An analysis of astronomical alignments of Greek Sicilian Temples

TL;DR

This paper explores whether the alignments of Greek Sicilian temples can reveal insights into ancient Greek identity and cultural practices, using a combined approach of archaeoastronomy and historical context analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method combining alignment analysis with historical context to study small samples of temples for insights into collective identities.

Findings

Alignment patterns are ambiguous and less certain with limited cultural data.

The proposed method can potentially link temple orientations to civic identity.

Cultural ambiguity affects the strength of astronomical pattern interpretations.

Abstract

In the eighth century BC something peculiar seems to happen on Sicily. The archaeological record starts to show the arrival of Greek material culture. By the fifth century BC the island is effectively 'Hellenised' and ancient historians record the political and military action of poleis, Greek city-states. Each polis has traditionally been seen as the offshoot of a city elsewhere. Genealogies of cities ultimately end in cities found in the cities of the Peloponnese and the Aegean. The 'Greek' identity of the Sicilian cities is part of a wider debate on the concept of Identity in the ancient world. This paper considers if there is a contribution archaeoastronomers can make to such discussions by considering the alignments of Greek temples. Greek religion was intimately related to notions of civic identity and what it meant to be 'Greek'. I propose a method of studying small samples of temples, which combines both alignment analysis and historical context. Therefore it may be possible that a study of the temples may yield useful information about collective identities. However, as this method shows, the more ambiguous the cultural data the less certain any astronomical patterns may be.