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
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
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