Archaeoastronomy: A Sustainable Way to Grasp the Skylore of Past Societies

Abstract

If astronomy can be understood as the contemplation of the sky for any given purpose, we must realize that possibly all societies throughout time and in all regions have watched the sky. The why, who, how and when of such investigation is the pursuit of cultural astronomy. When the research is done with the archaeological remains of a given society, the part of cultural astronomy that deals with them is archaeoastronomy. This interdisciplinary field employs non-invasive techniques that mix methodologies of the natural sciences with the epistemology of humanities. Those techniques are reviewed here, providing an excellent example of sustainable research. In particular, we include novel research on the Bohí Valley Romanesque churches. The results provided go beyond the data. This is because they add new value to existing heritage or discovers new heritage due to the possible relationship to the spatial and temporal organization of past societies. For the case of the Bohí churches the results point to a number of peculiarities of these churches in a valley in the Pyrenees. This links these aspects to the ritual, practical and power sphere of past societies. A wonderful example of such links is the high mountain sanctuaries in Gran Canaria, where archaeoastronomy helps promoting a World Heritage candidacy.

Land- and Skyscapes of the Camino de Santiago: An Astronomy and World Heritage Sustainable Approach

“…These methods, which can guarantee precise equinoctial orientations, were known by the builders of that period and could have been useful in places with high horizons. Apart from this, they discussed the resemblance to churches in the Bohí Valley, previously studied by González-García and Belmonte [21].…”

“…), in any region of the planet" [20]. In addition, archaeoastronomy provides a non-invasive methodology that produces results easily accessible to the local communities, helping them understand, value and protect their heritage through the development of a sustainable method of research [21]. This could be the reason for archaeoastronomy's touching on as many different topics (such as ancient Egypt and the Near East, Prehistoric Europe, and pre-Columbian America) as it does [22,23].…”

East or Easter? Keys to the orientation of Romanesque churches along the Way of Saint James

“…For instance, the churches of the Bohí Valley in the Pyrenees, built between the 11th and 12th centuries in a Romanesque style with Longobard influence, faced slightly south of due east. 18 According to the authors, the similarities with those churches in the Serrablo Valley, discussed in a previous work, 19 could be due to the fact that both territories were under Frank influence at the time, but the intentionality behind it remains unclear. The case of the church of Sant Joan of Bohí is particularly interesting since it is orientated toward the winter solstice, when the feast of Saint John the Evangelist is celebrated.…”

Astrotourism–Exceeding Limits of the Earth and Tourism Definitions?

“…Cosmic phenomena have attracted people's attention since prehistoric times, as evidenced by cave paintings, statues, myths and related narrative arts as well as ancient calendars and sacred sites, apparently associated with the observation of cosmic phenomena [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. At the same time, knowledge of ancient astronomical observations and sites is constantly evolving dynamically by means of experimental archeology [10], aerial archeology, geophysical methods, such as GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar also called georadar; [11]), 3D reconstructions [8] and computer simulations [6,12,13]. The purpose of using ancient sacred sites for astronomical observations is verified by virtual applications [5].…”