Thinking about Archeoastronomy

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 the geographical and temporal spread of megalithic sites associated with astronomical interpretations searching for synchronicity or for a possible single point of origin. A survey of a variety of artifacts indicates that the astronomical development in antiquity did not happen simultaneously at different locations, but may be traced to megalithic stone circles and other megalithic structures with possible astronomical connections originating in the Middle East, specifically in the Fertile Crescent area. The effort of ancient societies to erect these astronomical megalithic sites and to maintain a corpus of astronomy experts does not appear excessive.