Archaeoastronomy

Coined in 1973 by Elizabeth Baity$^{_1}$, the term archaeoastronomy is relatively new, but the idea of using astronomical data to solve mysteries of the past has existed for centuries. Over the past 40 years, archaeoastronomers have worked towards establishing the field as the anthropology of astronomy, comparing current astronomical knowledge to that of ancient civilizations to learn about their cultures.  They prefer to make a clear distinction between their work and the study of the history of astronomy, which is more like the study of when discoveries were made.  Astronomers have been around for thousands of years, but before there were archaeologists, there were antiquarians.  People who chose to combine the two fields did things like find relationships between stars and church locations in England and point out the interesting orientation of the Great Pyramids.

There are two general fields of archaeoastronomy, Brown and Green, which tend to be separated not by tendency towards social or physical science, but by availability of information.  Brown archaeoastronomers , for example, tend to live in newer civilizations where they don't have direct access to the specific site they're studying.  Because of this, they rely more on ethnographic writings and historical records of the cultures they study.  Green archaeoastronomers, on the other hand, usually live in the Old World and are known for emphasizing alignment, orientation, and statistical data in areas where there might not be as much historical data.

I chose to write about archaeoastronomy because many of my future posts will probably be acrhaeoastronomical pieces about different cultures.  Since declaring a joint concentration in Astrophysics and Folklore/Mythology, I've been interested in studying the astronomy of ancient cultures, but I didn't have a word for that interest until I read the introductory chapter in the textbook.


$^{_1}$ Wikipedia page on Archaeoastronomy