This is a list of sites where claims for the use of
archaeoastronomy have been made, sorted by country.
The
International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the
International Astronomical Union (IAU) jointly published a thematic study on heritage sites of astronomy and archaeoastronomy to be used as a guide to
UNESCO in its evaluation of the cultural importance of archaeoastronomical sites around the world,[1] which discussed sample sites and provided categories for the classification of archaeoastronomical sites. The editors, Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte, proposed that archaeoastronomical sites be considered in four categories: 1) Generally accepted; 2) Debated among specialists; 3) Unproven; and 4) Completely refuted.[2][3]
Armenia
Zorats Karer (aka Carahunge), archeological site claimed to have astronomical significance although this is disputed. it is often referred to in international tourist lore as the "Armenian Stonehenge".
Wurdi Youang, a stone arrangement with possible solar alignments[5]
Stone structures at
Lake Tyers traditionally used as an observatory [6]
Brazil
Parque Arqueológico do Solstício (called "Amazon Stonehenge"): An archaeological park located in
Amapá state,
Brazil, near the city of
Calçoene. Archaeologists believe that this site was built by indigenous peoples for astronomical, ceremonial, or burial purposes, and likely a combination.
Bulgaria
Magura Cave,
Bronze Age "paintings of staggered black and white squares could have been used to count the days in a calendar month", possibly indicating the number of days in the solar tropical year.[7]
Phnom Bakheng, According to
Jean Filliozat of the École Française, the center tower represents the axis of the world and the 108 smaller ones represent the 4 lunar phases each with 27 days.[8]
El Infiernito, (Spanish for "Little hell"), is a pre-Columbian
Muisca site located in the outskirts of
Villa de Leyva,
Boyacá Department,
Colombia. It is composed of several earthworks surrounding a setting of
menhirs (upright standing stones); several burial mounds are also present. The site was a center of religious ceremonies and spiritual purification rites, and also served as a rudimentary astronomical observatory.
China
Puyang tomb, dated from 5000 BP, depicts a mosaic of constellations.[9]
Abu Simbel, The axis of the temple was positioned by the
ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that twice a year, on October 20 and February 20, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculpture on the back wall, except for the statue of
Ptah, the god connected with the
Underworld, who always remained in the dark.[10][11]
Nabta Playa is an archaeological site in southern
Egypt, containing what may be among the world's earliest known archeoastronomical devices from the
5th millennium BC. These include alignments of stones that may have indicated the rising of certain stars and a "calendar circle" that indicates the approximate direction of summer solstice sunrise.
The so-called
Giants' Churches (Finn. jätinkirkko), which are large, from c. 20 metres (66 ft) to over 70 metres (230 ft) long rectangular or oval stone enclosures built in the Neolithic (c. 3000–1800 BC), have axis and doorway orientations towards the sunrises and sunsets of the solstices and other calendrically significant days. For example, the
Kastelli of Raahe, which is one of the largest Giants' Churches, had its five "gates", i.e. wall openings, oriented towards the midsummer sunset, the
winter solstice sunrise, winter solstice sunset, the sunrises of the mid-quarter days of early May (Walpurgis, Beltaine) and August (Lammas), as well as the sunrise 11 days before the vernal equinox in 2500 BC.[12][13]
Newgrange, once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage into the chamber for about 17 minutes and illuminates the chamber floor.[19] (Generally accepted).[2][3] It was built during the
Neolithic period, around 3200 BC, making it older than
Stonehenge and the
Egyptian pyramids.
Knowth is a Neolithic passage grave and ancient monument estimated to date from c. 3200 BC.
Dowth in
Boyne Valley,
County Meath is a Neolithic passage tomb date with Astronomical alignments from between approximately 3200 and 2900 BC.
Loughcrew near
Oldcastle, County Meath is a group of
megalithic tombs dating back to the 4th millennium BC, designed to receive the beams of the rising sun on the spring and autumnal
equinox - the light shining down the passage and illuminating the art on the backstone.
Drombeg stone circle, at the winter solstice, the sun sets into a v formed by two distant overlapping hills and makes an alignment with the altar stone and the two main uprights. Due to the nature of the site and the western hills, local sunset is c. 15:50.
Beaghmore Stone Circles, a complex of early
Bronze Age megalithic features, stone circles and cairns. Some archaeologists believe that the circles have been constructed in relation to the rising of the sun at the solstice, or to record the movements of the sun and moon acting as observatories for particular lunar, solar or stellar events. Three of the stone rows point to the sunrise at the time of the solstice and another is aligned towards moonrise at the same period.
The Caracol is theorized to be a proto-observatory with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events, specifically around the path of Venus as it traverses the heavens.[20] (Debated among specialists).[2][3]
The main pyramid
El Castillo (the Temple of Kukulkan) displays the appearance of a snake "crawling" down the pyramid at the spring equinox (Unproven).[2][3]
Dzibilchaltun, Spring equinox, the sun rises so that it shines directly through one window of the temple and out the other.
Ikil, Hierophany where the sunrise on the day of the solar zenith transit aligns with the summit of Ikil Structure 1 as viewed from an observation point within Ikil Cave 1.[21]
Funnel Beaker Culture megalith graves ("hunebedden") in the eastern Netherlands might be oriented on moonrises.[22]
North Macedonia
Kokino Situated 1030 m above sea level on the Tatićev Kamen Summit near
Kumanovo.(disputed)[23]
Palestine
Tell es-Sultan also known as Tel Jericho, is the site of ancient and biblical Jericho and today a UNESCO-nominated archaeological site in the West Bank.
Rujm el-Hiri is an ancient megalithic monument consisting of concentric circles of stone with a tumulus at center, in the
Golan Heights,
territory occupied by Israel. It is believed that the site was used as an ancient calendar. At the times of the two equinoxes, the sun's rays would pass between two rocks, at the eastern edge of the compound. The entrance to the center opens on sunrise of the summer solstice. Other notches in the walls indicate the spring and fall equinoxes. It is also believed the site was used for astronomical observations of the constellations, probably for religious calculations. Researchers found the site was built with dimensions and scales common for other period structures, and partly based on the stars' positions.
Maeshowe, it is aligned so that the rear wall of its central chamber, a rough cube of five yards square held up by a bracketed wall,[26] is illuminated on the
winter solstice.
^Ruggles, Clive; Cotte, Michel, eds. (2011), Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the Context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, Paris: ICOMOS / IAU,
ISBN978-2-918086-07-9
^
abcdeRuggles, Clive; Cotte, Michel (2011), "Conclusion. Astronomical Heritage in the Context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: Developing a Professional and Rational Approach", in
Ruggles, Clive; Cotte, Michel (eds.), Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the Context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, Paris: ICOMOS / IAU, pp. 261–273,
ISBN978-2-918086-07-9
^
abcdeRuggles, Clive (2015), "Establishing the credibility of archaeoastronomical sites", Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 11 (A29A): 97–99,
doi:10.1017/S1743921316002477
^Norris, R.P.; Norris, P.M.; Hamacher, D.W.; Abrahams, R. (2013). "Wurdi Youang: an Australian Aboriginal stone arrangement with possible solar indications". Rock Art Research. 30 (1): 55–65.
^Stoev, Alexey; Maglova, Penka (2014), "Astronomy in the Bulgarian Neolithic", in
Ruggles, Clive L. N. (ed.), The Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, New York: Springer, pp. 1377–1384,
ISBN978-1-4614-6140-1
^Time Life Lost Civilizations series: Southeast Asia: A Past Regained (1995) p.93-4
^Langbroek M., Huilen naar de maan. Een verkennend onderzoek naar de orientaties van Nederlandse hunebedden. P.I.T. 1:2 (1999), 8–13
^Belmonte, Juan Antonio (2015), "Ancient 'Observatories' – A Relevant Concept?", in
Ruggles, Clive L. N. (ed.), Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, vol. 1, New York: Springer, pp. 133–145,
doi:
10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8,
ISBN978-1-4614-6140-1, [T]he proposed use and precision have never been appropriately proven or tested. In addition, the site lacks any historical or ethnographical context.
^Carolyn Kennett, (2018), Celestial Stone Circles of West Cornwall: Reflections of the sky in an ancient landscape