<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

The people of ancient times brought to their study of the heavens the entire range of human emotions -- fear, religious awe, humor, and artistry underlie the many sky tales and creation stories of the world. As such the study of ancient astronomy requires us to "check at the door" our modern skepticism and reliance on logic. To fully appreciate the skies as seen by the ancients we need to feel the emotional climate in which our ancestors operated. As many of us live in bright, light-polluted cities, and spend much of our time indoors at night, it is difficult for us to fully appreciate the majesty of the night sky, and the important role it played in ancient times. To begin our study, we need to try to remember the rush of emotions we felt the first time we looked at a dark night sky, and clearly saw the Milky Way crossing the sky amidst a sea of countless stars. In such times, logical and scientific explanations of the stars and the galaxy are lost in our overwhelming appreciation of our smallness in the vast darkness of space.

While crude by modern standards, the measurements of ancient astronomers were often of impressive precision in their description of planetary motions, and in the measurement of risings and settings of constellations. The following pages provide many excellent examples of the wealth of observational skill possessed by ancient astronomers. Examples such as the Suchong planisphere of the Han Chinese and the Mayan Dresden Codex demonstrate a level of astronomical professionalism in many ancient cultures which approached or exceeded the comparable level of achievement within the contemporaneous European culture.

In addition to the many obvious technical successes of ancient astronomy evidenced by written records and huge monuments, there are countless mysteries about which sites and practices actually were connected with astronomy. Here the gaps in language and the lack of survivors makes our task difficult and fascinating.

Initial speculations about the astronomical significance of Stonehenge, medicine wheels and alignments within ancient stone buildings seem to be borne out by careful calculation and reasonable assumptions about the ancient astronomers who have vanished forever.

See: [[Ancient Astronomy]]