Advancing Cultural Astronomy

John Steele is Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity in the Department of Egytpology and Assyriology at Brown University. A historian of ancient astronomy, his work focusses primarily on astronomy and astrology in ancient Babylonia. He is the author of several books including recently The Babylonian Astronomical Compendium MUL.APIN (co-authored with Hermann Hunger, 2019), The Cuneiform Uranology Texts: Drawing the Constellations (co-authored with Paul-Alain Beaulier, Eckart Frahm and Wayne Horowitz, 2018), and Rising Time Schemes in Babylonian Astronomy (2017).  Efrosyni Boutsikas is Senior Lecturer in Classical Archaeology in the Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies. She investigates the expression of ancient Greek cosmological beliefs and astronomical knowledge discerned in myths and religious performance. Efrosyni has ongoing research projects in Greece and Sicily and has published in a range of classical, archaeological, and archaeoastronomical journals and edited volumes. She is the author of The Cosmos in Ancient Greek Religious Experience: Sacred Space, Memory, and Cognition (2020).Stephen McCluskey is Professor Emeritus of History at West Virginia University. Trained as a Historian of Medieval Science, his research has focused on early astronomies and their relationships with religion and other elements of culture. Among his works are Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1998) and numerous other publications on early medieval astronomy, the astronomies of the Hopi and other Puebloan peoples, and on the interactions of astronomy with other cultural traditions. He was recently selected as a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.

• Chapter 1. Clive Ruggles and the Development of Cultural Astronomy.- Chapter 2. What Equinox?.- Chapter 3. Their Equinox: Mesopotamian Conceptions of Solstices and Equinoxes.- Chapter 4. The Hopi Calendar and Some Archaeological Correlates of Horizon Markers.- Chapter 5. Signs, Not Phenomena: Moqoit Cosmo-politics and Alternative Experiences of the Sky.- Chapter 6. On Translating Cardinal Directions in Ancient Greek Geographers.- Chapter 7. The North Sky and the Otherworld: Journeys of the Dead in the Neolithic Considered.- Chapter 8. Diachrony and the Big Picture: Chabola de la Hechicera, a Peculiar Orientation and a Sacred Landscape.- Chapter 9. An Investigation of the Role of Architectural Orders in Greek Temple Orientation.- Chapter 10. The Stars in Ancient Greece.- Chapter 11. Why are there Seven Sisters?.- Chapter 12. Remarks on the Lunar Series and Eclipse Cycles in Late Classic Maya Records.- Chapter 13. Finally, a Very Fruitful Interdisciplinary Cooperation.- Chapter 14. The Chankillo Solar Observatory and Ceremonial Centre: A Heritage for the World.- Chapter 15. Cultural Heritage of Observatories in the Context with the IAU–UNESCO Initiative –  Highlights in the Development of Architecture.

“The volume is definitively worth reading, especially for young researchers.” (Giulio Magli, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 54 (1), February, 2023)“The contributions are all thoroughly referenced and the production of the book is good. I learnt a lot; but the very breadth of scope and great specialization of the contributions make the book more likely to be dipped into than read through or find a place in many astronomers’ libraries.” (Peredur Williams, The Observatory, Vol. 142 (1286), February, 2022)