Since the beginning of mankind, we have all struggled to make sense of the world around us. It is in our human nature to try and make order out of the chaos that is our world. It is as true today as it was during the dawn of time, although the source of the chaos might be different. In the beginning, it was the struggle to make sense of the natural world, such as the rotation of the heavens and the changing of the seasons. Today’s world is as complex and seemingly uncontrollable as at any time during our history, but that doesn’t stop our rational minds from trying to preserve a sense of normalcy in our daily lives. This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is about Order. From the ancient Pueblo people who created Mesa Verde here in western United States, to the ancestors of the Incas in South America, to the middle ages of Europe, there are plenty of examples of people trying to make sense of and create order out of our complex and ever changing world.

The ancient Pueblo people built kivas and painted stories of their creation as they believed that they came from the center of the earth. They held rituals and celebrated around a ceremonial hole in the kiva that symbolized their access to the world of their ancestors.

In the middle ages, we were able to create more sophisticated devices to measure time and understand the movements of the heavens. The astronomical clock in Prague is an excellent example of man trying to gain control and predictability over their natural world.

Long before there were clocks and timepieces, the ancient people of South America had been observing the movements of the starts and had created calendars that predicted the seasons and the days of the year.