Introduction
Hello! Welcome to my website. This website is about, you name it, ancient cultures and astronomy. This website is for people who are transitioning from the high school experience to the college life. Or it could be for people who just want a summary on how the ancient cultures viewed the universe and how they used astronomy. This is all research, and the references will be a the bottom of the page.
Mayan Astronomy
In the Mayan culture, Mayans believed that celestial objects were the way to communicate with the gods. Specific astronomical objects represented certain deities, whose divine lives were portrayed in the daily, monthly, and yearly changes in their appearance. The Mayan culture also believed in astrology, which meant that the stars had connections to all of human affairs. Most importantly would be the development of the Mayan calendar. The calendar only consisted of 260 days, having theories but no specific answer on why.
Incan Astronomy
The Incus culture ranged up to 375,000 miles in South America. Astronomy was a key role to the Incus culture, mainly in their agriculture. People would sacrifice to the Sun to ask him to rise in the proper place for planting. Like Ancient Egypt and India, this was a horizon-based culture. The most important events to the Inca involved certain risings and settings of the Moon, Sun, and the stars. For example, when the Pleiades star cluster rose, it signaled the start of the Inca year. Cities such as Cuzco would mimic the sky and would be pointed to specific astronomical events on the horizon. They would create carefully placed pillars, and when the Sun set or rose in the pillars, that meant it was time to plant at a specific altitude.
Mesopotamian Astronomy
The Mesopotamian was considered the first to give Western astronomy a name. Mesopotamia lays at the Fertile Crescent in-between the Tigris River and the Euphrates River, which in present day is Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran. The Mesopotamia was home to three great civilizations named Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. The oldest practice of astronomy is given title to the Sumerians, but most of the knowledge was lost. Their only contribution being towards Babylonians, as they carried on the names of the Sumerian stars. Babylonians knowledge was not lost, so it was the first real insight on historical astronomy. Like the Incus, they created a calendar based on the “heavens”, as they believed, and was important for exact times for planting. They were also fascinated by occurrences of celestial events such as the first and last risings of Venus over the year. They became accurate in their observations, and discovered that lunar eclipses are on a nineteen year cycle. Lastly, were the naming of the zodiacal signs along the ecliptic plane, which passed into the Roman system and is still used by modern astrologers and astronomers to divide the night sky.
Indian Astronomy
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The ancient Indian astronomers used stars and planets to create astrological charts and read omens. These created mathematical models and developed many theories, which was passed down to the Islamic world and Europe. The Indian astronomers came up with a calendar containing 360 days in a year, and 12 months of 30 days. The calendar was constantly being adjusted, for example: Every 5 years, two intercalary periods were added to the calendar to put it back in line with the solar year. Information about astronomy dates back to 4000 BCE, with the text of “Jyotisa Vedanga”. It pointed out such advances such as the measuring of time and the movement of the heavens. This period also showed the transmission of ideas between the Indians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Persians. These connections were important for the development of astronomy.
Egyptian Astronomy
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The Ancient Egyptians, the practice of astronomy was a very religious tradition. Huge temples and pyramids were created to have a certain astronomical orientation. Even with all of the religious aspects of Egyptian life were known for many years, it wasn’t until archaeoastronomer Sir Norman Lockyer, who lived from 1836-1920 in Britain, that breaks ancient astronomy into three distinct phases. The three stages were: worship, terrestrial purposes such as agriculture, and lastly the study of astronomy for the sake of gaining knowledge. Egypt went through the worship phase and eventually saw how it could help in everyday lives. The Egyptian gods and goddesses were seen in both constellations and in actual astronomical bodies. For instance, the god Ra was represented in the Sun and was the king of the gods, but the constellation of Orion represented Osiris, the god of death, rebirth, and afterlife. For practical use, the Egyptians used astronomy for agriculture. The Nile River, which is the center of Egyptian civilization, would flood at the same time every year. Astronomers would notice that it happened at the summer solstice, where the bright star Sirius rose before the Sun. This helped them predict the annual flooding, which made them really powerful in the ancient Egyptian society. They also used the Sun to concentrate a single beam through specific doors to light up a specific god’s image.
Arab and Islamic Astronomy
In Islamic astronomy, the most vital reason for studying the stars was for time keeping. The believers of Islamic religion had to pray five times a day at specific positions of the Sun. The positioning of the Sun also contributed to pin-point religious festivals. The Koran, or the Muslim holy book, makes many references to astronomical patterns visible in the sky. Another contribution to religious ideas is the importance of longitude and latitude. Using the stars, especially the pole stars, as guides, several tables were used to calculate the latitude and longitude of important Islamic cities. This information gave them assurance when praying to the direction of Mecca, as specified by the Koran. A Non-religious tool for astronomy in the Islamic world included navigation. The astrolabe, used to the positions of certain stars in order to determine direction, was created by the Greeks, and was adopted by the Arabs and they perfected it.
Chinese Astronomy
Unlike the other ancient cultures who focused on mainly religious aspects of the sky, the Chinese used astronomy for practical uses since the beginning. However, they did create a system of zodiac to guide the life of people on earth called “the yellow path”. The Chinese had over hundreds of years of sky-watching, and this made them very good at predicting lunar eclipses. The Chinese also followed a calendar that consisted of 12 lunar months, and calculated the year was 365.25 days long. In order to mark the passage of time and seasons, they would use the orientation of the Big Dipper constellation relative to the pole star in early evening. Most importantly, they created the first clock, which consisted of a water clock that divided a day into 100 equal parts.
Native American Indian Astronomy
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Astronomy practiced by Native Americans cannot be summarized into one explanation, since the tribes are diverse in traditions and legends. The interesting thing was that most of the tribes were hunters and gatherers, which contrasts with the other cultures and how they used astronomy for agriculture. The following were tribes that I studied: The Anasazi of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Pawnee Indians of the North Central U.S., and the Chumash Indians of the California Coast. The Anasazi lived in New Mexico and Arizona about a thousand years ago. Most of the findings on them were found as cave art. One piece of art was a supernova which created the Crab Nebula in 1054 A.D. Another interesting site for the Anasazi is called the sin dagger. It is a spiral design traced into a cave wall, and during midsummer, midwinter, and equinoxes, it was perfectly dissected by daggers of sunlight which entered specific windows. The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico are probable descendants of the Anasazi. The Pueblos lived in strict religious order Timing ceremonies was vital, and they had some kind of knotted cord that allowed them to keep track of the solar cycles. When the Summer Solstice would come around, sun priests would warn people, speaking words that they thought came directly from the Sun. The Pawnee Indians of the north central U.S. had a complex religion which astronomy was a large part. It was so intertwined that their lodges and villages were designed with astronomy in mind. The doors were faced east to face the rising sun, and the domed roof would represent the sky.
resources
Lockyer, Norman. The Dawn of Astronomy; a Study of the Temple Worship and Mythology of the Ancient Egyptians. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T., 1964. Print.
Hadingham, Evan. Early Man and the Cosmos. New York: Walker, 1984. Print.
Westgate, Robin. "Ancient Arab Astronomy." Ancient Arab Astronomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.
Ho, S.Y. "Chinese Astronomy by S.Y. Ho." Chinese Astronomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.
Hadingham, Evan. Early Man and the Cosmos. New York: Walker, 1984. Print.
Westgate, Robin. "Ancient Arab Astronomy." Ancient Arab Astronomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.
Ho, S.Y. "Chinese Astronomy by S.Y. Ho." Chinese Astronomy. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2015.