Archaeoastronomy Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by and +1
- •
- Archaeoastronomy, Maya Archaeology, Preclassic Maya Archaeology, El Mirador

Built in the early twelfth century, Angkor Wat is one of the world’s largest ancient religious structures. Each year thousands of visitors make the pilgrimage to Angkor Wat to witness the equinox sunrise over the temple’s lotus-shaped towers. In addition to the equinox alignment, however, there are other alignments at Angkor Wat and many of the surrounding temples. In this article multiple solstice alignments are identified for Angkor Wat and eleven nearby temples to include: Bakong, Phnom Bakheng, Phnom Bok, Phnom Krom, East Mebon, Pre Rup, Banteay Srei, Ta Keo, Baphuon, Preah Khan, and Bayon.
Subsequent to ground and aerial reconnaissance of the above sites, archaeoastronomic assessments were made using Google Earth, with solstice azimuths calculated using standard protocols. More than seventy solstice alignments were thus identified.
The multiplicity of solstice alignments combined with other data suggest that it was important for Angkor temples to be connected to the sun. If, as endorsed here, Angkor temples were microcosmic models of the cosmos, then arguably, solstice alignments connected the temples to the cyclic movement of the cosmos as manifested by the solar cycle.

- by William F Romain
- •
- Southeast Asian Studies, Khmer Studies, Cambodia, Southeast Asian Archaeology
- by Bernadette Brady
- •
- Archaeoastronomy, Cultural Astronomy

Spells 154‒160 of the Coffin Texts have long been known to form a unified composition since most of them promise the knowledge of sacred localities. The main purpose of these spells is, however, not to draw up a mental map of places of ritual import but to describe a more tangible yet still grandiose journey, the wanderings of the moon across time and space. After the introduction (spell 154) which explains the origins of the month, the separate texts represent the successive stages of the monthly cycle: the period of invisibility (spell 155), waxing (spell 156), events around the full moon (spell 157), waning (spell 158), the arrival of the last crescent at the eastern horizon (spell 159), and again the conjunction of the sun and the moon when a solar eclipse can occur (spell 160). The references to the moon in the texts are sometimes straightforward, while to grasp the lunar content of other passages a greater understanding of ancient Egyptian astronomical concepts is required. The spells present a hitherto unsuspected coherent account of lunar phenomena and can appropriately be dubbed the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon.
Full text of the paper will be available on Academia.edu in three years’ time. Until then you need to get hold of the book, http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/current-research-in-egyptology-2016.html, or send a request to the author.

- by Juan Antonio Belmonte
- •
- Egyptology, Archaeoastronomy

Previous research has revealed that Sirius and Hephaistos myths and legends were strongly present in Bronze Age Mediterranean communities via an interrelated cultural network amongst various cultures and societies (Laoupi, 2006a & b; Laoupi, 2011). The aim of the present monograph is to deepen this research, enrich it with the latest evidence and cover broader geographical and chronological boundaries. The Sirius, Moon and Venus cults came from the Paleolithic Times amazingly enriched by their “journey” into the human psyche starring at the Cosmos. Especially, Sirius cult was a pivotal cult of the Pelasgian substratum coming from Neolithic and late Paleolithic Times.

- by Amanda Laoupi
- •
- Disaster Studies, Archaeoastronomy, Late Bronze Age archaeology
- by Susan Milbrath
- •
- Iconography, Architecture, Archaeoastronomy, Maya Art

En la entrada del la Quebrada de los Horcones, ingreso natural al Cerro Aconcagua (Mendoza / Argentina), cerro adorado como huaca por el mundo incaico y en el cual se realizó un rito de capacocha, hemos descubierto una intiwatana y ushnu que cumple funciones calendáricas astronómicas y de siembra,. Este lito se encuentra relacionado directamente con la constelación de la Cruz del Sur y también con el asterismo de las Pléyades, en un marco de paisaje sagrado, que nos recuerda a "otro Cuzco".

- by miguel doura
- •
- Archaeoastronomy, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Arqueoastronomia, Incas

Es un compendio de investigaciones en materia de arqueoastronomía y etnoastronomía en entre los grupos mayas prehispánicos y contemporáneos. El libro versa sobre el desarrollo de las prácticas astronómicas en tierras mayas, aborda los... more

This file will help you identify the different releases under the book title of, '32.5'.

- by Ibrahim Ibrahim
- •
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Archaeoastronomy, Calendars

The Australian National Curriculum promotes Indigenous culture in school education programs. To foster a broader appreciation of cultural astronomy, to utilise the unique astronomical heritage of the site, and to develop an educational program within the framework of the National Curriculum, Sydney Observatory launched Dreamtime Astronomy-a program incorporating Australian Indigenous culture, astronomy, and Sydney's astronomical history and heritage. This paper reviews the development and implementation of this program and discusses modifications following an evaluation by schools.

- by Toner M Stevenson
- •
- Cultural History, Anthropology, Education, Cultural Heritage
- by George Latura
- •
- Ancient History, Plato, History of Religion, Ancient Religion
- by Gary Urton
- •
- Andean Archaeology, History of Astronomy, Archaeoastronomy, Astronomy

เท่าที่ผ่านมา ปราสาทพนมรุ้งมักได้รับการเผยแพร่ผ่านสื่อต่างๆ ว่าเป็นศาสนสถานเขมรโบราณ ที่ซึ่งแสงแดดสามารถสาดส่องผ่านทะลุช่องประตู ทั้ง ๑๕ ช่องเข้าไปต้องพระศิวลึงค์ที่ประดิษฐานภายในองค์ปราสาทประธานได้ โดยจุดสนใจจะอยู่ที่ช่วงอาทิตย์ขึ้นในเดือนเมษายนเป็นหลัก ต่อมา เมื่อผลการสังเกตการณ์ของผู้เขียนในช่วงอาทิตยต์กเมื่อเดือนมีนาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๓ และการค านวณปรากฏการณ์เดียวกันที่เกิดขึ้นในช่วงฤดู ใบไม้ร่วง ไดร้ับการตีพิมพใ์นหนงัสือพิมพ ์บางกอกโพสต ์เดือนมีนาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๓ และนิตยสารศิลปวฒันธรรม ในปี พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๖ ท าให้ตั้งแต่ ปี พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๗ เป็นตน้มา ปราสาทพนมรุ้งจึงไดร้ับการประชาสัมพันธ์ว่ามี “ปรากฏการณ์ดวงอาทิตย์” เกิดขึ้นถึงปีละสี่ครั้ง ทว่า อีกสิ่งหนึ่งซึ่งสาธารณชนยังมิได้รับรู้กันก็คือ ปรากฏการณ์ดวงอาทิตย์ที่ปราสาทพนมรุ้งนี้ ยังเกี่ยวเนื่องกับดวงจันทร์ด้วย ดังนั้น จึงสมควรตอ้ง เรียกว่า “ปรากฏการณ์ดวงอาทิตย ์– ดวงจนัทร์” นั่นก็คือในวันที่ดวงอาทิตย์ตกตรงกับช่องประตูทั้งหมดของพนมรุ้ง จากนั้นในช่วงค ่า ให้สังเกตต าแหน่งดวงจันทร์บนทรงกลมท้องฟ้า (celestial sphere) ว่าอยู่ใกล้ดาวฤกษ์ใด หรืออยู่ในจักรราศีใด อีกสี่สัปดาห์ต่อมา ในวันที่ดวงอาทิตย์จะขึ้นตรงกับช่องประตูของพนมรุ้ง เชา้มืดก่อนอาทิตย์ขึ้น ดวงจันทร์จะกลับมาอยู่ในต าแหน่งเดิมอีกครั้งหนึ่ง นอกจากนั้นแล้ว ปรากฏการณ์ท้องฟ้าที่พนมรุ้งก็ยังรวมถึงการเกิดสุริยุปราคาและจันทรุปราคาด้วย ในกรณีนี้ ระยะห่างระหว่างปรากฏการณ์ทั้งสอง อาจมีได้ตั้งแต่ ๑๔ วนั ๒๘ วนั ๖ เดือน ๑๙ ปี ฯลฯ ในวนัที่ ๘ กันยายน ๒๕๔๙ เกิดจันทรุปราคาบางส่วนขึ้น และในวันที่ ๙ กันยายน ๒๕๔๙ ดวง อาทิตย์ขึ้นตรง ๑๕ ช่องประตูของพนมรุ้ง อีก ๖ เดือนต่อมา เช้าตรู่วันที่ ๔ มีนาคม ๒๕๕๐ เกิดจันทรุปราคาเต็มดวง อีก ๓ วันต่อมา ดวงอาทิตย์ขึ้น ตรง ๑๕ ช่องประตู ในวันที่ ๗ มีนาคม ๒๕๕๐

Con el nombre de astronomía cultural se define el estudio de las percepciones humanas del cielo y su relación con la organización de los diferentes aspectos de la vida social. El artículo revisa críticamente la utilidad de los enfoques tradicionales de la historia de la astronomía, la arqueoastronomía y la astronomía cultural y concluye que todos se apoyan en el paradigma que define el cielo como categoría neutral e insignificante. El cielo es concebido como un medio homogéneo y abstracto sobre el que actúan las sociedades humanas. El autor argumenta que el significado del cielo no existe en sí mismo, sino que se revela mediante las motivaciones y prácticas humanas. Por eso el cielo y las sociedades humanas no pueden tratarse de manera diferente como si se tratase de dos realidades separadas. Esta perspectiva ofrece las mejores opciones para el futuro reconocimiento de la astronomía cultural.

- by Stanislaw Iwaniszewski
- •
- Archaeoastronomy, Complutum

After 150 years of archaeological scepticism towards Stukeley's 18 th century claim for a Beckhampton avenue in the Avebury monuments, have finally confirmed that it did in fact exist. However, contra Stukeley, they only allow its existence up to the site of the 'Longstones Cove', and dispute its continuation further to the south-west to Fox Covert, as claimed by Stukeley. This paper attempts to demonstrate that by documentary method, field survey, geophysics, site excavation, and the method of critical experiment, this interpretation fails the normal standards of the logic of empirical proof. This failure to sustain their case leaves Stukeley's claim for Beckhampton avenue continuing to Fox Covert standing and open to further investigation.

- by Lionel Sims
- •
- Archaeology, Anthropology, Archaeoastronomy

Throughout the course of history, from early prehistory to the Space Age, power structures have existed which have been more or less derived from or correlated to astronomical phenomena or certain cosmologies and cosmovisions. These have significantly affected and formed the economic, social, political, artistic and religious life of people across different cultures. Cosmographies, time reckoning and calendar systems, celestial navigation techniques, landscape and architectural models of cosmicpotency, celestial divination and astrological ideas, cosmic clothing and other related concepts have been used successfully by interest groups to establish, maintain and expand psychological, social, religious and political power. Furthermore, the celestial sphere and its inhabitants have also been closely connected and partially interwoven with the concept of the manifestation of cosmic order and power both in nature and in culture. The book’s 43 chapters cover numerous aspects of the topic, from general ideas to astronomy and politics in the Modern Age. The editors are proven experts in the field of cultural astronomy, having many years of experience. They are adept in different subjects and methodologies based on natural sciences as well as on humanities. Dr Michael A. Rappenglück MA, the first editor of the work in hand, has been president of the European Society of Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) since 2011.

- by Michael Rappenglueck
- •
- History, Sociology, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology

El Trópico de Cáncer es un paralelo situado en la latitud 23° 26’ 15”. El Trópico de Cáncer delimita el punto más septentrional en el que el Sol puede ocupar el cenit al mediodía, lo cual ocurre durante el solsticio de verano. En este día los rayos solares caen verticalmente sobre la superficie terrestre a lo largo de esta latitud, lo cual se supone fue significativo para los sacerdotes/astrónomos de la antigüedad dedicados a observar el aparente movimiento del Sol. Sucede que Alta Vista, en Zacatecas, corresponde al punto extremo septentrional donde este fenómeno puede suceder, la fecha del paso cenital di ere según la latitud de cada emplazamiento, y diferentes especialistas en arqueoastronomía destacan cómo las culturas indígenas de la antigüedad, al menos desde el periodo Clásico, valoraban esta apreciación para la elaboración de sus calendarios.

- by Ismael Arturo Montero García
- •
- Mesoamerican Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy, Arqueología, Zacatecas

For more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points.

Table Mountain Class in the Clouds is presented to schools in the Cape Town area.

- by Fiona Hinds
- •
- Archaeology, Environmental Science, Archaeoastronomy

The archaeological record of the Late Neolithic – Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age periods in the Negev exhibits prevalent east to west orientations, which is understood in the literature as an expression of the preoccupations with afterlife beliefs, mortuary cult and ancestor worship. These archaeological remains are often described as astronomical alignments and are related to the setting sun on the day of the summer solstice. They are attributed to an emerging pastoralist elite. Orientation seems to be also the central theme in the oral traditions of contemporary pastoralists. While the material remains express orientation in space, the oral traditions, which are illustrated at their best in star-lore, express an orientation in time: the cyclic renewal of seasons is observed in the east to west passage of stars and asterisms. The seasons and the constellations, which define them, are related to equinoxes. As material and spiritual expressions of the beliefs that characterize pastoral nomads, the archaeological record and star-lore seem to be closely related. However, due to polar shift and the precession of the equinoxes, contemporary star-lore orientates itself differently from its Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age forerunner, and it cannot reflect the orientation exhibited by tumuli fields, walls, masseboth and other remains, except in a very approximate way. A significant pre-cession of equinoxes occurred in the early phases of the Middle Bronze Age. The event left a deep mark on cultures worldwide and it was paralleled by a shift in symbolism. In the Negev it also meant a deterioration of the climate. Nomadic mythology and star-lore had to re-orientate themselves, to adjust to the new coordinates, which superseded an apparently perfect previous order. The majority of the rock art corpus in the Negev is dated roughly to the period that preceded the shift. However, a few of the engravings dated to the Early Bronze Age become meaningful only when related to the changes, which occurred during and after the precession of the equinoxes. Other engravings reflect precisely Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age realities, but their symbolic implications outlived the astronomic context in which they were conceived and they are actual even in our days.

- by Steffany Martínez Gómez
- •
- Mesoamerican Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy, Mesoamerica, Arqueología

The author describes the situation in the Canary Islands, referring first to the deities of the communities here.
The aborigines of the Canary Islands utilized sacrificial altars, locally known as pireos, to perform rituals on prominent geological locations such as mountaintops or cliffs. These are dry stone constructions shaped as an ovalcircular enclosure with one or more small cavities, where burning of food offerings was performed. It presents the construction characteristics of these sacrificial enclosures.
The shared prominent location and aspect of altars for sacrifices reflect a phenomenon on pan-insular scale, a unitary ideological system, a network of territorial connections along the entire archipelago, and a hierarchical social organization.
It is noted the southern peak of the Montaña de Tindaya (northeastern Fuerteventura Island) with 213 foot-shaped rock engravings, where different sacred activities took place. The hub of the religious, cultural and social network was the great insular-scale sanctuary on El Alto de Garajonay (La Gomera Island). In conclusion, sanctuaries were organized according to a well-established territorial hierarchy, which is easily associable with the image given by ethnohistorical sources about an aboriginal segmented and non-egalitarian society. Some of these monuments have been investigated, providing information about their age, as well as the products offered to the deities (especially parts of animals, wild fruits and cultivated cereals). A cult center with about twenty-five altars for fire sacrifices and related stone altars occurs on La Fortaleza de Chipude (The Fortress of Chipude). A hierarchical network of fire-sacrificial sanctuaries set in the different islands participated to a complex process of social segmentation-interrelation cohesion-guidance of the population.
A pan-insular organization above the tribes did not exist. A supraterritorial religious and social institute was established instead, based on the power to interpret the divine will and predict the future through sacrifices.

- by Marco Merlini
- •
- Archaeoastronomy, Religion and ritual in prehistory, Canary Islands, Sacred Space

The configurations of ancient Maya cities were influenced by a range of factors; principally, a mix of social, economic, environmental, engineering, historical, and ideational determinants (Ashmore and Sabloff 2002: 202). Of ongoing concern in Maya studies, therefore, is establishing the weight that each factor has had on the ordering of buildings and associated architectural features. The book “Archaeoastronomy and the Maya” demonstrates, via a collection of papers, the influence that astronomical surveillance had on the ordering of ancient Maya architecture and, more broadly, its use to posit the world experienced by the ancient Maya within a broader cosmological framework.

- by Alexander Parmington
- •
- Archaeoastronomy

Neither statistical 'green' nor ethnographic 'brown' European and American styles of archaeoastronomy have so far provided convincing interpretations of the meaning of prehistoric monument alignments. Statistical tests of the null hypothesis never reach the level of meaning, and contemporary ethnographic data cannot be equated with the cultures of prehistory. Gains have been made. Since the 1980's European archaeoastronomy has established rigorous field work methods and scientific procedures that guard against the over-interpretation of prehistoric monument alignments that characterised the discipline in preceding decades. However, the discipline still has to embrace those procedures that can interpret unique prehistoric monuments rather than just regional groups of monuments, and to interpret a growing data base which includes many combined alignments on lunar standstills and the sun's solstices. These hesitations seem to flow from a reticence to provoke an otherwise sceptical archaeology establishment. This paper argues that archaeoastronomy can perform an invaluable function with four-field anthropology (archaeology, social anthropology, biological anthropology and linguistics) as a keystone discipline within such a multi-disciplinary arch. The paper demonstrates such a role through a critique of the present archaeological interpretations of the paradoxical approach of the West Kennet Avenue to the Avebury circle and henge in Wiltshire, England. It finds that the archaeology of cattle-herding monument building cultures and the anthropology of brideprice subverting brideservice can be synthesised with the archaeoastronomy of lunar-solar combined alignments to confirm an emergent model of an elite cattle-owning male-dominated cosmology which both continues and displaces an ancient lunar-governed hunting and gathering ritual system onto a solar timescale.

- by Lionel Sims
- •
- Archaeology, Anthropology, Archaeoastronomy

Keywords: Rjabchikov, archaeoastronomy, rongorongo, Easter Island, Polynesia, script, writing, rock art, Rapanui, Rapa Nui

- by John B Carlson
- •
- Religion, Native American Religions, Comparative Religion, Sociology

The paper is an attempt to show the architectonic method of the ancient Egyptian designers
for encoding the horizontal-projections of the moon’s declinations during two
events of the minor lunar standstills, in the design of the site-plan of the horizon of the
Giza pyramids, using the methods of descriptive geometry. It shows that the distance of
the eastern side of the second Giza pyramid from the north-south axis of the great pyramid
encodes a projection of a lunar declination, when earth’s obliquity-angle was
~24.10°. Besides, it shows that the angle of inclination of the causeway of the second Giza
pyramid, of ~13.54° south of the cardinal east, encodes the projection of another lunar
declination when earth’s obliquity-angle reaches ~22.986°. In addition, it shows the encoded
coordinate system in the site-plan of the horizon of the Giza pyramids.

- by Hossam Aboulfotouh
- •
- Archaeology, Egyptology, History of Science, History of Astronomy

Could anyone who reads Phaenomena by Aratus (c. 270 BC) fail to recognize the connection between myth and the heavens in the ancient Greek world? In the days of Augustus, Ovid wrote that "Aratus shall endure with the sun and the moon" (Amores I.15), and he followed Aratus with his Fasti that connects Roman holidays based on ancient myth with phenomena that take place in the skies.

- by George Latura
- •
- Ancient History, Ancient Religion, Mesopotamian Religions, Archaeoastronomy
- by Victor Reijs
- •
- Culture, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy

In 2006 an interdisciplinary team, coordinated by the Solstice Project, produced an interactive computer graphics model that precisely replicates the astronomical functioning of an ancient calendrical site, the Sun Dagger, of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The interactive, three-dimensional format of this digital model provides opportunities for extensive research of the structure's light patterns, as well as its geometry and the process of its original development. At the Sun Dagger site, which Anna Sofaer rediscovered in 1977, three upright sandstone slabs cast precise light and shadow patterns on two spiral petroglyphs, recording the summer and winter solstices, the equinoxes, and the 18.6-year lunar cycle (Sinclair et al. 1987; Sofaer and Sinclair 1987; Sofaer, Sinclair, and Doggett 1982; Sofaer, Zinser, and Sinclair 1979; figures 3.1–3.4). This site is located on a southeastern-facing cliff near the top of the 135-m-high Fajada Butte, which stands prominently at the south entrance of Chaco Canyon. The rediscovery of the Sun Dagger site was followed by intense visitation. This activity caused acceleration of the process of natural erosion at the site, which, in turn, caused significant shifts in the positions of the slabs and the light markings. Thus the precise archival replication of the Sun Dagger site allows appreciation and study of its astronomical functioning that can no longer be observed or recorded.

- by Anna Sofaer
- •
- Rock Art (Archaeology), Archaeoastronomy, Southwestern Archaeology, Chaco Canyon

This document provides color illustrations for Chapter 9 of my book, "An Archaeology of the Sacred." As originally published the illustrations were limited to black and white. As the book made extensive use of LiDAR imagery, the color... more

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the mythological images of the Baltic religious system according to Gintaras Beresnevičius. It discusses his work, his main works and his particularly important contribution to the study of... more

This article seeks to present a short overview of the astronomy of Sanchi and Udayagiri (near Vidisha), and a longer overview of the astronomy of the Ajanta caves 26 and 19. With regard to Sanchi and Udayagiri, it presents excerpts from the published researches in order to create a background and context for the main topic, that is, Ajanta on which subject fresh observations are being presented here for the first time to reveal a hitherto undisclosed dimension of the architecture of two magnificent monuments of Ajanta. Eventualy, the article seeks to convey that science and astronomy had a great role to play in the temple building activity in the fifth-century India.

- by Rajesh K U M A R Singh
- •
- Buddhism, Archaeology, Southeast Asian Studies, History of Science
- by Mauro Peppino Zedda
- •
- Medieval Europe, Archaeoastronomy, Tuscany (Medieval Studies)
- by Pere Izquierdo i Tugas and +1
- •
- Cultural Heritage, Landscape Archaeology, Phenomenology, Archaeoastronomy
- by Milan Kovac and +1
- •
- Mesoamerican Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy, Classic Maya (Archaeology), Maya Archaeology

I discovered the Voon Settlement Complex on June 7, 2017, while I was using Google Earth to search for prehistoric sites within the Tibesti Mountains of northwestern Chad. The Voon Settlement Complex consists of more than 220 prehistoric habitation sites that are located on the circular perimeter of the Tarso Voon volcanic collapse caldera, and 350 additional sites in the northward-draining watershed of the Tarso Voon. The prehistoric habitation sites consist of low-profile stone walls that form irregularly-shaped livestock enclosures, and circular stone huts that measure about three to five meters in diameter. The prehistoric habitation sites in the Tibesti Mountains exist in very large numbers that could not be supported by the current dry climate of the Sahara, which was transformed from a green savanna into an arid desert about five thousand years ago. The many thousands of prehistoric habitation sites could only have been built and occupied during the time of the Green Sahara, from approximately 8000 BCE to 3000 BCE, and the many thousands of livestock enclosures probably date from the Pastoral Period, between 4500 BCE and 3000 BCE, when the people of the Sahara herded domestic cattle, sheep, and goats. The famous rock art of the Tibesti was probably created by the builders of those habitation sites. Within the Tarso Voon crater is what I have named the Voon Astronomical Observatory, which consists of ten perfectly-straight stone walls, each one of which points to the horizon azimuths of the rising or setting of the sun or of various stars.

- by Gregory Fegel
- •
- Ancient History, Archaeology, Mythology, Rock Art (Archaeology)