Mysteries and Discoveries of Archaeoastronomy
From Giza to Easter Island
Authors: Magli, Giulio
Free Preview- The first complete and authoritative introduction to the young and fascinating science of Archaeoastronomy
- Explores the ancients’ motives in constructing such grandiose buildings as the city of Teotihuacan or the Giza pyramids
- Illustrates how astronomy is key to understanding our ancestors’ way of thinking
- Uniquely studies the astronomical knowledge of our predecessors by analyzing their monuments
- Contains complete, up-to-date and extensive discussions of the exploration of the ‘shafts’ in Cheops’ pyramid
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- About this book
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This complete, authoritative study of the growing discipline of archaeoastronomy examines the role of astronomy in antiquity. Professor Guilio Magli provides a clear, up-to-date survey of current thinking on the motives of the ancients for building fabulous and mysterious monuments all over our planet. Was it an attempt to reproduce the sky on Earth? To bring down the power of the stars to where they could see it, worship it, and use it? The connecting thread is astronomy. Magli uses astronomy as a key to understanding our ancestors’ way of thinking. It is a challenge he likes to call "predicting the past."
The motives of the ancients have often been misconstrued, maligned, or even dismissed. Magli shows the limitations of orthodox archaeology in relation to astronomically based artifacts and tries to understand what led the ancients to construct such magnificent structures as the city of Teotihuacan in the Mexico Valley, the Ceremonial Center of Chaco Canyon in the United States, the Avebury stone circle in Great Britain, and the great pyramids in Egypt.
In this book, the reader is taken on a ‘world tour’ of many wonderful and enigmatic places on almost every continent, in search of traces of astronomical knowledge and lore of the sky. Then, the author discusses the fundamental ideas that he believes led to the construction of the giant monuments. Finally, Magli revisits one place in greater detail – Giza – in an attempt to provide proof for his ideas on the mindset of ancient cultures.
This fascinating book will take you places in time you have never been, and stimulate your imagination in regards to other people and other cultures. The result will be a better understanding of who we are and where we come from.
- Reviews
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From the reviews:
"Magli … a theoretical physicist by training, turned to archeoastronomy a decade ago, the topic that marries astronomy to architecture, landscape, ancient astronomical lore, and culture. In this work, a translation of the 2005 Italian version, the author begins with what might be considered standard subjects for archeoastronomy: a survey of a wide range of ancient cultures and their remnants … . Two appendixes … and excellent line drawings and photographs are useful. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers." (M.-K. Hemenway, Choice, Vol. 47 (2), October, 2009)
“Professor Magli … graduated to relativistic astrophysics, before ‘seeing the light’. His book … takes us on a guided tour of the world’s archaeoastronomical monuments. … His book is a comprehensive, well-illustrated, well-referenced, easily accessible intellectual joy. … The constructors of Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids lived only a hundred or so generations ago. … The quest to understand their astronomy, their minds, and their motivations is difficult and rewarding and worthy of encouragement. … Magli’s excellent book is an ideal place to start.” (David W. Hughes, The Observatory, Vol. 129 (1213), December, 2009)
- Table of contents (19 chapters)
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Thirty thousand years of silence
Pages 3-12
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Forests of stones, rings of giants
Pages 13-46
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The island of the goddess
Pages 47-67
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A Civilization entitled to no place
Pages 69-96
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When the method is lacking
Pages 97-116
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Table of contents (19 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Mysteries and Discoveries of Archaeoastronomy
- Book Subtitle
- From Giza to Easter Island
- Authors
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- Giulio Magli
- Copyright
- 2009
- Publisher
- Copernicus
- Copyright Holder
- Springer-Verlag New York
- eBook ISBN
- 978-0-387-76566-2
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-0-387-76566-2
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-0-387-76564-8
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-1-4939-3907-7
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XII, 444
- Additional Information
- Original Italian edition published by Newton & Compton editori s.r.l., 2005
- Topics
