{
  "country_code": "BO",
  "id": "tiwanaku-sun-gate-frieze",
  "title": "The Gate of the Sun: a calendar without a key?",
  "category": "objet",
  "date": "2000-01-01",
  "date_label": "World Heritage inscription year; no exact carving date is assigned",
  "location": "Tiwanaku, Bolivia",
  "lat": -16.554,
  "lng": -68.674,
  "summary": "The Gate of the Sun’s deity, attendants and repeated faces have been read as a calendar. The challenge is demonstrating a decoding rather than fitting a pattern after the fact.",
  "documented_claim": "UNESCO describes the frieze and identifies the agricultural-calendar reading as an interpretation.",
  "unproven_claim": "A complete, independently validated calendar has been deciphered from the gate.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "UNESCO — Tiwanaku",
      "url": "https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/567",
      "language": "English",
      "kind": "Institutional heritage synthesis",
      "note": "Describes the gate and explicitly presents its calendar reading as interpretation.",
      "id": "S1",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    },
    {
      "title": "Krzysztof Makowski — Dioses y creencias del Perú prehispánico, volume III",
      "url": "https://www.ey.com/content/dam/ey-unified-site/ey-com/es-pe/insights/growth/documents/ey-dioses-creencias-tomo-3.pdf",
      "language": "Spanish and English",
      "kind": "Primary scholarly iconographic discussion",
      "note": "2024 volume, identified through the Chirapaq catalogue. Indexed relevant passages consulted; full PDF exceeded browser fetch size. Conditional calendar reasoning is retained.",
      "id": "S2",
      "accessed_on": "2026-09-30"
    }
  ],
  "country": "Bolivia",
  "author": "Eklipsis",
  "content_languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "path": "/investigations/tiwanaku-sun-gate-frieze",
  "source_url": "https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/567",
  "location_precision": "region",
  "location_note": "Approximate orientation marker for the named locality, not an exact encounter, burial, ritual or excavation position.",
  "location_source_url": "https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=-16.554&mlon=-68.674#map=8/-16.554/-68.674",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-30",
  "edition": 1,
  "truth_type": "unknown",
  "verdict": "The carved program is documented. Its precise symbolic organization remains open to interpretation in the selected evidence.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "The mystery and the documented account",
      "text": "UNESCO describes the Gate of the Sun as an andesite doorway with a central staff-bearing deity, flanking figures and a lower series of faces. Its account says the ensemble has been interpreted as an agricultural calendar. Krzysztof Makowski’s 2024 iconographic discussion considers how different symbols might distinguish figures and hypothetical months, using conditional language. The site’s major development between the fifth and ninth centuries provides cultural context, not an exact date or a decipherment of every sign.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "The question worth investigating",
      "text": "Which independent evidence would establish that the frieze encodes months, solar movement or another ordered program? A visually persuasive count must survive comparison with other Tiwanaku images.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Evidence, provenance and uncertainty",
      "text": "UNESCO supplies an institutional synthesis. Makowski’s indexed chapter passages were consulted; the large full PDF could not be fetched through the browser. A calendar interpretation is not a demonstrated translation. No extreme age, lost technology or external builder is inferred.",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Inspector’s assessment",
      "text": "The carved program is documented. Its precise symbolic organization remains open to interpretation in the selected evidence.",
      "refs": []
    },
    {
      "title": "Next research and discriminating evidence",
      "text": "Compare the frieze with securely contextualized Tiwanaku sculptures and publication-quality drawings. Define a decoding rule before applying it, checking exceptions and damage. Distinguish iconographic analogy from astronomical observation. Record restoration and displacement before using the present monument’s orientation.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "date": "Fifth–ninth centuries CE, site context",
      "text": "UNESCO places Tiwanaku’s major development and apogee in this broad period.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2000",
      "text": "Tiwanaku is inscribed on the World Heritage List.",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "2024",
      "text": "Makowski’s third volume discusses the iconographic calendar hypothesis.",
      "refs": [
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "30 September 2026",
      "text": "Eklipsis compiles this English documentary investigation from the named sources. No field visit or new eyewitness interview is claimed.",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "text": "UNESCO describes the frieze and identifies the agricultural-calendar reading as an interpretation.",
      "status": "Documented in the named record",
      "refs": [
        "S1"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "A complete, independently validated calendar has been deciphered from the gate.",
      "status": "Not established by the selected evidence",
      "refs": [
        "S1",
        "S2"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The carved program is documented. Its precise symbolic organization remains open to interpretation in the selected evidence.",
      "status": "Editorial assessment; stated limits apply",
      "refs": []
    }
  ],
  "hypotheses": [
    {
      "title": "An agricultural or solar calendar",
      "status": "Published interpretation",
      "support": "Repeated figures and differentiated attributes invite an ordered reading.",
      "limits": "Pattern correspondence alone does not prove the intended code.",
      "test": "Apply the proposed rule to independent images and test whether it predicts their organization."
    },
    {
      "title": "A ceremonial program of deities and identities",
      "status": "Alternative iconographic interpretation",
      "support": "The monument’s figures belong to a wider religious visual system.",
      "limits": "Specific names and functions remain uncertain.",
      "test": "Compare attributes and combinations across contextualized sculptures without forcing a month count."
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "title": "Trace the earliest accessible record",
      "body": "For The Gate of the Sun: a calendar without a key?, record author or storyteller, collection date, language, translation, page and exact scope. Distinguish evidence of a story being told from evidence of its events. Note which full documents remain unavailable."
    },
    {
      "title": "Investigate the central question",
      "body": "Compare the frieze with securely contextualized Tiwanaku sculptures and publication-quality drawings. Define a decoding rule before applying it, checking exceptions and damage. Distinguish iconographic analogy from astronomical observation. Record restoration and displacement before using the present monument’s orientation."
    },
    {
      "title": "Compare explanations without merging evidence",
      "body": "Apply the proposed rule to independent images and test whether it predicts their organization. Compare attributes and combinations across contextualized sculptures without forcing a month count. Preserve contradictions and unsuccessful searches; proposed work remains unperformed."
    }
  ]
}