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Article
Archeoastronomy
Article By:
Zeilik, Michael AstroNet, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Last reviewed:August 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757230
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- Archeoastronomy, published January 2014:Download PDF
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The interdisciplinary study that attempts to determine how much astronomy prehistoric people knew and how it influenced their lives. Archeoastronomy (Fig. 1) involves multiple disciplines: astronomy to chart the heavens, archeology to probe the cultural context, engineering to survey sites, and anthropology and ethnology to provide clues to the cultural past. Archeoastronomy has prompted valuable insights into the astronomy of the past and has even revolutionized some models of prehistoric cultures, given that the sky can perform a special role in the scheme of cultural systems. Archeoastronomy and its loose family of disciplines are sometimes subsumed under a broader field of study called cultural astronomy. See also: Anthropology; Archeology; Astronomy; Engineering
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