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Cultural Astronomy for Inspiration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

Steven R. Gullberg Open the ORCID record for Steven R. Gullberg [Opens in a new window]
Steven R. Gullberg*
Affiliation:
Director for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture, College of Professional and Continuing Studies, University of Oklahoma, USA. email: srgullberg@ou.edu
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Abstract

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Cultural astronomy is the study of the astronomy of ancient cultures and is sometimes called the anthropology of astronomy. The many ways that astronomy was used by ancient cultures are fascinating and this can be used to inspire interest in all astronomy, as well as astronomy in culture. Archaeoastronomy is interdisciplinary and among its practitioners are not only astronomers and astrophysicists, but also anthropologists, archaeologists, and Indigenous scholars. Much can be learned about ancient cultures though examination of how and why they used astronomy. This paper will highlight several examples that can capture public attention.

Keywords

archaeoastronomycultural astronomyInca astronomyMachu Picchu
Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 15 , Symposium S367: Education and Heritage in the Era of Big Data in Astronomy , December 2019 , pp. 265 - 268
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

References

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