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Nature and Analysis of Material Evidence Relevant to Archaeoastronomy

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Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy

Abstract

Since it emerged as a “subdiscipline” in its own right in the 1960s and 1970s, archaeoastronomy has advanced from seeking to explain cultural phenomena in exclusively astronomical terms to one where putative astronomical connections play a small part – albeit in some cases a critical one – in broader interpretations properly embedded in the wider cultural context. Broadly speaking, the archaeological evidence available to the archaeoastronomer consists of material expressions of perceived relationships with objects and events in the sky. The main types of material evidence considered by the majority of archaeoastronomers are structural orientations, light-and-shadow effects, and symbol counts. Advances in both theory and method have rendered obsolete the “green vs brown” categorization of the 1980s, and few would now disagree that the credibility of any interpretation needs to be assessed in terms of social theory, the strength of the material evidence in its support, and the quality of the corroborating evidence from history and/or ethnography, as available. The debate continues as to how best to balance these different components in different instances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, UK

    Clive L. N. Ruggles

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  1. Clive L. N. Ruggles
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Correspondence to Clive L. N. Ruggles .

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  1. School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Clive L.N. Ruggles

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Ruggles, C.L.N. (2015). Nature and Analysis of Material Evidence Relevant to Archaeoastronomy. In: Ruggles, C. (eds) Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_22

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