Archaeoastronomy

Built in the early twelfth century, Angkor Wat is one of the world’s largest ancient religious structures. Each year thousands of visitors make the pilgrimage to Angkor Wat to witness the equinox sunrise over the temple’s lotus-shaped towers. In addition to the equinox alignment, however, there are other alignments at Angkor Wat and many of the surrounding temples. In this article multiple solstice alignments are identified for Angkor Wat and eleven nearby temples to include: Bakong, Phnom Bakheng, Phnom Bok, Phnom Krom, East Mebon, Pre Rup, Banteay Srei, Ta Keo, Baphuon, Preah Khan, and Bayon.
Subsequent to ground and aerial reconnaissance of the above sites, archaeoastronomic assessments were made using Google Earth, with solstice azimuths calculated using standard protocols. More than seventy solstice alignments were thus identified.
The multiplicity of solstice alignments combined with other data suggest that it was important for Angkor temples to be connected to the sun. If, as endorsed here, Angkor temples were microcosmic models of the cosmos, then arguably, solstice alignments connected the temples to the cyclic movement of the cosmos as manifested by the solar cycle.

Spells 154‒160 of the Coffin Texts have long been known to form a unified composition since most of them promise the knowledge of sacred localities. The main purpose of these spells is, however, not to draw up a mental map of places of ritual import but to describe a more tangible yet still grandiose journey, the wanderings of the moon across time and space. After the introduction (spell 154) which explains the origins of the month, the separate texts represent the successive stages of the monthly cycle: the period of invisibility (spell 155), waxing (spell 156), events around the full moon (spell 157), waning (spell 158), the arrival of the last crescent at the eastern horizon (spell 159), and again the conjunction of the sun and the moon when a solar eclipse can occur (spell 160). The references to the moon in the texts are sometimes straightforward, while to grasp the lunar content of other passages a greater understanding of ancient Egyptian astronomical concepts is required. The spells present a hitherto unsuspected coherent account of lunar phenomena and can appropriately be dubbed the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Moon.
Full text of the paper will be available on Academia.edu in three years’ time. Until then you need to get hold of the book, http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/current-research-in-egyptology-2016.html, or send a request to the author.

Previous research has revealed that Sirius and Hephaistos myths and legends were strongly present in Bronze Age Mediterranean communities via an interrelated cultural network amongst various cultures and societies (Laoupi, 2006a & b; Laoupi, 2011). The aim of the present monograph is to deepen this research, enrich it with the latest evidence and cover broader geographical and chronological boundaries. The Sirius, Moon and Venus cults came from the Paleolithic Times amazingly enriched by their “journey” into the human psyche starring at the Cosmos. Especially, Sirius cult was a pivotal cult of the Pelasgian substratum coming from Neolithic and late Paleolithic Times.

En la entrada del la Quebrada de los Horcones, ingreso natural al Cerro Aconcagua (Mendoza / Argentina), cerro adorado como huaca por el mundo incaico y en el cual se realizó un rito de capacocha, hemos descubierto una intiwatana y ushnu que cumple funciones calendáricas astronómicas y de siembra,. Este lito se encuentra relacionado directamente con la constelación de la Cruz del Sur y también con el asterismo de las Pléyades, en un marco de paisaje sagrado, que nos recuerda a "otro Cuzco".

Es un compendio de investigaciones en materia de arqueoastronomía y etnoastronomía en entre los grupos mayas prehispánicos y contemporáneos. El libro versa sobre el desarrollo de las prácticas astronómicas en tierras mayas, aborda los aspectos culturales en los que se relaciona y lo desarrolla en una visión diacrónica.

เท่าที่ผ่านมา ปราสาทพนมรุ้งมักได้รับการเผยแพร่ผ่านสื่อต่างๆ ว่าเป็นศาสนสถานเขมรโบราณ ที่ซึ่งแสงแดดสามารถสาดส่องผ่านทะลุช่องประตู ทั้ง ๑๕ ช่องเข้าไปต้องพระศิวลึงค์ที่ประดิษฐานภายในองค์ปราสาทประธานได้ โดยจุดสนใจจะอยู่ที่ช่วงอาทิตย์ขึ้นในเดือนเมษายนเป็นหลัก  ต่อมา เมื่อผลการสังเกตการณ์ของผู้เขียนในช่วงอาทิตยต์กเมื่อเดือนมีนาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๓ และการค านวณปรากฏการณ์เดียวกันที่เกิดขึ้นในช่วงฤดู ใบไม้ร่วง ไดร้ับการตีพิมพใ์นหนงัสือพิมพ ์บางกอกโพสต ์เดือนมีนาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๓ และนิตยสารศิลปวฒันธรรม ในปี พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๖ ท าให้ตั้งแต่ ปี พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๗ เป็นตน้มา ปราสาทพนมรุ้งจึงไดร้ับการประชาสัมพันธ์ว่ามี “ปรากฏการณ์ดวงอาทิตย์” เกิดขึ้นถึงปีละสี่ครั้ง  ทว่า อีกสิ่งหนึ่งซึ่งสาธารณชนยังมิได้รับรู้กันก็คือ ปรากฏการณ์ดวงอาทิตย์ที่ปราสาทพนมรุ้งนี้ ยังเกี่ยวเนื่องกับดวงจันทร์ด้วย ดังนั้น จึงสมควรตอ้ง เรียกว่า “ปรากฏการณ์ดวงอาทิตย ์– ดวงจนัทร์”  นั่นก็คือในวันที่ดวงอาทิตย์ตกตรงกับช่องประตูทั้งหมดของพนมรุ้ง จากนั้นในช่วงค ่า ให้สังเกตต าแหน่งดวงจันทร์บนทรงกลมท้องฟ้า (celestial sphere) ว่าอยู่ใกล้ดาวฤกษ์ใด หรืออยู่ในจักรราศีใด อีกสี่สัปดาห์ต่อมา ในวันที่ดวงอาทิตย์จะขึ้นตรงกับช่องประตูของพนมรุ้ง เชา้มืดก่อนอาทิตย์ขึ้น ดวงจันทร์จะกลับมาอยู่ในต าแหน่งเดิมอีกครั้งหนึ่ง  นอกจากนั้นแล้ว ปรากฏการณ์ท้องฟ้าที่พนมรุ้งก็ยังรวมถึงการเกิดสุริยุปราคาและจันทรุปราคาด้วย ในกรณีนี้ ระยะห่างระหว่างปรากฏการณ์ทั้งสอง อาจมีได้ตั้งแต่ ๑๔ วนั ๒๘ วนั ๖ เดือน ๑๙ ปี ฯลฯ ในวนัที่ ๘ กันยายน ๒๕๔๙ เกิดจันทรุปราคาบางส่วนขึ้น และในวันที่ ๙ กันยายน ๒๕๔๙ ดวง อาทิตย์ขึ้นตรง ๑๕ ช่องประตูของพนมรุ้ง อีก ๖ เดือนต่อมา เช้าตรู่วันที่ ๔ มีนาคม ๒๕๕๐ เกิดจันทรุปราคาเต็มดวง อีก ๓ วันต่อมา ดวงอาทิตย์ขึ้น ตรง ๑๕ ช่องประตู ในวันที่ ๗ มีนาคม ๒๕๕๐

On Wednesday, Dec. 21, nations in the Northern Hemisphere will mark the winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night of the year. For thousands of years people have marked this event with rituals and celebrations to signal the rebirth of the sun and its victory over darkness.

At hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of missions stretching from northern California to Peru, the winter solstice sun triggers an extraordinarily rare and fascinating event – something that I discovered by accident and first documented in one California church nearly 20 years ago.  See article at On Wednesday, Dec. 21, nations in the Northern Hemisphere will mark the winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night of the year. For thousands of years people have marked this event with rituals and celebrations to signal the rebirth of the sun and its victory over darkness. See link to online magazine at https://theconversation.com/a-sacred-light-in-the-darkness-winter-solstice-illuminations-at-spanish-missions-70250

Prähistorische Astronomie und Ethnoastronomie
Der Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte hat im Zusammenhang mit der Tagung der Astronomischen Gesellschaft in Würzburg ein Kolloquium veranstaltet, das am Montag, den 24. September 2007, stattfand. Aus aktuellem Anlaß – im Jahr 2007 jährte sich der Geburtstag von Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), dem Entdecker der elektromagnetischen Wellen, zum 150. Mal – wurde für diese Herbsttagung das Thema „Astronomie in neuen Wellenlängen“ gewählt. Als weiteres Thema wurde „Prähistorische Astronomie und Ethnoastronomie“ angeboten, das bisher beim Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte noch überhaupt nicht berücksichtigt wurde und großen Zuspruch fand. Die Prähistorische Astronomie betrifft die astronomischen Aktivitäten in der Zeit vor der schriftlichen Aufzeichnung. Viele vor- und frühgeschichtliche Völker beschäftigten sich mit den Geheimnissen des Kosmos und überlieferten ihre Vorstellungen in eindrucksvollen Bauwerken. Grundlagen der prähistorischen Astronomie sind archäologische Ausgrabungen oder geodätische Vermessungen von Baudenkmälern (Gräber, Kultanlagen), um deren eventuelle astronomische Ausrichtung festzustellen und mit Hilfe astronomischen Fachwissens zu deuten und in einen historischen Kontext einzuordnen. Archäoastronomie ist ein sehr interdisziplinäres Thema; Archäologie, Kulturgeschichte, Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft und Technik, besonders Astronomiegeschichte spielen eine Rolle, aber auch Ethnographie, Anthropologie, Literatur- und Religionsgeschichte, um nur einige wichtige Wissengebiete zu nennen.

Das Spektrum der Vorträge – und der Artikel in diesem Buch – reicht von Astronomie der Steinzeit (Megalithkultur des Neolithikums) und Bronzezeit zur Astronomie bei den Germanen oder Kelten.
http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/DE/GNT/events/wbg-archaeo07.htm
Am bekanntesten in der Steinzeit ist natürlich Stonehenge, dessen astronomische Bedeutung erstmals ausführlich von Gerald Hawkins 1963 in seinem Buch Stonehenge decoded diskutiert wurde. Es gibt aber viele weitere Kreisgraben-Anlagen und einzelne Menhire oder Alignements (z.B. Carnac und Locmariaquer, Bretagne). Ferner ist das Ganggrab in Newgrange, Irland, zu erwähnen; tief in den Hügel hinein strahlt die Sonne am am 21. Dezember, am Tag der Wintersonnenwende, symbolisch die Wiedergeburt des Jahres. Diese prähistorischen Anlagen finden sich nicht nur in England, Deutschland und Frankreich, sondern in ganz Europa bis Nordafrika (Steinkreis von Nabta, Südägypten). Nicht vergessen sollte man die Tempel-Anlagen auf Malta und Gozo. Im Pazifischen Ozean gibt es neben den Steinkolossen auf der Osterinsel die Ruinenstadt Nan Madol auf der Insel Ponape in Mikronesien.

In der Bronzezeit sind besonders die Goldhüte oder die Scheibe von Nebra zu nennen, die im Zentrum des Interesses stehen, aber man könnte auch die Kreisgrabenanlagen in Goseck und Kyhna anführen und den Sonnenwagen von Trundholm (1500 v.Chr). Es wurde auch die Ethnoastronomie mit einbezogen, ein Artikel befaßt sich mit dem Himmel bei den australischen Aboriginals, ein anderer diskutiert astronomische Beobachtungstechniken im alten Indien, ein bisher zu wenig berücksichtigster Kulturkreis.
Gudrun Wolfschmidt

One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. This article is an excerpt of pages 98-99 from the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson with a numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depicting the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Mural photograph: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Throughout the course of history, from early prehistory to the Space Age, power structures have existed which have been more or less derived from or correlated to astronomical phenomena or certain cosmologies and cosmovisions. These have significantly affected and formed the economic, social, political, artistic and religious life of people across different cultures. Cosmographies, time reckoning and calendar systems, celestial navigation techniques, landscape and architectural models of cosmicpotency, celestial divination and astrological ideas, cosmic clothing and other related concepts have been used successfully by interest groups to establish, maintain and expand psychological, social, religious and political power. Furthermore, the celestial sphere and its inhabitants have also been closely connected and partially interwoven with the concept of the manifestation of cosmic order and power both in nature and in culture. The book’s 43 chapters cover numerous aspects of the topic, from general ideas to astronomy and politics in the Modern Age. The editors are proven experts in the field of cultural astronomy, having many years of experience. They are adept in different subjects and methodologies based on natural sciences as well as on humanities. Dr Michael A. Rappenglück MA, the first editor of the work in hand, has been president of the European Society of Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) since 2011.

El Trópico de Cáncer es un paralelo situado en la latitud 23° 26’ 15”. El Trópico de Cáncer delimita el punto más septentrional en el que el Sol puede ocupar el cenit al mediodía, lo cual ocurre durante el solsticio de verano. En este día los rayos solares caen verticalmente sobre la superficie terrestre a lo largo de esta latitud, lo cual se supone fue significativo para los sacerdotes/astrónomos de la antigüedad dedicados a observar el aparente movimiento del Sol. Sucede que Alta Vista, en Zacatecas, corresponde al punto extremo septentrional donde este fenómeno puede suceder, la fecha del paso cenital di ere según la latitud de cada emplazamiento, y diferentes especialistas en arqueoastronomía destacan cómo las culturas indígenas de la antigüedad, al menos desde el periodo Clásico, valoraban esta apreciación para la elaboración de sus calendarios.

For more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points.

The archaeological record of the Late Neolithic – Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age periods in the Negev exhibits prevalent east to west orientations, which is understood in the literature as an expression of the preoccupations with afterlife beliefs, mortuary cult and ancestor worship. These archaeological remains are often described as astronomical alignments and are related to the setting sun on the day of the summer solstice. They are attributed to an emerging pastoralist elite. Orientation seems to be also the central theme in the oral traditions of contemporary pastoralists. While the material remains express orientation in space, the oral traditions, which are illustrated at their best in star-lore, express an orientation in time: the cyclic renewal of seasons is observed in the east to west passage of stars and asterisms. The seasons and the constellations, which define them, are related to equinoxes. As material and spiritual expressions of the beliefs that characterize pastoral nomads, the archaeological record and star-lore seem to be closely related. However, due to polar shift and the precession of the equinoxes, contemporary star-lore orientates itself differently from its Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age forerunner, and it cannot reflect the orientation exhibited by tumuli fields, walls, masseboth and other remains, except in a very approximate way. A significant pre-cession of equinoxes occurred in the early phases of the Middle Bronze Age. The event left a deep mark on cultures worldwide and it was paralleled by a shift in symbolism. In the Negev it also meant a deterioration of the climate. Nomadic mythology and star-lore had to re-orientate themselves, to adjust to the new coordinates, which superseded an apparently perfect previous order. The majority of the rock art corpus in the Negev is dated roughly to the period that preceded the shift. However, a few of the engravings dated to the Early Bronze Age become meaningful only when related to the changes, which occurred during and after the precession of the equinoxes. Other engravings reflect precisely Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age realities, but their symbolic implications outlived the astronomic context in which they were conceived and they are actual even in our days.

The author describes the situation in the Canary Islands, referring first to the deities of the communities here.
The aborigines of the Canary Islands utilized sacrificial altars, locally known as pireos, to perform rituals on prominent geological locations such as mountaintops or cliffs. These are dry stone constructions shaped as an ovalcircular enclosure with one or more small cavities, where burning of food offerings was performed. It presents the construction characteristics of these sacrificial enclosures.
The shared prominent location and aspect of altars for sacrifices reflect a phenomenon on pan-insular scale, a unitary ideological system, a network of territorial connections along the entire archipelago, and a hierarchical social organization.
It is noted the southern peak of the Montaña de Tindaya (northeastern Fuerteventura Island) with 213 foot-shaped rock engravings, where different sacred activities took place. The hub of the religious, cultural and social network was the great insular-scale sanctuary on El Alto de Garajonay (La Gomera Island). In conclusion, sanctuaries were organized according to a well-established territorial hierarchy, which is easily associable with the image given by ethnohistorical sources about an aboriginal segmented and non-egalitarian society. Some of these monuments have been investigated, providing information about their age, as well as the products offered to the deities (especially parts of animals, wild fruits and cultivated cereals). A cult center with about twenty-five altars for fire sacrifices and related stone altars occurs on La Fortaleza de Chipude (The Fortress of Chipude). A hierarchical network of fire-sacrificial sanctuaries set in the different islands participated to a complex process of social segmentation-interrelation cohesion-guidance of the population.
A pan-insular organization above the tribes did not exist. A supraterritorial religious and social institute was established instead, based on the power to interpret the divine will and predict the future through sacrifices.

The configurations of ancient Maya cities were influenced by a range of factors; principally, a mix of social, economic, environmental, engineering, historical, and ideational determinants (Ashmore and Sabloff 2002: 202). Of ongoing concern in Maya studies, therefore, is establishing the weight that each factor has had on the ordering of buildings and associated architectural features. The book “Archaeoastronomy and the Maya” demonstrates, via a collection of papers, the influence that astronomical surveillance had on the ordering of ancient Maya architecture and, more broadly, its use to posit the world experienced by the ancient Maya within a broader cosmological framework.

Die klassische Mayakultur wird in der zur Zeit verwendeten
Standardchronologie von Goodman, Martínez und Thompson in die Zeit von ca. 300 bis 900 n. Chr. datiert. Sie beruht auf dem Vergleich von Kalenderangaben im Mayakalender und in der christlichen Zeitrechnung, die zusammen auf kolonialzeitlichen Dokumenten zu finden sind. Allerdings beruht diese Datierung auf der Annahme der Kalenderkontinuität von der Klassik bis in die Kolonialzeit. Diese Annahme wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit an Hand der Mondserien widerlegt, so dass sich die Notwendigkeit ergibt, die klassische Mayakultur neu zu datieren.
Dafür bieten sich astronomische Daten aus der Klassik an, die man mit modernen astronomischen Berechnungen vergleichen kann. Die Interpretationen von vier astronomischen Ereignissen sind durch den Vergleich von verschiedenen Quellen vorab auf ihre Genauigkeit und Zuverlässigkeit überprüft worden, um sie anschließend mit einer neu entwickelten Korrelationssuchmethode für die astronomische Datierung zu verwenden. Das Ergebnis ist, dass es nur eine einzige Lösung bei der Korrelationssuche gibt: Die Korrelationskonstante 660208.
Die neue Datierung verschiebt die klassische Mayakultur (ca. 8.13.0.0.0 - 10.4.0.0.0) um 208 Jahre in der Zeit von ca. 500 bis 1100 n. Chr. Naturwissenschaftliche Datierungsverfahren, stilistische Entwicklungen in den Mayaglyphen und mögliche Querverbindungen zu Zentralmexiko bestätigen die neue Datierung, so dass Unstimmigkeiten und Brüche in der historischen Entwicklung der klassischen Mayakultur wegfallen. Die Promotion diskutiert an vielen Beispielen die Implikationen einer um 208 Jahre verschobenen Mayachronologie und beschreibt die Höhepunkte in der Geschichte der Maya-Astronomie.

In den mehr als 10 Jahren seit Veröffentlichung der ersten Auflage sind einige wichtige Forschungsarbeiten veröffentlicht worden, die nun berücksichtigt werden konnten. Dies betrifft die 2012 publizierten Klimadaten aus der Höhle von Yuk Balum in Belize. Außerdem ist die Entstehung der GMT-Korrelation aus einer wissenschaftshistorischen Perspektive hinzugefügt worden, die klarstellt, dass bei der Berechnung der Korrelationskonstante durch Goodman (1905), Martinéz Hernández (1926) und auch später durch Thompson (1927, 1935) erhebliche Manipulationen an den kolonialzeitlichen Kalenderdaten durchgeführt wurden. Als Konsequenz muss festgestellt werden, dass die GMT-Korrelation jeglicher Datengrundlage entbehrt, die es erlauben würde sie überhaupt zu berechnen, wodurch die Notwendigkeit für eine neue Korrelation durch die Datierung der klassischen Mayakultur noch dringender wurde.
Zur Verifizierung der astronomischen Datierung sind seit 2012 hochgenaue AMS Radiokarbondatierungen eines Türsturzes aus Tempel 1 in Tikal bekannt, die nun berücksichtigt wurden. Die Liste der Mondserien ist auf der Grundlage von einer umfangreichen Mondseriensammlung überarbeitet und zahlreiche neue Inschriften sind hinzugefügt worden. Im Rahmen der Überarbeitung der Mondserien ist die Analyse des Mondalters um viele Aspekte erweitert worden.

The paper is an attempt to show the architectonic method of the ancient Egyptian designers
for encoding the horizontal-projections of the moon’s declinations during two
events of the minor lunar standstills, in the design of the site-plan of the horizon of the
Giza pyramids, using the methods of descriptive geometry. It shows that the distance of
the eastern side of the second Giza pyramid from the north-south axis of the great pyramid
encodes a projection of a lunar declination, when earth’s obliquity-angle was
~24.10°. Besides, it shows that the angle of inclination of the causeway of the second Giza
pyramid, of ~13.54° south of the cardinal east, encodes the projection of another lunar
declination when earth’s obliquity-angle reaches ~22.986°. In addition, it shows the encoded
coordinate system in the site-plan of the horizon of the Giza pyramids.

In 2006 an interdisciplinary team, coordinated by the Solstice Project, produced an interactive computer graphics model that precisely replicates the astronomical functioning of an ancient calendrical site, the Sun Dagger, of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. The interactive, three-dimensional format of this digital model provides opportunities for extensive research of the structure's light patterns, as well as its geometry and the process of its original development. At the Sun Dagger site, which Anna Sofaer rediscovered in 1977, three upright sandstone slabs cast precise light and shadow patterns on two spiral petroglyphs, recording the summer and winter solstices, the equinoxes, and the 18.6-year lunar cycle (Sinclair et al. 1987; Sofaer and Sinclair 1987; Sofaer, Sinclair, and Doggett 1982; Sofaer, Zinser, and Sinclair 1979; figures 3.1–3.4).  This site is located on a southeastern-facing cliff near the top of the 135-m-high Fajada Butte, which stands prominently at the south entrance of Chaco Canyon. The rediscovery of the Sun Dagger site was followed by intense visitation. This activity caused acceleration of the process of natural erosion at the site, which, in turn, caused significant shifts in the positions of the slabs and the light markings. Thus the precise archival replication of the Sun Dagger site allows appreciation and study of its astronomical functioning that can no longer be observed or recorded.

This document provides color illustrations for Chapter 9 of my book, "An Archaeology of the Sacred." As originally published the illustrations were limited to black and white. As the book made extensive use of LiDAR imagery, the color images found in the present version will be of interest.

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the mythological images of the Baltic religious system according to Gintaras Beresnevičius. It discusses his work, his main works and his particularly important contribution to the study of Baltic religion and mythology.

This article seeks to present a short overview of the astronomy of Sanchi and Udayagiri (near Vidisha), and a longer overview of the astronomy of the Ajanta caves 26 and 19. With regard to Sanchi and Udayagiri, it presents excerpts from the published researches in order to create a background and context for the main topic, that is, Ajanta on which subject fresh observations are being presented here for the first time to reveal a hitherto undisclosed dimension of the architecture of two magnificent monuments of Ajanta. Eventualy, the article seeks to convey that science and astronomy had a great role to play in the temple building activity in the fifth-century India.

The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

I discovered the Voon Settlement Complex on June 7, 2017, while I was using Google Earth to search for prehistoric sites within the Tibesti Mountains of northwestern Chad. The Voon Settlement Complex consists of more than 220 prehistoric habitation sites that are located on the circular perimeter of the Tarso Voon volcanic collapse caldera, and 350 additional sites in the northward-draining watershed of the Tarso Voon. The prehistoric habitation sites consist of low-profile stone walls that form irregularly-shaped livestock enclosures, and circular stone huts that measure about three to five meters in diameter. The prehistoric habitation sites in the Tibesti Mountains exist in very large numbers that could not be supported by the current dry climate of the Sahara, which was transformed from a green savanna into an arid desert about five thousand years ago. The many thousands of prehistoric habitation sites could only have been built and occupied during the time of the Green Sahara, from approximately 8000 BCE to 3000 BCE, and the many thousands of livestock enclosures probably date from the Pastoral Period, between 4500 BCE and 3000 BCE, when the people of the Sahara herded domestic cattle, sheep, and goats. The famous rock art of the Tibesti was probably created by the builders of those habitation sites. Within the Tarso Voon crater is what I have named the Voon Astronomical Observatory, which consists of ten perfectly-straight stone walls, each one of which points to the horizon azimuths of the rising or setting of the sun or of various stars.