Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great Ancient Cultures

Anthony Aveni, a professor of astronomy and anthropology, examines the astronomy of various ancient cultures, most specifically the Inca, the Maya, and the people who constructed Stonehenge. He goes into considerable detail about what is known or speculated about how these people observed the sun,

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moon, planets, and stars, how they kept track of their motions, how these motions were reflected in structures they built, and what role these observations may have played in their cultures. He puts a lot of stress on that last thing, by the way, repeatedly warning that it's easy to project our own modern scientific worldview on people who didn't necessarily think of the universe the same way we do. Which is a point worth making, although perhaps not as relentlessly as he does so.

The writing is pretty dry. And it goes into a lot of detail about the calculations that are used to track the motions of heavenly bodies, keep accurate calendars, predict eclipses, and so forth. These calculations are fundamental to the subject matter, but I have to admit, they inevitably made my eyes glaze a little bit. I'd say this book is probably great for anyone who wants to really get into those nitty-gritty details -- it even provides exercises in the back of the book if you want to try it yourself! -- but is less appealing for someone with a more casual interest in astronomy or archeology.

I did learn some interesting things from it, though, such as the fact that Stonehenge as we know it today actually took shape over something like a thousand years, and the fact that the ancient Mayans used a base-20 counting system.

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