Archeoastronomy

When I was reading up on the Cygnus connection with Newgrange in Ireland, I remembered learning about archeoastronomy when I was researching the Anasazi.

This is a fascinating field - encompassing many fields into one. Although at that time many of the 'experts' did not link extraterrestrial help, and even undermined and scoffed at such notions- its a field that continues to grow.

I wonder if anyone else has read about the stars of Orion's belt and Sirius connected to the pyramids.

this is just a blip form wikipedia - but it gives an oversight into the field that is linking constellations with Newgrange, Stonehenge, Giza, Chitzen itza, and many other countries around the world.

Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the study of how past people "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures."[1] Clive Ruggles argues it specifically is not the study of ancient astronomy, as astronomy is a culturally specific concept and ancient peoples may have related to the sky in a different way.[2] It is often twinned with ethnoastronomy, the anthropological study of skywatching in contemporary societies. Archaeoastronomy is also closely associated with historical astronomy, the use of historical records of heavenly events to answer astronomical problems and the history of astronomy, which uses written records to evaluate past astronomical traditions.

Archaeoastronomy uses a variety of methods to uncover evidence of past practices including archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, statistics and probability, and history. Because these methods are diverse and use data from such different sources, the problem of integrating them into a coherent argument has been a long-term issue for archaeoastronomers.[3]

Archaeoastronomy fills complementary niches in landscape archaeology and cognitive archaeology. Material evidence and its connection to the sky can reveal how a wider landscape can be integrated into beliefs about the cycles of nature, such as Mayan astronomy and its relationship with agriculture.[4] Other examples which have brought together ideas of cognition and landscape include studies of the cosmic order embedded in the roads of settlements.[5][6]

Archaeoastronomy can be applied to all cultures and all time periods. The meanings of the sky vary from culture to culture; nevertheless there are scientific methods which can be applied across cultures when examining ancient beliefs.[7] It is perhaps the need to balance the social and scientific aspects of archaeoastronomy which led Clive Ruggles to describe it as: "...[A] field with academic work of high quality at one end but uncontrolled speculation bordering on lunacy at the other."[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArchaeoastronomyArchaeoastronomy