Clive Ruggles - Archaeoastronomy resources

Cultural astronomy

Archaeoastronomy is the study of beliefs and practices relating to the sky in the past, especially in prehistory, and the uses to which people’s knowledge of the skies was put.

Journals, present and past

Cultural astronomy is the combination of archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy, which relates to contemporary cultures.

Professional bodies

The 3-volume Springer Handbook contains 217 chapters on themes, issues, methods and practice, and case studies by authors from around the world.

You might also be interested in some of the materials to be found on cultural-astronomy.com.

Archaeoastronomy resources

(See also cultural-astronomy.com)

Reference books

The Springer Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy is aimed at academic readers and researchers regardless of their disciplinary expertise, but is also accessible to students and serious general readers. It provides a definitive picture of the state of art of research in this field, and is a reliable and wide-ranging source regarding theory, method, interpretation, and best practice.

Full list of contents

Ancient Astronomy: an Encyclopaedia of Cosmologies and Myth is intended for a wider general readership. With over 200 entries it includes a broad selection of case studies worldwide, critical assessments of a range of facts and theories, and jargon-free explanations of basic concepts.

List of the topics covered

Journals present and past

Some talks and interviews (still) available on-line

The cultural value of the night sky

On-line talk to the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance, Sep 2021

Stonehenge and the moon

A piece recorded for the BBC’s Sky at Night programme, solstice episode from Stonehenge, July 2013

RTVE.es

Archaeoastronomy

Radio Nacional de España in association with the British Council, Oct 2012 (in English)

RNZ

Archaeoastronomy

Radio New Zealand National, June 2012

Archival course materials

An undergraduate-level learning resource

An undergraduate-level Introduction to Archaeoastronomy course (AR3015) ran at Leicester until 2003 and the course materials were available on-line. These archival resources continued to be held on a back-up server at Leicester University for several years but unfortunately are no longer available.

Fortunately, there remains a transcript (text part only) that was kindly put together by Richard Bartosz.

Astronomical heritage

The UNESCO–IAU Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy contains a wide range of examples of different types of astronomical heritage together with information relevant to its protection, conservation, evaluation, management and promotion.