Archeologists working high in the Peruvian Andes have discovered
the oldest known celestial observatory in the Americas -- a
4,200-year-old structure marking the summer and winter solstices
that is as old as the stone pillars of Stonehenge. The
observatory was built on the top of a 33-foot-tall pyramid with
precise alignments and sightlines that provide an astronomical
calendar for agriculture, archeologist Robert Benfer of the
University of Missouri said. The people who built the
observatory -- three millenniums before the emergence of the
Incas -- are a mystery, but they achieved a level of art and
science that archeologists say they did not know existed in the
region until at least 800 years later. Among the most impressive
finds was a massive clay sculpture -- an ancient version of the
modern frowning "sad face" icon flanked by two animals. The
disk, protected from looters beneath thousands of years of dirt
and debris, marked the position of the winter solstice. "It's
really quite a shock to everyone ...