ARCHAEOASTRONOMY : introduction to the science of stars and stones.

271 Pages·2020·18.683 MB·English

by  GIULIO MAGLI

Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics
Giulio Magli
Archaeoastronomy
Introduction to the Science of
Stars and Stones
Second Edition
Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics
Series Editors
Neil Ashby, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
WilliamBrantley,DepartmentofPhysics,FurmanUniversity,Greenville,SC,USA
MatthewDeady,PhysicsProgram,BardCollege,Annandale-on-Hudson,NY,USA
Michael Fowler, Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
VA, USA
Morten Hjorth-Jensen, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Michael Inglis, Department of Physical Sciences, SUNY Suffolk County
Community College, Selden, NY, USA
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Giulio Magli
Archaeoastronomy
Introduction to the Science of Stars and Stones
Second Edition
123
Giulio Magli
Department ofMathematics
Politecnico di Milano
Milan,Italy
ISSN 2192-4791 ISSN 2192-4805 (electronic)
Undergraduate Lecture Notesin Physics
ISBN978-3-030-45146-2 ISBN978-3-030-45147-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45147-9
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Accessing Augmented Reality Augmented reality is an integral
partofthesecondeditionof“Archaeoastronomy.Introductiontothe
Science of Stars and Stones”: to enhance your reading experience,
holdyourmobiledeviceoverillustrationsorphotosinthebookand
spot supplemental multimedia content, such as short videos which
explain the phenomena or 3D buildings you can interact with.
Installing the “ArchaeoastronomyAR” App
To unlock these special features, we recommend downloading the free
“ArchaeoAR” Augmented Reality App for smartphones and tablet PCs from the
app stores:
Consult the list of recommended devices that are enabled at this page: https://
library.vuforia.com/articles/Solution/vuforia-fusion-supported-devices.html.Thislist
does not represent all of the devices that can support Vuforia Engine SDK
vision-only and Fusion features. Additional platform supported Android devices
thataresupportedviaVuforiaFusioncanbefoundhere:https://developers.google.
com/ar/discover/supported-devices.
Using the “ArchaeoastronomyAR” App The app allows you to scan the
pictures of the book showing this icon: related videos will appear on your
device’sscreenjustoverthem.Lookforthearrowiconthroughoutthebooktospot
the pictures which have more elements to discover.
You can always view 3D monuments by accessing them directly from your
handheld device, using the app’s menu.
From the app’s menu you can:
1. Frame a picture showing the icon, to play a video.
2. Visualise the following 3D buildings on your device’s screen.
To visualise a 3D monument, hold your smartphone or tablet parallel to a
horizontal surface whose colour is not uniform and click on the tracker once the
gridappears.Youcaninteractwiththemonuments,thankstosomespecificfeatures
which will allow you to understand the archaeoastronomical phenomena.

Contents
Part I Methods
1 Astronomy with the Naked Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 The Celestial Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 The Apparent Motion of the Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 The Apparent Motion of the Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 Constellations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 The Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.6 Precession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.7 The Apparent Motion of the Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.8 The Apparent Motion of the Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.9 Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.10 The Observation of Celestial Bodies on the Horizon. . . . . . . . . 27
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2 Acquiring Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1 Archaeoastronomy Fieldwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2 The Magnetic Compass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3 The Clinometer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4 The Theodolite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.5 The Global Positioning System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.6 Virtual Globe Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.1 Reconstructing the Ancient Sky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 The Reconstruction of Visual Alignments and the Horizon
Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3 Graphical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.4 Statistical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
vii
viii Contents
Part II Ideas
4 Astronomy and Architecture at the Roots of Civilization . . . . . . . . 55
4.1 From Homo Sapiens to Homo Sapiens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2 From Hunters-Gatherers to Herders-Peasants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.3 The Birth of Monumental Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.4 The Birth of Astronomically Anchored Monumental
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5 Astronomy, Power, and Landscapes of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.1 Sky and Cosmos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2 Cosmos and Afterworld. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.3 Mastering the Cosmos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.4 Cosmic Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.5 Cosmic Landscapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6 The Scientific Foundations of Archaeoastronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.1 Archaeoastronomy as a Cognitive Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.2 Archaeoastronomy as an Exact Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.3 Archaeoastronomy and Unwritten Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.4 Archaeoastronomy and Reverse Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.5 Towards Archaeology of the Cosmic Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . 119
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Part III Places
7 Megalithic Cultures of the Mediterranean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.1 Stonehenge and Its Landscape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.2 Newgrange and the Bend of the Boinne. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.3 The Sleeping Giant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.4 Taulas and Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8 Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.1 A Seat Among the Imperishable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.2 The Horizon of Khufu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
8.3 The Giza Written Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
8.4 The Sun in the Temples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
9 Pre-Columbian Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.1 The Maya at Uxmal: The Governor’s Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
9.2 The Serpent on the Pyramid: Chichen Itza’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Contents ix
9.3 Going Where the Sun Turns Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
9.4 Pillars of the Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
10 The Classical World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
10.1 Houses of the Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
10.2 The City of the Lion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
10.3 A Comet and a Capricorn: Augustus’ Power from the Stars . . . 229
10.4 Astronomy and Empire at the Pantheon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
11 Asian Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
11.1 The Terracotta Army. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
11.2 The Pyramids of Ancient China. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
11.3 Between Sun and Waters: Angkor Wat and the Khmer
State-Temples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
11.4 Perennial Hierophanies in the Khmer Heartland . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
11.5 The “Sun Path” at Borobudur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Exercises . .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 261