ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS

by Anthony F. Aveni

Written by leading scholars, each book in this series provides an up-to-date assessment of a particular area of the ancient world. Abundantly illustrated in full color, the series places readers at the cutting edge of modern archaeological thinking.A pioneer in the field of archaeoastronomy here relates the sophisticated understandings of astronomy that underlie such features of the ancient world as the Maya calendar, Polynesian navigation, Nasca lines in southern Peru, and Stonehenge in England.

Genres: Astronomy, Nonfiction, Science

176 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1993

About the author

Anthony F. Aveni is Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy, Anthropology, and Native American Studies at Colgate University.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a book of the noted astronomers of the past. It is about how humans interacted with the night sky as well as the day. How cultures across the world looked to the heavens as omens and oracles. As the patterns of stars, planets, moon and sun influenced religion as well as agriculture.

Touching on the ancient monuments of Stonehenge and others to the civilizations of Mesoamerica, China, Europe, North and South America, Africa and the navigators of Oceania, it is remarkable to see how different various people saw the night sky and how different it is from how we look and interpret it today. We see the hard science while they saw the wonders. The sun returning and indicating that it was time to plant, time to harvest. The moon which provided a myriad assortment of calendars from the Julian to the Mayan. Months with quite the assortment of month length. Even astrology and how the same set of stars could be one thing in one culture and some other significant thing in another. How important the Pleiades featured as well as the Belt of Orion.

Aveni provides an basic introduction to aspects of the field of archeoastronomy which even the layperson can easily understand and follow along.

2021-054

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Astronomer Anthony Aveni examines ancient and traditional cultures to explain how astronomy worked and what it meant to ancient peoples who observed patterns.

Emphasis is on Mesoamerica, ancient Mesopotamia and ancient China, but the author also explains the workings of the Pacific civilizaitions.