What is Archeoastronomy
Ethnoastronomy, the study of skywatching is closely related to the study of ___, how people understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena, and what role the sky played in their cultures.
What is Archeoastronomy?
Unlike modern astronomy, archeoastronomy focuses on symbolically rich cultural interpretations of celestial events by other cultures. It delves into the ways ancient societies integrated the sky into their beliefs and practices.
Originating back to the 1930s with ___'s surveys of megalithic sites in Scotland, which led him to believe that their orientation was initially intended to serve as astronomical observatories.
Who is Alexander Thom?
Its development has grown steadily since then with new technologies such as computers, satellite imagery, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
An internationally recognized expert in the field of archeoastronomy, a college-level teacher, a planetarium lecturer, and in carious documentary films, ___ has been the director of the Griffth Observatory in Los Angeles since 1974.
Who is Ed Krupp?
His writings include science papers and journal articles, astronomy magazine articles, books on astronomy and archeoastronomy for adults, and books explaining sky phenomena and astronomy to children.
A pictograph on the ___ at Chaco Canyon may depict a star that exploded on July 5, 1054. The supernova appeared in the constellation Taurus next to a waning crescent moon. It could be seen during the day for over three weeks. The pictograph shows the waning moon and the exploding star. The hand may point to the horizon where the supernova rose an hour and forty-five minutes before sunrise. The concentric circles may represent the sun before it rose or, possibly, a comet.
What is Penasco Blano Trail?
On July 11, 1097, a total solar eclipse took place in the Southwest. A petroglyph at Chaco Culture National Historical Park may represent the eclipse. It shows a filled-in circle with squiggly lines extending around its edge and a small, filled-in circle to the upper left. It may illustrate the sun in total eclipse and the planet Venus.
The primary Maya moon goddess was ___, a powerful goddess who battled with the sun and made him descend into the underworld every night.
Who is Ix Chel?
Although she was a fearsome goddess, she was also the patroness of childbirth and fertility. Ix Ch’up was another moon goddess described in some of the codices; she was young and beautiful and may have been Ix Chel in her youth or another form.
Ancient people observed the sky to predict seasonal changes. For instance, ___ occurs twice a year, once in March and once in September, when the sun crosses the Earth's equator. On these days, there is an equal amount of daytime and nighttime.
What is Equinoxes?
By understanding celestial patterns, ancient cultures could prepare for agricultural cycles and other seasonal activities.
Most pre-scientific people developed a ___, or an explanation of the universe that explained human existence as seamlessly interwoven into the workings of the universe.
What is Cosmology?
This relationship of the part to the whole was usually expressed through symbols and metaphors.
___ is a British-born American astronomer and author noted for his work in the field of archeoastronomy and a professor and chair of the astronomy department at Boston University in the United States.
Who is Gerald Hawkins?
He published in 1963 an analysis of Stonehenge in which he was the first to propose that it was an ancient astronomical observatory used to predict movements of the sun and moon and that it was used as a computer.
The ___ at Fajada Butte at Chaco Culture National Historical Park is believed to have marked summer and winter solstices and equinoxes. Depending on the time of year, a spot of sunlight started to fall at the spirals, then lengthened into a “dagger” shape. The dagger extended across the spirals until it disappeared.
What is Sun Dagger?
Unfortunately, the dagger of light no longer crosses the center the spiral as it once did, because erosion due to foot traffic has caused the slabs to shift out of position. The site is no longer open to the public.
The sun was of utmost importance to the ancient Maya. The Mayan sun god was ___. He was one of the more powerful gods of the Mayan pantheon, considered an aspect of Itzamna, one of the Mayan creator gods.
Who is Kinich Ahau?
Kinich Ahau would shine in the sky all day before transforming himself into a jaguar at night to pass through Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. In a story in the Quiche Maya council book called the Popol Vuh, the hero twins Hunaphu and Xbalanque transform themselves into the sun and the moon.
Our ancestors observed bright celestial spectacles, such as comets. While modern astronomers understand comets scientifically, ancient people often considered them heavenly messages or ___.
What is Omens of Ill Fortune?
These celestial events held great significance in their cultural and religious contexts.
Many ancient peoples left physical signs of their observing activities known as ___.
What is Early Observatories?
Written records are missing for many pre-scientific societies as they turned from noting a single celestial event to making the kinds of repeated observations that could be applied to predict events in their own lives.
A researcher and educator on the archeoastronomy of the Ancestral Puebloans of the American Southwest and other ancient cultures is ___.
Who is Anna Sofare?
In 1977, she rediscovered the astronomical site known as the Sun Dagger on Fajada Butte in Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Research indicates this site records the solar and lunar cycles.
The prehistoric monument of ___ has long been studied for its possible connections with ancient astronomy. The site is aligned in the direction of the sunrise of the summer solstice, and the sunset of the winter solstice. Its latitude, concerning the Great Pyramid and the Equator, is precisely defined by the silver ratio.
What is Stonehenge?
Stonehenge has an opening in the henge earthwork facing northeast, and suggestions that particular significance was placed by its builders on the solstice and equinox points have followed. For example, the summer solstice Sun rose close to the Heel Stone, and the Sun's first rays shone into the center of the monument between the horseshoe arrangement.
The Maya were aware of the planets in the solar system—Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter—and tracked their movements. The most important planet by far to the Maya was ___, which they associated with war.
What is Venus?
Battles and wars would be arranged to coincide with the movements of Venus, and captured warriors and leaders would likewise be sacrificed according to the position of Venus in the night sky. The Maya painstakingly recorded the movements of Venus and determined that its year, relative to Earth, not the sun, was 584 days long, closely approximating the 583.92 days that modern science has determined.
Early humans connected changes in seasonal changes, also known as phenophases, of flora and fauna with specific stars and ___.
What is the Moon's Phases?
The moon served as a natural calendar, helping them track time and plan activities.
___ is based primarily on statistics and is particularly apt for prehistoric sites where the social evidence is relatively scant compared to the historic period.
What is Green Archeoastronomy?
The basic methods were developed by Alexander Thom during his extensive surveys of British megalithic sites.
___ is an American academic anthropologist, astronomer, and author, noted in particular for his extensive publications and contributions to the field of archeoastronomy. He is recognized for his influence on the development of archeoastronomy as a discipline in the latter 20th century.
Who is Anthony Aveni?
He has specialized in the study of ancient astronomical practices in the Americans and is one of the founders of research into the historical astronomy of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. He held an endowed chair as the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology and Native American Studies at Colgate University, in Hamilton, New York, where he is now a professor.
The ___ is located in County Meath, Ireland. It was likely built around 3,200 B.C. by the people who lived in Ireland. That means that it is older than the pyramids in Egypt! The tomb was discovered in 1699 and was excavated between 1962 and 1975.
What is Newgrange Tomb?
An entrance opens to a 62-foot-long passageway leading to a central chamber 20 feet high. For about 2 weeks on either side of the winter solstice, light streams through a roof box located above the entrance passage. This allows light to shine through the length of the passageway, lighting up the entire central chamber, where people must've been buried. Newgrange was planned out and built to face sunrise at the midwinter mark.
One of the most famous examples of Mayan alignments is ___ at Chichen Itza. This pyramid is aligned in such a way that during the spring and autumn equinoxes, a shadow cast by the setting sun creates the illusion of a serpent slithering down the steps.
What is the Temple of Kukulkan?
This phenomenon is a testament to the Mayans' precise understanding of celestial movements and their ability to incorporate them into their architecture.
Astronomy fundamentally shaped human history by enabling the understanding of seasons and aiding in ___.
What is Seaborne Navigation?
Ancient mariners used celestial objects like stars and constellations to navigate across oceans and explore new lands.
___ has been identified as being closer to the history of astronomy or cultural history, as it draws on historical and ethnographic records to enrich its understanding of early astronomies and their relations to calendars and rituals.
What is Brown Archeoastronomy?
The many records of native customs and beliefs made by Spanish chroniclers and ethnographic researchers mean that brown archeoastronomy is often associated with the study of astronomy in the Americas.
A British astronomer, archaeologist, and academic, ___ is regarded as one of the leading figures in the field of archeoastronomy and the author of numerous academic and popular works on the subject. As of 2009, he is an Emeritus Professor of Archeoastronomy at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester.
Who is Clive Ruggles?
He has held the post since it was created in 1999 when he is believed to have been the only appointed Chair for archeoastronomy among the world's universities. He concurrently also holds the posts of President of the Prehistoric Society, President of the IAU Commission for the History of Astronomy, and the Chair for the IAU World Heritage and Astronomy Working Group and was formerly the President of the International Society for Archeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture.
___ was built around 5000 years ago, making it one of the oldest Neolithic monuments in the world, on Orkney Island in the far north of Scotland. It is a large mound that is green and grassy in the summer and has a special relationship with the setting Winter Solstice Sun.
What is Maeshowe?
On December 21, at the end of a dim day when the Sun skims along the horizon, sunlight creeps along a long passageway in the mound and illuminates the back wall of a small stone chamber at the heart of the mound. Long ago people decided that this was an important enough day to warrant building a huge monument to mark its happening.
The Mayan calendar was linked to astronomy. The Maya basically used two calendars: the ___ and the Long Count.
What is the Calendar Round?
The Mayan Long Count calendar was divided into different units of time that used the Haab, or solar year (365 days), as a base. The Calendar Round consisted of two separate calendars; the first was the 365-day solar year, the second was the 260-day Tzolkin cycle. These cycles align every 52 years.