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Aztecs

Mayans

  • Aztec Sun Calendar
  • face of Tonatiuh in the center
  • 4 squares representing the 4 original sons
  • 20 smaller squares representing the 20 days of the Aztec month
  • believed they were living in the 5th and final world
  • 4 previous worlds ended when the respective original son died
  • believed celestial events were a form of communication with the gods
  • based the agricultural cycle on the movement of constellations
  • most interested in the Sun, Moon, Venus and a few constellations
  • believed the universe was split into 13 layers with one god for each layer
  • believed Earth was flat with 4 corners
  • thought Venus was the major deity "Quetzalcoatl"
  • believed the Pleiades's were the center of the stars

Aztec sun calendar

Indians

  • the Rigveda, 1,700-1,100 BC
  • sharing of ideas with Greeks, Persians, and Babylonians
  • Siddhantic Era began with the astronomer Aryabhata in 5th century AD
  • Varahamihira, 6th century AD, believed there was some type of force that kept objects stationary
  • many observatories for astronomers to study stars from

Mayan continued...

Jantar Mantar Observatory

http://www.starteachastronomy.com/archaeoastronomy.html

https://explorable.com/greek-astronomy

https://explorable.com/mayan-astronomy

https://explorable.com/chinese-astronomy

http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-astronomy.html

https://explorable.com/egyptian-astronomy

http://www.crystalinks.com/indiastronomy.html

https://explorable.com/indian-astronomy

http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/astronomy.htm

http://www.amateurastronomyonline.com/ancient-aztec-astronomy.html

  • Priest-astronomers were called "ilhuica tlamatilizmatini" which means "wise man who studies the heavens"
  • Moon was considered a powerful female deity
  • tracked the time between full moons
  • Mayan calculations -29.53086 days
  • Current calculations -29.53059 days

Neolithic Period and beyond...

  • Neolithic Period lasted from about 5,000 BC to 1,400 BC
  • Ancient civilizations start to study astronomy

Mayan's most well known accomplishment...

  • Their calendar!
  • 2 main short term calendars
  • Ceremonial calendar, called the "Tzolk'in"
  • 260 days, 13 months with 20 days each
  • Vague calendar, called the "Haab"
  • 365 days, 18 months with 20 days each and an extra 5 day month on the end
  • The Long Calendar
  • predicted the end of the world in 2012

What is Prehistoric Astronomy?

Egyptians

  • called "archaeastronomy"
  • how ancient people and civilizations studied the universe
  • what they recorded and their beliefs

Chichen Itza in present day Yucatán, Mexico

  • temples built to be perfect locations to study stars and Venus

Paleolithic Period Astronomy

  • Gods & goddesses were represented by constellations and celestial bodies
  • relationship between the summer solstice and the annual flooding of the Nile
  • aware that the year had 12 months of 30 days, plus 5 ceremonial days
  • pyramids' locations have astronomical significance

Mesolithic Period Astronomy

  • Paleolithic Period lasted from about 2.5 million BC to 10, 000 BC
  • 32,000 BC- lunar marks were found on remains in West Siberia
  • 22,000 BC- artifacts that recorded the moon phases and solar year found in Malta Siberia
  • 17,000 BC- Lascaux Caves in France, paintings depict the Pleiades's
  • Mesolithic Period lasted from 10,000 BC to 5,000 BC
  • 9,000 to 8,000 BC- Lunar notations found on a bone plaque from Grotte Dutai, West France
  • 8,000 BC- Earliest known Lunar calendar discovered in Scotland
  • 7,180-6,140 BC- precursor to Stonehenge
  • 6,500 BC- Bone with lunar markings found in Ishango, Congo
  • 5,000 BC- oldest known solar observatory in Goseck, Germany

reconstructed observatory in Goseck, Germany

Greeks

  • Pythagoras
  • proposed that the Earth, Moon, and other celestial bodies are spherical
  • Plato
  • believed that the stars, sun, and moon were fixed spheres, rotating inside one another
  • proposed that the stars formed the outermost sphere, followed by the planets, the sun, the moon, and the spherical earth at the center
  • Hipparchus & Ptolemy used trigonometry to come up with the idea of epicycles

Chinese

Ptolemy's geocentric model

  • first Chinese records of astronomy, 3000 BC
  • astronomer Shi-Shen cataloged 809 stars and 112 constellations
  • Chinese observed that there was a supernova in 1054
  • most important developments made between 3rd and 6th centuries during the Tang dynasty
  • one of the leading astronomers, Zu Chongzhi, used self-made tools to measure the length of one year to be 365.24281481 days
  • many observatories built during Sang dynasty

Gaocheng Astronomical Observatory

Prehistoric Astronomy

by Kim Schroth

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