First steps to obtain an archaeostronomic software: Application to the archaeological site of El Puente

Abstract

Archaeoastronomical research in El Puente archaeological site, located in western Honduras, has been developed by the authors with the purpose of increasing knowledge of this poorly known archaeological site. In the course of this research, it became important the possibility of designing and implementing anarchaeoastronomical software that could reproduce the characteristics of both local geographical landscape and skyscape, so that work could be extended to a larger number of archaeological sites, without increasing the costs of long field campaigns in order to wait for astronomical phenomenae to happen. The present work shows the conclusions obtained in the initial application of this computational approach to research of El Puente archaeological site, as well as the methods and procedures that are needed for the successful implementation of the proposed software.