Interdisciplinary study of astronomies in cultures
For other uses, see Archaeoastronomy (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Stellar archaeology.
The rising Sun illuminates the inner chamber of Newgrange, Ireland, only at the winter solstice.
Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary[1] or multidisciplinary[2] study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures".[3] Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern astronomy is a scientific discipline, while archaeoastronomy considers symbolically rich cultural interpretations of phenomena in the sky by other cultures.[4][5] It is often twinned with ethnoastronomy, the anthropological study of skywatching in contemporary societies. Archaeoastronomy is also closely associated with historical astronomy, the use of historical records of heavenly events to answer astronomical problems and the history of astronomy, which uses written records to evaluate past astronomical practice.[6]
The sunset at the equinox seen from the prehistoric site of Pizzo Vento at Fondachelli Fantina, Sicily
Archaeoastronomy uses a variety of methods to uncover evidence of past practices including archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, statistics and probability, and history.[7] Because these methods are diverse and use data from such different sources, integrating them into a coherent argument has been a long-term difficulty for archaeoastronomers.[8] Archaeoastronomy fills complementary niches in landscape archaeology and cognitive archaeology. Material evidence and its connection to the sky can reveal how a wider landscape can be integrated into beliefs about the cycles of nature, such as Mayan astronomy and its relationship with agriculture.[9] Other examples which have brought together ideas of cognition and landscape include studies of the cosmic order embedded in the roads of settlements.[10][11]
Archaeoastronomy can be applied to all cultures and all time periods. The meanings of the sky vary from culture to culture; nevertheless there are scientific methods which can be applied across cultures when examining ancient beliefs.[12] It is perhaps the need to balance the social and scientific aspects of archaeoastronomy which led Clive Ruggles to describe it as "a field with academic work of high quality at one end but uncontrolled speculation bordering on lunacy at the other".[13]
^Aveni 1982: 1
^Aveni, Anthony F. (1995), "Frombork 1992: Where Worlds and Disciplines Collide", Archaeoastronomy: Supplement to the Journal for the History of Astronomy, 26 (20): S74–S79, Bibcode:1995JHAS...26...74A, doi:10.1177/002182869502602007, S2CID 220911940
^Sinclair 2006:13
^Ruggles 2005:19
^Ruggles 1999:155
^Bergeron, Jacqueline (1993). "History of Astronomy: A Joint IAU-IUHPS Commission". Reports on Astronomy. pp. 461–462. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-1100-3_31. ISBN 978-94-010-4481-3.
^Brosch, Noah (29 March 2011). "Thinking about Archeoastronomy". History and Philosophy of Physics. arXiv:1103.5600.
Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena...
considerably during his survey, and it was not considered accurate. An archaeoastronomy debate was triggered by the 1963 publication of Stonehenge Decoded...
Modern authors have attempted to date the Vedic period based on archaeoastronomical calculations. In the 18th century William Jones tried to show, based...
Journal US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal The Velvet Light Trap Archaeoastronomy Art Lies Genders The Joyce Studies Annual The Latin American Research...
This is a list of sites where claims for the use of archaeoastronomy have been made, sorted by country. The International Council on Monuments and Sites...
are aligned with the sunrise or sunset on the summer solstice (see archaeoastronomy). The significance of the summer solstice has varied among cultures...
The index finger (also referred to as forefinger, first finger, second finger, pointer finger, trigger finger, digitus secundus, digitus II, and many other...
White, R.E. (1983). "The "Torreon" of Machu Picchu as an Observatory". Archaeoastronomy. 14 (5): S37. Bibcode:1983JHAS...14...37D. Krupp, Edwin (1994). Echoes...
The Kurukshetra War (Sanskrit: कुरुक्षेत्र युद्ध), also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Hindu epic poem Mahabharata (Sanskrit: महाभारत)...
The Aubrey holes are a ring of 56 chalk pits at Stonehenge, named after seventeenth-century antiquarian John Aubrey. They date to the earliest phases of...
Dongbaism. Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies, 3 (2015) 2: 61-81 (links: 1. academia.edu[permanent dead link]; 2. Archaeoastronomy and Ancient...
buildings ever built in North America until the 19th century. Evidence of archaeoastronomy at Chaco has been proposed, with the "Sun Dagger" petroglyph at Fajada...
developed, including maritime archaeology, feminist archaeology, and archaeoastronomy, and numerous different scientific techniques have been developed to...
and is currently published by SAGE Publications. From 1979 to 2002, Archaeoastronomy was published as a supplement to JHA, but was incorporated into JHA...
Lepenski Vir (Serbian Cyrillic: Лепенски Вир, "Lepena Whirlpool"), located in Serbia, is an important archaeological site of the Lepenski Vir culture (also...
"Gnomons in Ancient China". In Ruggles, Clive (ed.). Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. Springer New York (published July 7, 2014). p. 2095...
and cultures. It developed from the two interdisciplinary fields of archaeoastronomy, the study of the use of astronomy and its role in ancient cultures...
Refraction Near the Horizon with Implications in Archaeoastronomy". Journal of History of Astronomy, Archaeoastronomy Supplement. 23 (17): S57. Bibcode:1992JHAS...
Dongbaism. «Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies», 3 (2015) 2: 61-81 (links: 1. academia.edu[permanent dead link]; 2. Archaeoastronomy and Ancient...
dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Unchambered long cairn Other cultural Archaeoastronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Evolutionary musicology music...
astronomy, and the history of mathematics. Kak has also published on archaeoastronomy, and advocated the idea of Indigenous Aryans. Many scholars have rejected...
popular works on the subject. In 1999, he was appointed professor of archaeoastronomy at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester...
science. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of archaeoastronomy, the study of how ancient cultures viewed the sky and how those views...
Antikythera mechanism – A device for plotting positions of heavenly bodies. Discovered off the island of Antikythera, Greece Book of Silk – Drawings of...
seasonal cusps, worshipped by pagans and later religious holidays". Archaeoastronomy.com. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 5 March...
Aveni (2004). Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Archaeoastronomy. New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-95310-8. Frankfort, Henri; Roaf, Michael;...
significant interdisciplinary links with other major scientific fields. Archaeoastronomy is the study of ancient or traditional astronomies in their cultural...
dolmen Stone box grave Tor cairn Unchambered long cairn Other cultural Archaeoastronomy sites lunar calendar Behavioral modernity Evolutionary musicology music...
Global Information
