A Comparison of Dark Constellations of the Milky Way

Abstract

Many cultures have been fascinated with the Milky Way. The striking appearance of our galaxy in the night sky captivated them and imagined images became part of their cosmologies. This is examined with an emphasis on cultures of the Southern Hemisphere that embraced dark constellations-those made up of the dark dust lanes in the Milky Way rather than the bright stars. Perhaps the best-known examples are those of Aboriginal Australians and the Incas in the Andes, but others exist across the world. We present a brief introduction to cultural perceptions of dark constellations in the Milky Way, and a comparative look at common cultural themes and inspirations.

Full text

A Comparison of Dark Constellations of the Milky Way
Steven R. Gullberg
1
, Duane W. Hamacher
2
, Alejandro Martín-Lopez
3
, Javier Mejuto
4
, Andrew M.
Munro
5
, & Wayne Orchiston
6
1
College of Professional and Continuing Studies, University of Oklahoma, USA, email: srgullberg@ou.edu
2
Monash Indigenous Center, Monash University, Australia, email: duane.hamacher@monash.edu
3
CONICET, Seccíon de Etnología, ICA, UBA, Bs. As., Argentina, email: astroamlopez@hotmail.com
4
Departamento de Arqueoastronomía y Astronomía Cultural, UNAH, Honduras, email: javier.mejuto@unah.edu.hn
5
College of Professional and Continuing Studies, University of Oklahoma, USA, email: andrew.m.munro@ou.edu
6
Center for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland, Australia, email: wayne.orchiston@gmail.com
Abstract: Many cultures have been fascinated with the Milky Way. The striking appearance of our galaxy in the night
sky captivated them and imagined images became part of their cosmologies. This is examined with an emphasis on
cultures of the Southern Hemisphere that embraced dark constellations – those made up of the dark dust lanes in the
Milky Way rather than the bright stars. Perhaps the best-known examples are those of Aboriginal Australians and the
Incas in the Andes, but others exist across the world. We present a brief introduction to cultural perceptions of dark
constellations in the Milky Way, and a comparative look at common cultural themes and inspirations.
Key Words: Milky Way, Dark Constellations, Aboriginal Australia, Inca, Mocoví, Maya, Bugis, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana,
Zulu
1. Aboriginal Australia
The Milky Way is a prominent feature in a number of
Australian cultures. Many view the Milky Way as a celestial
river,
1
some with dark water holes filled with fish or evil
beings.
The “Emu in the Sky” is perhaps the best-known Aboriginal
constellation, seen in Figure 1. It comprises dark nebulae
within the plane of the Milky Way. The Coalsack Nebulae,
near the Southern Cross, forms the head, and the body
extends along the Milky Way, outlined by the galactic bulge
through the constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius.
2,3
The emu is a large flightless bird (similar to an ostrich)
found throughout much of Australia. Once a female lays the
clutch of eggs, the male incubates the eggs and rears the
chicks. In traditions of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi people
of northern New South Wales, the position of the celestial
emu at dusk throughout the year denotes the animal’s
behavior patterns and seasonal change,
4
and is linked with
initiation ceremonies.
5
1
Ray P. Norris, “Dawes Review 5: Australian Aboriginal
Astronomy and Navigation,” Publications of the Astronomical
Society of Australia. (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
2
Duane W. Hamacher and Ray P. Norris, “’Bridging the Gap’
through Australian Cultural Astronomy. In C. L. N. Ruggles,
(Ed.), Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy: Building
Bridges Between Cultures (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
3
Robert S. Fuller, Michael G. Anderson, Ray P. Norris, and
Michelle Trudgett, “The Emu Sky Knowledge of the Kamilaroi
Figure 1. The Emu in the Sky (Art by Jessica Gullberg,
constellation from Michael Anderson in Fuller 2014).
Dark nebulae in the Milky Way below the Emu in the Sky
are said by certain cultures to represent a kangaroo.
6
The
Kangaroo is beneath the Emu, towards the Emu’s tail, as
shown in Figure 2.
and Euahlayi Peoples,” Journal of Astronomical History and
Heritage, 17, no.2 (2014): 171-179.
4
Fuller, “The Emu Sky Knowledge.”
5
Robert S. Fuller, Duane W. Hamacher, and Ray P. Norris,
“Astronomical orientations of bora ceremonial grounds in
Southeast Australia,” Australian Archaeology, 77 (2013): 30–
37.
6
Robert S. Fuller, Ray P. Norris, and Michelle Trudgett, “The
Astronomy of the Kamilaroi People and their Neighbours.”
Cornell University, arXiv:1311.0076v1 [physics.hist-ph] (2013).

Figure 2. The Kangaroo (Art by Jessica Gullberg, constellation
from Fuller 2013).
Beyond the kangaroo a section of the Milky Way was
thought by some to represent crocodiles.
7
The Crocodiles
first become visible in late summer. When the Emu and the
Kangaroo have disappeared, the Crocodiles emerge instead.
The belly of the Emu becomes the first Crocodile’s head.
Certain Aborigines see the Crocodiles lying in the river of
the Milky Way and use this to time ceremonial travel in
September and October.
2. The Incas
Inca cosmology viewed the Milky Way as a river flowing
across the night sky in a very literal sense. They saw earthy
waters as being drawn into the heavens and then later
returned to earth after a celestial rejuvenation. The earth
was thought to float in a cosmic ocean. When the “celestial
river’s” orientation was such that it dipped into that ocean
the waters were drawn into the sky. “The Milky Way is
therefore an integral part of the continuing recycling of
water throughout the Quechua universe.”
8
The plane of the Milky Way is inclined between 26° and
30° with the axis of the Earth’s rotation. This orientation is
26° degrees toward the south celestial pole and 30° toward
the north.
9
The Milky Way at times will be viewed as rising
in the southeast, passing through the zenith, and setting in
the northwest. Twelve hours later the horizon positions have
shifted, and the band of stars rises instead from the
northeast, traveling again through the zenith, but now
setting in the southwest. This 24-hour rotation cycle creates
two zenith-intersecting intercardinal axes that divide the
celestial sphere into four observable quarters.
10
Milky Way risings figured prominently in Inca horizon
astronomy because of correlations with their intercardinal
7
Fuller, “The Astronomy of the Kamilaroi”
8
Gary Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky: An Andean
Cosmology (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 60.
9
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
10
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
11
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
axes and the four points of solstice horizon events. At the
time of the December solstice, when the Sun rises at 114°
on the Cusco horizon, the evening position of the band of
the Milky Way lies similarly to the southeast. During the
June solstice sunrise at 64° the Milky Way is situated in like
fashion in the northeast. Times of the solstices are the only
occasions when the Sun rises and travels with the Milky
Way.
11
Inca cosmology recognizes that the celestial river
and the Sun rise together at the dry season’s beginning in
June and the rainy season’s start in December
12
and
sometimes uses this in correlation to explain the seasonal
intensity of the Sun, which feeds upon the powerful waters.
The Inca ordered their sky by this celestial quadripartition,
in contrast with the use of the ecliptic for reference by
ancients such as the Babylonians. Urton
13
says that this gave
the Incas a nearly 90° difference in their perspective of the
heavens and the cosmological constructs were developed
accordingly. He asserts that the primary axis for celestial
references was east-west, rather than north-south, as was
common in systems of the Northern Hemisphere. The
quadripartition also appears to have influenced orientations
on Earth.
The pantheon of Inca dark constellations stretches across
nearly 150° of the Milky Way’s expanse, and these are
depicted in Figure 3.
Figure 3. The Incan Dark Constellations – Right to Left:
1)Machacuay, 2)Hanp’atu, 3)Yutu, 4)Yacana, 5)Unallamacha,
6)Atoq, and 7)Yutu (Art by Jessica Gullberg, constellations
from Urton 1981).
Most are animals that figure prominently in Andean
cosmology and myth.
14
Urton relates that the Spanish
chronicler Polo de Ondegardo found the Incas to believe
that “the animal constellations were responsible for the
procreation and augmentation of their animal counterparts
on the earth.”
15
12
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
13
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
14
Brian Bauer and David Dearborn, Astronomy and Empire in
the Ancient Andes: The Cultural Origins of Inca Sky Watching
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995).
15
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky, 176.

Serpents figure prominently in Inca cosmology and are the
creatures representing Uchu Pacha, the underworld and
lowest of the three worlds of Inca existence. Machacuay
leads this dark celestial procession as the constellations
move left to right across the night sky. Van de Guchte
16
says that the amaru, or serpents, emerged from their
underworld environs via rivers and are thought to be related
to rainbows and to foretell of rain. Machacuay can be seen
at the beginning of the rainy season. The serpent’s dark
figure is long like a snake and travels head before the tail.
17
Hanp’atu follows closely behind Machacuay. Toads were
thought of as bad omens as they were created by the devil.
Hanp’atu is a much smaller dark section of the Milky Way
to the left of the snake.
18
Tinamou are birds indigenous to the Andes and are of very
ancient lineage. Yutu, the Tinamou, follows Hanpatu in the
Milky Way and likewise is much smaller than Machacuay.
This Yutu is adjacent to what we refer to as the Southern
Cross, is at zenith on the December solstice, and nadir on
the June solstice. We know Yutu as the Coalsack in
Western astronomy.
19
Next is Yacana, the llama. Llamas figure prominently in
many aspects of Inca culture and this celestial figure was
thought to animate the llamas on the Earth.
20
Yacana is a
constellation much larger than Hanpatu or Yutu and
dominates the Incas’ dark constellation section of the Milky
Way. Yacana is situated between Centaurus and Scorpio.
The prominent stars α and β Centauri serve as the llama’s
eyes and as such are known as Llamacñawin, the “eyes of
the llama.”
21
Below Yacana is a smaller dark constellation called
Uñallamacha that is said to be a baby llama suckling its
mother.
Following Yacana and Uñallamacha in the sky from the left
is the somewhat smaller constellation of Atoq, the fox. Atoq
lies on the ecliptic between the constellations of Scorpio
and Sagittarius and the Sun enters it during the December
solstice. Urton relates that the Milky Way and Atoq catch
up and rise with the summer solstice Sun in the southeast
during the same period of time that terrestrial baby foxes
typically are born. “... the sun rises into [Atoq] ... from
about December 15 to December 23.”
22
16
Maartin J. D. Van de Guchte, Carving the World: Inca
Monumental Sculpture and Landscape (University of Illinois:
Doctoral dissertation, 1990).
17
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
18
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
19
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
20
Frank Salomon and George L. Urioste, The Huarochiri
Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean
Religion (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991).
21
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
22
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky, 70.
Urton lists a second constellation called Yutu. This
additional tinamou follows Atoq and completes the celestial
procession.
23
3. The Mocoví
The Mocoví inhabit the southern area of the Chaco region
of Argentina. The Milky Way holds many meanings for the
Mocoví, which can depend upon the narrator. A common
element throughout is the Milky Way’s structuring role in
Mocoví cosmology. The Milky Way’s use as a temporal
marker is still significant today. The Mocoví are able to
indícate its direction both at several times throughout the
year and at different times of night. Also, Mocoví world
expectations appear to be connected to the anticipation of
astronomical signs, among which a new position of the
Milky Way is the most frequently mentioned.
24
Figure 4. The Mañic (Art by Jessica Gullberg, constellation
from Alejandro López and Diego Alterlieb in Lopez 2009).
A special animal of a species may be the master of that
species in the Mocoví world, such as a snake-shaped being
or a humanoid being. Mañic is shown in Figure 4 and is the
master of the South American rheas. It used to shelter in a
number of burrows, under the roots of an ombú. A Mocoví
mythical tale has that a powerful man decided to face the
Mañic. He chased the Mañic throughout the world and the
cornered Mañic climbed up the ombú trunk (the tree of the
world) to the sky. Today, the shadow-soul (la 'al) of the
Mañic can be seen in the Milky Way's dark clouds, with its
head in what we know as the Coalsack. Alpha and Beta
Centauri are dogs chasing the Mañic and bite at its neck.
25
23
Urton, At the Crossroads of Earth and Sky.
24
Alejandro Martín-López and Sixto Giménez Benítez, "The
Milky Way and its structuring functions in the worldview of the
Mocoví of Gran Chaco," in Jonas Vaiškūnas (Ed.),
Archaeologia Baltica 10: Astronomy and Cosmology in Folk
Traditions and Cultural Heritage (Vilnius: Klaipėda University
Press, 2008), 21-24).
25
López, "The Milky Way and its structuring,” 21-24.

4. The Maya
The Maya differentiated between the different positions of
the Milky Way with respect to the horizon, granting them
meanings almost entirely related to cosmogonic myths. In
this case, we will focus in the Xibalbá Be and the place of
creation. The Maya distinguished between the bright zone
(Saki bé, literally white road in Quiché) and the dark one of
the Milky Way (Xibalbá be, path to the Underworld). This
Xibalbá be
26,27
extends between the constellations of
Sagittarius and Scorpio to Cygnus, occupying the sky from
south to north. This is interpreted by several Mayan peoples
as an entrance to the underworld, the path that the dead
travel to another plane of existence. When the position of
the Milky Way is oriented vertically with respect to the
horizon, the shape of the dark regions was also identified as
the open jaws of the Star Deer Crocodile (Way Paat Ahiin),
widely related to the underworld and the Mayan creation
myths.
28
Another depiction of this myth is in identifying the
dark parts with a crocodile-canoe where the Padlers gods
(Stingray and Jaguar) take the Maize God to the place of
creation (Oxib’ Xk’ub) - delimited by the stars Alnitak,
Rigel and Saiph - where the primordial fire was placed, and
its smoke is represented by M42. This event is dated on
mid-August 3114 BCE. by the Maya people and it is exactly
the period of the year when the Milky Way takes this
position in the sky.
5. Bugis of Indonesia
Ammarell
29
provides a detailed description of the
navigational techniques of the Bugis of South Sulawesi,
Indonesia. The Bugis apply a complex mix of
meteorological, wave pattern, debris, current, and celestial
navigation techniques. The celestial techniques include the
rise and set times of various constellations and asterisms,
and the presence or absence of others in the sky as aids to
navigation on sailing craft. They include use of the dark
constellation of bembé’ é, or the goat, which is identified as
the Coalsack. When sailing, its absence was thought to
foretell calm weather ahead.
30
6. Southern Africa
Snedegar reports that Xhosa, Sotho, and Tswana cultural
associations with the southern Milky Way explicitly include
26
Susan Milbrath, Star Gods of the Maya (Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1999), 249-294.
27
Linda Schele and David Freidel, A Forest of Kings: The
Untold Story of the Ancient Maya (New York: HarperCollins,
1993).
28
Martha Ilia Nájera Coronado, (2012). “Una historia
cronológica de la creación maya,” Revista Digital Universitaria
13, no. 11 (2012).
29
Ammarell, Eugene E., Bugis Navigation (Yale University,
Doctoral dissertation, 1994).
its dark lane. Similarly, he notes that a /Xam informant of
Lucy Lloyd pictured the Milky Way as a “road” across the
heavens, and that a Khwe informant identified it as ‘the
Line.’ The Milky Way as a pathway through the heavens is
a common theme.
31
Snedegar additionally references Zulu
terms and cultural linkages for the southern Milky Way.
Definitions for the Zulu words “umthala/imlthala” include
both “The Milky Way” and “Dark stripe (from the navel
down) on some Natives.”
32
We note with interest that the
definitions of the related Zulu words “umlaza/imilaza” also
include both “Constellation; the milky way” and “Whitish
beast with black streaks on body.”
33
Thus, the Zulu cultural
meanings of the sky pattern westerners identify as the
“Milky Way” were adequately complex to require different
words for different purposes, and they explicitly include the
presence of dark stripes or streaks in symbolic associations.
7. Comparisons
We hope that more examples emerge regarding additional
cultures that recognized dark constellations in the Milky
Way galaxy. Such interests to date have manifested
primarily with societies in the Southern Hemisphere and,
with the exception of the Maya, these are the examples we
present. In each case the creatures of the dark constellations
were integral parts of local cosmology and sometimes
served temporal functions.
The Mayas focused on the area between Sagittarius and
Cygnus and African cultures noted light and dark lanes and
a pathway through the sky.
The greatest commonality was shared by the Australian
Aborigines, the Incas, the Mocoví, and the Bugis, all of
whom found figures in the same general section of the
Milky Way that surrounds what Western astronomy labels
the Coalsack. Examples depicting this similarity have been
grouped for easier comparison. Figure 5 depicts the Emu of
Australia as it begins with its head at the Coalsack and
extends through the dark and light to the region of Scorpio.
Figure 6 shows the mother and baby llamas of the Incas.
The mother’s head is located just to the left of the Coalsack
and her body extends to the left, but as depicted this is not
quite as far as the Emu or the Mañic. Her baby is located
beneath her. The llama is smaller than the Emu and the baby
is situated where a part of the Emu exists. Figure 7 is the
30
David H. Kelley and Eugene F. Milone, Exploring Ancient
Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy (New
York: Springer, 2005).
31
Keith V. Snedegar, “Stars and Seasons in Southern Africa,”
Vistas in Astronomy, 39 (1995): 529-538.
32
Clement M. Doke and Benedict W. Vilakazi, Zulu-English
Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University
Press, 1964).
33
Doke, Zulu-English Dictionary, 452.

Mañic of the Mocoví in Argentina. Its head also begins with
the Coalsack and its body extends as well to the Scorpio
region.
Thus, these examples show where three separate societies
saw a significant figure pertinent to their cultures in the
same prominent section of the band of the Milky Way as it
stretched across their skies. This emphasizes that those
attentive to the night sky and desiring to find meaning
within it could use the same areas of interstellar gas and
dust, just as different civilizations found different figures
among the same stars.
The bembé’ é of the Bugis, while not as extensive, still uses
part of the same region of the galaxy, the dark area that
Western astronomy knows as the Coalsack Nebulae.
What is known regarding the dark constellations of the
Aboriginal Australians and the Incas is, of course, more
extensive with more creatures than what are shown here, but
even those are located in this same general region of the
Milky Way. The dark clouded area used for the Emu, the
Llamas, and the Mañic captured their attention and inspired
them all.
In conclusion, these images serve as examples of different
cultures seeing animals meaningful to them in the same
section of the Milky Way. Our galaxy fascinated them and
served to enrich their cultures. More similarities and insight
throughout the world should emerge as research into this
area continues.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Jessica Gullberg for painting the
image of the Milky Way that we used in our figures.
Figure 5. The Emu’s head at the Coalsack (Art by Jessica
Gullberg, constellation from Michael Anderson in Fuller
2014).
Figure 6. The Mother and Baby Llama begin just to the left of
the Coalsack (Art by Jessica Gullberg, constellation from
Urton 1981).
Figure 7. The Mañic with its head at the Coalsack (Art by
Jessica Gullberg, constellation from Alejandro López and
Diego Alterlieb in Lopez 2009).

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