L5 - "Sancta terra"
Sancta Terra -projection of heaven on Earth
Date: 5.2.2019, 14:15 - 16:00
Location: Lecture hall TU1, TUAS/Maarintie 8, Otaniemi campus
Teacher: Anne Lähteenmäki, Joni Tammi
Learning outcomes of the week
After this week, you should be able to:
- Give examples on how ancient cultures exercised astronomy (continued from earlier weeks).
- Recognise the most significant astronomically aligned ancient buildings and constructions.
- Explain the principles of why and how many ancient temples and other constructions have been astronomically aligned, and, if necessary, yourself use the sun or the stars to align structures in the cardinal directions.
- Describe how celestial observations have been interpreted in the past in terms of, for example, politics, warfare, religion, astrology, and eventually, science and mathematics.
- Put into perspective popular pseudo-scientific practices related to astronomy, and recognise their effects in modern cultures.
Individual work before the lecture
Lecture slides
Lecture slides -L5 File PDF document
Individual work after the lecture
Teachers' notes
(Polaris by H. P. Lovecraft: an alternative view of the precession of the equinoxes)
The fifth lecture completed the ancient astronomy part on this course. So much to tell, so little time! For me personally, knowing how I got here is as important as seeing where I’m going next. And I like to think that I haven’t lost that curiosity and wonder my ancestors had for the sky, even if I now pretty well know how it all works.
There are many good books on archeoastronomy available. If you plan to purchase one, it’s a good idea to google for reviews as many books look pretty on the outside but are full of esoteric nonsense on the inside. I have accidentally laid my hands on some of these in the past, and yet I am still not convinced, despite the precise methods of cracking the codes embedded in ancient funeral paraphernalia, that Tutankhamon is one of the lost supergods, together with Lord Pacal of Palenque. Then again, one can only admire the vivid imagination of Erich von Däniken (and I have certainly read all his books, classics as they are in their own genre). However, I have checked out the following books and can recommend them.
G. Magli: Mysteries and discoveries of archeoastronomy
E. C. Krupp: Echoes of the ancient skies
These books are excellent introductions to archeoastronomy. They discuss the most important topics and sites. I particularly like the latter one as it occasionally probes the human mind and cultural history rather deeply.
“Exploring ancient skies. A survey of ancient and cultural astronomy” by David. H. Kelley & Eugene F. Milone is a specialist book, written as a textbook for an archeoastronomy course at the university of Calgary. It is very detailed in many aspects, with a through introduction to the celestial phenomena and archeoastronomical calculations, too, but it lacks the general intro to archeoastronomy. In fact, it fails to mention many of the topics and sites, but rather goes deeply into selected details. For example, the chapters on ancient Egypt were a dire disappointment (to me). The book is also rather expensive (around 80 EUR). Unless you truly require in-depth information, this is probably not your book –at least it is not the first one you should get!
The other books shown on the lecture are:
B. E. Penprase: The power of stars –how celestial observations have shaped civilization (a very general introduction to archeoastronomy )
S. Milbrath: Star gods of the Maya –astronomy in art, folklore, and calendars (for hardcore maya astronomy fans only)
A. Pöyhönen: Yläkuu ja alakuu –ajoituksen taito suomalaisessa kansanperinteessä (Finnish lunar folklore)
G. Magli: Architecture, astronomy and sacred landscape in ancient Egypt (not shown on the lecture; a specialist book on Egyptian archeoastronomy)
There are lots of references to earlier (and classic) work in the field, check them out, too.
“Star names, their lore and meaning” by Richard Hinckley Allen is a classic book on exactly what it says in the title. It covers the myths and facts behind star and constellation names from several cultures (Western, Arabic, Hellenistic, Chinese etc).
The first book on archeoastronomy was published in 1894 by Sir Norman Lockyer “The dawn of astronomy”. It is heavily outdated, and in many aspects totally incorrect, but as a peep to the history of archeoastronomy, priceless.
A short list of links where you can find more information on some of the topics:
Photo archive of megalithic monuments: here and here.
Temples in Malta: Unesco World Heritage site
Article about giant's churches in Finland (in Finnish)
My first contact to megaliths was via a comic book in the Non Stop series (published in Finland in the mid-seventies) called “Ison Karhun taikuri”. Just look at the first page (this in in French, the original language); isn’t that just brilliant. And the whole story gets really crazy towards the end…-Anne