A Mathematical Analysis of Distribution of Sacred Places in the Landscape - The area of Zaprešić as a case study (original) (raw)
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The Distribution of pre-Christian Sacred Sites in the Zaprešić area
ZBORNIK INSTITUTA ZA ARHEOLOGIJU SERTA INSTITUTI ARCHAEOLOGICI KNJIGA VOLUME 10 Sacralization of Landscape and Sacred Places, 2018
The aim of the paper is to examine whether the distribution of the sacred sites in the Zaprešić area indicates a pattern that significantly deviates from a completely random distribution. The mythical landscape of Zaprešić is in paper interpreted and territorially defined based on the model shown on the Zbruch idol. The analysis assumes continuity of pre-Christian sacred sites, meaning that they were later replaced by the churches or chapels. The key assumption is that the Old Slavs often aligned sacred sites along the directions that had specific astronomical significances associated primarily with the sunrise or sunset angles. In the study area, the sunrise and sunset directions on specific dates (solstice, equinox, the feast of St. George) defined by the alignment of at least two sites are detected. After that, the distribution of distances between sacred sites is analysed to test the assumption that the Old Slavs were set up them at the intervals that were multiples of a certain standard length. For every mathematical method, the degree to which the observed spatial structures may be interpreted as deliberate regarding sacralization of the landscape is examined.
Zbornik Instituta za arheologiju / Serta Instituti Archaeologici, Vol. 10. Sacralization of Landscape and Sacred Places. Proceedings of the 3rd International Scientific Conference of Mediaeval Archaeology of the Institute of Archaeology, 2018
Human settlement of landscape raises the question of marking the landscape with one’s own religion. Changes of religious systems or their coexistence documented in the landscape raises further questions, particularly those pertaining to broader socio-cultural phenomena and dynamics. Even if such processes are not documented in written sources, they could often be recognized in toponyms, folklore, archaeological finds and in contemporary religious practices. This publication presents analyses of sacred landscape from the perspective of: archaeology, folklore, ethnology and cultural anthropology, literature, architecture, history, art history, mathematics etc., and at the same time covers the period from prehistory, through antiquity and Slavic period and the Middle Ages to the modern period and contemporary times. In addition to this, it also compares different processes from different regions and times, by and large from Europe.
The system of sanctuaries around Babožnica
Sustav svetišta oko Babožnice, 2010
This is a translation of the article published in Croatian in Studia mythologica Slavica XIII from 2010 (the pages 75-86) http://sms.zrc-sazu.si/pdf/13/SMS\_13\_06\_Dermek.pdf
MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY & ARCHAEOMETRY Editor-in-Chief Editorial Office
SELECTED DOUBLE BLIND PEER REVIEWED PAPERS ON ARCHAEOASTRONOMY OF The European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC), 2013, Athens Greece. Doing scientific research in Cultural Astronomy, the life world and life praxis of the respective culture have to be taken into consideration. People were highly capable of integrating several aspects and multiple levels of meaning in the cultural conceptualizations making up their world view, by making intensive use of symbolic, mythic, and ritual language. Cultural astronomy requires understanding the special mindscape and worldview of cultures, consisting of ideas, procedures, and valuations, with which for the most part we, living in scientific-technical based culture, are unfamiliar today, e.g. divination, astrology, and certain religious concepts. Working in the field of Cultural Astronomy scientists use multifaceted and broadly conceptualized approaches for identifying, substantiating and evaluating traces of astronomical knowledge in the records of prehistoric, protohistoric, and historic cultures. This book documents the rich variety of research that is going on in our field, which is incredibly global in extent and spans millennia of time. The proceedings of the annual SEAC meetings have become a well-established medium of scientific exchange. They serve as a substitute for an annual journal. During the past 2 decades the proceedings have emerged as one of if not the major venue for publication of world-wide research in Cultural Astronomy. SEAC 2013 had as its theme “Astronomy, mother of Civilization and Guide to the Future”. Emphasis will be to reveal the crucial role of astronomy in societies, countries, continents, at all eras. Since the dawn of humanity Astronomy is the cardinal socio-anthropological activity that led to the development of Culture, Mathematics, Philosophy and Civilization. ii Preface Astronomy, as a set of practices, of methods and observations and theoretical reasoning, has always been a crucial activity of every human society and the human mind, already from the dawn of the civilization. Astronomy has served as a vehicle for the survival of the very early and fragile societies of the Palaeolithic era, and was at the same time an answer to the agonizing quest of the human beings, while seeking for an answer about their identity and position within Nature and Cosmos. Human, ANTHROPOS [ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ] looks up, sees the sky, and admires the harmony of the celestial sphere with the stars and the planets. He tries to understand and explain the Cosmos [ΚΟΣΜΟΣ means ornament in Greek]. That is one reason for developing the Greek approach of philosophy and science. Philosophy is born. Astronomy, as a practice, was always interconnected with other realms of social discourse, such as mythology, religion, philosophy, and with the emerging cosmological and cosmogonical systems and introduced a strong connection between the celestial phenomena and human activities. Observing and studying the harmony of the orbiting celestial bodies, civilizations learned to stay in tune with the cycle of the seasons and the various variations of the behaviour of their landscapes, thus providing means for their long-standing survival on their fight against the natural forces and the taming of Nature itself that eventually led to the development of science and philosophy. Astronomy, following the ancient Greek concept of science, is born within the movement of the Ionian Renaissance, from the great Pre-socratic spirits, and is always interconnected with the birth of philosophy, as well, from the very same masters of the human thought. Its first acme, after its birth and as an advanced scientific discipline, appears in the Hellenistic Era. As an autopoetic structure, in its complete form, grounded and established by giants, such as Archimedes, Hipparchus, Posidonius, Claudius Ptolemy appears and flourishes many of the forthcoming great civilizations and empires as a specific way of observing nature, unravelling the secrets of Cosmos, and placing humans within it. The evolution of astronomy leads to the great scientific revolution and the modern world, through Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler and Newton, to mention only a few of the giants that set the foundations of the modern world. In our days, Astronomy strongly refers to the global heritage of all the human civilizations, as a bond and a point of reference between them, while it opens new roads for our globalized society, towards the space exploration, and the gigantic leap of mankind towards leaving its place of birth, our planet Earth, and expanding to new frontiers. Astronomy, as a science, and as the fountain of various technological achievements inspired by the needs of space exploration, opens novel roads towards our common fate, while it always remind us the common bond which exists between cultures and civilizations.
Astronomical Observations from the Temple of the Sun
During the solstices, equinox, zenith and nadir passages over the past four years, the authors observed distinctive patterns of sunlight inside the Temple of the Sun at Palenque. This article describes the recorded phenomena in detail and presents new evidence on the astronomical orientation of the temple. The second section puts forth a possible methodology for the architectural layout and design of the Temple of the Sun. The geometric proportions and angles of the temple appear to correspond with the astronomical alignments of the temple. The final section discusses astronomical references in the text and in the iconography of the Tablet of the Sun.