a. d. viiii Kalendas Octobres, dies natalis Augusti. Some Considerations on the Astronomical Orientation of Roman Cologne and the Imperial Cult

Abstract

A key factor in planning and orienting towns in the Roman world, and in particular in Augustan towns, was cosmology. The application of cosmological criteria in these towns, associated with specific political and religious principles of the principate of Augustus, has been already identified in Italia, Gallia, and Hispania. In this article we examine the orientation of the Roman town of Ara Ubiorum (present day Cologne) that could be related with the dies natalis Augusti. Based on these results, such a relation could have been deliberately sought by Roman and Ubian authorities to connect the newly founded town, where there was an ara of the Imperial cult probably consecrated to Rome and Augustus, with Augustus, who was identified with Apollo-Sol.

Establishing a New Order: The Orientation of Roman Towns Built in the Age of Augustus

“…This question, as it was proposed in a previous work (Espinosa-Espinosa and González-García 2017), is strongly tied to the orientation of Roman towns towards sunrise during the autumn equinox. If our interpretation is correct, the idea of linking the celebration of the dies natalis Augusti on 23 September with this astronomical event fits more closely with the idea of Augustus' association with Apollo-Sol and, therefore, with the alignment of Roman towns towards this date.…”

Materialidades, espacio, pensamiento: arqueología de la cognición visual

“…Esto abrió una rama de la arqueología del paisaje que en realidad contribuía a una arqueología del pensamiento y del concepto de espacio. Desde entonces, diferentes trabajos han permitido comprobar cómo la concepción del espacio-tiempo propia de cada formación cultural, dio lugar a diferentes formas de arquitectura, paisaje e, incluso, cultural material (Criado-Boado y Villoch 1998; Prieto- Martínez et al 2003;Gianotti et al 2011;Troncoso et al 2011;Santos-Estévez 2012;Criado-Boado 2014;Espinosa-Espinosa y González-García 2017;González-García et al 2019;Troncoso 2019;Troncoso et al 2019). Sin embargo, ninguno de ellos demostró por qué ocurre eso.…”