinion that the artist/astronomer who carved the Calderas calendar knew what he wanted to do, but was not sure how he would do it. So he made several earlier (failed) attempts before arriving at the right formula to set out his thinking. Remember that this was also the case with the Polanco calendar, where drawing 02-03 is an earlier attempt at the final calendar 04.

Returning to Calderas, among the failed calendars are the drawings that I have marked as T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6. I have numbered them in that order because I believe this was the sequence of attempts of the Calderas artist.

The correct calendar is T7, which stands out from the group for its great symmetry and beauty. I marked it on the stone with red chalk, to make it stand out. There are two other T’s to the right of T7: they are T8 and T9.

I do not know whether T8 and T9 came before T7, but I am inclined to think they were later (and unsuccessful) attempts to improve even further on the impeccable system of T7, perhaps to include the moon or some other celestial body in the marks of the calendar.

Next is a comparison between the attempts and the final calendar, as well as a description of a possible sequence of events.

Drawing #: T1

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: None

Description: The two curved lines on the sides must represent the sinusoidal movement of the sun over the horizon during the year.

Drawing #: T2

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: 8 + 2 in annex = 10

Description: The artist decides to include stripes to describe the sequence of months in the annual cycle of equinoxes and solstices (8). He notes discrepancies and decides to add an annex of lines with an arm (2). The number, however, is excessive (10). The artist notices the error and decides to make another calendar.

Drawing #: T3

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: 6 + 2 in annex = 8

Description: This time, he falls short in the number of stripes (6). An annex identical to the upper one is added (2). The number is still wrong, but the artist does not notice, so…

Drawing #: T4

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: 8

Description: …he redraws the calendar clean. Then he discovers that he has made a mistake a second time in the number of stripes and, tired of drawing T’s in vain…

Drawing #: T5

Central line toward the East: No

Side circles: No

Lines for months: 7

Description: …decides to try a simpler design, which lets him count the number of stripes he needs to describe the months in the cycle of solstices and equinoxes. This drawing, as can be seen, does not have the characteristic T shape, but is simply a record of the stripes needed for the calendar. Thus, at last, he finds the correct number of stripes needed to describe the sequence of months (7).

Drawing #: T6

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: 7

Description: Now that he has found the number, he tries to make a new T with the sequence, to put it to the test. At last, the calendar works! So…

Drawing #: T7

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: 7

Description: …he makes a clean copy of the calendar, taking great care to make it beautiful and clear.

Drawing #: T8

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: No

Description: After enjoying his fame for a year, he tries to include new features in the calendar here…

Drawing #: T9

Central line toward the East: Yes

Side circles: Yes

Lines for months: None

Description: …and here. Possibly the ‘horns’ of this calendar are also meant to describe the sinusoidal movement of the Sun over the horizon throughout the year, as in the case of the curved lines of T1. I think that at this point, the artist discovered that you cannot improve on the unimprovable, and decided to go off and drink a big totuma1 of strong chicha2 and bathe in the river, instead of carving drawings on the stone.

As we can see, most of the West face of the ‘Painted Stone’ is occupied by calendars, correct and incorrect. The drawings of two reptiles, shown in the previous photograph, also stand out.

Before explaining in depth the use of the T7 calendar, I want to mention that I have found similarities among the drawings of Polanco, Calderas and Los Olivos, above all in the appearance of the grooves and in the spirals. Below I show a photograph (1) taken on the top of the Calderas stone, where spirals appear. Compare them with the spirals of Los Olivos (2) and Polanco (3).