Skyscape Archaeology: an emerging interdiscipline for archaeoastronomers and archaeologists

Modern Archaeoastronomy: From Material Culture to Cosmology

Henty, Liz^1

University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter Campus, Ceredigion

SA48 7ED, United Kingdom^1

关键词: Archaeoastronomy;    Archaeological site;    Astronomical data;    Data gathering;    Recent researches;    Single sites;    Small scale;    Statistical study;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/685/1/012003/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/685/1/012003

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

For historical reasons archaeoastronomy and archaeology differ in their approach to prehistoric monuments and this has created a divide between the disciplines which adopt seemingly incompatible methodologies. The reasons behind the impasse will be explored to show how these different approaches gave rise to their respective methods. Archaeology investigations tend to concentrate on single site analysis whereas archaeoastronomical surveys tend to be data driven from the examination of a large number of similar sets. A comparison will be made between traditional archaeoastronomical data gathering and an emerging methodology which looks at sites on a small scale and combines archaeology and astronomy. Silva's recent research in Portugal and this author's survey in Scotland have explored this methodology and termed it skyscape archaeology. This paper argues that this type of phenomenological skyscape archaeology offers an alternative to large scale statistical studies which analyse astronomical data obtained from a large number of superficially similar archaeological sites.