Thinking about Archeoastronomy
Noah Brosch

TL;DR
This paper reviews ancient artifacts related to archeoastronomy, emphasizing the challenges in interpretation, and suggests a possible origin of astronomical practices in the Middle East around 11000 BCE, based on artifact analysis.
Contribution
It provides a critical overview of archeoastronomical artifacts, highlighting interpretative difficulties and proposing a Middle Eastern origin for early astronomical structures.
Findings
Artifacts suggest early astronomical interest dating back to 20000 BCE.
Measuring the spread of megalithic sites indicates a Middle Eastern origin.
Interpretation of artifacts requires caution to avoid over-assertion.
Abstract
I discuss various aspects of archeoastronomy concentrating on physical artifacts (i.e., not including ethno-archeoastronomy) focusing on the period that ended about 2000 years ago. I present examples of artifacts interpreted as showing the interest of humankind in understanding celestial phenomena and using these to synchronize calendars and predict future celestial and terrestrial events. I stress the difficulty of identifying with a high degree of confidence that these artifacts do indeed pertain to astronomy and caution against the over-interpretation of the finds as definite evidence. With these in mind, I point to artifacts that seem to indicate a human fascination with megalithic stone circles and megalithic alignments starting from at least 11000 BCE, and to other items presented as evidence for Neolithic astronomical interests dating to even 20000 BCE or even before. I discuss…
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Taxonomy
TopicsHistorical Astronomy and Related Studies · Historical and Architectural Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
