Secrets of the Stones

Secrets of the Stones PDF Author: John Michell
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892813377
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
From the temples of Egypt to the stone circles of Britain, Michell traces the development of the science of astro-archaeology.

Secrets of the Stones

Secrets of the Stones PDF Author: John Michell
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
ISBN: 9780892813377
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
From the temples of Egypt to the stone circles of Britain, Michell traces the development of the science of astro-archaeology.

Exploring Ancient Skies

Exploring Ancient Skies PDF Author: David H. Kelley
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441976248
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 622

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Book Description
Exploring Ancient Skies brings together the methods of archaeology and the insights of modern astronomy to explore the science of astronomy as it was practiced in various cultures prior to the invention of the telescope. The book reviews an enormous and growing body of literature on the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, the Far East, and the New World (particularly Mesoamerica), putting the ancient astronomical materials into their archaeological and cultural contexts. The authors begin with an overview of the field and proceed to essential aspects of naked-eye astronomy, followed by an examination of specific cultures. The book concludes by taking into account the purposes of ancient astronomy: astrology, navigation, calendar regulation, and (not least) the understanding of our place and role in the universe. Skies are recreated to display critical events as they would have appeared to ancient observers--events such as the supernova of 1054 A.D., the "lion horoscope," and the Star of Bethlehem. Exploring Ancient Skies provides a comprehensive overview of the relationships between astronomy and other areas of human investigation. It will be useful as a reference for scholars and as a text for students in both astronomy and archaeology, and will be of compelling interest to readers who seek a broad understanding of our collective intellectual history.

Exploring Archaeoastronomy

Exploring Archaeoastronomy PDF Author: Liz Henty
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1789257883
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Archaeoastronomy and archaeology are two distinct fields of study which examine the cultural aspect of societies, but from different perspectives. Archaeoastronomy seeks to discover how the impact of the skyscape is materialized in culture, by alignments to celestial events or sky-based symbolism; yet by contrast, archaeology's approach examines all aspects of culture, but rarely considers the sky. Despite this omission, archaeology is the dominant discipline while archaeoastronomy is relegated to the sidelines. The reasons for archaeoastronomy’s marginalized status may be found by assessing its history. For such an exploration to be useful, archaeoastronomy cannot just be investigated in a vacuum but must be contextualized by exploring other contemporaneous developments, particularly in archaeology. On the periphery of both, there are various strands of esoteric thought and pseudoscientific theories which paint an alternative view of monumental remains and these also play a part in the background. The discipline of archaeology has had an unbroken lineage from the late 19th century to the present. On the other hand, archaeoastronomy has not been consistently titled, having adopted various different names such as alignment studies, orientation theory, astro-archaeology, megalithic science, archaeotopography, archaeoastronomy and cultural astronomy: names which depict variants of its methods and theory, sometimes in tandem with those of archaeology and sometimes in opposition. Similarly, its academic status has always been unclear so to bring it closer to archaeology there was a proposal in 2015 to integrate archaeoastronomy research with that of archaeology and call it skyscape archaeology. This volume will examine how all these different variants came about and consider archaeoastronomy's often troubled relationship with archaeology and its appropriation by esotericism to shed light on its position today.

Megaliths, Myths and Men

Megaliths, Myths and Men PDF Author: Peter Lancaster Brown
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486156958
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Fascinating study of early astronomical knowledge through the interpretation of such ancient monuments as Stonehenge, Carnac, other megalithic sites. Over 140 photos, maps, illustrations. "Fascinating."— Publishers Weekly.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge PDF Author: Aubrey Burl
Publisher: Constable & Robinson
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Authoritatively researched, new insights into Stonehenge's past Britain's leading expert on stone circles turns his attention to the greatest example of them all - Stonehenge. Drawing on forty years of research and fieldwork, archaeologist Aubrey Burl offers a seminal new view of the changing cults and evolving architecture of Stonehenge. Every aspect of Stonehenge is re-considered in this groundbreaking volume. Burl explains for the first time how the outlying Heel Stone long predates Stonehenge itself, serving as a trackway marker in the prehistoric Harroway. He uncovers new evidence that the Welsh bluestones were brought to Stonehenge by glaciation rather than by man. And he reveals just how far the design of Stonehenge was influenced by Breton styles and by Breton cults of the dead. Meticulously researched, the book sets the record straight on the matter of Stonehenge's astronomical alignments. Although the existence of a sightline to the midsummer sunrise is well known, the alignment and the viewingposition are critically different from popular belief. And until now the existence of an earlier alignment to the moon and a later one to the midwinter sunset has been little appreciated. One almost unexplained puzzle remains. The site of Stonehenge lies at the heart of a vast six-mile wide graveyard. All around it are groups of earthen long barrows, the burial places of Neolithic people, many of whom died more than a thousand years before Stonehenge. The mystery is that before Stonehenge there was a vacuum two miles across inside that cemetery. Nothing was inside. Why? Burl points to an answer.

The Enigma of Stonehenge and Its Astronomical and Geometrical Significance

The Enigma of Stonehenge and Its Astronomical and Geometrical Significance PDF Author: Cecil Augustus Newham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Stonehenge (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description


Riddles in Stone

Riddles in Stone PDF Author: Richard Hayman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781852855666
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Who built Avebury and Stonehenge? Why and when were more than 600 stone circles, and thousands of barrows and cairns, erected in prehistoric Britain? What were they used for and what do they tell us about the beliefs and culture of their builders? Riddles in Stone is a history of the extraordinary variety of answers that have been given to these questions, by amateurs and professionals, archaeologists and astronomers, mystics and systems theorists. While modern excavation and radiocarbon dating has undoubtedly advanced our knowledge of the sequence and date of the monuments, their purpose and meaning is still hotly debated. Indeed no previous century has changed its mind so often as the twentieth - or provided such a welter of differing opinions. Each theory has as much to say about its own time as it has about prehistory. The stones have been used to enhance the authority of the Bible, to endorse the civilizing mission of the British Empire - and to argue that the Ancient Britons could work a computer. In a reaction to modern industrial society, they have been credited with spiritual powers and natural energies. Even the views of modern archaeologists often seem to reflect the latest academic fad, rather than a lasting solution. Riddles in Stone is an entertaining and instructive account of a debate on a subject of endless fascination.

Megaliths and Masterminds

Megaliths and Masterminds PDF Author: Peter Lancaster Brown
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
A discussion of the questions surrounding various ancient stone monuments throughout the world and, also offers a reassessment of the achievements of earlier non-literate peoples based on recent research and archaeoligical findings.

Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archeological Society

Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archeological Society PDF Author: Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cumberland (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 718

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Book Description
List of members included in each volume except v. 1.

Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian & Archeological Society

Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian & Archeological Society PDF Author: Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæological Society
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cumberland (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description