ARCHAEOASTRONOMY.

Catalog description

This is a one semester course on astronomy and archaeology intertwining with an emphasis on the interesting relationship between ancient constructions and the sky. It provides a better understanding of the ideas of the architects of the past and of their religious and symbolic worlds. Many examples show how ancient astronomy still related to current astronomy in so many ways and events, such as the total lunar eclipse that led to the Athenian defeat at Syracuse, or the relation of the Easter/Passover/Chinese New Year to lunar cycles, or Polynesian sailors who populated the Pacific with the stars as a guide. This course is divided into three sections, the first of which explores the past relations between astronomy and people, power, the afterworld, architecture, and landscape. Secondly, the fundamentals of archeoastronomy are then addressed in detail, with coverage of the celestial coordinates; the apparent motion of the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets; observation of celestial bodies at the horizon; the use of astronomical software in archeoastronomy; and current methods for making and analyzing measurements. The final section reviews what archeoastronomy can now tell us about the nature and purpose of such sites and structures as Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Giza, Chichen Itza, the Campus Martius, and the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento. Prerequisite: high school math.