Knowledge of magnetism in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

Abstract

THAT the pre-Columbian peoples of Mesoamerica were familiar with the property of magnetism has been suggested by numerous researchers, among them Coe and Fuson¹. Indeed, a flattened oblong piece of haematite discovered by Coe during the excavation of the Olmec site of San Lorenzo in southern Veracruz state in 1973, has been thoroughly examined by Carlson², who suggests that it probably was manufactured for use as a compass. Fuson has argued that the varied alignments of architectural complexes in many Mayan ceremonial centres may be explained by their having been oriented to compass directions which changed through time, and further, that the Mayas' knowledge of mercury would have permitted them to use vessels filled with this liquid, as well as the water-filled calabashes, to float their ‘needles’ or lodestones. In January 1975 during field studies at Tzapa, in the Pacific coastal plain of south-eastern Chiapas state, I discovered strong circumstantial evidence that the people of this Late Formative ceremonial centre not only knew about magnetism but possibly even associated it with the homing instinct of the sea-turtle.