Related papers: The Solar Numbers in Angkor Wat
A major focus of the archaeoastronomical research conducted around the world focuses on understanding how ancient cultures observed sunrise and sunset points along the horizon, particularly at the solstices and equinoxes. Scholars argue…
A re-investigation of the parapegma of Euktemon (5th century BC, Athens), based on the assumption that some star observations may in fact have been calculated rather than directly observed. The calculation follows Pliny, Natural History…
Ethnographic evidence indicates that bora (initiation) ceremonial sites in southeast Australia, which typically comprise a pair of circles connected by a pathway, are symbolically reflected in the Milky Way as the 'Sky Bora'. This evidence…
The pyramids of ancient Egypt are said to have shone brilliantly in the sun. Surfaces of polished limestone would not only have reflected diffusely in all directions, but would also likely have produced specular reflections in particular…
The Clementine gnomon has been built in 1702 to measure the Earth's obliquity variation. For this reason the pinhole was located in the walls of Diocletian's times (305 a. D.) in order to remain stable along the centuries, but its original…
The paper discusses the utilization of three-dimensional cellular automata employing the two-dimensional totalistic cellular automata to simulate how simple rules could emerge a highly complex architectural designs of some Indonesian…
This paper examines the theory of a Babylonian origin of Aryabhata's planetary constants. It shows that Aryabhata's basic constant is closer to the Indian counterpart than to the Babylonian one. Sketching connections between Aryabhata's…
The Ngari (Ali) prefecture of Tibet, one of the highest areas in the world, has recently emerged as a promising site for future astronomical observation. Here we use 31 years of reanalysis data from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis…
Wurdi Youang is an egg-shaped Aboriginal stone arrangement in Victoria, Australia. Here we present a new survey of the site, and show that its major axis is aligned within a few degrees of east-west. We confirm a previous hypothesis that it…
The Nabateans built several monuments in Petra and elsewhere displaying a decoration with a preference for astronomical motifs, possibly as a reflection of their religion. However, due to the lack of direct written accounts and the scarcity…
The study of the spatial layout of Christian churches has been of great interest since late Antiquity and the beginning of the Early Middle Ages, and has received a new impetus in recent literature when it was recognized that the…
Records of sunspots and aurora observations in pre-telescopic historical documents can provide useful information about solar activity in the past. This is also true for extreme space weather events, as they may have been recorded as large…
The fraction of observable nights is an essential parameter for selecting astronomical sites. In recent years, meteorological satellite data have played an essential role in recognising and providing statistics of observable nights. We…
After a historical and cultural overview of the "Indian republic", the Andean religiosity and the churches of the highlands of Arica, we detail our archaeoastronomical studies on the orientations of the Andean Christian churches in the…
According to an ancient Indian text (c. 1700 BC?), the heavens are 1000 earth diameters away from the earth. Other texts took the sun to be halfway to the heavens, so this suggests a distance of the sun about 500 earth diameters from the…
We present the results of an analysis of the precise spatial orientation of colonial Christian churches located in the Canary Island of Fuerteventura (Spain). Our sample consists of 48 churches, most built during the period between the…
The Indo-aryans of ancient India observed stars and constellations for ascertaining auspicious times in order to conduct sacrificial rites ordained by vedas. It is but natural that they would have recounted in the vedic texts about comets.…
One of main events on Rapanui before the cruel war (several wars) between the Hanau Momoko and Hanau Eepe was the annual election of the bird-man. Plainly, the local priest-astronomers, the descendants of immigrants from the Andean region…
The complex planetary synchronization structure of the solar system, which since Pythagoras of Samos (ca. 570-495 BC) is known as the music of the spheres, is briefly reviewed from the Renaissance up to contemporary research. Copernicus'…
The architectural complexes composed by the two main pyramids of Giza together with their temples are investigated from an inter-disciplinary point of view, taking into account their astronomical alignments as well as their relationships…