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Archaeoastronomy & Ethnoastronomy News

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Special Book Publications from the Center for Archaeoastronomy

To order, please print out and fill in this order form and mail it to:

The Center for Archaeoastronomy
P.O. Box "X"
College Park, MD 20741-3022

Books Published by the Center for Archaeoastronomy

When Stars Came Down to Earth: Cosmology of the Skidi Pawnee Indians of North America by Von Del Chamberlain...........$20

Chamberlain's acclaimed monograph is the first major study of the ethnoastronomy of a Native American people. The Pawnee possessed the most elaborate celestial religion yet recorded for a North American culture. Special sections describe the Pawnee Earth Lodge as a model of Skidi cosmology„an observatory as well as a shelter„and the uniquely beautiful map of the heavens inscribed on buckskin, now located in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. [272 pages, typeset, illustrations, index, color plate: ISBN 0-87919-098-1]

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The Origins of Ptolemy's Astronomical Parameters by Robert R. Newton.......$16

Newton's 228-page typeset monograph is an outgrowth and amplification of a previous study entitled The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy. It addresses the paradox that, while the parameters that Ptolemy claimed to have derived from his astronomical observations are apparently accurate and, in Newton's view "bear some resemblance to reality," his purported observations appear to be, for the most part, fabrications. Rather than attempting to uncover the sources of Ptolemy's values in specific historical observations prior to his time, Newton attempts to explain Ptolemy's rationale in dealing with his astronomical parameters and calculations on the basis of an analysis of the mental processes involved. [ISBN 0-912025-02-6]

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The Origins of Ptolemy's Astronomical Tables by Robert R. Newton...........$16

In this 264-page typeset companion volume to The Origins of Ptolemy's Astronomical Parameters, Dr. Newton analyzes the tables that Ptolemy states he calculated from these "fabricated" observations and concludes that they were in large part copied from now-lost tables of the ancient Greek astronomers rather than having been calculated from observations made in Ptolemy's time. Of special interest is the chronological sequencing of the original tables based on the level of mathematics involved in their calculation. [ISBN 0-912025-03-4]

Oxford International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy Conference Publications

The Third "Oxford" International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy was held in St Andrews, Scotland, in 1990. A landmark in world archaeoastronomy, the conference generated two volumes published in 1993 that continue to be widely cited. The Oxford 3 book Astronomies and Cultures is available from the Center for Archaeoastronomy at less than half of the publishers' prices: at US$25.00 each, plus $6.00 Postage and Handling and $10 outside of the USA. The second volume, Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s, is available from Oxbow Books and David Brown Book Company in Connecticut.

"Astronomies and Cultures is a unique book, combining a fresh and intellectually stimulating approach to a discipline undergoing rapid change. Its specially commissioned and carefully written review papers are based on original research by acknowledged specialists, and provide an interpretative framework of wider cultural significance than any previous publication in this subject." Anthony F. Aveni
Astronomies and Cultures, edited by Clive Ruggles and Nicholas Saunders, was published by the University Press of Colorado. It contains ten thematic articles illustrating the broad scope, diversity and cultural significance of contemporary studies in archaeoastronomy. List of contents of Astronomies and Cultures:
Foreword (Anthony F. Aveni)

The Study of Cultural Astronomy (Clive Ruggles and Nicholas Saunders)

The Yáo Dian and the Origins of Astronomy in China (Chen Cheng-Yih and Xi Zezong)

The Riddle of Red Sirius: An Anthropological Perspective (Roger Ceragioli)

Astronomies and Rituals at the Dawn of the Middle Ages (Stephen C. McCluskey)

Folk Astronomy in the Service of Religion: The Case of Islam (David A. King)

Cosmos and Kings at Vijayanagara (J. McKim Malville and John M. Fritz)

Medicine Wheel Astronomy (David Vogt)

Venus-Regulated Warfare and Ritual Sacrifice in Mesoamerica (John B. Carlson)

Astronomical Knowledge, Calendrics, and Sacred Geography in Ancient Mesoamerica (Johanna Broda)

The Pleiades in Comparative Perspective: The Waiwai Shirkoimo and the Shipibo Huishmabo (Peter G. Roe).

Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s, edited by Clive Ruggles, and published by Group D Publications of Loughborough, England, contains 31 shorter contributions that describe a variety of new theories, techniques, and results of field research. A list of contents for Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s:

Introduction

Archaeoastronomy--the way ahead (Clive Ruggles)

I: Thematic contributions

Archaeoastronomy in the Americas since Oxford 2 (Anthony F. Aveni)

Space, time and the calendar in the traditional cultures of America (Stephen C. McCluskey)

Some social correlates of directional symbolism (Stanislaw Iwaniszewski)


II: New horizons

Moon Man and Sea Woman: the cosmology of the Central Inuit (Susan M. Pearce)

Time-reckoning in Iceland before literacy (Thorsteinn Vilhjálmsson)

The geometry of pastoral stone octagons: the Basque sarobe (Roslyn M. Frank and Jon D. Patrick)

The moon and Indo-European calendar structure (Emily Lyle)

Some remarks on the moon cult of Teutonic tribes (Emília Pásztor)

Astronomical knowledge in Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (Tsvetanka Radoslavova)

Four approaches to the Borana calendar (Clive Ruggles)

Astronomy in the ancient written sources of the Far East (Ildikó Ecsedy and Katalin Barlai)

Orientations of religious and ceremonial structures in Polynesia (William Liller)

Aboriginal sky-mapping? Possible astronomical interpretation of Australian Aboriginal ethnographic and archaeological material (Hugh Cairns).


III: New techniques, methods and approaches

Basic research in astronomy and its applications to archaeoastronomy (Bradley E. Schaefer)

A method for determining limits on the accuracy of naked-eye locations of astronomical events (Rolf M. Sinclair and Anna Sofaer)

An integrated approach to the investigation of astronomical evidence in the prehistoric record: the North Mull project (Clive Ruggles and Roger Martlew)

The astronomy and geometry of Irish passage grave cemeteries: a systematic approach (Jon D. Patrick).


IV: Continuing research: new results

Sun and sun serpents: continuing observations in south-eastern Utah (Carol W. Ambruster and Ray A. Williamson)

The origin and meaning of Navajo star ceilings (Von Del Chamberlain and Polly Schaafsma)

Organisation of large settlements of the northern Anasazi (John McKim Malville and James Walton)

Summer solstice: a Chumash basket case (Edwin C. Krupp)

Counting and sky-watching at Boca de Potrerillos, Nuevo León, Mexico: clues to an ancient tradition (Wm. Breen Murray)
Venus orientations in ancient Mesoamerican architecture (Ivan .prajc)

Mesoamerican geometry combined with astronomy and calendar: the way to realise orientation (Franz Tichy)

Mesoamerican cross-circle designs revisited (Stanislaw Iwaniszewski)
Were the Incas able to predict lunar eclipses? (Mariusz S. Ziólkowski and Arnold Lebeuf)

Callanish: maximising the symbolic and dramatic potential of the landscape at the southern extreme moon (Margaret Curtis and Ronald Curtis)

The Bush Barrow gold lozenge: a solar and lunar calendar for Stonehenge? (Archibald S. Thom)

New evidence concerning possible astronomical orientations of 'Tombe di Giganti' (Edoardo Proverbio).


V: Education and dissemination

An image database for learning archaeoastronomy (Clive Ruggles)