An introductory view on archaeoastronomy

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Brown, D. ORCID: 0000-0001-6564-3339, 2016. An introductory view on archaeoastronomy. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 685, 012001. ISSN 1742-6588

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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/685/1/012001

Abstract

Archaeoastronomy is still a marginalised topic in academia and is described by the Sophia Centre, the only UK institution offering a broader MA containing this field, as ‘the study of the incorporation of celestial orientation, alignments or symbolism in human monuments and architecture’. By many it is associated with investigating prehistoric monuments such as Stonehenge and combining astronomy and archaeology. The following will show that archaeoastronomy is far more than just an interdisciplinary field linking archaeology and astronomy. It merges aspects of anthropology, ethno-astronomy and even educational research, and is possibly better described as cultural astronomy. In the past decades it has stepped away from its quite speculative beginnings that have led to its complete rejection by the archaeology community. Overcoming these challenges it embraced full heartedly solid scientific and statistical methodology and achieved more credibility. However, in recent times the humanistic influences of a cultural context motivate a new generation of archaeoastronomers that are modernising this subject; and humanists might find it better described as post-modern archaeoastronomy embracing the pluralism of today’s academic approach to landscape and ancient people.

Item Type:

Journal article

Description:

In issue: Modern Archaeoastronomy: from Material Culture to Cosmology, 23 June 2014, Portsmouth, UK.

Publication Title:

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

Creators:

Brown, D.

Publisher:

IOP Publishing

Date:

11 February 2016

Volume:

685

ISSN:

1742-6588

Identifiers:

Number	Type
10.1088/1742-6596/685/1/012001	DOI
10.1088/issn.1742-6596	DOI

Rights:

Open access. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Divisions:

Schools > School of Science and Technology

Record created by:

Jill Tomkinson

Date Added:

18 Jan 2017 14:07

Last Modified:

09 Jun 2017 14:11

URI:

https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29814