Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy So Far [and Comments and Reply]

Elizabeth Chesley Baity; Anthony F. Aveni; Rainer Berger; David A. Bretternitz; Geoffrey A. Clark; James W. Dow; P. -R. Giot; David H. Kelley; Leo S. Klejn; H. H. E. Loops; Rolf Muller; Richard Pittioni; Emilie Pleslova-Stikova; Zenon S. Pohorecky; Jonathan E. Reyman; S. B. Roy; Charles H. Smiley; Dean R. Snow; James L. Swauger; P. M. Vermeersch

Current Anthropology, Vol. 14, No. 4. (Oct., 1973), pp. 389-449.

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http://www.jstor.org Thu Dec 6 19:45:29 2007 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 14, NO. 4, October 1973 Copyright 1973 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy SOFar1

by Elizabeth Chesley Baity

A NEW SUBDISCIPLINE,a direct interaction between cently arisen out of interest in the apparent use of astronomy, engineering, and archaeology, has re- astronomical techniques in the construction of mega- lithic and other monumental structures of ancient times. Hawkins (1963)has proposed the name "astro- archaeology" for this subdiscipline. "Megalithic as- ELIZABETHCHESLEY BAITY comes to anthropology (protohistory) tronomy" is the term used by Thom (1967, 1971), from a career in independent research and writing. She was educated at the Texas University for Women, Denton, and who has presented meticulous evidence of megalithic at the University of North Carolina (M.A., anthropology, 1962; Ph.D., anthropology, 1968). She has been a special student in anthropology and prehistory at the universities of Geneva 'In view of the growing interest in archaeoastronomy and and Tehran and at the School of Oriental and African Studies ethnoastronomy and the absence of indexed bibliographical data of the University of London and has done anthropological on the two, it seemed that a synthesizing review of the literature research in Spain, Turkey, Greece, Iran, India, and Bulgaria. would be worth attempting: it was not initially evident that the When living in Geneva (where Dr. H. G. Baity was a Director subject would demand global coverage and a time depth of some in the World Health Organization), she covered the first Asiatic 30,000 years. The task is beyond the competence of one reviewer; Conference and later political conferences as a special corre- for aid, I thank the following scholars, absolving them from spondent for the Greensboro (N.C.) Daily News, subsequently responsibility for errors or misunderstandings: H. Alimen, R. J. reporting on the work of various specialized agencies of the C. Atkinson, Anthony Arkell, H.-G. Bandi, Jose Miguel de Baran- United Nations visited in the Middle East, South Asia, and diaran, R. Berger, Verla Birrell, L. Cabot Briggs, Donald Brock- Africa. As the director of writing workshops for nationals in ington, Pedro Bosch Gimpera, Peter Boev, Aubrey Bur!, Cottie the subcontinent and Africa (sponsored by the Committee for Burland, Anthony Christie, George Cowgill, J. Desmond Clark, World Literacy and Christian Literature, now Intermedia), she Krishna Deva, James Dow, Vladimir Dmitriev, Wolfram Eberhard, produced six readers for use in tribal areas of West Pakistan Robert Ehrich, Clifford Evans, Brian Fagan, Thomas Stuart Fer- (1954), five for use in tribal areas of the South Sudan (1955), guson, P. R. Giot, Rojer Grosjean, Wayland B. Hand, Hubert and twenty-one for translation into Swahili and the vernacular Harber, David Hart, Horst Hartung, Gerald S. Hawkins, Vance languages of East Africa (during the workshop in Kinampanda, Haynes, Robert Heizer, Hugh Hencken, Josef Henninger, G. Tanzania, in 1956). She has surveyed population literature Evelyn Hutchinson, David Kelley, Ivan King, Paul Kirchhoff, Leo in East and South Asia and Oceania (1969). S. Klejn, Richard Knapp, K. K. Leuba, Paul Levy, Henri Lhote, Among her publications are two prize-winning books for Alan Lomax, Euan MacKle, Alexander Marshack, Robert L. young people, Americans Before Columbus (New York: Viking Merritt, Hugh Moran, Rolf Miiller, C. A. Newham, Raul Noriega, Press, 1951) and America Before Man (revised edition, New Nancy Kelley Owen, Asko Parpola, Stuart Piggott, Leon Po- York: Viking Press, 1964). In preparation are a younger- merance, Colin Renfrew, Jonathan E. Reyman, Leonid Rezepkin, readers' book on the protohistory of the Black Sea area and A. E. Roy, D. Robertson, the late Keith Seeley, Charles H. Smiley, reports on fire, bull, and astra rituals and iconography of the Marc Sauter, D. J. Schove, Ramon P. C. Schulz, J. B. Segal, Archer Middle East, Western Europe, and Asia. As a consultant to Taylor, Alexander Thom, B. L. van der Waerden, and Gene the Morehead Planetarium, Mrs. Baity assisted with a show Weltfish. I was not able to locate every study cited, but for the on British megalithic astronomy (March-April 1972). She sake of future researchers have listed the titles in the appropriate teaches in the African Studies Program of the University of context. North Carolina (Division of Political Science) and continues I thank my fellow workers at Soria, Sr. and Sra. Teogenes Ortego to be interested in population literature work. y Frias and Jose Antonio P. Rioja; elsewhere in Spain, I was Coming from a family with strong astronomical interests helped by ethnographers Julio Caro Baroja, Luis Cortes, and Jose extending through three generations (son William is with an Tudelo, linguist Antonio Tovar, and archaeologists Antonio Arri- astrophysics team), Mrs. Balty first grappled with the precession bas, Luis Pericot Garcia, and A. Panyello. At Greek fire rituals of the equinoxes while studying with her brothers, Hervey I enjoyed the company of ethnographers Georges and Anastassios and Ted Chesley, at the latter's telescope and solar-system model Megas, M. Romaios, and Georges Spyridakis, and in Bulgaria, on a Texas hilltop. Star-studying and museum research in South that of Peter Boev. I thank Rossitza Anghelova for her book on America, Asia, and Africa deepened the interest, leading to the Bulgarian fire dance. In Turkey on various occasions I received a dissertation study in which Ibero-Saharan astra iconography hospitali~at their excavations and institutions from Hamit Ko~ay, supplied clues to the solution of the distribution of protohistorlc Tahsin Oz E, and Raci Temizer, and in Iran was taught by fire rituals and their survivals studied ethnographically in Spain, ~ohametXghadam and helped by David Stronach, O. R. Gurney, India, and Oceania. and Maurizio Tosi. Among the specialists on Indian archaeology The present paper, submitted in final form 14 rr 72, was to whom I am indebted for interviews in London and India are sent for comment to 50 scholars, of whom the following Sir Mortimer Wheeler, F. R. Allchin, Swami Ranganathananda, responded: Anthony F. Aveni, Rainer Berger, David A. Breter- S. Chaudhuri, and L. P. Vidyarthi and his anthropology staff nitz, Geoffrey A. Clark, James U'. Dow, P.-R. Giot, Leo S. at Ranchi University, through whose efforts I attended a Sorai Klejn, H. H. E. Loofs, Rolf Miiller, Richard Pittioni, Emilie fire walk. Reference librarians giving invaluable assistance include Pleslov&Stikova, Zenon S. Pohorecky, Jonathan E. Reyman, Louise McG. Hall and her assistants at the Library of the University S. B. Roy, Charles H. Smiley, Dean R. Snow, James L. Swauger, of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Margaret Currier of the Peabody and P. M. Vermeersch. Their comments are printed below Museum at Harvard, and A. H. Weisencraft of the University and ale followed by a reply from the author. of London. Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 man's skills in astronomy, engineering, and mathe- astronomical, and linguistic data which cannot be matics. MacKie (1968, 1971a,b), who is testing Thom's summarized here. astronomical theories by traditional archaeological methods, prefers "archaeoastronomy." As a broader term, this appears more widely useful than the others ARCHAEOASTRONOMICAL STUDIES and will be adopted here. "Ethnoastronomy" is the accepted name for a closely allied research field which merges astronomy, textual scholarship, ethnology, and the interpretation of ancient iconography for The archaeological knowledge with regard to Stone- the purpose of reconstructing lifeways, astronomical henge in Wiltshire and other megalithic structures techniques, and rituals. By whatever name, the new in the British Isles and France had by 1960 become interdisciplinary studies are potentially of great sig- sufficiently detailed to encourage specialists from nificance for the insights they afford into the mental other disciplines to attempt to assess the function attainments of certain prehistoric, protohistoric, and these structures might have served for their builders early historic societies in Eurasia. Africa, and the (Atkinson 1960, Daniel 1963). The azimuths of sun ~mericas.Archaeoastronomy is a form of information and moon, unlike those of constellations, are little recovery with time- and space-specific aspects which, affected by the precession of the equinoxes2 Thus when further refined and systematized, may provide not only a new theoretical framework for explicating 'Precession, a conical motion of the earth's axis around the certain problems of prehistory, but also a method pole of the ecliptic approximately every 25,800 years, is caused of producing, ordering, analyzing, and expressing by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon on the earth's equatorial bulge. It causes a westward displacement of the vernal data with regard to the socioeconomic systems of equinox along the ecliptic. Thus Paleolithic Eurasian observers particular cultures. These time- and space-specific of some 26,000 B.P., regarding a fixed directional point around aspects may also aid in tracing the influence of early which the circumpolar star groups nightly circled, would have been viewing Polaris; their descendants of half this time ago would groups whose most important seasonal rituals appear have had a far more spectacular pole star, Vega (assuming that to have been set by astronomical events and recorded there has been no such shifting of landmasses as Hapgood [I9701 in rock art, on painted ceramics, and through other hypothesizes). Precession and other astronomical concepts used in the following discussion, briefly defined in the glossary below, media. Archaeoastronomy, in the narrow sense, fo- are explained and related to early astronomical systems in Introduc- cuses on the analysis of the orientations and measure- tion to Astronomy (Payne-Gaposchkin and Haramundanis 1970). ments of megalithic and other monumental ancient Wallenquist's (1970) astronomical dictionary is also helpful. Astronomers measure azimuth westward from the south point structures, many of which, as we will see, could have of the meridian, the north-south great circle passing through the served for the prediction of solar and lunar eclipses zenith (the east-west great circle passing through this point being the prime vertical). (Engineering and navigation convention, in and unquestionably did serve for the determination contrast, measures from true, not magnetic, north east along the of solstices and equinoxes, enabling the setting of horizon; cf. Thom [1967: 14-33] .) Four kinds of celestial coordi- dates for agricultural activities and for the ritual cycle nates are used in celestial surveying: (1) the horizon system, (2) the ecliptic system, (3) the equatorial system, and (4) the galactic of the year. Astronomical knowledge has afforded system, which does not concern us. a prime facility for timekeeping and the determi- The horizon system serves to indicate for a celestial object its nation of the beginning of seasons, a function which altitude,measured in degrees up toward thezenith from the horizon (with negative altitudes referring to points below the horizon), had a cultural-economic significance to Paleolithic and its azimuth. On the horizon system, the altitude of the celestial hunter-gatherers and which since the Neolithic has north pole, now marked by our Polaris, is equal to the latitude u of the observer, but the position of other heavenly bodies varies been extremely important for the successful cultiva- with the place and time of observation (there being no star to tion of crops (Essen 1969, Goudsmit et al. 1966, mark the other pole). Hawkes 1962, Toulme and Goodfield 1966). The ecliptic system is defined by the plane of the earth's orbit, which fixes the ecliptic, the apparent yearly path of the sun through This article will (1) review the debate between the constellations. The ecliptic intersects the plane of the celestial astronomers and archaeologists that initiated ar- equator at two points, the equinoxes: called the nodes, these points chaeoastronomy as an interdisciplinary field of study, are the locus of eclipses. The sun crosses the vernal equinox en route from the winter solstice, the point of its southernmost rising, the debate concerning the possible use of Stonehenge to the summer solstice, the point of its northernmost rising; at as an astronomical observatory, and cite some of the the autumnal equinox, it crosses the same point (i.e., due east) evidence, both recent and earlier, for astronomical returning south. The ecliptic and the celestial equator do not coincide because of the earth's tilt with reference to its orbit; functions with regard to megalithic and other early the angle, called the obliquity of the ecliptic, varies over time (see structures and town plans elsewhere in the Old and n. 13). The zodiac is a cultural construct, coming to us from early astronomers of Western Asia: it is a band of constellations centered New Worlds; (2) briefly review developments in on the ecliptic and including the apparent path of the sun, moon, time-factored art and other aspects of ethnoastron- and planets. Certain constellations north or south of the zodiac omy; (3) note the implications of these studies for but rising at the same time as zodiacal ones and sometimes more easily detected were called paranatellonta by the ancient Greeks prehistorians and protohistorians; and (4) suggest and were used, like the zodiacal constellations, for determining areas where further study is indicated. A major dates. function of this synthesizing review is to bring to- The equatorial system measures the declination of a celestial body as its angular distance from the equator towards the nearest gether references to articles, scattered in a variety pole, measured in degrees north (positive) or south (negative). of international professional journals, that indicate There is a trigonometrical relation between the four angles- azimuth, declination, latitude, and altitude; knowing any three, possibilities for a new interdisciplinary study for which one can find the other. as yet virtually no indexing system exists. Only the For timekeeping by the stars and constellations, early astron- broad conclusions of the studies bearing on ancient omers referred to the heliacal rising, the first visible rising of a star or constellation at dawn after a period of invisibility owing astronomy can be noted: these are in many cases to its proximity to the sun, or to the heliacal setting, its first visible supported by essential mathematical, engineering, setting after sunset. The sidereal year ("sidereal" pertaining to stars)

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY sun and moon alignments marked out by megalith- Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY builders still function to mark with fair recision the winter and summer solstices and the vernal and without benefit of electronic computation to test the autumnal equinoxes, after taking into account relationship between proposed sighting lines and changes in the obliquity of the ecliptic, presently significant astra events, Somerville (1912) had noted diminishing by approximately 46.84 seconds of arc astronomical indications for a circle at Callanish in per century, according to Newcomb's formula (R. the Outer Hebrides. L. Merritt, personal communication, 26 XI 71).Stone- Although, as the following discussion will indicate, henge has been assumed from archaeological evi- much remarkable work on megalithic astronomy had dence to have been built in three main stages from been done by Thom (1954, 1964b) and Newham approximately 2000 B.C. to 1500 B.c.: new dating (1963, 1964), and Newham's hypothesis of lunar and techniques (Renfrew 1970a,b,c) indicate that its initial solar alignments at Stonehenge had been published henge may be over half a millennium older, but that (cf. Emmott 1963), little of it was known even to does not invalidate the tentative formulations with archaeologists, much less to the general public, before regard to the solar-lunar alignments, except as partic- the debate which followed the publication by Hawkins ular postulated azimuths are affected by the fact that (1963; 1964; 1965a,b; 1966; 1968) of the compu- the obliquity of the ecliptic was slightly greater during terized correlation of Stonehenge alignments with the period of construction and use of the monument. the rising and setting of the sun and moon at their Folklore has traditionally assigned an astronomical extreme positions during the period of the construc- function to Stonehenge. Diodorus, in his History of tion and reconstruction of the monument (fig. I). the Ancient World, written about 50 B.c., described the Hawkins proposed that the Aubrey Circle may have spherical3 temple of Apollo in Britain and its Hyper- been used to mark off, count, or compute the swing borean supervisors, the star-gazing Boreadae: though of the azimuth of the moon, functioning as an the connection is unproven, either with the area or the monument, there is a tendency to equate this description with Stonehenge. British folklore has the risings at solstices, equinoxes, and intermediate points, for immemorially associated the structure with celebra- the determination of an agricultural calendar, and that the same tions attending the two hinges on which the solar hypothesis explained orientations in other areas (see also Devoir year turns, the winter and summer solstices. In 1915-16, 1916, 1917). Jacquot (1915) noted the persistence of Breton solar cults. Lenoir (1956) surveyed what he called megalithic Scotland, similarly, tradition associates the many stone thinking. Boule (1930) considered the use of astronomical data circles with solar and lunar observations. Astronorner in determining the age of megalithic structures. Baschmakoff Lockyer (1901, 1902, 1905, 1906a,b, 1965; Lockyer (1930) summed up descriptions of the Carnac alignments, attribut- ed them to a pre-Aryan population, noted the correspondence and Penrose 1901)was not the first observer to suggest of cromlechs with alignments indicating solstice, equinox, and that Stonehenge and other megalithic circles had a midquarter points on the horizon, and interpreted a megalithic engraving as a calendar dividing the year into eight astronomically significant astronomical f~nction.~Also working determined parts and marking the times for fetes at specific locations for each major division. (An ethnologist and not an engineer, Baschmakoff attributed the noncircular shapes and is defined by the heliacal rising of a given star. The tropical year adjacent parallel lines as designating clans and a number of carvings (from the Greek word for turning) is measured from solstice to as totemic signs; since the carving illustrated shows bull, ram, solstice. The anomalistic year is measured from perihelion (the and serpent, I suggest that the corpus be restudied for possible point nearest the sun) to perihelion. The three years differ in presence of a zodiac of the Western Asian ty e [see below].) length, and this is what enabled Hipparchos, in 123 B.c., to discover Foreshadowing present discussions, ~aschmakogalso postulated the precession of the equinoxes. The synodic month or lunation that an elite laid out the alignments, which were then constructed is the interval from new moon to new moon. by another class of workers. Cunnington (1935) studied Stone- 3C. A. Newham (personal communication, 1 VII 71) and G. henge; Keiller (1934) surveyed megaliths in Scotland. Roy, McGrail, E. Hutchinson (personal communication, 4 IV 72) call my attention and Carmichael (1963) have examined the Tormore circle, and to the fact that the Greek word "spherical" has astronomical others listed below have discussed other circles. O'Connell and connotations. Henry (1915) edited Irish astronomy. 41n the excitement generated by the Stonehenge controversy, Though establishing that the contemporary association of Stone- it is often overlooked that many earlier studies anticipated the henge with Druids is less a folk memory than the invention of recent discoveries and hypotheses. Scholarly literature in French, antiquary William Stukeley, Piggott (1968: 122-24) reviews classical English, German, Spanish, and other languages foreshadowed and data indicating for barbarian European priests a degree of astro- supports the new subdiscipline. While this ignoring by contem- nomical and calendrical skill which, in view of Thom's increasing porary archaeoastronomers of earlier data has been methodol- findings, suggests to me that certain of the useful techniques of ogically sound in that the new work has been approached indepen- megalithic time-setting survived. Caesar (De bello Gallico, book 6), dently, many early studies contain data well worth reviewing. It borrowing from Posidonius (ca. 135-ca. 50 B.c.), attributed to the is to be hoped that comprehensive synthesizing studies and bibliog- Celtic priests "much knowledge of the stars and their motions, raphies will soon be undertaken. The Subject Catalogue of the of the size of the world and of the earth" (cf. Burn 1969:2-6); Peabody Museum Library, Harvard University, indexes impressive Hippolytus spoke of their ability to foretell certain events by scholarship with regard to megalithic structures and astra, stone, calculations and Pliny of their measuring time by the moon. The and calendar cults. The encyclopaedias of religion discuss such Getae were said to have been taught by the semilegendary Dicineus cults at length: these and other well-indexed topics, including "the courses of the 12 signs and of the planets passing through judicial and client astrology, will not be reviewed here. Lewis (1888, them, and the whole of astronomy" as well as "the names of 1897)recognized the purposeful nature of me alithic constructions the 356 stars" (quoted by Piggott from the 6th-centur A.D. writer and the importance of outlying stones anf studied megalithic Jordanes or his source Cassiodorus). The presence ora 12-house measurements. Peet (1894) connected megaliths with mythology zodiac among barbarians known to the Romans is of course suspect, and showed interest in American and European stone circles (1901). as Greek colonies along the coasts of Spain, the Black Sea, and Baudouin (1912), a pioneer archaeoastronomer, studied the solar elsewhere were already old by the time of Dicineus (1st century orientation of rock engravings and megalithic structures, offered B.c.), but Iberian sources and the 5th-century B.C.periplus quoted (1913) a technique for determining the orientation of dolmens, by Avienus mention astral, solar, and lunar cults on Iberian islands discussed (1917~)prehistoric stellar knowledge, and recognized and capes (cf. Arribas 1962), and other Spanish scholars cite many (1917 b) the cultural significance of the Pleiades group (cf. Hamilton indications that these cults were pre-Greek. Further, there is much 1902, 1904). Devoir (191 1) found that the megal~thicstructures folkloric and archaeological ev~dencethat "Celtiberian" solstice of Brittany fit Lockyer's hypothesis of orientations directed at rituals are more strongly pre-Celtic than Celtic (Baity 1968). Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 0 /oo zoo I FEET

FIG. 1. Sketch plan of Stonehenge, showing alignments suggested by Hawkins for Stonehenge I. The Sarsen Circle and Horsehoe of Stonehenge I11 are also shown, but not the bluestones. The "Station Stone rectangle" is assigned archaeologically to Stonehenge 11, not I. The numbers at the arrows are declinations. (Drawing by Euan W. MacKie.) eclipse-predictor operated by moving stones from one equivalent of divine revelation." Atkinson was, hole to another around the circle. however, interested in the idea that the Aubrey Circle In a witty, if less than enthusiastic, initial rejoinder, couldhave been used as an eclipse-predictor "provided "Moonshine over Stonehenge," Atkinson (1966~;cf. that Hawkins' fifty-six-year cycle is acceptable to other also 1966b,c) criticized Hawkins' claims on the grounds astronomers" (which it subsequently proved not to of inappropriate site plans, inaccurate archaeological be) and saw a suggestion of possible value in the data, indiscriminate selection of stones as markers, hypothesis that whenever an observer at the center and overconfidence in the computer, "the secular of the circle saw the full moon nearest the winter

392 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY solstice rise over the Heel Stone, it might alert him Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY to the fact that an eclipse of the sun or moon would follow (though not all eclipses predictable from Stone- builders of Stonehenge.", whose concern with the henge could be observed there). Atkinson also com- extremes of declination of the solstices of the sun mented with interest upon Hawkins' argument that and of the moon is indicated by the placement of the latitude of Stonehenge appears to have been the stones. Hoyle further suggested that the Stone- deliberately chosen so that the extreme northerly and hengers had resolved the two unfortunate coinci- southerly risings and settings of the sun and moon dences that the sun and the moon have the same at the solstices were approximately at right angles apparent diameter and appear to replace each other, one to another, permitting a nearly rectangular layout and that 12 lunar months roughly approximate a of the four Station Stones, a circumstance which solar year, although the difference is great enough makes this area exceptional. Newham (1966), whose to throw a lunar-based calendar fairly quickly out hypothesis that Stonehenge was both a solar and lunar of synchronization with the solstices and hence the observatory had been published earlier in the year, seasons. The Metonic cycle (named after Greek as- commented that we must be grateful to Hawkins for tronomer Meton, whose description of it is the earliest quickening the interest of prehistorians in the early known) affords an elementary adjustment through development of observational science and methods; a cycle of 235 synodic months of 29.53 days each, he argued, however, that Hawkins' 56-year cycle or 6,939.7 days, which is practically identical with seemed untenable. 19 tropical years of 365.2422 days each, or 6,939.6 Hoyle (1966a), like Atkinson, found Hawkins' days.6 Hoyle (19666) suggested that Stonehengers measured and calculated azimuth values outside the knew that by dividing the 19 years into two sets, suggested margin of error, but suggested an even 12 years of 12 lunar months each and 7 of 13, an more sophisticated purposeful placing of the sighting adjustment could be made. lines a degree or so inside the azimuthal extremes Sadler (1966) viewed as astronomically acceptable at which the moon and sun appear to stand still.5 the hypothesis that Stonehenge was designed to mark Hovle further Dro~osed. . that the Aubrey Circle may the extreme and mean azimuths of the rising and have represented an ecliptic, with Stonehenge serving setting of the sun and moon, but suggested that better as a simple protractor for measuring the angles methods of predicting eclipses were available. New- involved with reference to solstice risings- and settings ham (1966) offered an alternative astronomical and for predicting eclipses. An editorial in at& function for Stonehenge, suggesting that some 40 (July 3, 1966) described the Hoyle hypothesis as postholes in six ranks seeming to radiate from the "breathtaking not merely by its ingenuity, that of center of the Aubrey Circle may have been temporary Professor Hoyle as well as of the supposed builders markers set to align on the point where the winter of Stonehenge, but by its practicality," adding (pro- full moon appeared over the horizon every year: phetically, it proved) that "the cleverness is the most observations over a large number of years would be difficult Dart of his theory to acce~t." sufficient to ascertain the 19-year phase and possibly To clarify the astronomical argument, Hoyle the 56-year eclipse cycle. He saw a strong lunar (1966b) explained his model in trigonometry. influence at Stonehenge and had little doubt that Rephrasing the question "How did they do it?" as in its earlier stages it was an astronomical observatory. "How would we do it (granted Neolithic technical Colton and Martin (196'7) showed that a sustained possibilities)?" he concluded that "an excellent proce- 56-year cycle does not exist. The 18-year 11 +-day dure would be to build a structure of the pattern Saros eclipse cycle, which is almost equal to 223 of Stonehenge, particularly Stonehenge I." To Atkin- lunations, is believed to have been known to the son's question (by correspondence) why a pegboard Chaldeans and was certainly known to the Chinese would not have served equally well, Hoyle answered (and perhaps to the Babylonians, though consensus that with large stones as markers a large circle was does not exist on this). The Saros cycle was more necessary for accuracy of angle measurements and easily detected by early observers than other eclipse was moreover a definitive svstem which it is im~ossible cycles because each eclipse occurs close to the calendar to disturb by accident. He iuggested that the Aubrey date of the previous one.' Colton and Martin argued Circle could have been the reference studied for small

L~e~boards. " Regarding the determination of the solstices, so =Bycoincidence, the Metonic cycle of 19 tropical years corre- important in Neolithic renewal rituals set by an sponds to the 18.61 tropical years required to complete the retrograde nodal cycle of the moon (the time interval required astronomically determined New Year, Hoyle for the moon to return to the extreme azimuths at the winter (1966b:263 and fig. 1) reminded nonastronomers that and summer solstices: the nodes are the points at which the moon's orbit crosses the planeof the earth'sorbit, i.e., the ecliptic). Newham the seasons are determined by the tilt in the earth's (1970:17) points out a possible connection between this and the axis of rotation and have no relationship to the diurnal 56 holes of the Aubrey Circle: 3 x 18.61 = 55.83. rotation of the earth-a fact also ignored by the 7The relationship is: 19 eclipse years (6,585.78 days) equals nearly 223 synodic months (6,585.32 days). The difference of a fraction of a day causes each eclipse to fall west of the last 5This apparent pause that occurs when the sun or the moon by almost a third of the way around the earth. Piggott (1968) reaches extreme swing and turns makes the exact time of the notes that the Coligny calendar, a great bronze plate engraved solstices hard to determine: as MacKie has expressed it, the with a calendar of 62 consecutive lunar months with two intercalary notorious phenomenon of the midsummer sun rising behind the months inserted alternately at two-and-a-half- and three-year Heel Stone when viewed through the great trilithon at Stonehenge intervals, suggests the use of the Saros eclipse cycle and the is impressive only when one knows the date of midsummer anyway. adjustment of lunar to solar dates (cf. Charrikre 1960). Vol. 14 - No. 4 . October 1973 that while the Saros cycle produces more total eclipses placed in the "disturbances" they would have served than some other cycles and is thus useful, other eclipse as precise, nonreversible distant markers with regard cycles, including a "more logical" 47-year sequence to important setting phenomena of sun and moon (others are 23, 42, and 61 eclipse years), must be when observed from the four Stations and the Heel considered. They noted that it has been known since Stone position. Site excavation data (then unknown the 3d millennium that for a lunar eclipse to occur to Newham) indicates that the holes once held tree the sun and the full moon must be diametrically trunks some 2 ft. 6 in. in diameter supported by opposed in the sky and the moon must rise a short wedges.8 Newham analysed the possible significance time before the sun sets, which suggests that the of the Aubrey holes in relation to astronomical phe- Aubrey Circle and the many stone circles elsewhere nomena, not only in number but also in their align- could have served as protractors enabling observers ments and spacing, suggesting that the 56 holes could in their centers to judge whether the sun and moon have been dug to hold posts serving their brief time were exactly opposite each other. They pointed out in an ex~erimental"trial-and-error" Drocess and then that the method is a poor one for predicting solar abandoied when found inadequate [or the hoped-for eclipses. purposes. In a summarizing panel of comments on the Hoyle Robinson (1970), agreeing with Atkinson that al- hypothesis (Hawkins et al. 1967), Hawkins noted the though the axis and Avenue were oriented to the extremely far-reaching assumptions concerning intel- summer-solstice sunrise the Heel Stone did not in ligence and purpose. Atkinson found that new site fact mark the midsummer precisely, has advanced data did not affect the Hoyle hypothesis substantially the hypothesis that instead it marked the full moon "as an explanation of how we could use Stonehenge when it rose at the winter solstice point, thus serving to predict eclipses" and accepted the possibility that a most important function as a winter eclipse-warning the positions of the Heel Stone and the Station Stones moonrise marker. The hypothesis gives a functional and the latitude of Stonehenge were astronomically explanation of why the Heel Stone is set slightly south determined. He criticized the use of some of the of the center of the Avenue: rising slightly to the holes suggested as markers, as did Newham, who left, the midsummer sun hung just above the hori- favored the alignment with winter solstices but reject- zon when passing directly above the Heel Stone. ed others. Thom agreed that the astronomers' evi- In suggesting that other alignment "errors" could dence that Stonehenge was a solar and lunar obser- be reduced by associating stones and archways with vatory equated with his hypotheses (resulting from the moon rather than with the sun, Robinson agrees 30 years of surveying megalithic sites) with regard with Newham's initial hypothesis. Newham (1968:9, to the precision of megalithic engineering and as- 1970:15) has since given much independent data with tronomy, but did not accept the Aubrey Stones as regard to the strong possibility of lunar functions the eclipse-predictor Hawkins had seen. Newham of the structure. summed up arguments against the Aubrey Circle as Whatever the final decision as to the motives and an eclipse-predictor, though affirming the Stone- skills of megalith-builders, the Stonehenge contro- hengers' interest in eclipses. versy and its aftermath have shown the necessity for Defending the hithertofore accepted archaeological interdisciplinary work in archaeology, for adequate view, Hawkes (1967) challenged Stonehenge as Apol- summaries in national journals of ongoing research lo's circular temple, dismissed the Aubrey Circle as elsewhere, and for wider recognition of the contribu- an eclipse-predictor (on the grounds that the holes tions made to archaeoastronomy by professionals in were refilled soon after they were dug and show other disci~lines.To illustrate both ~oints.no British no evidence of ever having held stones), fitted Stone- commentator known to me refers to Charrikre's (196 1) henge harmoniously into British, European, and earlier analysis of Stonehenge, which anticipated the Mediterranean history, and-unwarned by King argument that consideration should be given to its Canute's unsatisfactory experience-dismissed the interesting site in a narrow zone where the maximum "nouveau vague" flowing over Stonehenge by reaf- azimuths of sun and moon could be indicated by firming the monument as a sanctuary, its structure the right-angle construction of the Station Stones. as architectural rather than mechanical, and its orien- Charrikre also observed the repetition of the number tation as symbolic rather than astronomical. The new 19 in connection with the bluestones, relating it both wave, not so easily dismissed, flowed back in New- to the fact that the nodes of the lunar orbit rotate ham's (1970) counter-reappraisal, a succinct, origin- relative to the place of the ecliptic in approximately al, and plausible summary of Stonehenge man's 19 years (actually a retrograde nodal cycle of 18.61 probable astronomical experiments and in capsule tropical years) and to Diodorus' account of Apollo's form the young archaeoastronomer's guide to site visit every 19 years to his spherical temple, where surveys. Feeling that astronomers had overstated he sang and played his zither the night through from Stonehenger astronomical skills less than archae- ologists had understated them, Newham turned his attention to three recently discovered "disturbances" situated in the adjoining carpark. In view of Thom's 8The use of tall tree trunks for distant markers is supported many discoveries of "distant markers" (usually moun- by the finding of early British boats indicating quite surprising tain gaps or other skyline features, which are remark- timber sizes and woodworking skills (Wri ht and Churchill 1965). I have elsewhere (Baity 1971a) noted t%e extreme significance ably lacking on the Stonehenge skyline), Newham of posthole data which might indicate the former presence of calculated that had tree trunks some 30 ft. high been posts serving as distant markers.

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY the spring equinox to the rising of the ~leiades.~ Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY Himself an architect, Charrikre noted the architec- tural parallels between the orientations of the French of Pythagorean triangles, in the service of advanced megalithic monuments, including tombs, and those observational astronomy or perhaps as a parallel of Etruscan, early Roman, and Christian sacred edi- intellectual study. His (197 1) further examination of fices.'' Moreover, Charrikre (1963, 1964, 1966, Char- Scottish sites indicates that "lunar observatories" had rikre and Roos 1964) attaches as much importance a far more searching function than that of calendar to lunar orientations as do Thom and Newham, correction and date-setting:" for New Year's and other attributing so-called errors in orientation to a pur- rituals, which activities may, he suggests, have become poseful and highly sophisticated skill which in his mere routine fund-raising projects supporting a sci- view reconciled lunar and solar calendars and set entific study of the moon's motions. "intermediate" (neither solstice nor equinox) dates Thom (197 1: 147) demonstrates the possibility that for festivals, as Thom has established in his studies through the use of temporary markers placed during of the megalithic calendar. Charrikre (1963) notes observations of the rising and setting orbs sliding the singular resemblance in form between the design past small, clean-cut distant marks (mountain con- of Stonehenge and that of the far later calendric tours or precisely aligned megaliths), megalithic as- circle and horseshoe monument at Sarmizegetusa in tronomers were able to indicate mean differences Romania, more fully described by Daicoviciu (1960).11 with their stone markers (hence the "errors" reported Time has already indicated that the most revolu- by modern students who fail to take into account tionary and valuable aspect of the Stonehenge debate the sophistication of the megalithic observatories). has been its introduction to archaeologists of the From many thousands of precise measurements, radical, innovative, and extremely precise work of Thom deduces a standard measurement unit, the engineer Alexander Thom. It is impossible to review megalithic yard (MY) of 2.720 + .003 ft. (Thom Thom's 30-year self-dedicated task: his summarizing 1968:43), subdivided by a smaller unit, 1/40 MY, books (1967, 197 1) are required reading for anyone appearing in connection with cup-and-ring rock carv- concerned with archaeoastronomy. Thom's (1967) ings and forming part of a larger unit of 23 MY study supports with statistics and numerous clear (i.e., 6.80 ft.).12Though he has not worked at Stone- illustrations his argument that British noncircular stone rings were not carelessly designed circles, but 12Thom's megalithic yard has aroused much interest among students of ancient metrology. Hammerton (1971), studying deliberate, purposeful, and experimental demon- Thom's (1967: table 5.1) table of values of the site unit at 145 strations of mathematical concepts, including the use sites, suggests that Thom's "megalithic fathom" has a range value which does not suggest a standard issued from a center: he advances the theory that the site unit was based on the height of the engineer-priest in charge (or of a local dignitary). In view of Miiller's gThe Diodorus text is supposed to have been derived from evidence of similar "egg-shaped" structures, orientations, and an account by Hecataeus probably written around 500 B.c., at measurements in Germany as well as in Britain (and France), which time the tradition may already have been ancient. R. S. the "chief's height" hypothesis may afford more problems than Newell (cf. Newham 1964: 15-16) obtained from astronomer F. it solves. Fletcher (1969), in a typescript which Robert L. Merritt Addey the information that around 1500 B.C. the Pleiades would has sent me along with other papers from his collection on have been almost in conjunction with the sun, rising unseen shortly megalithic astronomy, links the megalithic yard with ancient after sunrise. As neither the computers nor the astronomers are measures identified by Petrie and others, concluding that it and programmed for cultural lag, no account is taken of the fact that the megalithic fathom (5.44 ft.) were not mere upstart British- the tradition may have originated at an earlier date, perhaps when French standards but were part of a major metric system common the Pleiades were linked to the Bull. Hartner (1965:4-5) considers to the ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations and that the heliacal rising symbols were established around the time related to an empirical prescientific geometry. Newham (personal of the first Elamite and Mesopotamian settlements (ca. 4000 B.c.), communication, 1 VII 71) does not, however, find that the MY when Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio (roughly 90" apart) preceded the consistently applies at Stonehenge, though in some instances it sunrise at the spring equinox, summer solstice, and autumnal coincides with his "moon-swing" long measure (LM) of 47.6 ft. equinox respectively by ca. 10-25" and thus were the last visible (17i MY), and this discrepancy leads him to question whether zodiacal risings. The probable time of the construction of the the builders of Stonehenge were the same as those responsible circular ditch at Stonehenge I was around 3000 B.C. (Renfrew for other megalithic structures. Newham's work, IikeThom's, offers 1970), at which time the heliacal rising of Taurus marked the the possibility of archaeological proof, as he predicts that certain spring equinox in the Mesopotamian zodiac. There is no evidence alignments must be found in as yet unexcavated areas of the (known to me) that the British megalithic astronomers used such site. He cites a large depression in a field to the southeast (in a zodiac, but the Diodorus text is thought-provoking. the position of a stone shown in an early etching) which centers ''Though it is eripheral to this study, I note the significance exactly 13 LM from the Sarsen center, aligning with moonrise of Borst's (1966-%9) suggestion that a megalithic structure gave seen from Aubrey Hole 28 (where a stone was supposed to have its plan to Canterbury Cathedral, a hypothesis with which Barmore been) and also with other significant sun and moonrise positions. (1969) and MacKie (personal communication, 29 11 72) do not Newham's question with regard to the identity of the Stonehenge agree. In Iberia and elsewhere churches mark many a pre-Christian builders is of interest in connection with the fact that the diagonals shrine; in Mesoamerica, many a pyramid. of the four Station Stones, which cross at the center of the Sarsen "I am indebted to Daicoviciu (personal communication, 29 x Circle of Stonehenge I1 to form a rectangle about 105 by 260 71) for the following information: "Besides the great circular ft., did not do so in the time of Stonehenge I, but centered about sanctuary, at Sarmizegetusa there is a small circular sanctuary, 3 ft. southwest of the common center. and another, with limestone pillars, was found at Fefele Albe, Stecchini's (cf. Tompkins 1971) study indicating the precision in the neighbourhood of Sarmizegetusa, and a third one with of 3d-millennium Egyptian measurements affords much data for wood pillars at Pecica (ancient Ziridava); this latter one has been comparative studies. Eberhard's (personal communication, 21 IV published by I. H. Cri~anin Acta Musei Napocensis (Cluj) 3:91-101. 72) reference to Chinese links between astronomical and musical We do not know the origin of this type of sanctuary, though concepts is significant (cf. n. 23), as are his references to studies it seems to be a marvellous resurrection of the megalithic monu- of early Chinese metrology: "On Chinese measurements we have ments. Its circular shape might be a result of its connection with a number of studies in Chinese. They have found some early the seemingly circular motion of the Sun, or with the discoidal measures and by using these they have been giving interpretations aspect of the Sun and of the Moon. I believe that the importance to texts. Some references (but by no means the most important of this kind of sanctuary lies in the fact that it proves the existence ones-those I do not have at hand): Monumenta Serica 6:357: of a serious preoccupation of the Dacians with astronomy, and ~illetin--if~hinGe Studies (~h'eng-tuj1:93; T'oung Pao 35:246; of an original calendar based on their own observations." Oriental Art 2: 1, 46; T6y6 Gakuh6 35: 1-30." Vol. 14 - No. 4 - October 1973 been used as extrapolating sectors, as he had suggest- ed for similar rows at Caithness (Thom 1970a). A further objective in the first Brittany survey was to ascertain the geometrical layout of the various sites and to determine the problem which the Carnac alignments had been laid out to solve. As most of the stones had been reerected, with possible inaccura- cies, the first task was to determine by surveys and statistical analyses the original designs and the unit of measurement employed. The second survey, in March of 1972, further tested and confirmed these hypotheses (Thom and Thom 1972). The surveys establish that reerection of stones has been sufficiently accurate to permit statistical analyses indicating the 09 Er Grsh geometrical designs laid out by the builders. The A Exfrapolal,"g rector analyses indicated that the Le MCnec west and east X Tumlllul cromlechs are Type 1 and 2 megalithic egg-shaped rings, based on 3,4,5 triangles of the type previously FIG. 2. Er Grah (Le Grand Menhir Brisi) as a universal studied in Scotland (Thom and Thom 1971). The foresight for the rising and setting moon at the eight critical standard megalithic unit of measurement used was positions. (Reprinted from Thorn and Thorn 1971:150, 2+ megalithic yards (called by Thom a megalithic by perm.ission of the Journal for the History of Astronomy.) rod). The Brittany studies indicate a remarkable uniformity of the measuring unit, which Thom esti- henge, Thom (1968:28) has surveyed Woodhenge, mates must have been a rod measuring 6.802 + 0.002 which he sees as a possible example of mathematical ft. The remarkable closeness of this to the British experiment. unit indicates an accuracy today attained only by Among the lacunae in the Stonehenge debate, as trained surveyors using good modern equipment. suggested above, is the failure to consider the astro- The high degree of organization and administration nomical alignments of the French megalithic struc- responsible for the impressive Breton alignments and tures suggested by a number of French archaeologists the presence in Brittany and Scotland of identical (Niel 196 1, 1970; Savary 1966). The inevitable ques- units suggests a common culture. Which area was tion whether the highly impressive megalithic sites the center of this culture? The extensive remains of Brittany, remarkably concentrated in the Carnac in Brittany are suggestive, but Thom and Thom area (Giot 1960), show the same astronomical and indicate that so far none of the Breton sites examined metrical patterns as British megaliths has led Thom affords a geometry comparable to that of Avebury. (1970~;Thom and Thom 1971, 1972) and colleagues Thom suggests that the continual use of observatories to make site surveys and orientation studies of several like those in Argyllshire and Caithness may have thousand Breton megaliths or menhirs. At Carnac, presented problems the solution of which was found a huge lunar observatory spread over a wide territory at Carnac. The Brittany alignments have also been surrounding Quiberon Bay was centered on the surveyed by Hiille (1942, 1967) and by Rennes- greatest menhir in Europe, Er Grah (Le Grand Menhir Beaulieu (H. Alimen, personal communication, 4 XII Brisk), which, as Thom and his colleagues show, could 70), neither of whose reports are available to me. have served as a universal foresight used by stations The Crucuno rectangle (near Erdeven-en-Morbihan), located in several different directions (see fig. 2). cited by Charrikre (1964: 166) as a structure in which Measuring at least 67 ft. and weighing over 340 tons, the diagonals indicated the rising and setting points this menhir appears to have been brought from the of the sun at the first and last gleam at summer west coast of the Quiberon Peninsula on a prepared and winter solstices, has been surveyed and studied track with rollers, a task doubtless requiring decades by Thom, Thom, Merritt, and Merritt (see pp. 450- of work following those necessary to locate a suitable 54 of this issue). site. Thom (1970a,b; Thom and Thom 197 1, 1972) has Several commentators on Thom's astronomical hy- determined by statistically analyzed surveys that Brit- potheses have objected to the process of starting with ish/Breton Neolithic astronomers were capable of the known menhir position, on the grounds that some determining complex lunar movements by means of apparent celestial target can always be indicated (an stakes put into the ground at successive observations objection which begs the point that the targets may near the major (maximum) and minor (minimum) have had some functional role to play in ceremoni- standstills, thus obtaining an eclipse-warning system. l3 alism). In the first study of the Carnac alignments (Thom and Thom 1971), Thom predicted that Er Grah could have served as a universal foresight and ''Not only does the moon complete its solstice swings monthly rather than yearly as the sun does, but the angle of arc is not estimated on which lines focusing on Er Grah observ- precisely the same from month to month for reasons which include ing stations must have been located. His team searched both the obliquity of the ecliptic and the fact that the inclination for and found five of the eight predicted stations of the moon's orbit (i) is subject to a small oscillation: as Thom (19706:93) describes it, "The lunar orbit is inclined at i = (cf. fig. 2). Thom further hypothesized that the rows 5" 08' 43" to the ecliptic. The line of the nodes rotates relative to of stones at Petit MCnec and at St. Pierre must have the equinox in 18.613 years. So in this period, the inclination

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY In a rare flight of fancy, Thom and Thom (1971: 158) Baity: ARCHAEOASTR~N~MYAND ETHNOASTRONOMY visualize thg work invdlved: thought. . . . none of us are astronomers; none of We must now try to think of how a position was found us possess the detailed knowledge of the motions of for Er Grah which would have satisfied the requirements. the celestial sphere without which one simply cannot Increasingly careful observations of the Moon had probably know where to look for evidence of prehistoric been made for hundreds of years. These would have astronomy." He explains why the usual type of ar- revealed unexplained anomalies due to variations in paral- chaeological evidence is irrelevant and observes that lax and refraction, and so it may have been considered necessary to observe at the major and minor standstills the astronomical function of the standing stones can at both rising and setting. At each standstill there were only be deduced by testing the designs against various 10 or 12 lunations when the monthly declination maximum hypotheses of geographical design and astronomical and minimum could be used. At each maximum or mini- function. He questions, however, the use of statistical mum, parties would be out at all possible places trying analyses based on a large number of orientations to see the Moon rise or set behind high trial poles. At abstracted from different sites, concluding (MacKie night these poles would have needed torches at the tops 1969: 11): because anv other marks would not be visible until actuallv silhouetted on the Moon's disc. Meantime some earlier existing observatory must have been in use so that erectors Though some of the details are open to discussion I find could be kept informed about the kind of maximum which the geometrical and astronomical theories basically quite was being observed; they would need to know the state convincing, mainly because of the way in which they are of the perturbation. . . . Then there would ensue the nine developed. . . . Here is a vast amount of information, years of waiting till the next standstill when the other four painstakingly collected over many years-plans of sites and sites were being sought. carefully measured potential alignments in them. When one has enough of such information it begins to fall into patterns of its own accord when analyzed in various ways. The process of establishing the maximum points The patterns are real and we must accept them. If we was further complicated by the fact that the ris- do not like the conclusions drawn from the patterns then ing and setting times only occasionally coincide with we must think of better ones, but it is impossible to ignore the moon's monthly declination maximum. Thom the new data in any future assessment of Neolithic Britain. (1970b:96) shows how megalithic astronomers solved this by setting stakes on several successive nights near the solstice, from them calculating the maximum Heggie (1972) commends Thom's hypotheses and, position by extrapolation; he interprets the grids and above all, the meticulous detail that characterizes his fans of carefully placed small stones found alike in reduction of the data, source material that will be Britain and Brittany as devices (computers) to aid useful to other workers. Discussing the monthly in this extrapolation. maximum declination of the moon, Heggie points Thom's system, though discussed in a simple and out that although it changes from month to month lucid prose and illustrated with explicit drawings, over a period of 19 years, the limits are almost the demands a high degree of mathematical, engineering, same for some centuries, so that it would have been and astronomical knowledge: as yet few archaeologists worthwhile to record the corresponding positions on have responded to the challenge. MacKie (1969: 11) the horizon. Asking "Is there any indication that analyzes this resistance, noting unarguably that records of some of these points still exist in the "scholars are only human beings and may be motivat- megalithic sites?", he answers that, to his mind, Thom ed by things other than purely rational, objective has shown this quite conclusively. Many alignments appear to him to fit the hypothesis that they were erected to indicate the points at which very bright of the orbit to the equator goes through a complete cycle between stars rose and set. Heggie suggests a minor improve- (E = i)and (E - i) where E is the obliquity of the ecliptic." Megalithic ment on Thom's theoretical derivation of "G" in the astronomers appear to Thom to have been able by means of stakes analysis of the fan-shaped alignments which appear and stones (empirical mathematics) to determine the moon's nodal cycle and its maxima, thus enabling eclipse prediction, as eclipses to have been used for extrapolation and concludes can occur only at the two points called nodes (knots) where the (p. 48): moon's orbit crosses that of the sun along the plane of the ecliptic. The inclination is at a maximum when the sun is passing a node. For about a year, the declination maxima do not range over more than 20', a period Thom calls a major standstill; a minor standstill Thom's evidence that megalithic man observed the moon will occur 9.3 years later. As Thom points out, for the past several is so strong that it may be accepted without hesitation. years the rising and setting points of the moon have ranged over That he also used extrapolation seems to be indicated by very wide arcs, far to the north and then, two weeks later, far the evidence of the stone fans of Caithness and elsewhere. to the south; the maxima of both cycles coincided in 1969, producing a high peak which will not be equalled for many The data on which Thom bases his assertion that the millennia: it will gradually decrease for nine years until it obtains builders of the monuments established accurate sightlines a minimum value, after which it will again increase. In megalithic for several interesting declinations, implying a knowledge times, when the obliquity of the ecliptic was half a degree greater of its motion that was not to be improved upon for over than today, this action was more pronounced, with a spectacular result: to an observer in the north of the Hebrides the moon three thousand years, may have been interpreted incorrect- was for a few days circumpolar, never setting at all (Thom ly. . . . Much interesting material for feeding research in 1970a:901). This striking phenomenon, as seen from megalithic this subject may be found in Professor Thom's writings. observatories near the Arctic Circle, such as Callanish (cf. Thom The fact that few others have repeated his work should 1967:122-28, fig. 11.1; Hawkins 1965b), might well have given rise to the tradition repeated by Diodorus that in the time of be understood as a symptom, not of doubts as to its value, Apollo's visits to his spherical temple the moon came closer to but of theenormous effort that must be expended if Thom's the earth (i.e., swung nearer the horizon in a circumpolar sweep). standards are to be maintained.

Vol. 14 . No. 4 ' October I973 Hutchinson (1972a), in a summary review of occupation of certain of the henge sites. This does Thom's geometrical arguments, applies a type-A not, however, necessarily disqualify them for astro- flattened circle to the plan of Castle Rigg and a type-B nomical use: astronomer-priests elsewhere have lived flattened circle to a plan of Long Meg and her in or near their observatories. The reference of Dio- Daughters, demonstrating that a reverse fit is not dorus to the royal and priestly Boreadae in charge possible. He suggests that the term "stone ring" be of Apollo's spherical temple, "of whom the succession used in place of "stone circle," in view of the many has never been broken," suggests a perhaps very noncircular rings with geometric aspects. He further ancient tradition of custodianship. Burl's (1969a,b) suggests that slight irregularities attributed to frost further finding that only 17 of the 83 henges studied heaving or to variations in the tension of measuring have stone circles within them again does not-at lines might instead be due to work by two groups, the present stage-disqualify them; stone circles in the ritual laying out of the sacred enclosure having stony treeless areas and wood post circles in agricul- perhaps been done by people of superior intellectual tural areas could equally have demarked the sacred capacities using geometrical procedures as part of area and served for sighting lines. In a well-docu- a philosophical-religious orientation similar to that mented study of diminutive and late stone circles of- the pythagoreans, the subsequent construction called "four-posters," Burl (1971b) suggests that the having been left to less skilled hands. In his review people who built them, apparently for burial pur- of Thom's astronomical arguments, Hutchinson poses, had left their homeland in search of lebensraum (19726) suggests that the distribution of solar calen- when the earlier society that could undertake vast drical declinations, with maxima at the solstices but building works began to split into small family groups with the next mode one megalithic month or sixteenth interring their dead in family vaults or simple flat of a year (in Thom's suggested megalithic calendar) cemeteries. from the winter solstice, may represent a precaution Kendall(197 1) discusses Thom's major hypotheses in case of bad weather at the solstice. In this study and suggests a number of checks, not all at present of Thom's astronomv.,, it is stressed that the search possible because of changes in the objective astro- for possible central observing points is a next step; nomical facts since megalithic times. With regard to Hutchinson finds that Thom's general conclusions his emphasis on the number of sight lines afforded appear to stand, though lunar computations may by the notches in hill country, it must be remembered involve arbitrary identifications. The sight lines to that, even aside from settlement patterns and vagaries Capella imply dates later than the majority of C14- of topography, the megalithic Clite enjoyed an ex- dated structures, if the bristlecone pine calibration tremely long period of time for experimental stake- (see below) is accepted. Hutchinson is impressed with setting and undoubtedly tested various sites before the earliness of elaborate geometrical constructions: erecting the stone markers. The basic question is he suggests that these may represent the fusion of whether or not the "astronomical observatories" ex- an older chamber-tomb megalithic" architecture with isted: the exactitude of Thom's methods of declination a geometry worked out on a smaller scale using refinement, as shown not only in the corpus of his perishable material. MacKie (personal commu- work but in the accuracy of prediction his methods nication, 29 11 71) finds Hutchinson's suggestion that afford, puts a weighty burden of disproof on those the geometric designs may have been worked out who wish to deny this. by a separate group (and then translated into archi- Cowan (1970) extends Thom's argument with re- tecture by workers who did not fully understand the gard to the sophisticated design of megalithic circles: geometry) of interest in connection with his study he favors, however, the use of stakes and a rope, of brochs, stone tower forts with nonutilitarian geo- rather than two standard-length rods as Thom metrical plans incorporated in them, which show what proposes (1967:32), and his theory assumes that two appear to be sudden departures from the precise anchor stakes and two other pivot stakes were used geometrical plans indicated. in the construction of each ring and that they were To some commentators, Thom's data suggest other aligned at right angles; he concludes that the mega- conclusions. Hogg (1968) accepts the astronomy and lithic geometers knew rudimentary trigonometry and the measurements, but suggests another unit in place simple topology, had a standard length, and had of Thom's megalithic yard. Crampton (1967) and developed a unique method of geometric construc- others have argued that Stonehenge was in fact never tion. a sacred structure totally open to the sky, but instead The determination of the presence or absence of was a roofed and walled kingly center. Burl's (197 la) postholes in astronomically significant locations, and survey of the corpus of British stone circles (which of man-made observation platforms, is required to has a most useful comprehensive bibliography) l4 has establish astronomical-mathematical function, and led him to assign a directional rather than an astro- this, as Thom stresses, is one of archaeoastronomy's nomical function to circles and outliers (see also Burl first tasks. To carry out such a test, MacKie (1971b,c) 1971b:49). He also cites new evidence for domestic has worked at Kintraw, where Thom (1967:154; 1971:36-38) has surveyed a site which he designates 141 am indebted to Burl (personal communication, 27 vrrr 71) as a highly accurate solstitial observatory which also for the following references dealing with stone circles in Britain could have given megalithic observers an accurate and Ireland: Browne (1921), Bushell (1911), Coles (1909), Fahy (1959, 196 1, 1962), Hyslop (1912), Lewis (1878-1914), Morrow lunar eclipse-warning station (Thom 197 1:65; see also (1915),Somerville (1909a, b, 1912, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1929, 1930), Thom's [I97 1:26, 1071 imaginary dialogue in which Watson (1900), and Worth (1953). a megalithic astronomer teaches an apprentice how

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Baity: ARCHAEOA~TRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY or by natural solifluction in glacial times-has been complicated by the absence of charcoal usable for radiocarbon dating, datable artifacts, or pollen (the latter suggests postglacial times but is badly pre- served). The scree hypothesis can be dismissed: the slope of scree would have been far steeper. MacKie (1971~)brought a soil scientist to determine by mea- suring the angle and dip of the long axes of 100 adjacent stones whether these were nonrandom (as in a solifluxed layer) or random (as in a man-made layer). The test and other evidence strongly suggest that the layer is man-made: further testing should be conclusive. If so, the astronomical interpretation of the site will have been independently vindicated FIG.3. View from the proposed stone platform at Kintraw, and Thom's theory of sophisticated prehistoric astro- Argyllshire, looking southwest towards the col between nomical work supported by implication. Beinn Shiantaidh and Beinn a Chaolais (the distant marker Before leaving the British-Breton megalithic as- indicated by Thom). The theodolite was set up in the notch tronomy controversy to consider the astronomical formed by two boulders on the platform; the declination of the mountain notch is that determined by Thom. The significance of other archaeological sites, we must cairn and standing stone (menhir) at the Kintraw site below review another revolution in prehistory, that occa- are 1,135 m. distant, and the foreground ridge that hides sioned by Renfrew's (1968; 1970a,b,c) application to the col from the site is about a mile away. The left-hand megalithic Britain and to Neolithic Europe of the solar position marks the winter solstice as it should have bristlecone pine tree-ring correction of radiocarbon been some 38 centuries ago, the central dotted disc marks dates. Briefly, the 5,000-year dendrochronology ob- the present solstice (at declination -23' 27'), and the tained from the study of the rings of this California right-hand one a second plausible alignment of unknown tree has been compared by Suess (1967) and others significance which the menhir could equally be indicating. (cf. Stuiver and Suess 1965) to radiocarbon determi- The post shown marks the position of a wooden post nations made upon its wood, leading to the discovery indicated for the center of the cairn in the 1960 excavation. (Drawing by Euan W. MacKie.) that radiocarbon dates before 2000 B.C. may be up to some 700 years too young (Delibrias, Guillier, and Labeyrie 1970; Nature 228: 1019-20). To shift West- to employ the site to determine the date of a coming ern European cultures formerly dated to the 3d lunar standstill and thus of coming eclipses). Thom millennium back some 700 years would alter radically estimates that at the site of the Kintraw cairn and the relative chronological positions of the Near East menhir, a small portion of the upper limb of the and Europe, making untenable the accepted archae- setting sun at the winter solstice, after it had set behind ological theory that European skills were derived from Beinn Shiantaidh, would flash momentarily in the the Near East. Egyptian chronology, based on histori- col. By moving rapidly across the line of sight, an cal records astronomically dated by the heliacal risings observer (or a row of stationary observers) could mark of Sirius (the Egyptian year-bringer Sothis), remains with a stake the precise stop from which this could unchanged: in fact, the revised radiocarbon dates be viewed: the stakes set for several successive nights are in better agreement than older ones with Egyp- would have moved first to the right (just before the tian astra-determined historical chronology (MacKie solstice), then to the left (after the solstice), the 1970: figs. 1 and 2). Minoan and Mycenaean chronol- extreme right-hand point marking the solstice. The ogies, obtained by cross-dating with Egyptian artifacts, site, however, afforded a problem to megalithic as- also remained unchanged. tronomers which has provided the test needed by In Western Europe, however, in the absence of contemporary archaeologists. It is situated on a small historical records recent dating has been based on plateau on a very steep hillside, and from its surface radiocarbon determinations. Now at one stroke the the mountain target is hidden by a nearby foreground megalithic structures of Malta, of Los Millares and ridge. To enable the col to be seen, Thom theorized, other early Iberian sites, and Western European it had been necessary to establish an observation megalithic structures may have to be dated around platform on a steep hillside to the north of the plateau or before 3000 B.c., drapingsome of these monuments and across a deep and almost impassable gorge, so in a venerable antiquity outranking that of the Egyp- that the exact location of a flat-topped cairn which tian pyramids, not to mention the voyages of the would bring the col into sight could be determined Myceanaean traders whose building skills have been (fig. 3). A search at the site of the hypothesized suggested as a model for those evident at Stonehenge. platform revealed a stone platform at the edge of The British structures so far dated by archaeoastron- which two boulders afforded a notch suitable for omy (primarily by Thom) appear to cluster around viewing the col. The archaeological problem of estab- 2 100-1600 B.c.,'~ which is not greatly earlier than lishing whether this platform was man-made or had been formed by natural processes-by accumulation 'Wewham (personal communication, 1 VII 71) states that reliable of fallen scree behind fortuitiously placed boulders dating appears possible where very accurate survey data is available: Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 the C 14-determined and archeologically accepted es- maps, adequately documenting the presence of outly- timates for Stonehenge I1 and 111. Renfrew (1971) ing stones, postholes, and distant markers, and the estimates that Stonehenge I, the henge ditch, may, acknowledgement of the necessity for cooperation however, have been in construction around 2930- between archaeologists, astronomers, engineers, and 2550 B.C. and Aubrey Hole 32 around 2500-1900 others. B.C. The new bristlecone pine dating is in better agreement with recent archaeological studies which have proposed British origins for the designs of many of the megalithic structures and also falls into line with some previously unaccepted dates. MacKie The possible earlier dating of the megalithic struc- (1969:6) notes that a possible date of 2900-2600 B.C. tures. considered in connection with the hv~otheses,. in real (i.e., calibrated C 14) years for the Phase I with regard to their astronomical-mathematical func- henge at Stonehenge is exceeded by the dates of tion, focuses interest on megalithic structures in other other henges; the vast ring ditch enclosing several areas than Britain and Brittanv. Miiller's (1970) ad- circular settings of posts at Durrington Walls yields mirably concise presentation of Thom's hypotheses radiocarbon dates equivalent to about 3400-3 100 B.c., extends the range of similar structures to Central while Arminghall appears to have been constructed Europe, indicating for this area an early interest in between 3000 and 2800 B.c.; thus the three henge astra orientation and calendar sites. If archaeologists monuments are a millennium or so older than the in Central Europe and beyond confirm this further period of the stone circles deduced on astronomical extension of Thom's megalithic" measurements and grounds, and appear to be contemporaneous with orientations and agree with his astronomical hypoth- the Old Kingdom and the great pryamids. As MacKie eses (while perhaps disagreeing with him in some notes, the henges will provide a crucial test for the details), then clearly archaeoastronomy will have reliability of the astronomical theory of the ~ur~oseful proved its value. construciion of the Neolithic rings: if thky Adicate MennevCe (1960) suggests that the rarity of mega- this older dating, the theory will be vindicated; if liths in Italy may be due to the comparative rarity not. some other ex~lanationmust be found for the of suitable rocks: he reproduces iconography (rock uniformity of Thom's evidence with regard to the art and stelae) and compares the distributions of megalithic structures (cf. Atkinson 1967, 1969). megaliths, bell beakers, and metal deposits exploited In summary, weighing together the many well-doc- in prehistoric times. Rojer Grosjean (personal com- umented analyses made by the several participants in munication, 14 XI 70) reports that no archaeoastro- the Stonehenge debate and their most generous nomical hypotheses have been tested in Corsica but responses to my own questions, I am inclined to set notes that Corsica's anthropomorphic stelae face east, aside such exasperated personal comments from them as if facing the rising sun at the equinox. Less archaic as "the astronomers and the archaeologists are not monuments in Sardinia and the Balearic Islands were. speaking the same language" and "a brilliant and he suspects, "temples de feu," either for incineration explosive theory has gone rocketing ahead without of the dead, for burning of offerings, or as the site anything like critical control." By 1972 a rapid growth of ritual repasts. (Evidence from Iberia to India of mutual understanding and of critical control is indicates to me that fire rituals, symbolically related quite evident, and there is increasingly well-informed to solar events and accompanied by bull rituals and opinion that Stonehenge (and many other ancient bull sacrifice, were a part of a New Year's sacred monuments) not only could have been used for so- drama cycle [Baity 1962, 19681 .) phisticated observations and predictions of astra Barandiarin (personal communication, 7 XI 71) events ("astra" being a shorthand expression for all notes that the almost 400 dolmens in the Basque the celestial bodies), including eclipses and moon country for the most part face east, though some perturbations, but probably were so used. That they are oriented to the south and a few to the northeast; were used precisely as theorized by Hawkins and this suggests patterned behavior concentrating on the Hoyle is not accepted, and an understandable and rising sun at the equinoxes and solstices. Basque tombs mutually educational scholarly exchange continues, have similar orientation, as do the more recent Basque in which archaeologists and others in various areas illarri (death stones), the designs of which have long are now engaging. The outcome of this standard suggested to me solar-stellar symbols. Barandiarin scientific procedure promises to be the addition of fully documents this symbolism and shows that swas- astronomy to the archaeologists' conceptual tools, ticas also appear: moreover, the stones appear to even more scrupulous attention to accurate recon- him to match the myths (BarandiarQn 1960, 1970). structions and to the construction of precise site At present there are few C14 dates for Iberia; I am thus unable to compare the date of Iberian megaliths e.g., at Stonehenge, the 91 station to No. I carpark hole gives with the high Breton dates in the time range 3500- a sun declination corresponding to 1700 B.C. ? 200 years. Dating 3000 B.C. that are now substantiated (Delibrias, Guil- by the sun is only possible when it is at the solstice: once this lier, and Labeyrie 1970; cf. Nature 228: 1019-20), is known at a particular site where intermediate alignments also exist, it is poss~bleto calculate the dav of the vear to which thev making it appear possible that collective burial in will apply.' megalithic chamber-tombs was known to the first Merritt (1968) shows that megalithic astronomy establishes dates immigrant farmers who reached Britain around 3500 which invalidate the hvwthesis of Velikovskv that Venus entered the sun's planetary fady as a comet well affer the first historical B.C. (or, in calibrated C14 dating or real years, around records were made. 4200 B.c.): it also appears possible that the tradition

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY of astronomical alignments for burials came as part Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY of the funerary complex. Burl (personal communication, 8 VIII 71) indicates nomical significance; the alignments he reports seem that stone circles are reported in connection with to indicate this. Evidence, both textual and astronom- megaliths in Galicia and elsewhere (calling attention ical, to be published by Hawkins (personal com- to Leisner and Leisner 1956, among others), but no munication, 6 XI 71) indicates that the Egyptian reports known to me indicate whether Thom's hy- pyramids were oriented with reference to stellar potheses have been tested in this rich area, the targets (see also Pogo 1930, Giedion 1962). The stone significance of which to archaeoastronomy is indicated circles of the Gambia and the Senegal are reported not only by its megaliths and metals but also by its to be recent (Beale 1968). Perhaps commentators will African and Anatolian prehistoric connections. be able to contribute further information on these Should Iberian megaliths demonstrate orientations areas. and measurements similar to those of Britain and Pre-Hispanic architecture and art in the Americas Brittany, the attempt to construct a megalithic calen- have fascinated a generation of archaeologists and dric ritual cycle might profit from the remarkable other students, many of whom have suggested astro- richness of Iberian folkloric survivals and scholarship: nomical functions for the structures (cf. Marquina most extensive bibliographies are available in the 195 1, 1960; Morley 1956; Noriega 1954, 1956, 1958; works of Caro Baroja (1958) and Barandiarin (1960, Saville 1909, 1929; Spinden 1940).17As the textual 1970). The "solstice madness" that sweeps through and iconographic evidence indicates the presence of Iberia at midsummer, expressing itself in a rich variety astronomical-mathematical skills of a high order, it of bull and fire rituals closely paralleling hundreds is predictable that these skills will be reflected in the of scenes in protohistoric cattlekeepers' rock art (and orientations and measurements of sacred structures also resembling Berber summer-solstice rituals and cult sites. As vet Mesoamerican archaeoastronomv reported by Laoust [1921]), strongly suggests to this has found no worker with the determination and participant observer that the association of such engineering qualifications of Thom to make and activities with a solstice ritual event (perhaps in earlier statistically analyze the needed series of precision times a New Year) is at least as old as Iberia's studies, and until such studies are systematically made cattlekeeping traditions and may even preserve ele- on a statistical basis American archaeoastronorny ments of predomestication fire rituals (though I am cannot be expected to yield the information which, not suggesting derivation from the Homo erectus the evidence suggests, may be encoded in the struc- fire-drive indicated at an elephant kill-site in Soria tures. Morley (1956:fig. 33) indicates the possible use Province). of astronomical alignments in Group E, Uaxactun The significance for archaeoastronorny of the Black (Guatemala): here an astronomer-priest using Pyra- Sea megaliths is evident: the many similarities of mid E-VII as an observation platform could, Morley Basque-Caucasus folklore, dance, and music, and estimates, have observed the flash of the rising sun above all the extensive linguistic correspondences, at the equinoxes and solstices, using the wall and suggest the possibility that similar orientations may platform angles of three temples on an opposite also be found. Markovin (1969), Lunin (1924, 1936), pyramid as precise distant markers (fig. 4; cf. Morley Leshchenko (1931), Lavrov (1960), Shchepinsky 1956:figs. 4, 32). (1963), and Chechenov (1970) have conducted large- Hartung (1969), studying site-maps of Tikal, Co- scale surveys and excavations of megalithic structures pin, Uxmal, and ChichCn Itzi, finds subtle overall in the Caucasus and nearby: I have not been able planning suggested despite the apparent irregularity: to examine their reports, but suggest that orientations at Copin a network of coordinates and parallel lines and measurements already made or obtainable may appears to connect ballcourts, while altars M and make possible a systematic comparison.16 It will be N correspond with cardinal points (cf. Guillemin interesting to see whether a synthesis of this Basque- 1969). Ballcourts, long recognized as connected with Caucasus archaeological and folkloric data shows a solar cult, are a central feature of overall planning correspondences with the French megalithic folklore at various sites (cf. De Borhegyi 1969). Hartung collected by Saintyves (1934) and students with refer- surmises, as have others, that the doors of the Caracol ence to some 2,000 stones and structures. (French at ChichCn Itzi and other round structures which folkloric classics hppear to me to be especially signifi- may have been observatories functioned as observa- cant sources with regard to megalithic traditions and survivals: Wayland Hand [personal communication, 18 I 721 notes that Skbillot [1968], like Saintyves, "Not an Americanist and largely absent from the Americas for over two decades, I am relatively unfamiliar with the growing based much of his folkloric data on the physical body of current unpublished work in this area and have elsewhere world.) (Baity 1969, 1971a) noted the need for a synthesizing review of American archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy. I hope that Regrettably, I have uncovered almost no reports commentators will supplement the following discussion. For sources on archaeoastronomy elsewhere in Eurasia or in and criticisms with regard to American archaeoastronomy, I am Africa. Allchin (1956) has suggested that stone align- deeply appreciative of the help of D. H. Kelley, Jonathan Reyman, and Charles H. Smiley. In connection with the various Maya studies, ments in southern Hyderabad may have had astro- Kelley observes (personal communication, 8 v 71) that when one has a large number of figures with which to work and little control as to their meaning, impressive results may be cited that may 161 am indebted to Leo S. Klejn (personal communication, 9 not stand up; to me it seems important that skills from the fields x 71),aided by megalith students Vladimir Dmitriev and Leonid of archaeology, protohistory, astronomy, and engineering may Rezepkin, for these and other most useful references. now be brought to bear on problems of common interest. Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 cultures, a priestly Clite prevailed upon its followers South -t to cut and transport 50-ton stones which Olmec artists Llw of sunrlw Line of sunrise on LIM of sumln on June 21 September 21 and March 2) on Decembn 21 carved into huge heads, though similar-sized stones were used architecturally on the western coast of South America. Throughout Mesoamerica for at least two millennia, impressive pyramids were built and an endless flow of carved stone time-marking art works produced. The preoccupation of Maya-Mexi- can astronomer-mathematician-priests with time and the stars, and the extent of their accomplishments, are further assessed below. South American astronomical achievements also give evidence of having been rooted in some ancient culture (Reichlen 1,963,Zerries 1952,Wittkower 1938). Reiche (1968, 1969) documents with extensive aerial photography the Nasca giant ground figures. Straight lines running for miles with incredible precision across the Peruvian lai ins and UD mountainsides could have indicated such events as solstice sunrises and sunsets or perhaps encoded measures of history and calendar FIG.4. Diagram of the astronomical observatory at Group science. ~eichesees a unit of measurement of 1.10 E, Uaxactun, PetCn, Guatemala, for determining the dates m., perhaps subdivided by the decimal system. Haw- of the solstices and equinoxes. Morley (1956) describes this kins (1969, 1970) does not see an astronomical func- Old Empire observatory, found in an area where a number tion in the Nasca iconography. Belli (1952) indicates of stelae date back to around A.D. 328, as one of over the importance of the sun cult in the Nasca civilization. a dozen similar observatories at Old Empire sites. (Reprinted from Morley 1956:300, fig. 33, by permission of the The Nasca figures do not suggest to me a correlation publishers, Stanford University Press. Copyright 01946, with a known zodiac. nor do they resemble North 1947,1956by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford American ground figures and effigy mounds, and Junior University.) yet in both cases the enigma remains of why designs not visible at ground level were worth the outlay C J tion posts (cf. Ricketson 1928, Ricketson and Ricket- of energy involved in making them. Present in ~orth son 1937, Pollock 1939, Ruppert 1935). He warns America but apparently absent here is the serpent- against the possibility of errors in calculations based and-egg (or lizard-and-egg) motif that is associated on site-plans rather than site examinations. Dow with eclipses in various Asian cultures (cf. Elwin 195 1, (personal communication, 5 x 68) warns in turn 1955). against the possibility of errors where reconstructions Posnansky (1942) and others have suggested strong have been wrongly oriented, a factor which invali- astronomical associations of Tihuanaco megalithic dated some of his conclusions with regard to the monuments with agricultural ceremonialism: the ele- stellar targets at Teotihuacin (Dow 1967). The pyra- vation of this ancient center to 12,500 ft. (an altitude mids of the Sun and of the Moon at this ancient which does not now permit corn to ripen) does not Mexican cultural and sacred center are spectacular lessen its possible importance with regard to the reminders of the pre-Aztec culture that dominated sources of Inca calendric lore and architectural prac- a wide area of Mesoamerica and influenced far-distant tice. Zuidema (1968) has pointed to the importance cultures (Millon, Drewitt, and Bennyhoff 1965). Much of the Inca cosmological model in its application to evidence indicates that astronomical observations temple- and city-building. functioned as a part of a complex ceremonialism using Ferdon (1955) and others have noted architectural astra indicators and accompanied by astra mythology parallels between Mexico and the Southwest. R. F. and deities. Teotihuacin is clearly the flowering of Heizer reports (undated CA referee comment, 1970) much older cultures, and for earlier stages of astro- that on the time level of 1000 B.C. Poverty Point nomical development researchers must turn to La (Louisiana) is, like La Venta (Tabasco), oriented in Venta and other centers of the Olmec culture and the line of 8" west of North and asks: Is this coinci- also to the Chavin culture of the Peruvian highlands, dence, or did the same system of stellar orientation in each of which a vigorous culture is in evidence exist in these areas separated by some 1,500 miles? in the 1st millennium B.c., and in each of which a And, if the latter, does this imply a link between jaguar-god symbolism is present. Possible Asian influ- the builders of the two sites? A systematic large-scale ences in the ancient American cultures have been com~arisonof American site orientatioils should theorized on the basis of stylistic resemblances (Birrell reveal the presence or absence of significant consis- 1970, Ekholm 1953, Kirchhoff 1964, Moran and tencies. Kelley 1969). Mertz (1969a,b) suggests that early Pre-Columbian towers in the Southwest have been Greeks voyaged to the area, and Taylor (1957) assesses noted by Schulman (1950). Reyman (197 1a) associates the navigational astronomy which would have made frequent citations of astronomical phenomena among this possible. As yet consensus is lacking on trans- the historic and modern pueblos, in particular Anasa- oceanic contact, and archaeoastronomy may well con- zi, with astronomical alignments of the prehistoric tribute useful insights. At La Venta, as in megalithic sites and structures. He emphasizes the importance

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY of the scattered references to astronomical alignments Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY and rituals in Fewkes' (1891-1922) works, especially his reference to determining the length of the autum- evidently for the purpose of strengthening the weak nal equinox by a shadow (Fewkes 1916a), and of winter sun for its journey north. Like Reyman, Wedel the data obtained by Parsons (1936; 1939a,6) and stresses the significance of the solstice rituals described Stephen (1936) with regard to Puebloan astronomical by Parsons (1939a,b; 1936) and Fewkes (1897:259; practices. Reyman (1971a,b) ties the Anasazi astron- 1898:678) for Zuiii, Taos, and Picuris, in which posts omy to the agricultural "tool-kit" ceremonialism from and other markers are known to have served as solstice the Mesoamerican area and stresses the cultural indicators. Hardman (1971) reports two roughly importance of astronomical observation for site plan- carved menhirs which mark solstice alignments in ning, for the planning and execution of a successful shell mounds at Crystal Lake, Florida: the determin- agricultural cycle, and for ordering the procession ants, though primitive, appear to have offered an of events within a given ceremonial. Stellar referents accurate base for prediction. In a preliminary survey may have been mandatory in the ceremonial activities of the literature on other Southeastern temple and thus in construction. He has made a distinctive- mounds, he sees indications which suggest the value feature analysis of various features, ceremonial and of testing for astronomical function and suggests architectural, that are parallel in Mexico and the trans-Gulf contact with Yucatan in early centuries Southwest: his analysis includes artifacts that occur B.C. with the features and the context of the features within the structure and the structure within the site, on the hypothesis that consistent astronomical fea- EVIDENCE FROM ETHNOASTRONOMY: tures reflect similar ceremonial contexts (personal ICONOGRAPHY, TEXTS, RITUALS communication, 8 IV 7 1). Similar (unpublished) work has been done by John Molloy in the Hohokam area, The line between archaeoastronomy and ethnoas- and with ballcourts by Schroeder (1966) and Wasley tronomy cannot be sharply drawn, as much evidence and Johnson (1965). overlaps; notably, the evidence of astra iconography,'8 The Anasazi data analyzed by Reyman is generally often made accessible by archaeological methods and significant as a late and well-documented example informative to archaeoastronomy, iiin many instances in which astronomical ceremonialism is caught red- clarified by iconographic and other traditions of living handed entering an already populated area with peoples. My division of the two topics is necessarily improved maize. The data also emphasize the impor- arbitrary and sometimes hinges upon the assumption tance of postholes in areas which no longer have of a certain duty to a hypothetical reader who may surviving cultures. Wittry (1964-70) has excavated be unfamiliar with astronomical facts and constructs, at Cahokia four henge-type structures, part of a vast with whom a ground of understanding should be ceremonial complex, radiocarbon-dated to around established before I attempt to briefly review icono- A.D. 1000, where spaced wooden posts appear to have clastic studies. Marshack's work, like that of Thom, been arranged in circles of from 240 to 480 ft. in requires such a mental restructuring: each stands diameter: Wedel (1967) describes henge structures alone, each represents years of grueling fieldwork which may have served a similar function in central with a scrupulous regard for the difference between Kansas. European megalithic astronomy throws new objective data and subjective assumption; and just light on these American circles marked now in many as Thom requires us to modify traditional views with sites only by postholes. The more elaborate "American regard to Neolithic man's cognitive capacities, Mar- Woodhenge" described by Wittry (1970a: 15; 19706) shack requires us to think about how these abilities was 410 ft. in diameter, laid out by means of a developed in Paleolithic man in response to observed peg-and-rope compass. The cardinal points were seasonal (including astronomical) realities. marked by four posts, and the total of 48 posts were The question of the backward thrust in time of evenly spaced around the circle. At around A.D. 1000, Wittry shows, an observer standing at a post located 5 ft. to the east of the true center of the circle excavated '8Elsewhere (Baity 1917b) I have used "astra (astro-) iconogra- phy" to designate sets, subsets, and classes of motifs observable and looking at the fourth post to the left would have in ceramic and rock art: (1) obvious astra forms, lunar, stellar, been looking at the angle required, slightly greater and solar, including what I take to be annular eclipses and total eclipses with coronas; (2) the representation of recurring astra than 30°, toward the summer-solstice sunrise. In 1964, events serving to date rituals, such as heliacal and other risings when first described, these Cahokia circles were the and settings, and of symbols denoting these; (3) the representation only known indications north of Mexico of structures of subjective concepts such as constellations, which represent gods in their animal forms; and (4) the record of rites duly performed. which could have served as sun circles defining the The term is inadequate, as Marshack notes (personal communica- tropical year. The circle examined by Wedel (Tobias tion, 28 x 71), in that it excludes the greater part of the Paleolithic- site) consists of elongated house circles arranged Mesolithic astronomical notations, which are nonstatic, cumulative records of phenomena observed and recorded over periods ex- around a patio within the ditched zone; the houses tending into months and years. He sees a relatively late stabilized appear to have served as sighting lines of the solstitial official iconography and mythology, following an earlier use of open seasonal images, abstract signs related to diverse seasonal sunrise points. Wedel cites Dorsey (1907:8), who observations, reportorial depictions of seasonal ritual including described the Wichita and the Pawnee religious sys- images of sky bodies, and, finally, a lunar notation. His terms tems as star cults: the Skidi Morningstar sacrifice appear to me to be preferable for the greater number of astronom- ical symbols, rituals, and myths, but I suggest that for sets specifically of a captive girl is one of the several evidences of depicting astra bodies and events, and the ritual directly related sacrifices at the winter solstice, the "feast of fire," to them, the term astra iconography may have a specific use. Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 man's astronomical interest was first raised in Mar- suggesting a pre-Neolithic origin for these and other shack's (1964) study of lunar notations on Upper intensified fire rituals, ask if their prototypes may Paleolithic remains; these include cave markings have been associated with astra occasions even in the which suggest notations which could represent the Paleolithic, and this may be suggested by Klima's synodic month (the 293 days from new moon to (1962:199-204) documentation for Dolni Vgstonice. new moon), one of the recurring astra events most Here, in a permanent mammoth-hunters' settlement helpful in man's early attempts at timekeeping. We datable to around 29,000-25,000 B.P., numerous bro- have seen from Thom's work that the solstices and ken bits of ceramic animal figurines were found in equinoxes of sun and moon are easily observable a large bake-oven in a hut suggestive of a cult center recurring events. The vernal and autumnal equinoxes and also in a common central hearth containing an could have become early associated with man's quest ash layer some 100 cm. in depth, in which was found for food in Ice Age Eurasia, where the migration the Venus of Wisternitz (VEstonice), protectress of of great animal herds and the appearance and disap- the common economic-social life and perhaps a pro- pearance of plant foods were vitally important to totype of the hearth goddess. This evidence suggests the advanced Homo sapiens groups who created Pa- animal sacrifices symbolically made at a seasonal ritual leolithic iconography featuring bulls, stags, other event, a hypothesis to be further considered by Soviet animals, and plants in what appear to have been and Czechoslovakian scientists, who may indicate symbolic contexts. Cliffside cave-mouths would have whether solar orientations are indicated in structures, settlement patterns, and burials of Pavlovian and been excellent vantage" ~ointsL from which to observe such distant markers as mountain slopes and horizon other Paleolithic permanent settlements. gaps, which often must have bounded the annual The widespread occurrence of Mesolithic interest in solar movements is indicated by Saxe's (197 1) study swinnD of the sunrise from north to south and back again and the more complex moon swings, as well of the orientation of skulls in a Mesolithic population as the recurring rising at certain seasons of brilliant at Wadi Halfa (Sudan), which utilized only 42% of stars such as Sirius and Capella and the unpredictable the 360" range. Saxe (1971:fig. 2) indicates concen- appearance of eclipses, comets, and novae. tration in the southeast quadrant and a well-defined That Paleolithic men thoughtfully observed these clustering between 65" (sunrise at summer solstice) astra events and recorded some of them, notably the and 115" (sunrise at winter solstice), which he inter- moon's movements, in calendric notations in both prets as an indication of patterned behavior. Other mobiliary and cave art is indicated by Marshack's data on the orientation of burials suggests a similar (1969; 1970a,b,c; 197 1; 1972a,b) painstaking docu- patterning: with reference to Thule burials, Merbs mentation. His analysis of European Upper Paleolith- (1968) sees congruency of burial axes with solar ic and Mesolithic engraved artifacts verifies the pre- positions, and examining Pennsylvania burials Gruber sence of highly complex interlocking symbolic sys- (1971) suspects orientation towards the position of tems. He traces a 25.000-vear develo~mentof these the sun on the horizon at dawn. interrelated, "time-factored" traditions into the Neo- Various studies indicate that Afro-Eurasian ceramic lithic. His work indicates that these early cultures and wall iconography from the 4th millennium svmbolized seasonal and ~eriodic~henomena to a downward records astra-set rituals. Several well-doc- greater extent than do present-day or historic hunt- umented and somewhat different traditions appear ing-gathering cultures. With regard to lunar or calen- evident. In view of the prolonged association in later dric svmbolism and notation. Marshack (1972a) states Asian and Ibero-Saharan iconography of astra sym- that these were probably not yet truly astronomical bols and the horns of stags or bulls (with rams in that they were not yet truly arithmetic; the notations appearing in the Sahara and Iberia), it is tempting and images had a seasonal reference related to eco- to surmise that the large horned animals-stags and nomic and ritual periodicities comparable to the bulls-were already associated not only with deities seasonal "moons" of later American Indian usage. but with constellations by the 8th millennium, a Marshack's continuing studies of interrelated time- hypothesis suggested by the appearance of bull and factored traditions traced through the Mesolithic will stag icons in cult contexts at Chatal Huyuk (Mellaart in all probability document the sources of well-attested 1967) and supported by textual evidence reviewed Neolithic astra-determined rituals. Pending the pub- below. lication of his findings, there is little known to me Classical Tripolye iconography charmingly em- to prove the probable Mesolithic interest in astra ploys motifs which to me appear to incorporate astra events except the orientation of burials and vague symbols into the Neolithic spiral associated with indications of early solstice fire rituals. Later interest early agricultural diffusion (Hawkes and Woolley in solar movements and solstice dates is unambig- 1963:255-56, 332), though the designs suggest a uously indicated by the intensified fire rituals, in- cosmologicalu orientation rather than s~ecificrituals cluding both the widespread fire walk and the toro (as in Iran, Elam, Sumer, the Indus, and the Ibero- de fuego or fire bull ritual. These are associated with Saharan continuum). However, a design of concentric solstice occasions in Soria Province, Spain, the French half-ovals enclosing a stellar motif has a certain and Spanish Basque provinces, and the Indian sub- resemblance to a motif which Hartner identifies as continent. The fire walk is connected with a winter- a symbol for a heliacal rising (compare Gimbutas solstice New Year in China and Mesoamerica, occurs 1956: fig. 37, no. 4 with Hartner 1965: figs. 23, 24). at a spring equinox in Iran, and is endemic in India Tell Halaf painted pottery designs published by Von (Baity 1962, 1968). One may, in view of evidence Oppenheim (1933) show star-surrounded bulls and

CURRENTANTHROPOLOGY other obvious cult emblems. Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY By the 3d millennium some sophisticated cosmo- logical belief which was expressed in ritual and description of the Maya calendar Zero Day below.) recorded in iconography appears to have existed Senmut's bull constellation, with its ovoid body ter- around the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf. I have minating in what appears to be an orientation line, noted the resemblances between stag and bull icons resembles an iconographic part-bull in an Ibero- of Anatolia, notably of Alaca Hiiyuk, and Galician Saharan rock scene which I had taken to be a zodiac rock-art stags and bulls (Baity 1968: 103-13, figs. 7a, representation (Baity 1968: fig. 14c) and thus not 8B). The Egyptian iconography is for the most part early Egyptian in origin. different. Earlier Saharan rock-art scenes, however, Senmut's astronomical ceiling, with its proof that appear to contain elements of both traditions: this a quite representational bull head had preceded the area is interesting because of the early appearance "leg of beef" constellation of later days, offers the of the solar ram, a figure absent from the early possibility of another interpretation. By 1500 B.c., as Mesopotamian zodiac but present in the Indus zodiac the planetarium test shows, Thuban was too far from Heras (1953) postulates, and appearing as a borrowed the pole to be significant, though our Taurus still element (perhaps from Egypt) in the Greek zodiac. was close to the celestial equator, with the Pleiades As Sumerian-Babylonian astronomical texts and icon- at +8" N and Aldebaran at +3" N, and Aries the ography offer the possibility of "text-aided" interpre- Ram moving to take its place. Neugebauer tations, let us briefly review studies in this area which (1942b:402) makes the point that the complexity of afford a basis for comparisons with iconography in Egyptian and Babylonian calendars "represents the "text-free" areas. peaceful coexistence of different methods of defining In the earliest known writings, we find an intense time moments and time intervals in different ways concern with astronomy and a rather apprehensive on different occasions." Schematic devices expressing concentration, in Mesopotamia at least, on astra-based future dates in round numbers, useful for long-term predictions. Textual evidence proves that the Egyp- economic agreements, were always subject to adjust- tians told time by means of the "decans," 10" sections ment by inspection of lunar phases. Meanwhile, as of the ecliptic and nearby regions originally based the strongly agricultural character of these civiliza- on constellations rising heliacally 10 days apart after tions emphasized the seasons of the solar year, the having been invisible due to conjunction with the sun. heliacal rising of stars was practical for determining In a precomputer attempt to calculate the effects solstices and equinoxes and thus for regulating agri- of precession (by drilling several pairs of "polar" holes cultural rituals and labors (cf. also Neugebauer in a celestial globe), Pogo (1930) offered identifica- 1945:794). Constellation figures, such as that of the tions for constellations appearing in the earliest bull in Senmut's astronomical ceiling and on coffin known of several astronomical tomb ceilings, that of lids, highly mythological in content, were not always Hatshepsut's architect Senmut, of the 18th dynasty, understood by later copyists, when precession had ca. 1500 B.c., and indicates the importance of circum- changed the objective astra facts. In Mesopotamian ~olarconstellations in tem~leorientation. He cites texts the shift to systematic prediction (cf. Neugebauer a text describing- the "cord-stretching"- ritual for 1945:795) of lunar phenomena and the use of the astronomical alignment. An English translation (Gied- cycle of 19 years can be seen by the 4th century ion 1962) identifies the target constellation as Ursa B.C.Giedion's (1962) analysis of flat-topped pyramids Major, but Pogo identifies the Bull, Meskheti, as and other types of sacrificial altars and his extensive terminating with the then polar star (Thuban). The data on Ram (Ra) cults and other horn and antler ritual text reads: "I have grasped the peg. . . . I symbolism associated with fertility renewal cults af- observe the forward striding movement of the con- ford a basis for comparative studies on the funda- stellations. My eye is fixed on the Great Bear. . . . mental difference in Egyptian and Mesopotamian I . . . determine the corners of your temple" (cf. astra cults, the one cheerfully focusing on the sun Pogo 1930: pl. 16; Giedion 1962: figs. 77, 78). The as deity and on constellations as soul guides and the paraphernalia for this ritual of temple orientation other gloomily studying night skies for predictions. are represented in iconography; actual examples dat- Although the decans appear in drawings on the ing from the time of Hatshepsut may be seen in the inner side of coffin lids around 2100 B.c., Sarton Cairo museum. Pogo compares Senmut's ceiling with (192'7-48), Taton (1963), and others (not including two 12th-century-B.C.examples, noting changes that Lockyer 1965) have thought that astronomy did not precession would have caused in the decans system develop the scientific stature in Egypt that it attained and its associated deities. The use of an ancient in Mesopotamia. To their credit, however, the Egyp- astronomical system built on exact observations is tians of around 4228 B.C. had tried, by adopting evident, as is the importance of the Pleiades: as Pogo sidereal time keyed to the heliacal rising of Sirius notes, around 3000 B.c., when the vernal equinox (Sothis), to resolve the problem presented by the fact was in the Taurus constellation of the Mesopotamian that there is no lunar year which corresponds to the zodiac, the celestial equator by definition ran through solar year marked by the solstices. They dealt with our Taurus constellation and thus very near Procyon. the incommensurability of the solar and sidereal years A check with the Morehead Planetarium at Chapel (the latter being about day longer than the former) Hill for the approximate latitude of Thebes (Karnak by maintaining both a civil (with leap year) and a Luxor) shows that Pogo's method is sufficiently accu- sacred calendar (cf. Parker 1950). It is interesting rate for observational astronomy. (Cf. Smiley's similar that when forced to choose between the stars and Val. 14 No. 4 . October 1973 social custom, the Egyptians recognized social pri- World-New World contacts. The zodiac, a band en- macy: exhausted, perhaps, with the attempt to recon- compassing the paths of the planets, sun, and moon cile calendars which coincided only every 1,460 years (with the ecliptic in its center), is a construct common (i.e., 365 x 4; cf. Edwards 1970), they may well have to Western Asia, China, Mesoamerica, and probably lost faith in the stars. and who can blame them? the Indus area; thus it is of increasing interest to However, selection biases of Arab scholars in favor prehistorians for the light it may throw on the of medicine and magic may have operated against diffusion of astra cults. The zodiac is a highly subjec- astronomical papyri, whereas astronomical scholars tive construct involving star-groups given the symbolic have worked with archaeologists from the first deci- forms of living beings (aside from Libra). With the phering of cuneiform and of Maya hieroglyphics exception of Scorpio, the constellation patterns do (Fleckenstein-Gallo 1967). Later Egyptian astronomy not resemble the beings they represent, and therefore is closely tied to Greek and Roman astronomy and the presence of roughly similar zodiacs in widely astrology, based on the Mesopotamian zodiac, which separated areas suggests borrowing from some early introduced constellation figures new to the Egyptians center, though it is not yet identified. Further, because (cf. Claggett 1955; Zinner 1931, 1933). of the precession of the equinoxes, the zodiac is The achievements of early Middle Eastern astron- helpfully time-specific. omers have been intensively studied.lg Neugebauer's The Sumerian zodiac, from which our own was (1937-72; Neugebauer, De Falco, and Krause 1966; derived via later Mesopotamian and Greek astrolo- Neugebauer and Parker 1964,1969; Neugebauer and gists, is of early and unknown origin, having like Sachs 1968-69) highly specialized studies relate early Athena appeared full-grown. Van der Waerden astronomy to mathematics and ancient geography. (1952) discusses its division by later Mesopotamian There is little doubt that by the 2d millennium B.C. astronomers into 12 sections (called houses) of 30" a reasonably respectable astronomy existed in the each, designated by zodiacal signs. This regularity Middle East, which the West assimilated, along with is not characteristic of earlier zodiacs, and the division inheritances from its own megalithic cultures. The into 12 is only one of many possible divisions: Heras textual evidence indicates that this so~histicatedas- (1953:241) reconstructs an Indus zodiac with only tronomical knowledge existed in ~eso~otamiawell 8 houses and suggests that the earliest zodiacs may before Sargon of Agade boasted (ca. 2350 B.c.) of have been limited to the constellations serving by having rescued his trading colony at Parsuhanda, their heliacal rising." to indicate solstices and eauinoxes. 1,000 miles away in Asia Minor. (Sargon's reference Lunar houses (or mansions), as will be furiher dis- to long-distance trading is validated by the finding cussed below, contain 27 or 28 asterisms (constella- of uniform Akkadian architecture in distant trading tions). The precession of the equinoxes causes each areas [Mallowan 1965:5] .) Mesopotamian astronomy zodiacal constellation in the 12-house system to move continued to develop: Van der Waerden (1949, 1963) backward one house approximately every 2,100 years discusses Venus tablets dating to the Hammurapi (fig. 5). Thus around 2000 B.C.precession displaced Dvnastv and lists of 36 stars connected with the 12 the heliacal rising of Taurus and the heliacal setting mbnthS of the year. He also notes the significance of Scorpio away from the vernal equinox, which they of the heliacal rising of individual stars and constella- had precisely marked for renewal rituals for well tions as indicators for seasonal festivities in Babylonia, over 1,000 years (though due to cultural lag the Egypt, and Greece. As the stars of the Elam, Akkad, displaced bull did not disappear from ritual or sym- and Amurru lists are identical with those of later lists, bolism). This unexpected astral machination un- he suggests a very ancient origin in Old Babylonian doubtedlv confounded earlv ~riestlv astronomers times or earlier. Hammurapi's scribes appear to have accustomkd to dating New ~ear's'ritualiby the heliacal reworked the calendric and stellar traditions into "a risings and settings of these constellations, and it fine svmmetrical svstem." A series of Venus observa- caused far later Ionian Greek astronomers to note tions made under Ammizaduga, which Van der "errors" in the sky-charts and descriptions of their Waerden (personal communication, 8 IX 70) dates predecessors which led to their discovery of the to around 1582-1561 B.c., are well in accord with phenomenon. Precession is, therefore, a prime cause modern calculations "if one assumes that no serious for rejoicing among ethnoastronomers for the com- disturbance of the orbit of Venus occurred after 1582 parative data it affords. B.c." With regard to the origin of the zodiac, Maunder It may be helpful to more fully discuss two of (1908) argues unanswerably that the space of the the subjective constructs the wide distribution of southern sky left blank in early sky-charts was neces- which is strongly suggestive of East-West and Old sarilv centered on the celestial South Pole. as constel- lations adjacent to it could not be seen in a northern latitude. Since precession shifts the pole among the "Cf. Aaboe (1967), Audin (1945-55), Berger (1970), Conteneau (1940), De Saussure (1919-24), Dicks (1970), Hirmonech (1913), stars a known amount, the ascertainment of a former Hopman (1934), Langdon (1935), Pincheset al. (1955),Pogo (1931), place for the invisible South Pole circumpolar constel- Sachs (1955), Thierens (1935), and Thorndike (1938). An excellent lations roughly indicates the time and place of origin short summary of historical astronomy is to be found in the Dictionnaire archiologique des techniques(see 1963 articles by Auboyer, for a sky-chart. By this system Maunder estimates Baudez, Bloch, Largement, Mugler, Reichlen, Schrimpf, and that the constellations described bv Aratus in 270 Vercoutter). More extensive summaries abound, including those by Dozy (Pellat translation, 1961), Schlegel(1875),Wensinck (1921), B.C.indicate that he was using a far older sky-chart Sarton (1927-48), Claggett (1955), Beer (1967), Pannekoek (1961), or description, one made around the 28th century Taton (1963), and Siverama Menon (1932). B.C.at or near 40" north latitude. Ovenden (1966: 12),

CURRENTANTHROPOLOGY restudying the positions of the constellations de- Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY scribed, locates the time of origin at 2600 + 800 years B.C. and the place near lat. 36" N + I$". He sense, an explanation which offers a key to garbled notes the tendency of place names to survive change astra mythology. of culture and language, if in corrupt form, and Leon Pomerance (personal communication, 2 111 72) chooses Stampalia (local name Astropalia) as his site." indicates the type of mnemonic device which may This accords with Richer's (1967) hypothesis that a have made possible the remembering of the astro- network of astrologically assigned sites centered near nomical lore in his hypothesis with regard to the Crete, which I can only see as occurring in Minoan astrological meaning of the Phaistos Disc, accepted times, before the widespread tectonic action, includ- as a "workable" hypothesis when presented at the ing the exposion of Santorini (Marinatos 1939, Ga- third Cretological Congress, Rhethymnon, Crete, lanopoulos and Bacon 1969) which destroyed Knossos September 197 1. The Disc, found in 1908 in a Middle

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FIG. 5. Positions of the vernal equinox (above) and the summer solstice (below) between 10,000 B.C. and A.D. 2000. Horizontal line represents the plane of the ecliptic; short slanting lines represent the positions of the plane of the celestial equator, each intersecting the plane of the ecliptic in a position of the vernal equinox; arrows indicate the positions of the summer solstice. (Drawing by Charles H. Smiley.) and the Minoan culture. Aside from this area, Minoan context which included a Linear A tablet, however, China, Iran, and Spain are also strategically appears to Pomerance to be a religious calendar of located with regard to observations appropriate to agricultural festivities, showing the progression our zodiac that could have been made in 2800 B.c., through the year of constellations which he identifies and Iran fulfills better than does Crete certain other as the Pleiades, the Eagle, and the Serpent's Tail, requirements, among them the well-documented familiar Near Eastern constellations associated with presence in Elam of 4th- and 3d-millennium astria astrology by the classical Greeks. Pomerance regards iconography including what appear to be prototypes the icons as symbolic ideograms without phonetic of the figures of the Western Asian zodiac (cf. Hartner value, which would place them in the class with the 1965). Ovenden attributes the preservation of astral icons used in Sorai wall art and with some of the data from the 28th century B.C. to early sailors who icons in the Ibero-Saharan iconographic scenes. He repeated nautical star-lore to their children while the identifies some as Sumerian-Babylonian in origin, inexorable march of precession turned it into non- others as Egyptian. The Disc appears to him to indicate by means of the heliacal rising and setting of the Pleiades the time for harvesting and planting, "C. H. Smiley (personal communication, 15 VIII 71) would make the time 2800 B.C. ? 600 and the latitude 34" N +. 3", adding "I a hypothesis consistent with surviving Pleiades folk- wouldn't rule out Babylon." He estimates that a statement made lore. The instructions, as he interprets them, parallel by Aratus would have been true about 1788 B.G. (indicating that the Greek astronomer had access to far older data long since those in Hesiod, further evidence that Hesiod made lost). use of astronomical traditions remounting to Minoan Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 407 times. which Baschmakoff (1948) has found to be early appearance in Sumeria of a fully developed true with regard to nautical directions in the Black zodiac suggests origin elsewhere in an undetermined Sea periploi fragments. Circumpolar stars may also location. Hartner's (1965) hypothesis of the Iranian be indicated on the Disc. use of the heliacal rising of a horned-animal constel- To repeat, it is not the fact of the use of certain lation (ibex or stag) as a solstice-predictor around star groups as constellations that implies dissemination the 4th and 3d millennia B.c.. as indicated bv art of a system, but the subjective constructs involved; representation on painted ceramics and other arti- Egyptian constellations were for the most part dif- facts, agrees with the findings of other astronomical ferent from those of the Sumerian zodiac, as are scholars that the heliacal rising and setting of zodiacal those reported for the Tuareg by Lhote (1952), while constellations timed ritual cycles of the New Year. Mesoamerican and Indian zodiacs share certain con- The antiquity and depth of early Indian astronom- stellations but not others.'l ical knowledge has been stressed by many scholars Next to the solar zodiac, which was so helpful in (Bhattacharyya and Mitra 1925; Clark 1930; Schmidt date-setting, the best-documented ancient subjective 1944; Sengupta 19.29, 1931). That its origin lay with astronomical construct with a wide distribution is that proto-Indians, the Indus people described in early of the corresponding "lunar mansions" (Allen Vedic texts and epics as great astronomers and 1963:7-101). The comparative studies of Moran and "masters of the deep," has appeared probable, Heras Kelley (1969) show correspondences between Chinese (1953) having determined that the Indus language and Mesoamerican lunar houses. Kelley (1960, 197 1) was proto-Dravidian and argued that an Indus eight- further demonstrates similarities in Mesoamerican, house zodiac closely paralleled the major Sumerian Indian, and Chinese lunar house asterisms and cites signs. The recent decoding of the Indus script by the work of Boll (1904), Bork (1914, 1924, 1929), Parpola (1970) and colleagues parallels the Heras Chavannes (1906), Graebner (1921), Rock (1919, reading of certain signs, including those for star and 1922), Stucken (1913), and Weinstock (1950), as well Pleiades ("six-star"). Parpola (personal commu- as Burmese and Tibetan models. Chatley (1940~) nication, 23 111 71), while not supporting Heras as indicates that Egyptian astronomers also grouped the to the zodiac, sees an astral orientation in the Indus equinoctial-ecliptic stars under 28 sets. Chatley religion, with the sun, moon, and planets (identified (1940b), who dates the decans system of Egypt back bv color) as the maior deities. characters in a mvthic to the 10th Dynasty, notes the agreement of Coptic dkama df the victoiy of the god of light and good and Arabic names. This lunar mansion construct, over the demon of darkness and evil (the planet Rahu, documented for China and India well into the 1st causer of eclipses). The Indus gods, like those of millennium B.c., is evident in Korean and early Arabic Iran and Anatolia, had animal counterparts. Parpola texts. Needham (1969), Weinstock (1950),and Moran suggests that the traditional Hindu luni-solar calendar (1969) have seen a Western origin, but Kelley operating with 27-28 asterisms was created by the (1969: 150) notes the absence of such a list in Assyrian, Harappa people, essentially independently of Babylonian, and Sumerian early sources. To me the Mesopotamia, and early borrowed into China. He notes that Soviet scholars agree with this interpreta-

tion. Thev recognize." , however. the trade relations In view of the extreme cultural significance of the evidence between the Indus area and Sumer. Coming probably with regard to widespread zodiacal iconography, Moran's hypothe- from the Iranian plateau, the Dravidians who settled sis (Moran and Kelley 1969) of a zodiacal origin for our alphabet along the Indus became sea-traders who founded deserves close study. Moran (personal communication, 4 IV 72) indicates that while Kelley sees the autumnal equinox as setting colonies along the Persian Gulf (Bibby 1966, 1969). the ma'or early Chinese festival, he himself sees evidence (Chinese When disaster overtook the Indus ports almost a and 0jd Testament) that the harvest festival became secondary to a winter-solstice New Year somewhere around the 14th to 12th millennium later. survivors took refuge- in South centuries B.C. and notes that Confucius called himself merely the India, or remained in their distant trading posts, to editor of sacred books remounting to perhaps the 12th century. be absorbed in time into the local populations. Tamil Moran finds close relationships between the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin alphabets and the corresponding zodiacal constellations and calendric cults, stressing bull rituals and solstice occa- sees the signs for Niu, "the Ox," and Tsade, "to shoot an arrow," sions, to me suggest possible survivals of ancient cults: as bringing the systems into juxtaposition. Moran's comparison of ancient Chinese sky-charts and legends, specifically that of the Neugebauer (1952) describes a prediction device Oxherd, leader of the Seven Stars of the Dipper, who became involving pebbles as mnemonic devices, which recalls separated from the Weaver Woman by the River of Heaven (the Hoyle's suggestion that Stonehenge may have been Milky Way), suggests ancient recognition of the changes caused by precession. Moran (personal communication, 25 rv 72) adds, a definitive system by which pegboards and other "In the maps of the astrological works, the upper left-hand corner systems were calibrated. Tosi (197 1:24), summing up is the Northwest corner. That is where the River of Heaven comes scholarly opinion which has been substantiated by into view in two streams which shortly unite. It is at that point that the astrological table of the original man and woman is found. Bibby's (1969) analysis of Indus colonies along the It was at that point that the herdsman kept his cattle, and to Arab coast of the Gulf from Kuwait to the island him his former wife the Weaver Woman crossed over once a year to spend the night. Confucius makes numerous references of Bahrein, the most important center, notes that to the Northwest Corner, which would be on the heavenly map artifacts found link the island with the Oman culture, shortly before the winter solstice." In this connection, I think "which is clearly Iranian in originM-specifically, a of Moghadam's (1938) hypothesis that the Iranian New Year, now set by the spring equinox, was once set by the summer solstice. sherd with a representation of a zebu-humped bull, South Indian myths and astra-set festivals also indicate the dis- which Bibby compares to those occurring on Kulli placement of the New Year's celebration. In each of these cases, the emphasis upon bull sacrifice or bull rituals strongly suggests ware of southeast Baluchistan and which Tosi further that the heliacal rising of a bull constellation may have set the compares to the Bampur Culture. date. The scope and interest of early Chinese astronomy

CURRENTANTHROPOLOGY is indicated by many studies, including those of De Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY Saussure (1919-67), Eberhard (1933, 1940, 1957, 1971), Hartner (1944-49), Hartner and Ettinhausen cultural diffusions (Lindsay 1951). (1964), Lessa (1968), Needham (1969), Porter (1950), Minakata (1919) also studies the Chinese use of and Schlegel (1875). According to legend, an ancient zodiacal symbols. Nakamura (1930) analyzes constel- Chinese astronomical system was renovated by the lation symbolism of the Korean era, and Nakayama (probably mythical) Emperor Yao, who according to (1969) indicates the Chinese base of Japanese astron- earlier (and not fully accepted) interpretations of the omy. Ho Peng Yoke (1962) criticises catalogues of Shu King could have had a 2d-millennium date: the ancient and medieval observations of comets and legend relates that Yao beheaded two court astron- novae in Chinese sources as not coming from the omers delinquent with regard to customary eclipse best sources, which he cites. Beer et al. (1961) describe rituals. It has been suggested that the eclipse referred the accomplishment of medieval Chinese astronomers to was that visible in North China in 2161 B.c., but and engineers in laying out an arc of observation Eberhard (personal communication, 15 111 72) notes no less than 3,800 km. in length and fixing a civil that according to recent studies the Shu King was unit prefiguring the metric system of a millennium not composed before 1000 B.c., with the data on later, estimating that this project would hardly have Yao perhaps as late as 400 B.c.: moreover, the episode been possible without tables of trigonometrical func- of the two astronomers may be a solar myth, as is tions, as values were calculated from the summer-sol- suggested by the resemblance of their names to that stice shadow series. This compares interestingly with of a solar deity, Hsi-ho. The belief that early Chinese data cited by Moghadam (seminar, University of astronomers discovered the obliquity of the ecliptic Tehran, 1964-65) which suggest early collaboration is not confirmed by the early astronomical texts, between Iranian and Chinese observatories and the datable to around 220 B.C. Eberhard cites Bezold's possible establishment of something resembling a comparison of Babylonian and Chinese oracles based prime meridian. Knobel (1917) studies the star cata- on astronomical factors and suggesting possible simi- logue of Ulugh-Beg (1392-1449), whose observatory larities, implying contact. in Samarkand may still be seen. Petri's (1967) work On the grounds that the Babylonian-Greek astro- on Tibetan astronomy indicates that early astronom- nomical system was ecliptic, annual, and angular ical knowledge was diffused along some east-west whereas the Chinese was equatorial, with reckoning continuum. by night, De Saussure (1967:12-13) assumed an Kelley (197 1) documents the use of cosmological independent Chinese origin, and saw the pole star designs not only in the laying out of ancient cities (not then Polaris) as the center of Chinese astrono- in Assyria, Iran, China, and Greece, but also in kinship my and metaphysics. Needham (1969) and Lessa groups, games, and the alphabet. Shorto (1963) sees (1968:48) stress the distinctive nature of Chinese similar pattern regularities, involving the number 32, constellation constructs, but Moran and Kelley (1969), in Burmese and other Asian city designs (cf. Buchanan whose studies of lunar mansions I have mentioned 1801), accompanied by a mythology involving ser- as suggesting contact with Mesoamerica, also note pent-princesses dowered with the land (a feature resemblances of Chinese-Western circumpolar con- notable in French mythology and one which Herodo- stellations (our Great and Little Bears or Dippers tus [Book IV] tied to the Hercules cult in Scythia)." and Draco); they note the absence of these asterisms He observes in city design the use of the square in Assyrian, Babylonian, and Sumerian sources. (4 made 5 by the central pillar) and the circle and Needham and other scholars do not agree with the mentions an astronomical calendar. As noted above, hypothesis of Chavannes (1906) that the Chinese zodiacal patterns on a vast scale are seen by Richer derived constructs from Turkish or Hunnish peoples (1969) to connect the sacred prophetic centers of in the 1st millennium. Both Eberhard and Kelley ancient Crete, Greece, and Ionia in a system perhaps do, however, comment with interest on the work of predating the Mycenean culture. Rock (n.d., 1919, 1922), who attempted to make a The field of Arabian astronomy is significant for comparison of various zodiacs, and Eberhard suspects its possible evidences both of the astronomy of the that several Chinese cycles of unknown character may earlier Arabian cultures which disappeared with the have been based upon foreign words. This lack of increasing aridity and of the astronomy which later consensus among scholars with regard to the legen- Arabs carried far and wide as a navigational aid (surely dary antiquity of Chinese astronomy, considered as significant on the desert as on the sea). Carmody's conjointly with the data in other studies listed here, (1956) critical bibliography of Arabic sources in Latin further suggests a Neolithic origin and probable translation gives an idea of the immense scope of linking to the earliest agricultural ritual cycles. Arabic astronomical literature: Kennedy, Engle, and Hartner (1965:7, n. 28) describes the Babylonian Wamsted (1965) translate Al-Biruni on Hindu calen- constellation ban (cf. Van der Waerden 1949:16) as dars, and Lesley (1957) finds in his work an indication identical with the Chinese hu-shih, "the bow and of a survival of Babylonian data. Carmody (1961) arrow7' (cf. Schlegel 1875:434), and discusses other early Chinese symbolism (Hartner 1944-49). In the "It has interested me, as it did Herodotus (Book IV), that absence of datable texts, the iconographic studies the Homeric Greek hero Herakles (whose sun-god attributes have serve to supplement the archaeological evidence of been extensively studied) arrived in the Pontic steppes from the Golden Hesperides in the West, presumably the Iberian peninsula. early contact (Hawkes and Woolley 1963:255), per- Soviet scholars have also found the Hercules cult of interest haps that of the Neolithic expansion and of later (Artamonov 1961, Grakov 1950, Peredolskaya 1958). Val. 14 No. 4 . October 1973 has similarly translated and discussed the work of legs together in the position of the stag of an Anatolian Thabit b. Qurra. Campos (1953) and Mesnard (1949) standard occurs in Africa (Baity 1968: fig. 7A). I are among. those who contribute valuable studies of need not summarize here the evidence of stag.- rituals Arabic stir and constellation names, indicating the which may imply stag worship and sacrifices: rein- familiarity of Arabic peoples with the zodiacal con- deer-hunters of the Mesolithic, in their summer camps stellations. Monod's (1963) study of early Arab sailing at the edge of the retreating ice cap, threw stags discusses other early navigators who were familiar weighed down with stones into a lake and mounted with the stars and constellations of the southern the skulls of reindeer bucks on poles at Stellmoor hemisphere; this study is especially valuable for the and Meiendorf, as Alfred Rust discovered. The stag sources cited, which indicate the surprising extent dance at Abbot's Bromley in England is one of many of early sailing. An authority has hopefully observed folkloric survivals indicating ancient stag cults in this that Arabic documents should be organized and in area. translation in another century, which should cheer It is premature to attempt a synthesis of the the impatient. iconographic and folkloric evidence, but I have sug- The survival in the Middle East of star and planet gested that a stag constellation may have been used cults. as well as of cults of sun and moon deities. as a season indicator for a New Year's ritual cycle offers perspective to archaeoastronomy studies (Cu- before Taurus assumed this function late in the '4th mont 1927). Henninger (1954) has given a most millennium or early in the 3d millennium. Alterna- valuable and extensive documentation to his studv tively, the stag constellation could have been a parana- of the survival of Venus and other cults in Arabia. tellon: Boll (1904) 'cites early sources which identify Ancient planet cults survive still elsewhere along the a stag as a paranatellon to Pisces. Finally, the stag Persian Gulf: Lady Drower's (1962) remarkable study could have been an instance of cultural lag.", the of the Mandaean cults is a model both as ethnography carrying-over of an earlier symbolic figure. In the and as an exercise in meticulous scholarship relating absence of reliable dating for rock art, an exact the present to the past (see also Drower 1936). In sequence can hardly be formulated at present, but all of these areas of ancient astronomy, the icon- to me the stag appears to have been an older symbol; ography is of great importance for the information as mentioned above, certain evidence could be inter- it may provide, as the sets of motifs appear in other preted as indicating that a horned-animal constella- areas where no records exist (cf. Boll 1904; Bork tion, more often an ibex in the earliest iconography 1914, 1924, 1929; Pogo 1931). of Mesopotamia and Elam, may have indicated by With the function of the Mesopotamian zodiacal its heliacal rising the winter solstice (cf. Hartner animals in mind (as well as the rather sudden appear- 1965:9). This question of zodiacal function is to be ance in Sumer of the zodiac), let us examine rock resolved only by astronomical scholars, but the stag art and ceramic iconography distributed in a contin- iconography in rock, ceramic, and early metal art uum from Iberia to India and appearing on both suggests the astronomical symbolism of the horn- sides of the Mediterranean. Anati (1964)r re~roduces. with-orb symplegma. a series of rock-art stag ritual scenes from Camonica Grosjean (1969) publishes Corsican rock-art motifs, Valley, an early North Italian ore-producing area among them stylized men and cattle that to me suggest in which rituals were recorded in iconography from the recording of rituals: his figures 1 and 12 may, roughly the 4th millennium to the time of the Roman I suggest, be stylized representations of the mountain conquest. He notes (pp. 162-67) motifs symbolizing peaks which defined the sunrise points of winter and the rising sun, stag's horns resembling a half-sun, summer solstices. Grosiean notes the obvious resem- and stags or bulls with solar orbs between or above blance to Iberian and grench rock-art motifs. South- their horns, and suggests (p. 28) that icons of this ern Andalusia is a well-documented picture-gallery type represent a fusion of sexual and solar energy. in which hundreds of such scenes are depicted (cf. He concludes (p. 156): "At the center of the Camunian Breuil and Burkitt 1929). In many of these scenes religion-whatever transformations it underwent bull sacrifices occur with astra motifs in unmistakable over the centuries-lay sun worship and stag worship. evidence of astra-set rituals. the details of which The two constitute the theme of more than three- resemble those of ongoing Iberian solstice rituals at quarters of the religious scenes in the Valley." To midsummer. Ortego y Frias (1951-65) has published me, comparing the Camunian art with that of North rock-art scenes featuring bull rituals with solar sym- Africa and Iberia (and with the function of the zodiac bols in contexts which, considered in connection with in mind), the possibility of a primitive zodiac is also Bronze Age artifacts found in Soria Province, suggest Dresent, in the form of a solar disc divided into seven to him (as to me) that the present midsummer fire spokes. The animal entering the solar standard occurs walk of San Pedro Manrique and the recently discon- frequently in North African and in Iberian rock art. tinued fire bull ritual of Medinaceli had their roots The theme is suggested in a somewhat different form in the ritual cycles of protohistoric ore prospectors in the metal "stag" statuettes at Alaca Hiiyiik (Baity and cattlekeepers in this ancient transhumance area. 1968: pl. XXXII, from original at the Hittite Museum The reappearance of Iberian themes in Ethiopian in Ankara). MacWhite (1951: fig. 8) shows Galician rock art has been discussed by Breuil (1934) and "stags" (with cows) which I have interpreted as cult Graziosi (1964). bulls wearing stag-horn masks. The stag with solar ~ahara;rock-art scenes by the hundreds have been orb above his horns occurs in Chalcolithic Andalusian recorded by Lhote (1952, 1966, 1970), Lajoux (1963), iconography, and an animal with a radiant head and Mori (1964), and Huard (1959-68; Beck and Huard

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 1969). Each of these has published many works not Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY listed here, supported by extensive bibliographies; as these works are readily found in libraries, 1 need rock-art evidence of herding). To my thinking, much not emphasize the importance to ethnoastronomy of of the rock art suggests astra-oriented rituals, with the Ibero-Saharan continuum other than to note that stag, bull, and ram motifs indicating the presence astronomical'symbolism is clearly recognized. Huard of a cult resembling that of Iberia and also of Western (1959, 1961) notes the frequency of association of Asia, as well as that of Egypt. Which way the current the solar disc with cattle and Lhote (1970) with rams. flowed, or whether similar cults developed from a Huard (1966) sees evidence that a spiral design is far older tradition, is not clear. East African rock linked to the bull rituals: he documents bull-transport art is sporadic; that seen by me resembles Bushman and shows bull robes (1968). Simoneau (1968) shows art, but Chaplin (1958) identifies among cattle scenes circles which appear to be directional and which to found near Lake Victoria a pictograph to which he me seem to have elements in common with the "Union plausibly gives a calendric interpretation. South Afri- Jack" design of crossed lines, a probable solstice and can rock art has recognized Asian-type motifs (Slack equinox schematic motif. (The"Union Jack" [cf. Baity 1962). 1968: pl. XXIX; Ortego y Frias 1965: pl. 111, fig. The origin of the Saharan astra and cattle icono- I) has been studied in depth by Audin [1945, 19561 graphic complex may be more clear when Anati has and found by Charrikre [1964:166, fig. 21 in the published further studies of the themes represented Crucuno rectangle and also in Etruscan and early in materials collected by the Philby-Rycksmans-Lip- Roman architectural design; Charrikre suggests that pens expedition in 1951-52 to Saudi Arabia: ~nati in carrying the design to the Roman forum, the (1968) points out that these data represent an irre- Romans may not have observed that the solstice placeable means of investigation, hardly an overstate- azimuths indicated the latitude of Etruria rather than ment. Asian connections. the earliest of which mav that of Rome. The design reappears in a stylistic have existed when both Arabia and the Sahara werk version in pre-Christian painted ceramics of the ment. Asian connections, the earliest of which may Celtiberian town of Numantia [Soria] published by have existed when both Arabia and the Sahara were Wattenberg [1963:2-12611, where it occurs with sufficiently green to support herds, are indicated by identifiable astra motifs; in this ware, a double fish the fact that humped cattle were introduced into suggestive of Pisces, which during this period was prehistoric Africa dn several occasions; as the hump approaching its period of announcing the spring breeds out rapidly, fresh reappearances of the stock equinox by its heliacal rising, is shown above an icon may be documented by the iconography (J. Desmond strongly resembling Hartner's [1965: fig. 231 Clark, personal communication, 28 v 68). The tur- proposed symbol for a heliacal rising.) HampatC B$ ban-wearing men accompanied by elaborately dressed and Dieterlen (1966) report rock-art motifs indicating and coiffed women riding cattle and taking part in magic and religion. ritual activities involving both branch and astra sym- Lhote (1952) has queried Tuareg of the Hoggar bols are of an unmistakablv Western Asian ethnic with reference to "geometrical" designs published by type, many displaying "the nose" famous in Iran and Monod (1938). Although other Tuareg did not re- Armenia. Though disagreement has existed with cognize the designs, an ironworker responded at once regard to the dating of the North Africa art, Anati that they represented stars (including the sun). The has given provisional 3d-millennium dates to some star groups he cited included those known to us as of the Central Arabian drawings, on the basis of Orion, the Great Bear, the Pleiades, and the Hare, comparisons with Egyptian artifacts. It will be of but neither names nor descriptions match those of interest to see whether he finds motifs corresponding the Middle Eastern constellations for which Campos to the Saharan series of horned animals carrying discs (1953) gives the Arabic names. This suggests that or of animals entering circles or ovoid forms, which a system unlike that of the Middle East existed in may imply the early use of a zodiac in this area; the Sahara, perhaps connected with ironworkers, who a comparison with the contellations referred to by are known to folklorists to preserve vestiges of an Lhote's (1952) Tuareg blacksmith would also be of ancient cult. The icons do, however, have obvious interest. parallels in the rock art of other areas of the Ibero- The importance of Africa for ethnoastronomy is Saharan continuum. The dating of Ibero-Saharan indicated not only by the Ibero-Saharan rock art but rock art is an unsolved problem (Pericot and Ripoll also by Bronze Age artifacts indicating a West African 1964: 191-2 14). The earlier stages of the Saharan trading zone in communication with Atlantic cultures cattlekeepers' rock art may date back well over 5,000 (Souville 1965). Egyptian records testify to early trade years (Lhote, personal communication, 11 XI 65), and with the East Coast, while periploi and early Arabic the cattlekeepers' culture may date to the 5th millen- historians describe later trade. The presence of far nium. Butzer (1966:78-79), reviewing the palaeocli- earlier proto-Indian traders has been surmised on matic sequences in the Sahara, notes the difficulty linguistic evidence, and to me Dravidian elements in dating, but suggests as a working hypothesis that appear present in cattle cults. For these reasons a the period ca. 5500-2350 B.C. was comparatively synthesizing review of the ethnoastronomy studies moist, with savanna woodlands probably present on is needed. Afro-Arabic chronologies of the Ahaggar the best-watered highlands and good pastures proba- region are studied by Dubief (1942). Wassef (1971:42) bly available seasonally on the remaining uplands and states that the 12th month in the ancient Coptic in most of the wadi systems (which supports the calendar, MCsorC, took its name from the fact that Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 in ancient Egypt it was consecrated to the festival lunar, and stellar symbols on petroglyphs, data exist of the heliacal rising of Sirius (Sothis), considered for comparative studies in depth of specific sites and the time of birth of the sun god Re (Mesu-RC). The classes of motifs from an early date to the historic Coptic MCsorC is distinguished for its "saint's days," cultures. Iconographic clues and surviving rituals the list including a number of names which I have suggesting the presence of early astronomical cults found to be associated with the fire rituals: one around the Black Sea indicate that the earliest known peculiarity of these saints is that their legends tend astronomical sources should be carefully examined to reach a vanishing point around the 4th century and compared: Kulikovsky (1967) surveys valuable A.D., and another is that in attributes and names they sources in the U.S.S.R. and Tumanyan (1967) cites are remarkablv similar to deities and cult heroes and early sources in Armenia. heroines assodiated with fire-ritual legends. (Their Rock-art representations from the area of the "glass names also tend to occur as place names in megalithic mounds" Allchin (1963) has excavated in the Deccan areas of France, Spain, and Italy.) The importance show bulls wearing torch structures between their of Sirius in the Sudan as an indication of changing horns; Allchin cites similar representations on the seasons is indicated by Griaule and Dieterlen (1950); painted burial urns from Harappa, Cemetery H, and South Sudanese cosmologies are discussed by Zahan notes fire bull rituals surviving:- in South India and (1951, 1958) and tribal calendars by Sabater (1953). connected with the winter solstice. Lagercrantz (1952) studies beliefs about the Milky In Bali, as in Madagascar, the association of buffalo Way, also noted by Monod (1963), along with much bull and cow attends burial practices: here again, other significant data. The survey by Laoust (1921) much is of interest in connection with ethnoastronomy of Berber fire and solstice rituals is especially valuable and megalithic survivals. Goris (n.d.) traces temple for its analysis of ancient rituals, some of which practices not to India but to megalithic sanctuaries, resemble those shown in the rock art. and for the and stresses the importance of the sun god Surya preservation of cultic chants; the resemblance of the and the survival of stepped pyramids, menhirs, and solstice rituals to the intensified fire and cattle rituals zodiacal symbolism. Friederich (1959:45) may throw of megalithic areas in Western Europe again suggests light on the association of fire rituals with a. name the pre-Indo-European origin of the solstice fiestas like Sori (or Sauri), as in Bali these are names both and raises the question of ancient survivals, some for Vishnu and for the planet Saturn. Here a type of which may remount to the megalithic cultures. of fire dance survives both in the Hinduized villages The megalithic culture practices surviving in Mada- and in the hill villages where pre-Hindu culture gascar again are of interest. Bloch (1968, 1971) elements predominate. Despite some differences, to emphasizes the role of astrology in the burial practices me the Oceanic fire (or oven) dances clearly show of the Merina of Madagascar, a society of Southeast in ritual and legend their connection with the Eurasian Asian origin practicing megalithic burial associated fire walk or dance (Baity 1962). with bull sacrifices. The purpose of reburial in joint Indonesian culture patterns have been analyzed tombs is shown to be the need to incor~oratethe in detail by Dutch students other than Goris. In dead into the unchanging kinship order of the ances- well-documented studies. Maass (1920-33) surveys tors, a practice related to the fear of anyone not Balinese and Malay astronomy and astrology. It is among the havana (kinsmen). The significance at- of interest in connection with the studv of the zodiac tached to cardinal points (towards which all structures that the Balinese rasi, used for astrological purposes, are aligned) and to the northeast (summer solstice?) uses the classical figures known in India except that is noted. The ritual bull ~lav1 , which takes lace before a water-pitcher occurs in place of Aquarius and a the bull sacrifices belongs to an ancient pattern shrimp (udang-makara) in place of the ram, which illustrated in Ibero-Saharan rock art (Baity 1968). to me suggests the survival of an early zodiac (cf. The archaeolo~v", of Central Asia from the 6th to Friederich 1959:156). Here, too, the crab-lobster- the 3d millennium B.c., summarized by Masson in shrimp symbolism receives a possible interpreta- a book reviewed by Van Loon (1971), has produced tion-that in shedding its outgrown shell and growing goat horn cores showing traces of torsion, suggesting a new one. this creature became the svmbol of death the possibility of something similar to the horn cult and resurrection. In view of the association made practices accompanying zodiacal symbolism in Sa- by Heras (1953) between the crab and the city of haran rock art. This finding perhaps indicates an Mohenjo-daro, it is tempting to surmise that proto- ancient heritage shared by cultures practicing irriga- Indians may have recognized such a symbolism. tion agriculture in the 5th millennium B.C. Masson Ethnoastronomy in Oceania is of particular interest notes that the Central Asian 6th-millennium commu- for several reasons: astronomical lore and techniaues nities technologically resembled the early village cul- may have diffused from Southeast Asia and ~ndonksia tures in Southeast Asia (notably Phase I at Sialk, dated with both the pre-Tangoreans and the later voyagers, to around 5500-4600 B.c.). The Anau IB ~eriod and despite the lack of extreme seasonal changes (renamed Namazga I) shows stylized ibex, an icon and the absence of most of the food crops and animals that appears in painted pottery as early as Namazga associated with Neolithic astronomical rituals there IV, in company with a full range of motifs suggesting appears to have been a persistence of the Neolithic astra rituals visible since Namazga I11 (e.g., compare pattern of determining planting seasons and the New Hartner 1965 with Tretiakov and Mongait 1961: fig. Year by the heliacal rising of the Pleiades and other 25, nos. 3c-6). As Soviet archaeologists including constellations (the cosmic setting also appeared); at Formozov (1955, 1966, 1969) have studied solar, least one of the intensified fire rituals-the fire

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY walk-which were part of the New Year's ritual cycle Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY in Asia (and in Mesoamerica) survived despite the scarcity of wood, its legends changed but still recog- (Morley 1956; Smiley 1960a,b, 197 1; Thompson nizable. Navigational astronomy was vitally important 1971), but where and when were these principles during both the colonization period and the later originally formulated? The Maya solar year of 365- exploration and trading phases. Finally, discovery was plus days is based on objective astronomical fact, but so recent that the possibility of recovering aboriginal its organization into 18 months of 20 days each, with lore and skills is not totally lost. Though- no systematic a period of 5 extra days, is a cultural construct which study of the entire region is known to me, data exist does not fit the synodic lunar month (Beyer 1936a,b). for a valuable svnthesizinn" study. as various of the The Maya sacred calendar of 260 days was similar island groups hAve been the subjkct of specific eth- to that of the Mexican culture and until recently noastronomy studies (cf. Best 1955; Bryan 1933; was not commonly considered to have been based Collocott 1923; Erdland 1910; Goodenough 1951, on astronomical phenomena. Smiley (1964) and stu- 1953; Grimble 1931; Makemson 1938-39,1941; Nils- dents have suggested, however, that the sacred calen- son 1920; Phillips 1966; Stimson 1928). dar was based on such sophisticated astronomical An extensive series of studies in American ethnoas- calculations that the connection has escaped observa- tronomy benefits from aboriginal and early postcon- tion: studying a pair of cycles in the Dresden Codex, quest texts and iconography and from the survival they note that these cycles may represent a Maya in many areas of oral traditions, astra cults, and astronomer's attempt to tie the synodic periods of calendric rituals (Spinden 1940, Taylor 1946, Zerries Mercury, Venus, and Mars-taken as 117, 585, and 1952, Stirling 1945). Fray Diego DurAn's (Horcasitas 780 days respectively-with the sacred calendar of and Heyden translation, 1971) remarkable account 260 days (9 x 260 = 2,340 = 20 x 117 = 4 x of the gods, rites, and ancient calendar provides data 585 = 3 x 780). The Maya calendar round, a 52-year to compare with surviving rituals. The Popul Vuh cycle, does not match the 56 holes of the Aubrey (Goetz and Morley translation, 1950) is a poetic Circle or the astronomically unaccepted 56-year statement of precontact beliefs that show surprising eclipse cycle, but Maya astronomers had developed similarities to Biblical cosmology. The close correla- their own method of predicting solar eclipses (cf. tion of pre-Columbian dance and ritual with astra-set Harber 1969). They may have used more easily dates is shown by Kurath and Marti (1960), as is observed regularities such as the phases of Venus, the resemblance to Asian rituals, considered coinci- as described in the Dresden Codex for a period of dental by the authors. The Maya codices have a heavy almost 104 years. Smiley (1971) gives names with astronomical content. Archaeoastronomers and eth- built-in mnemonic devices to Maya eclipse cycles: noastronomers can all too well understand the wail "Thix" (36 x 260 = 9,360 days) and "Fox" (46 x of horror that went up from Maya astronomer-priests 260 = 11,960 days). At the archaeoastronomy seminar when in July of 1562 some 27 codices and about in Norman, Oklahoma, in 197 1, discussion revealed 5,000 stelae were destroyed at the direction of Bishop that Smiley's (1960) correlation differs from Kelley's Diego de Landa. If, as De Landa feared, the Devil in that Kelley sees a spring equinox as the Zero Day. had inspired these writings, he had thoughtfully Smiley and Robinson (1969) set Zero Day at July employed his time as Morning Star and has subse- 23, 3392 B.c., and suggest that the constellations quently shown a commendable scholarly productivity: indicate that this date was chosen because Procyon over 3,000 articles which touch on Mexican astronomy was precisely on the celestial equator, rising and have been written during this century (Noriega, setting in two exactly opposite directions, with Antares personal communication, 31 xrr 70). (See, e.g., Bow- and the Pleiades near. Makemson's correlation, ditch 1901; Bunge 1970; Burland 1950, 1954, 1964, however, sets Zero Day at March 10,3374 B.C. (Nancy 1970; Caso 1947, 1950, 1958; Henseling 1938; Kelley Owen, personal communication, 12 IV 72). From an 1954-71; Spinden 1940; Weitzel 1948, 1950.) The examination of 57 dates of astronomical significance, many writings of Noriega (1954, 1956, 1958) are Smiley uses his correlation of Maya and Christian significant: in particular, his studies of eclipses of calendars to locate the Dresden Codex as covering the sun as registered in the astronomical monuments the interval 103 B.C. to A.D. 812, the Paris Codex of Mexico, hE work on calendars, and his suggested A.D. 551-638, and the Madrid Codex A.D. 662-714, interpretation of various astronomical glyphs should with one date A.D. 1250. Smiley's (1968a) studies of repay study. In a long series of publications since stationary conjunctions and near-conjunctions and 1933, Schulz (1933-68; Cook de Leonard and Schulz (1968 b) of "serpent dates" invite cross-cultural com- 1947) has examined various aspects of Maya chronol- parisons. Smiley (19656) has also studied orientations ogy, including the solar year, the recording of eclipses by sextant and sun. In addition (Smiley, personal of the sun and moon, the various correlations between communication, 8 v 71), he and students have mea- the Maya and the Christian calendars, and other sured true azimuth at some 16 important Mesoameri- problems in the understanding of Maya astronomy. can sites, uncovering significant indications of a slowly Schulz (1964) sums up the precise work of Maya changing reference direction, almost certainly astro- students of the moon's movements, of solar and lunar nomical, in a study which also indicates Maya units eclipses, and of the creation of the Long Count. of length. His 1971 paper suggests that "errors" The classic Maya are known to have elaborated attributed to Maya astronomers may be attributed into an astonishingly exact science certain calendric to the failure of modern students to study the skies principles shared with other Mesoamerican people and the known stellar events for the time under Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 413 consideration. Anderson (197 1) shows that the Maya and agricultural practice. He deduces that the Incas numerical system, which, like the Babylonian, com- knew the function of the zodiac and used solstice bines properties of place-value and non-place-value, determinations in the construction of the solar calen- resembles the calendric notation system. AndrCe (n.d.) dar, but connected many rituals with lunar phases. indicates the importance of the Pleiades with refer- Rauh (197 I), tentatively reconstructing the Peruvian ence to Mesoamerican agriculture and New Year's calendar system, sees Venus as the only planet at festivities. Proskouriakoff (1952) suggests the survival present known by a native word, which he infers into the Colonial period of a Maya counting system. to indicate that the Venus cult had a significant place American iconography, whether calendric or oth- in the Peruvian cosmology. He suggests a two-year erwise, appears to have been strongly tied to astro- calendar period as important on the basis of frequent nomical themes (cf. Hagar 1906-3 1, Kelley 1960-7 1, references and as allowing an even division by lunar Moran and Kelley 1969). Johnson (197 1) has identi- months. The data on calendars is well indexed and fied small cruciform obiects found associated with in general will not be reviewed here, but it may be burials as stellar symbols inlaid in a special type of noted that Graebner (1921) and many later scholars atlatl, the xonicuilli, associated with the wind god have seen resemblances between the New World Quetzalcoatl, a legendary culture-bearer: Sahagun aboriginal" calendars and those of the Old World. and others identify the xonicuilli as symbolizing stars Mesoamerican referents have been found for astra- or a constellation. Reko (1936:16), on the basis of determined rituals in aboriginal North America, and a passage of the Chumayel text, indicates that precious diffusion from Mexico into the Southwest is recog- stones were meta~horicalre~resentations of the astra nized (Schroeder 1965, 1966). Wissler and Spinden's and that the images of the deities themselves symbol- (1916) and Weltfish's (1965) studies of the Pawnee ized the stars, presumably including the planets. (This Morning Star girl-sacrifice point out parallels with interpretation compares interestingly with the infor- data in codices indicating an Aztec origin. Kurath mation given by the Finnish team that the planets and Marti (1964:212) describe a bow-and-arrow fer- were deities in the Indus religion.) Ferguson (1962) tility dance also common to the two cultures. The describes five calendar seals he has found at Chia~a Pawnee ethnography by Weltfish is a model in that de Corzo (Chiapas, Mexico) with radiocarbon dates it is sufficiently detailed to permit comparison with ranging from approximately 1050 B.C. to A.D. 400: both Mesoamerican and Eurasian rituals, which show he submitted an im~ressionof one of the seals to strikingly similar features. Buckstaff (1927) indicates Albright and quotes' him as noting a resemblance Pawnee interest in single stars and constellations. to Egyptian hieroglyphics. Von Winning (1959) dis- Tooker's (1970) study of the Iroquois winter-solstice cusses the astronomical symbolism on a carved human festival indicates this ritual's former dating by the femur rattle, the function of which was to provide appearance of the Pleiades in the zenith at dusk of musical accompaniment in Aztec funeral ceremonies the new moon, which the researcher finds comparable for warriors; his analysis emphasizes the use of an to an Aztec ritual, the new-fire kindling at a winter- eye as a solar symbol (i.e., light) and cites iconography solstice ritual also timed by the Pleiades in the zenith connected with blood sacrifices to the sun. (Prescott 1843: 125-27; AndrCe n.d.). The Iroquois In a computerized study of signal importance for Green Corn ceremonial was apparently a summer-sol- archaeoastronomy, Owen (1972) rechecks Makem- stice event; that the collection of such data is "salvage son's (1946) correlatioil of the Mayan-Gregorian cal- ethnology" is only too obvious from its present dating endars, finding significant astronomical events indi- from a drugstore calendar. Witthoft (1946) studies cating that the Dresden Codex describes the astro- the winter-solstice ritual of the Cayuga. nomical events upon which the ritual events described A significant topic for American ethnoastronomical by De Landa were based. The emphasis on solstice research is the dating of the New Year's rituals. Nuttall and equinox events is confirmed, but Owen's data, (1888, 1906), among others, has compared Meso- like Smiley's, indicate far more complex observations. american New Year's rituals and astronomical meth- Her detailed astronomical descriptions of the Dresden ods. We have seen that North American archaeoas- Codex dates (according to Makemson) should stimu- tronomy shows unmistakable emphasis on solstice-de- late further ethnoastronomical research into interre- termining structures. As calendric rituals have been lationships between ritual, calendric, and astronom- investigated by almost every observer of Indians since ical events, not only in Mesoamerica but in adjacent Morgan, an extensive literature affords scope for areas. Her work also affords data for determining comparative ethnoastronomy studies (cf. parsons the meaning of glyphs adjacent to those already 1939a,b). Benchley (1970) studies Mississippian ca- known (cf. Cline 1970; Evreinov, Kosarev, and Ustin- lendrics, a topic of special interest in view of Meso- ov 196 1; Hochleitner 1970a,b). She indicates the american correspondences. She suggests a method significant observations with regard to the Pleiades; for studying the early astronomical calendars used in citing De Gallatay (1959) as stating that a culmination mound-building areas. As yet such studies are rare, of stars in the Pleiades at midnight was an occasion and those under way are for the most part unpub- for a service of great solemnity among Peruvians, lished; aside from these, insufficient attention has she gives data making it possible to check this event been paid to the measurement of the structures which with ethnographic descriptions of Mesoamerican rit- would have been essential to the determination of uals. solstices and equinoxes and thus necessary in the Zuidema (1966) discusses the importance of the setting up of calendric rituals and the determination Inca calendar for social organization, ceremonial life, of the dates for agricultural events. Father DurPn

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY has indicated that these were of extreme importance Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY in aboriginal agriculture. tional astronomv and of structural orientations may have come to ~ritainwith the megalithic undertakers. INTERPRETATION AND IMPLICATIONS It is of course highly significant that Thom finds not only the same egg-shaped designs in Brittany, The overall implication of studies reviewed here is but also the same megalithic yard; he feels that the that astronomical knowledge formed an important unit must have been &ansported in rods issued by aspect of culture processes from the Paleolithic on- a controlling center (Thom, personal communication, ward. Marshack's microanalyses suggest that Europe- 5 XI 71). For Britain, Thom and MacKie (1969:8) an Paleolithic men kept daily records of lunar phases, postulate a time-span of some 2,000 peaceful years, relating the astronomical to the seasonal phenomena coinciding perhaps with a drier climatic phase afford- and fitting observations into a complex symbolic ing clearer skies (and, incidentally better maritime system, subtle and varied, which was expressed in travel conditions), between the arrival of the Neolithic cave paintings and in mobiliary art. Cave paintings farmers and that of the Beaker people. Such a span also suggest the presence of dance-drama rituals with of time would allow for an immense range of trial- musical accompaniment. As recognition of lunar and-error stake-setting observations on the part of phases would inevitably have drawn attention to the an astronomical 6lite in search of techniques affording shift of moonrise and moonset along., the horizon, dependable eclipse warnings. Scottish observatories, and as animal migrations and plant growth were according to Thom (197 I), were capable of furnishing associated with seasonal changes initiated by solstices just the precise information needed for exact predic- and equinoxes (the shift of sunrise along the horizon tion. To a later Clite less dependent on oracular being equally obvious, though taking much longer), prestige than on bronze weapons, such skills may the recording of lunar phases implies the possibility have appeared irrelevant if not positively suspect, that the solstices were associated with ritual obser- and, as both Hoyle and MacKie suggest, Stonehenge vances far earlier than we may have thought. What- 111 mav well have been more im~ressivefor dramatic ever is true of Paleolithic burials, Mesolithic burials decor than for astronomical exactitude. (Palynological appear to have been associated with solar positions. evidence cited by Frenzel [1966:99] suggests that When the pictures of the animal (or deity) forms the early megalithic observers might, as Thom sug- were first projected on the starry heavens (i.e., the gests, have had better observational conditions than first constellations marked out) is problematical. If the later ones; the findings indicate a cold spell ca. the bull and stag cult scenes from Chatal Huyuk 3400-3000 B.c., with a deterioration of climate [wetter involve astronomical symbolism, as is suggested by and colder growing seasons] after ca. 1500 B.C.[dates the association of such scenes with unmistakable uncorrected by the bristlecone pine calibration] .) solar-stellar symbolism in later iconography, then the Archaeoastronomical studies indicate that well be- deities in their theriomorphic forms may have had fore the final phases of Stonehenge reconstruction heavenly counterparts as early as the 8th millennium, the cognitive abilities of British and Breton engineer- and there is little question of it by the time of the astronomers enabled them to measure with increasing star-surrounded bulls of Tell Halaf painted pottery. precision complex lunar movements, including minor By the 4th and 3d millennia, the association of a perturbations: the suggestion that these were used specific bull and stag cult with solar-stellar symbolism to refine eclipse prediction methods implies impres- is present in art in Western Asia, in North Italy, along sive ritual observance, further suggested by French both sides of the Mediterranean, and in Iberia, in megalithic folklore. Significantly, it is Atkinson contexts which imply not only the recognition of a (1968a:78) who most seriously considers the far- link between the solar events and the New Year but reaching implications of megalithic astronomy and also the possession of a solar zodiac, perhaps in a of the backdating which will be necessary if the primitive stage in the earliest representations, but bristlecone pine chronology is established: present as the zodiac we know by the 3d millennium in Sumer. If we accept the evidence here presented by Professor Thom The impact of Thom's work with regard to the (in such detail that the reader can check all stages of the technical attainments of the British and Continental argument), and if we concur in even a part of his conclusions Neolithic astronomer-engineers, combined with Ren- (which are drawn with the most scrupulous regard for frew's suggested dating revision, has been to make the legitimate limits of inference), we must alter radically it clear that in this early period Britain was in truth our current view of the intellectual calibre of man in Britain in the late third and second millennium B.C. Indeed, we that "nest of calculating geniuses" originally called must consider the revision of a whole chapter in the accepted into question by Hawkes (1967). Atkinson's (1968b, history of science, in which primacy in the development 1969, 1970) excavations at Silbury Hill show it to of geometry, mensuration, observational astronomy and have been a flat-topped stepped pyramid during the calendar has been ascribed hitherto to the literate construction in Neolithic times: the flat top, again, civilizations of the Ancient East. suggests the possibility of an observation station or perhaps of a site for bonfires to signal calendar events. And again (Atkinson 197 1: 117): "Those who cannot While in general it has been considered that these follow Thom's argument here will, if they are honest, skills were "made in Britain," the high dates for the surrender on grounds of ignorance; if they are not, Breton tombs suggest that the elements of observa- they will retreat to a position of equivocal nescience." Vol. 14 . No. 4 October 1973 Scholars are notoriously combative in defense of their of Africa and in the Pontic steppes. The hints of own views and no more inclined to surrender or ancient prime meridians in Africa and in Iran suggest retreat than is the population at large; it cannot be forgotten coordinate systems the knowledge of which said, however, that they are unable to read the writing disappeared with the Clite which established them. on the wall, and the implications of what the moving Evidence from Ptolemy (Peters and Knobel 1915) finger is inscribing in a fair sample of the world's to Baschmakoff (1937, 1948) suggests that mariners areas are becoming increasingly clear: namely, that could have profited from a wider geographical the possibility of astronomical alignments must be knowledge than we have assumed. The evidence of considered in connection with seasonal cults, burials, early calendars and folkloric survivals has yet to be and structures. synthesized, but the studies listed here suggest close Archaeoastronomy implies an unexpectedly high correspondences over wide areas. Studies of the level of Neolithic astronomy-the discovery of objec- zodiac imply that a precise place of origin and a tive astra phenomena, the orientation of sacred struc- relatively precise dating may soon be determined: tures with reference to complex astronomical targets, the suggestive coordinates of latitude and longitude and the analysis of the moon's precise movements- leave a wider choice than Ovenden's Mediterranean and this knowledge is confirmed by early astronomical island; to me Minoan iconography does not suggest texts and by astra iconography on painted ceramics, the preoccupation with the astra that is visible in walls, and rock surfaces. The presence of similar several other areas. motifs in areas where writing, if it existed, was on In general, the evidence appears to indicate that perishable materials implies the possible inheritance astronomical lore, astra and deity symbolism, and of techniques and information from prehistoric cul- seasonal rituals set by astra events and considered tures. The early presence of lunar notations, consid- essential to successful agriculture and stockbreeding ered in connection with the iconography indicating were part of the Neolithic mixed-farming tool-kit the recognition not only of equinoxes and solstices traveling along with seeds and stocks, with an origin but also of their relationships with the rising and perhaps as early as the 9th millennium. To me, the setting of various star groups, indicates that a complex extremely widespread distribution of remarkably educational system of an intellectual Clite must have similar summer-solstice rites, including not only bon- been established earlier than previous conceptions fires and other fire ceremonies but a ritual mating of the Neolithic have held. It is harder to recognize- and human sacrifice (vestiges of which are implied the geographical extent of these common techniques both in European and Berber summer-solstice cus- and subjective constructs: the presence of similar units toms), implies a far earlier origin. It is premature of measurement and similar orientations and con- to attempt to attach the observation of solstices and structions implies the possible existence of similar equinoxes and of specific constellations and stars to cosmologies and ritual cycles. The subjective con- the early Neolithic expansion, yet certain widespread structions, including zodiacs and lunar houses with similarities with regard to the circumpolar constella- sequences of similar sacred animal and deity figures, tions and to the use of the Pleiades as season indicators certainly as old as Elam and Sumer, but apparently imply this possibility. However, the highly specific known also in China and in the Indus culture (from rituals attached to a spring equinox and a zodiac, which area the concepts appear to have spread at especially appropriate to agricultural activities, may a later date to Mesoamerica), imply somewhat more be associated with the zodiacal constellations which than trade operating from one area to the next had a heliacal rising in the early Bronze Age. Thus bv barter methods. These corres~ondencesare both subsequent research may indicate the interplay of too singular and too massive to be explained away two patterns for the New Year, one tied to the solstices as coincidence, psychology, or parallel develop- and another to the spring equinox. Though the ment, although, in this preliminary synthesizing hypothesis cannot be documented at present, the study, there is no space to document them fully. The great emphasis on the summer-solstice rituals in areas suggested correspondences between the megalithic where the megalithic cultures were evident does imply yard, the Egyptian remen, the Spanish vara, and other a possible connection, and this tradition may well units of measurement again cannot be dismissed be older than the food-producing revolution. without further investigation (Thom 1967; cf. MacKie The much more limited and spotty distribution 1968:283; see also Fletcher 1968a,b,c, 1969; Ivimry of highly specific, even singular, rituals such as that 1969). of the fire bull (evident in rock art and ceramics The singularly appropriate sites of Stonehenge, from India to Iberia, with evidence suggesting an Callanish, Er Grah, and many other suggested mega- Ethiopian center) and the possible linking of this ritual lithic observatories imply a degree of sophisticated with the heliacal rising of Taurus to mark the spring geographical knowledge, and it has been noted that equinox imply a far later origin within a specific the mathematical and engineering skills of megalithic culture, probably one with overseas colonies interest- designers could in time have led to a realization of ed in procuring some specific product (perhaps tin).23 the spherical shape of the earth (whether or not they did). The nautical astronomy reported for early sailors '3The suggestion that economic motivations implemented the of the Black Sea. the Indian Ocean. and the Mediter- distribution of zodiacal symbolism and fire rituals associated with ranean and the size indicated for megalithic-age ships New Year's renewal festivities is supported by Dayton's (1971) study of the occurrence of tin ores and of natural bronzes in are again suggestive, as is the archeologically attested the ancient world and his note that the techniques of controlled evidence of Bronze Age traders on the Atlantic Coast kiln firing served equally in the production of certain ceramics.

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY I have proposed that both Indus and Iberian traders Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY may have been involved in a trans-African trade which skirted the Arabian peninsula; and Lamberg- tion, with a far wider trading sphere than has been Karlovsky (1967:149) locates tin in Trucial Oman, realized, and perhaps unplanned landings on even well within the Indus colonial sphere (Bibby 1966, more distant shores. Indus early sailing has been little 1969). The bull rituals are strongly evident in early studied, but the evidence implies that Indus (or Dravidian literature but are equally evident in Iberian intermediary) sailors could have carried astronomical customs, the humped bull appearing in rock art along knowledge and rituals widely. The Finnish team's the continuum. Whether this implies Indus colonies decoding of Indus documents indicates early Indus- in Africa and perhaps in Iberia or Iberian traders Chinese contacts which must have been well prior extending their activities to East Africa and perhaps to the destruction of the Indus home port towns. beyond (or more likely both) is not at present clear, While Moran and Kelley suggest later contacts in but it is hard to imagine that a toro de fuego ritual tracing similarities between Indian, Chinese, and would have had two centers of origin. This ritual Mesoamerican lunar mansions. and East African similarities to Indian arts and crafts have been attrib- is also unauestionablv, &~racticed at the summer sol- stice, as it is even now among the Basques in a symbolic uted to Indonesian settlers, the recent discoveries form; whether this is by association with earlier in Arabia should indicate caution in the denial of summer-solstice fire rituals or not is unclear, though earlier contacts. The Phoenicians, who may have further studies in depth of specific iconograms and inherited far older astronomical and navigational astra rituals may clarify this. skills, are known to have closely guarded their trade Lamberg-Karlovsky (1970:80), in his analysis of the routes and their "factories" (as they called the colonial corpus of Tepe Yahya material indicating a 3d- settlements); their rounding of the Cape of Africa millennium literate culture in an area identified with is historically attested. Evidence increasingly suggests Magan, discovers no direct Indus or Mesopotamian that many pre-Columbian voyagers arrived on Amer- material but does note identical design" motifs on ican shores, some of them accidentally, others by steatite bowls which may have been gifts serving to intent (Ashe 1971, De Santillana and Von Dechend oil the wheels of trade, on the "kula ring" principle. 1969, Ekholm et al. 1970, Gordon 1971, Meggers, The Tepe Yahya finds support the concept that each Evans, and Estrada 1965, Morison 1971, Riley et al. cultural area along the Indus-Mesopotamian trading 1971). continuum had its own local middlemen who met There is no reason to assume that long-term colo- at common ports of call on neutral territory, as nists such as those of the Old Assyrian kirurns docu- suggested by Polanyi (1963:30-45). The Danish team's mented by Ozguc would have given up their astra-set discovery of large Indus trading communities at New Year's rituals even though they married local Bahrein and in Saudi Arabia indicates one area, girls coming from cultures with different rituals, and however, where Indus settlers and Mesopotamian in view of this undeniably close cultural contact the traders met (Bibby 1966, 1969). possible survival of rituals with a foreign origin even Thus the evidence of specific astronomical or astra- after the disappearance of the colonies may be im- set rituals suggests that such activities accompanied plied by the evidence of folkloric survivals. Though early Bronze Age ore prospectors and traders to ports little material evidence mav remain to Drove this, of call and to trading colonies which have not yet various other types of evidence do imply such a been discovered, perhaps because they are located possibility. Long before the Danish team found Indus on offshore islands subject to flood damage and in colonies in the Persian Gulf, the sea trade between regions where desert conditions (and political condi- the Indus and Mesopotamia was postulated on textual tions as well) have made their recovery difficult or and iconographic evidence (Kramer 1963, 1963:64; impossible. Further, Ozgu~(1963) has shown that Leemans 1965). Archaeological findings indicated such colonists left few traces except baked clay tablets, Harappan outposts and sophisticated Indus port as they depended on the local market both for facilities (Dales 1965, Rao 1965). An Indus-Mesopota- furnishings and for wives: records left on perishable mia overland trading continuum operating by means materials would have left no trace. Inferential evi- of long-established colonies was suggested on the dence suggests that Indus, Iranian, Old Assyrian, grounds of stylistic elements in painted cult ceramics and Phoenician traders used astronomy for naviga- by Starr (1941) and on the evidence of the influence of Indus art in the West by Mode (1944), as well as by Sir Aurel Stein's widely scattered ceramic find- His study indicates Bohemia and probably Iberia as centers in ings in Iran, three decades before the Harvard team's which the use of natural bronze (stannite) preceded its commercial production. I suggest that the distribution of early tin workings (Lamberg-Karlovsky 1970) discovery of the trading in Western Europe and perhaps even in Africa may parallel that center in southeastern Iran. In general, southern of some of the bull and fire rituals attached to astra occasions. Iran. a mound-dotted area. aDDears on the basis of Bronze torques appear to have figured in the trade. Iberia flowed, , .A Strabo tells us, with electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. traditional and early Arabic evidence to be a likely The collapse of ancient trading with the destruction of Troy I1 area to investigate in search of a protohistoric astro- and the disappearance of the Minoan culture did not put a stop to ore production and use in areas not affected by tectonic disasters nomical center (Moghadam seminar, University of followed by social upheaval. Although the economic interests may Tehran, 1964-65). Such a possibility might be implied have backed the travels of traders and astrologers, we have seen by the finding of astra iconography similar to that evidence that the astronomical tlite were no less interested in the cosmic spectacles they observed than are contemporary astron- of other sites along the area of the continuum sug- omers, who do not have strong economic motives for their studies. gested by Starr. Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 INDICATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES Atkinson and MacKie).,, and Muller's review of similar megalithic structures on the European continent. The interdisciplinary study of archaeoastronomy, Thom's establishment of criteria and methods for supplemented with the insights which a broader archaeoastronomical fieldwork and the archaeolo~ical- ethnoastronomy can provide, affords the: possibility tests of his hypotheses are of major importance. of a new dimension for archaeology-upward-while Astronomical evidence can only be discovered by ethnoastronomy, looking within ideological struc- those with a precise idea of what they are looking tures, must apply the ancient cultic concept, "As for, which assumes a detailed knowledge of astra above, so below." Although the archaeoastronomical events for the area and era under study as well as evidence will not be present at all sites to the same the formulation and testing of hypotheses involving degree, it is important that we not be blinded to geometrical designs and astronomical function. what is there by the models we have held: Martin The essential textbooks for archaeoastronomical (1971:4) has aptly demonstrated such a possibility fieldwork are thus already in existence: the step from with the example that prior to the time of Copernicus, megalithic astronomy to a statistically adequate and Western astronomers, thinking in terms of the Ptole- methodologically sound analysis of the orientations maic model, regarded the heavens as immutable, and functions of stones, pyramids, and other sacred whereas the Chinese, uninhibited by such a dogma, structures in various areas is not a difficult one. were recording the appearance of novae, comets, and Students elsewhere can benefit from Thom's precise sunspots. New working hypotheses based on the site-analysis methodology, from his and Newham's evidence indicating the importance of astronomy and emphasis on the significance of postholes for tempo- astrology in early cultures, particularly in those areas rary stake and pole sightings, and from his emphasis where the religion was predominantly astral, will make on the study of site plans with respect to distant it possible for us to examine sites, documents, and markers (notably mountain slopes and gaps, but also, rituals in a new and meaningful perspective. As this Mesoamerican evidence suggests, pyramids). The use synthesizing review indicates, many possible working of a computer is not necessary with respect to sun formulations are being and must increasingly be and moon alignments: Newham (personal com- developed. Prehistoric and protohistoric communities munication. 1 VII 71) estimates that it took him less in which astronomical subsystems were significantly than four hours in 1962 to establish sun and moon present may be identified by research testing such alignments at Stonehenge. Where alignments with formulations as the following: (1) that nondomestic target stars must be determined, however, the use structures in general and those suitable for astronom- of a small computer can be timesaving (cf. Gingerich ical observations or used for cult purposes in particu- 1967; Hawkins 1966, 1968; Reyman and Sanders lar will be oriented (door, window, and gate openings, 1972). What is essential is accurate site data, a list structure profiles, outliers and postholes, arrange- of basic alignments for the area and probable era ments of buildings, city plans, and wider constructs) of the site, standard graphs such as Thom has worked with regard to the major observable astra events of out for elevation, refraction, etc., and a meticulous the site and probable era (the rising and setting of eye for postholes and depressions which may indicate the astra, including zodiacal constellations, at the the former presence of posts or outliers. Wittry solstices, equinoxes, and possibly at intermediate (1970a:17) sums the variables up as (1) the latitude positions reconciling lunar and solar calendars); (2) of the observer, (2) the inclination of the ecliptic, that stylistic categories will include astra iconography (3) refraction, and (4) the relationship of the point in wall, rock, and mobiliary arts symbolizing these of observation to the horizon. major astra events (including annular and total Anderson and Fletcher (1968) offer a shortcut to eclipses, mountain ranges with brackets or other in- the analysis of significant sites between latitudes 60" N dications of distant markers used for marking solstice and 60" S, plotted for solstices and equinoxes, un- extremes, representations of constellations and of doubtedly important for calendars and ritual dates, deities and animals associated with them in lunar though Thom's statistically analyzed orientations in- and solar zodiacs) and depicting ritual dramas sym- dicate midquarter dates and CharriPre indicates the bolizing them (fire bull and other solstice rituals and importance of intermediary orientations. Utmost at- astra-oriented games and bull sports); (3) that surviv- tention is due Thom's lea that reconstructions should als of such rituals or of traditions concerning them not be undertaken without a professional surveying (myths, legends, astrological cults, linguistic survivals) and the consideration of astra referents and that may be detected; and (4) that evidences of the distant markers should be noted and photographed. diffusion or trading activities of agricultural, stock- Above all, the possibility of astronomical corre- breeding, and ore-processing groups practicing the spondences over much wider areas than individual astronomical rituals may be traced through the analy- sites must be explored, following a more intensive sis of both archaeoastronomical and ethnoastronomi- statistical analysis of temple, pyramid, and sacred-city cal findings. orientations in all areas. Statistical methods need The development of a new scientific subdiscipline attention, and again here Thom's work provides normally demands the subsequent working out of models. an appropriate methodology and of suitable text- New studies in methodology are in process. The books. Archaeoastronomy, though in its infancy, is Smithsonian's computer program, followed by Haw- a remarkably precocious infant, due largely to Thom's kins, which uses a 100-year interval and interpolates work, its appraisal by British archaeologists (notably the values in between, differs from that being devel-

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY oped by Frank C. Sanders, Jr. and Jonathan Reyman Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY (personal communication, 21 x 71) chiefly in that the latter works in smaller increments of time and monuments for impressive rituals is supported by is more easily adapted to small machines. In a forth- the evidence of archaeoastronomy: Stonehenge and coming publication, Reyman and Sanders (1972) will Carnac would have afforded a particularly dramatic give a step-by-step discussion of the collecting and setting for such rituals, but tombs and less spectacular organizing of the archaeoastronomical data. The structures would also have served. Students may essential data from astronomers is increasinglv-, avail- begin, on the basis of local archaeological findings, able. Interdisciplinary involvement probably will with studies in depth aimed at the reconstruction, always be essential, but archaeologists are in need in broad outline, of the ritual calendar of the mega- of s~ecializedshort-term courses in archaeoastron- lith-builders. The structuring principle to which I omy taught by an interdisciplinary staff using demon- refer is that of Thom's suggested megalithic calendar. strations such as are possible at a planetarium (cf. Though archaeologists have not altogether accepted Weber 1961). The importance of site photography it and archaeological proof is of course requisite, at solstice and equinox (and perhaps intermediate Thom's calendar appears to me to offer ethnoastron- points) is demonstrated by the spectacular pho- omers a working hypothesis. In the development of tographs of the sun rising behind the Heel Stone this hypothesis they will have to call upon the skills at midsummer at Stonehenge (Hawkins and White of folklorists (dance, drama, music),24 linguists, and 1965). Reyman's (1971~)photograph of the midsum- rock and ceramic art specialists; for Britain, James mer rising sun halved by the corner of a pueblo (1961:272-319) and Alford (1952) will be of great structure is hardly less striking; his photographs also assistance. demonstrate that sticks placed in certain holes in the Thom (1966~)postulates, on the basis of a statisti- walls define the length of summer-solstice shadows cally significant number of alignments, a 16-month (an ancient method). calendar determined by the solstices, equinoxes, and It is obvious that a first step in archaeoastronomy midquarter points. His evidence is based on a study is the further testing of Thom's methods and hypoth- of the bearings marked out at megalithic sites. On eses in other megalithic areas, notably the Iberian the hypothesis that each azimuth suggested by orien- peninsula, Scandinavia, and the Black Sea region. tations probably specified the rising or setting point I have noted that Basque and Caucasian folkloric of some celestial object at some particular time, he and linguistic survivals show a strong resemblance, converted azimuths into declinations (angular dis- but to my knowledge archaeological findings have tances north and south of the celestial equator): not been compared in the two areas: an immense finding that some 60 of the declinations thus obtained amount of Soviet archaeological documentation grouped themselves about seven declinations, he awaits synthesis with regard to orientations and to restudied these seven on the supposition that each astra iconography. Folklore in all megalithic areas, represented the solar declination at two separate days certainly including the Caucasus region, should be of the year, or 16 days during the year. He then tested for traditions resembling those of Western compared these with the days in the year 1800 B.C. Asian astronomical cults. Near Eastern astronomy has when the sun had these declination^.^^ The matched the practical virtue of being so much better known pairings of these 16 days fit a regular pattern of to us than prehistoric ~uro~eanand American as- solstices, equinoxes, and midquarter days, spaced at tronomy that it should serve usefully as a probing tool. Though archaeoastronomy, studying the material 24Though the connection between folk music and astronomy may not be immediately apparent, its potential value to ethnoas- evidence of astronomical knowledge and cults, can tronomy is indicated by the astronomical meanings of dervish move ahead on the basis of methods, criteria, data, dances (recognized by Turkish scholars), the cosmological meanings and hypotheses already apparent in megalithic as- of some of the classical Indian chants, and the appearance of similar musical instruments (including the bagpipe) in Eurasian tronomy, ethnoastronomy has as yet no well formu- areas where the astra-set fire and bull fiestas survive. Struck by lated criteria and no comparable solid data to afford the similarities noted in the field, I referred these to Alan Lomax (personal communication, 25 XI 68), who confirmed the resem- hypotheses for testing. Clearly ethnoastronomers blance of the Andalusian modal profile to that of Asia: he notes must also know the objective astronomical facts of that the closest similarity is to Central Asia, especially to the the area and era, must understand subjective con- Turkmen profile. The ercentage of similarity to other cultures is high in areas where eitger iconography or ritual survivals indicate structs that have been built on such astra events, intensified fire rituals: Turkmen 85%, Sicily and Turkey 76%, must structure and test hypotheses soundly based Amhara, Ruanda, and Kerala 72% each. He classifies the basic on systematically observed evidence which, when song style of Andalusia as part of a very ancient Old High Culture style area that includes the Mediterranean, Middle and Near East, enough- of it has been assembled. also falls into and India, and notes that certain of the song types, such as the patterns; but where the reconstruction of ritual cycles threshing cries, are virtually identical in Egypt, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Majorca, Spain, and Morocco (a finding of interest in and religious systems, rather than physical structures, connection with megalithic cultures). Although he describes these is the task, the chance of wrong reconstructions is as remounting to a very ancient agricultural civilization, I note of course far greater and proof harder to obtain. the similarities of distribution to that of cattlekeepers' iconography and ritual patterns, a suggestion supported by early Tamil textual Here again, however, the problem of how and where records of bull sports (cf. Crooke 1917, Lomax 1968). to begin has an obvious answer. "It can hardly be attributed to coincidence that the dates With regard to European ethnoastronomy, mega- obtained are those of the traditional European calendar rituals: Christmas, Candlemas, the spring equinox, May Day, Midsummer, lithic astronomy also affords a structuring principle. Lammas, the autumnal equinox, Martinmas, and so back to the Piggott's (1956) study of the suitability of megalithic winter solstice. That the early Church, doubtless on the principle

Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 regular intervals of 23 days (with one 24-day period). ropean, and the American culture, would be useful It is evident that such a calendar has gone far beyond in view of suggestions that Mesoamerican structures the unsatisfactory lunar calendar which so plagued were oriented- to the Pleiades. Earlv Greco-Asian the priests of certain cultures. It is also evident that sky-charts indicate that the Pleiades ;ere once con- when the astronomical Clite disappeared which had ceived as flaming on (or between?) the horns of the kept the calendar geared to the sidereal year, rituals Bull, but Mesoamericans associated these stars with would continue to match the obiective astra events different symbols. Hamilton (1902, 1904) identified only where practical methods survived of determining the Pleiades with the conceDt of "the isle of the Blest": the solstice points. this constellation, accordiig to both Heras and Par- Following the calibration of Western Euro~ean pola, was known to Indus mariners, and as its heliacal ritual cycleswith the ritual calendar which megaiithic rising announced the spring equinox with precision astronomy predictably will soon make available as for a millennium around 3500-2500 B.C. (roughly a working hypothesis, it may be possible to relate serving for an even longer period) a comparative the indicated dates to folklore and surviving rituals study of iconography and traditions connected with and to confused astronomical myths and legends it appears useful. (Olcott 1936; Graves 1948, 1957; Erixon 1939). Al- Hopkins' (1965) interpretation of scenes on Phoe- ford's studies of British and Iberian folk dances nician bowls from the Bernardini tomb in Praeneste suggest a strong correlation between Morris dances (7th century B.c.) as the recording of a total eclipse and solstice festivals. sword dances and ancient mining" of the sun raises the question of Phoenician interest sites, and the presence of an ancient mountain in celestial phenomena, a topic insufficiently studied goddess, often a "black Virgin" (cf. Alford and Gallup here and elsewhere: Spoer (1938) also similarly ana- 1935; Alford 1937, 1962). These dance and drama lyzes an astrological bowl, indicating a continuing cycles ~arallelthe fire, bull. and solstice fiestas to tradition. In view of the im~ortanceof Indian Ocean a' considerable extent, 'and the hypothesis appears sailing to early maritime trading cultures and of the worth further testing that they date back to a pre-Cel- widespread early Bronze Age trade, studies of early tic ~o~ulation.Alford observed strong resemblances nautical astronomy might be structured with regard bethekn the dance forms of 1beri; and Central to areas significant to Indus traders for products of Europe well before the recognition of the early date high value, low bulk, and special interest to the early of the Central European Bronze Age, which Dayton riverine high cultures: i.e., tin, precious metals, jewels, (197 1:6 1) places prior to the appearance of tin bronzes pearls, spices, and incense. To me coincidence cannot in Eastern Asia (aside from the Royal Tombs of Ur). explain the presence in areas where such treasure Dayton documents the presence here, as in Cornwall items are found of names evidently already old when and Spain, of stannite and mixed ores of tin and Ptolemy mapped them and to my thinking signifi- copper and disproves the alleged presence of tin in cantly resembling those of the "Asuras" of Vedic fame the Caucasus. as "Lmastersof the sea" and great astronomers (cf. A major topic for study is that of the possible Shafer 1954). I note also the association of these existence of a sophisticated early geographical knowl- names with oil-bearing areas, which is perhaps un- edge; that this is as early as Hapgood (1966) suggests derstandable in view of the use of natural asphalt is auestioned. but the s~ecificand uniaue location in the torches attached to the horns of fire bulls of several significant megalithic monuments, includ- and also for caulking sewn boats of the type identified ing Stonehenge, may imply something more than with Indus and other early mariners. Though I have trial-and-error placement: Charrikre (1964: 161) sug- stressed the significance of Taurus and the Pleiades, gests that Brittany may have been a region of high equal interest is attached to other constellations known religious values because here the moon's rising and from Elamite and Sumerian iconography and asso- setting at its extreme positions corresponded to the ciated with the solstices (cf. Hartner 1965:12-15). directional points of the "rose of the winds." Monod In short, a structuring principle for further ethnoas- (1963:421) suggests independent development for tronomy studies is that of comparing subjective con- this construct among Chinese and Arab mariners: structs such as the constellation svmbols described com~arisonsof ~sianand Mesoamerican designs" by astronomers of early cultures with the natural whici suggest derivatives from such a construct have time-marking astra events of the tropical year. It not (to my knowledge) been made (cf., however, Mertz cannot be too much emphasized that the objective 1969a). Monod's study documents the wide range astra facts were roughly the same for the astronomers of early Indian, Arab, and Chinese traders, notes of cultures existing at approximately the same time the early use of the Magellan Clouds as a navigation- and latitude. and that similar observatories and ob- al aid, and cites the use of the Pleiades as season serving methods might well have been used by as- indicators among various aboriginal peoples of Africa tronomers at a comparable stage of development: and Oceania. the subjective constructs built upon this data, would, A study in depth of the Taurus and Pleiades however, be culturally determined, and the presence iconography and mythology, with a comparison of of similar astra iconography, zodiacal symbolism, and the symbols designating the group in Asian, Eu- mythology deserves careful examination. Further research is indicated in several areas which popularly expressed as "what you can't whip you had better join," are scarcely touched in this review. A comparative took over the pagan ceremonies which country people saw no reason to give up is too well-documented to need reviewing here, study of astra names could usefully recheck earlier and saintly robes scarcely disguise many a deposed astral deity. examinations of correspondences between Meso-

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY american and Western Asian names for stars, constel- Baity: ARCHAEOA~TRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY lations, and lunar houses. A Dravidian scholar might throw light on the correspondences between the place the findings in one area with those elsewhere." and ethnic names found in association with the Computer techniques along lines proposed by Gardin intensified fire, bull, and astra rituals from Iberia (1967) for iconography in general should facilitate to India (Baity 1966a), which appear to match names the creation of a systematic classification. listed by Shafer (1954) as those of the "Asuras" Astrophysics indicates that the concept of the uni- identified in the Great Rebellion against the Arvans verse as orderly and peaceful is startlingly incorrect; which he believes to have been udescribed in' the if the interest of ancient men in the heavens and Mahabharata. In view of the spectacular nature of their preoccupation with astra-determined predic- eclipses and their indicated importance in early cul- tions seems excessive. we need not deduce therebv tures, a study in depth of eclipse prediction, folklore, that they were less intelligent than ourselves-oral and iconography, considered in connection with the tradition may have given them cause for alarm (Nin- known data on the prehistoric occurrence of eclipses, kovich and Heezen 1965). Since the International would be of interest (Schwartz 1925, Van den Bergh Geophysical Year, evidence has documented wide- 1954). A comparative study of New Year's dates and spread tectonic disturbances, extensive vulcanism with rituals might either indicate the presence of common resulting tidal waves and atmospheric disturbances, constructs over wide areas or prove their independent and major climate changes within the time-span of origin (cf. Bonnerjea 1935; Noriega 1954; Guthe man's iconographic traditions (Lamb, Lewis, and 1932: Nuttall 1888). In the ancient cultures the New Woodroffe 1966). Even if recession alone has Year was a time of anxious stock-taking, and the operated, many changes in sky-patterns have oc- vast literature on judicial and client astrology might curred during the some 26,000 years that separated contribute insights (cf. Neugebauer and Van Hoesen the Paleolithic period, when Taurus rose heliacally 1959). Father Durin's references to Mesoamerican at the spring equinox, from the Bronze Age recur- astrology merit restudying. Nautical astronomy (cf. rence of this astra event which so profoundly in- Ferrand 1928, Gerrard 1928) is of interest: Arabic fluenced religion and iconography. To my thinking, terms and methods should be com~aredwith Old astronomers could be of use to archaeologists in the Persian terms, which in Iran they are said to strongly preparation of charts showing the constellations which resemble. Early map-making would make a valuable could have been associated by the astronomers of study: both the town lists and star lists of Ptolemy early cultures with significant astra events such as would serve as source materials here, as would the the solstices and the equinoxes. The chart of figure periploi, including the eight Black Sea fragments. 5 is of significance with regard to early ritual cycles New uses for the astronomical subdisciplines are in Western Asia and Europe: the importance of evident. Dating problems were restudied in a sympo- Taurus and the Pleiades as indicators of the spring sium in London, December, 1967, which also reviewed equinox (a New Year in many cultures) is clear, as eclipse chronology (cf. papers by Berger, Edwards, is the absence at the summer solstice of such well- Sachs, and Schove). Beer (1967) has ingeniously dated defined and conspicuous star-grouping. In this con- works of art by astronomical and astrological content. nection it must of course be remembered that ancient Translations, abstracts, and syntheses are urgently astronomers related their New Year's rituals to the needed of valuable materials not easily available, and solstices where these were more significant for agri- above all, of Arabic, South Asian, and Chinese early cultural rituals (Lockyer [19651 related Egyptian New sources. Much of the work needed in ethnoastronomy Year rituals to the summer-solstice rising of the Nile). is especially urgent in view of rapidly changing As the paranatellonta were also used as season indica- cultures: in particular, Laoust's (1921) extremely tors, our chart cannot be interpreted as indicating valuable study of Berber midsummer "fires of joy," that megalithic astronomers had no good constellation im~ortantboth for the rituals described and for the target for midsummer sunrise. A midwinter chart terms and names used (which are common to fire-ri- would also be of interest in megalithic areas, in view tual events from Iberia to the Indian subcontinent), indicates a field where earlier customs are vanishing 26Elwin's (1951, 1955) studies of Middle Indian tribal art bear rapidly. out Marshack's (1972a, b) argument that the Paleolithic-Mesolithic Seminars on archaeoastronomy are increasingly time-factored iconography was significant with regard to input, recall, recognition, and feedback, and that insight and reference scheduled: such sessions might" consider measures to its function and mythic meaning may be obtained from the such as the formation of an interdisciplinary commit- study of man's cognitive behavior in living situations. The Sorai tee which might devise more effective means of wall art, the creation of which involves prayer, fasting, and libations, is addressed to the deities, serving to note rites duly performed, utilizing the various skills necessarv in the subdisci- vows carried out, petitions made, and responses to dream instruc- pline, cFeate a clearinghouse for bibliographical facil- tions. Elwin elicits the meaning of various of the icons: for instance, ities and the exchange of papers, and plan projects a solar icon, far from indicating "sun worship," is a reference to the fact that the all-seeing sun deity can bear witness to the testing the theories and methods. I have elsewhere truth of the assertion symbolically made. The lizard swallowin (Baitv~, 197 1b) indicated the value of an international an orb is used as an eclipse symbol; plowing depicts season3 activities, jars on shoulders a full harvest (petitioned hopefull ); astra motif index, which requires a central clearing- houses may be designed as deity houses, with the hope that tie house for microfilms. Pohorecky (1969) has initiated gods, whom the Sorai regard as the major source of their troubles, the study of rock-art motifs in Canada, and Jones will settle there ("like flies") and leave them alone. I deduce similar purposes for the thousands of ritual scenes involving stellar-solar (1969) describes a proposed method of transcribing forms which occur along the Ibero-Saharan-Iranian-Indus con- rock art, but as yet no facilities exist for comparing tinuum, where fire, bull, and solstice rituals survive. Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 of the emphasis which falls on the winter solstice men built uDon those data. We have seen that astron- in related folklore. Finally, it must not be forgotten omers can now compute the objective astra facts for that heliacal settings and other astra events too com- any culture studied. Unfortunately, no "secular ~lexto describe here were also used bv ancient equivalent of divine revelation" can compute the astronomers. We are in need of an "archaeoastron- matching subjective constructs where no texts exist, omer's handbook" designating the astra events which but in areas of ancient literacy, notably the Middle could have been significant in early astronomical East and Mesoamerica, these are even now roughly cultures. Such a handbook would indicate the shifts known. Because of the vagaries of discovery and necessarv with regard to the reversal of seasons in preservation (including losses from the record due the southern he$sphere, which must have further to book-burning in Mesoamerica and Alexandria), confused early voyagers whose planting seasons had our knowledge of these cultural constructs is uneven, been tied to the rising of Taurus, the Pleiades, or but the literature reviewed indicates that we may hope other 3d-millennium spring-equinox indicators. soon to know more about Indus, Iranian, Arabic, The speculative nature of much of the foregoing and other early systems. Megalithic cultures remain discussion needs stressing, but the studies reviewed mute and increasingly challenging, but even here provide hypotheses that might be tested: Did the further work in archaeoastronomy and ethnoastron- Western European ritual cycle hinge on midsummer omy, allied with folkloric, linguistic, and other com- and midwinter rituals. as folkloric survivals and parative studies, may show correlations with known Thom's measurements suggest? Is a similar ritual systems. pattern implied by the similar iconography in early The literature in both subdisciplines demon- Atlantic cultures from Ireland to Scandinavia (cf. strates-to my mind quite conclusively-that Eurasian MacWhite 195 1, 1956), and did Iberian rituals travel megaliths and American sacred structures encode a with Bronze Age traders to Northwest Africa? Was remarkable astronomical knowledge which, more- the megalithic astra ritual pattern, yet to be deter- over, was common over wide areas. Notably, the mined, prior to or based on a zodiac such as the exact correspondences in orientations and metrol- well-developed zodiac which appears in Sumer? Or ogy which Thom and colleagues have found between should we look farther east. to Iran or the Indus. British and French megalithic structures leave little for the zodiac's origin! Are these constructs older doubt of the presence of some central system, operat- than Hinduism in the Indonesian archipelago! Do ing at least in Britain and France and perhaps in the constructs relate to the Bronze Age need for the Iberian peninsula, Scandinavia, and Russia. Tra- tin? To the possibility of high-value commodities in dition suggests a central observatory in southeastern certain areas? Are they apparent in Oceania? Does Iran, with possible connections as far as China and Pacific navigational astronomy resemble that of the the Azores, giving an arc of observation of thousands Old Persian, Chinese, or Arabic systems? If astronomy of miles; it is perhaps not at all coincidental that traveled as part of the Neolithic mixed-economy a 3d-millennium B.C. literate center trading with both tool-kit and also accompanied far later Bronze Age the East and the West (if only through traders meeting trading expeditions, could the constructs survive in in ports of call) has been found in this area. Astron- tropical areas, where winter never comes, and in the omers and archaeologists are similarly discovering southern hemisphere, where seasons are reversed? the outlines of wide correspondences in the Americas If so, what modifications might we expect? To what and in Oceania as well as in Eurasia and Africa. The extent do the differing plants, animals, deities, and unresolved questions which remain with regard to agricultural systems change the constructs? How do the time and place of origination of the ancient religious systems incorporate the astronomical events? subjective constructs are susceptible to calculation on some such auestions-as these must be devised as lines similar to those demonstrated bv Ovenden. The new findings and older studies are fitted into a parallels are too striking to be explainable by chance meaningful pattern (Downs 196 1; Graves 1948, 1957; or psychology: a common conceptual scheme based Goodenough 1951, 1953; James 1961; Jobes and on a common origin appears to be the only explana- Jobes 1964; Kelley 1954, 1957; Lehmann-Nitsche tion which does not wrench the long arm of coinci- 1922-27; Nilsson 1920; Stirling 1945; Taylor 1946). dence. Thus. as to the "whv" of the diffusion of subiective astronomical constructs based on a long process of recording objective astronomical data (neither of CONCLUSION which could alwavs have fitted the observations which could have been made in the new environments), The aim of this review has been not merely to present we can reasonably think in terms of man's acquisi- a list of studies in archaeoastronomy and ethnoas- tiveness and his liking for adventure and intellectual tronomy, but to demonstrate if possible the role these achievement, united in a systematic explorative and studies may increasingly play in explicating certain commercial drive operating since at least the 3d problems in prehistory and protohistory. The meth- millennium B.c., when the development of sailing odology advocated has been that of comparing for ships began to open up the world to the adventurous. different cultures the objective astronomical data, as The most likely mechanism appears to be that of presented by the heavens that wheeled impartially trade-colonists, mariners, and caravan masters using over ancient men, with the subjective and culturally navigational astronomy and cherishing celestial deities conditioned mental and pictorial constructs ancient and astra-determined renewal rituals, accompanied

422 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY now and then by astrologers with their divining Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY boards. Add to this an occasional storm-driven and current-directed unplanned landing on shores where and both the parallels and the divergences in the alien stars looked down but enough familiar ones ancient astronomical systems appear ultimately ex- remained to permit a carry-over of familiar constructs, plicable.

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Comments ments measured with the transit (e.g., by RAINERBERGER Thom's work) and those determined Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.A. 1 111 73 on the basis of the examination of site The article by Baity is a very extensive by ANTHONYF. AVENI maps. Unfortunately, a plethora of review of a subject which has needed Hamilton, N.Y., U.S.A.15 III 73 falsehood permeates the literature be- to be treated for some time. In fact, As an astronomer with an interest in cause so many investigators have used there exists a considerable body of building orientations in Mesoamerica, erroneous site maps. information in the area of ethnoas- I am hardly qualified to comment on I strongly endorse Baity's suggestion tronomy today that in itself could be all aspects of Baity's broad review ar- for a bibliographic clearinghouse to used for another major article. In ticle. It would appear that her energy, further an exchange of papers, though several continents of the world today, enthusiasm, and organizational ability I find her concept of the well-rounded, rituals are still practiced or astronom- have produced the largest bibliog- broadly educated archaeoastronomer ical events noted which are of signifi- raphy of its kind in an interdisciplinary a bit unreal. Rather, I see real progress cance to the everyday life of the natives field which, as she suggests, has devel- in this new interdiscipline resulting involved. oped rapidly. from cooperation among profes- In the interest of the best possible Baity's definition and use of astro- sionals, each schooled in his own disci- time placement, radiocarbon dates nomical terms are often unclear. Her pline. Since most of the existing pro- may be calibrated by a chart in Olsson use of the term "astra" (as in "astra fessional societies are not broad (1970) based on various tree-ring mea- phenomena") is confusing. A more enough to reach all who are interested, surements made in the La Jolla radio- established term like "celestial" would perhaps an organization such as the carbon laboratory of the University of include sun, moon, and planets as well American Association for the Ad- California under the direction of H. as stars. Baity's continued reference to vancement of Science could serve as E. Suess. The tree-ring calibration ob- the fire bull ritual in discussing the a preliminary meeting ground. The tained there by radiocarbon dating has zodiac leaves unequal time for the fact that Baity has made some misin- been corroborated by a number of other members of that celestial realm. terpretations by going far outside her separate studies, one of which is based Accordingly, the disucssion frequently field in producing the review only on the radiocarbon dating of histori- is slanted in favor of her own research. underlines the need for scholarly co- cally well-dated specimens from the Some of her statements are emphatic operation. Middle Ages and ancient Egypt and undocumented and could invite Obviously, Baity has spent countless (Berger 1970). more than a few dissenters (e.g., "The hours in many libraries producing the There is obviously no question that Maya codices have a heavy astronomi- review, and in spite of its aforemen- prehistoric and protohistoric astro- cal content"). Her strong beliefs tioned shortcomings her colleagues nomical observatories were centers for about transoceanic migration give the owe her a debt of gratitude for assem- ritual activity, yet we do not under- impression that archaeoastronomy bling the references, many of which stand what the sequence of the evolu- should set out to prove what we already have been long forgoten, and, ideally, tion of these facilities was and whether know. Finally, Baity ought to discrimi- for summoning together a new com- or not they grew out of a very impor- nate more thoroughly between align- munity of individuals. tant practical need that later acquired Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 ritual overtones and dominance. outlined by Baity (e.g., Stonehenge) be investigated. Because of the size and antiquity of could have been resolved by a more Sixth, the New World data with the larger megalithic facilities, they rigorous application of scientific meth- which I am familiar imply none of the may serve as a check for plate tectonic od. Evidently the field suffers more astronomical regularities suggested by studies. Careful studies of their orien- than most from a plethora of compet- Baity. Except for Mesoamerica, and tation today and stellar alignments of ing and alternative hypotheses. Once perhaps Peru, only the most tenuous the past might be correlated to yield alternative hypotheses are statistically links are discernible between architec- such information. validated (i.e., once it is demonstrated ture and astronomical phenomena; Last but not least, it would be good that there is a low probability that the numerous alternative and more plau- to know why the megalithic observa- null hypothesis is true), they can suc- sible interpretations are possible. The tories fell into disfavor and what re- cessively be eliminated by the deriva- New World sections of the article are placed their astronomical function in tion of consequences. If the conse- replete with arguments based upon later centuries. quences hold for some validated hy- "facts in isolation" which don't sub- potheses and not for others, given that stantiate any systemic regularities (me- the hypotheses are otherwise compa- trological, astronomical, or otherwise). by DAVIDA. BRETERNITZ rable on the criteria of parsimony and These assertions depend upon trait Boulder, Colo., U.S.A. 20 111 73 simplicity, then the spectrum of ac- associations. Association is among the To those of us unfamiliar with the ceptable hypotheses is correspondingly weakest forms of relationship, in that obviously extensive literature on ar- reduced. This approach characterizes it is dependent upon qualitative "pres- chaeoastronomy, Baity's compilation some of Thom's best work. ence/absenceV data rather than upon and documentation almost boggle the Third, while I acknowledge the more powerful quantitative measures mind. pioneering role of Alexander Thom of covariation. I had to remind myself As an instructor for an under- in paleometrological research, I con- constantly here that there is a big graduate survey course in Old World tinue to assert that mathematically difference between the "possible" and archaeology, I find the detailed analy- derived prehistoric units of measure- the "probable." Many explanations are sis of the Stonehenge debate very in- ment can be carried to pragmatically possible in the review presented, but formative. Beyond this, the amount of absurd levels of precision (e.g., Thom's no evaluation of probability (other data available and the possibilities for MY = 2.720 ? .003 ft.). It does not than contestable assertions based upon astronomically meaningful investiga- follow that "megalithic man" in fact appeals to "expert" opinion) is provid- tions are most thought-provoking. employed such units. I suggest instead ed. In dealing with the interdisciplinary, that he employed units, as we do, which Seventh, the appeal to an outmoded but somewhat esoteric, subject matter, only approximate some ideal standard and largely bankrupt diffusionist I can only contribute a couple of bibli- (see my comment on Thom et al. in paradigm throughout much of the ographic items to the already long list this issue). With regard to the promis- paper does much to discredit Baity's of astronomically motivated actions of ing new field of quantum mathematics, scrupulous research of the subject. To past peoples: There is a reference to it should be borne in mind that quanta write of centers and widely shared the possible astronomical alignment of will almost always be derived; cognitive "interpretations" of astro- Sun Temple, in Mesa Verde National moreover, they tend to "fit" the data nomical systems is extremely prema- Park, Colorado, by Robinson (1961). set from which the original measure- ture. Awareness of astronomical phenome- ments were taken. But it is the mathe- Finally, the assertion that patterns na by the prehistoric Anasazi of the matical process which imparts the pre- will emerge from data "when enough Southwest is noted by Miller (1955), cision which Thom asserts charac- of it is assembled" is misleading. What who interprets certain rock-art panels terizes ancient units of measurement constitutes patterning is determined as evidence of the observation of the (specifically, his megalithic yard). This ultimately by the paradigm under supernova of the Crab Nebula, in A.D. precision is not demonstrably a feature which the investigator is operating: 1054, an event also recorded by Chi- of the units actually employed in an- change the paradigm, and you change nese astronomers. tiquity. the nature of the data and its conse- Fourth, the demonstration of the quent patterning. I mention this be- existence of prehistoric "observatories" cause of the preceding point. The by GEOFFREYA. CLARK does not lie, as Baity asserts, in the archaeoastronomy paradigm seems Tempe, Ariz., U.S.A. 19 111 73 exactitude of Thom's measurements obsolete, yet its methodology is so- Baity is to be commended for attempt- (which evidently have been vigorously phisticated. Until the theoretical/ ing to review so vast a subject; however, contested). The case seems to rest on interpretative framework is over- I am left with the impression that she a mass of fairly convincing circum- hauled, the potential latent in the bat- has bitten off more than she can chew. stantial evidence which can, at any tery of techniques for doing ar- As a nonspecialist, I can offer only a point, be contradicted in detail. c'haeoastronomy cannot be fully real- few general comments; I will confine Fifth, the attempt to extend astro- ized. myself to the archaeological aspects of nomical implications to a wide variety the paper. of megalithic monuments throughout First, I was struck by the uncritical western Europe (and beyond) seems by JAMESW. DOW inclusion of references and commen- extremely ill-advised in a survey article Rochester, Mich., U.S.A. 20 111 73 tary only peripherally allied to ar- of this sort. Baity's often highly specu- Ethnoastronomy, with its techniques of chaeoastronomy (e.g., data from the lative comments are based mainly upon discovering ancient belief through the American Southwest). Restriction of superficial impressions taken out of analysis of symbols, still seems to be problem scope would have been in context. Such structures are certainly much less secure from the dark, un- order; a preliminary consideration of polygenetic and multifunctional. It is mentionable beasts of ethnohistory- important source material might have highly unlikely, on the face of it, that such as the theories of Atlantis (Don- been preferable to the necessarily un- all megalithic constructions necessarily nelly 1882), Mu (Churchward 1926), even "scatter-gun" approach adopted. had astronomical functions. Neverthe- pyramidology (Smyth 1880), and gods Second, many specific controversies less, I agree that the possibility should from outer space (Von Daniken 1971,

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 1972tthan archaeoastronomy, with Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY its techniques of discovering proto- scientific knowledge through the anal- by DAVIDH. KELLEY ular phenomena, then his conclusions ysis of orientations and computing Calgary, Canada. 19 111 73 must be accepted. Having seen how machines. Although scholars laugh in This study will be a very useful many ways astronomers can explain the face of these beasts, they may still compendium for a long time to come. any set of figures given to them, I be capable of discrediting legitimate The one major problem I see is that wonder if some ingenious fellow may ethnoastronomy if it does not verify Baity's enthusiasm allows her to accept not yet come up with an alternative its findings carefully. Ethnoastronomy the potential value of studies which explanation, although not one which is on the safest ground when it is based are often contradictory in detail and would dismiss the regularities as on textual records. It is least secure may be contradictory in principle and meaningless. when it is based on the imaginative that this will not necessarily be obvious interpretation of religious symbols. to a reader not familiar with the mate- How can we be sure that an admittedly rial. Thus, Baity sees a Neolithic base by LEOS. KLEJN religious symbol had an astronomical for many astronomical ideas which I Leningrad, U.S.S.R. 9 111 73 referent at any particular time in his- regard as coming together or originat- As a review and summary of many tory for a majority of persons in a ing during the Hellenistic period. With scattered studies, Baity's paper is very culture? Symbols can persist in spite respect to the statements which have useful, but the field of the proposed of changing meaning, and concerns been made about Mayan astronomy, subdiscipline does not seem to be rea- with astral events can persist in spite Baity mentions work of Smiley on sonably defined. Baity identifies the of changing beliefs. So what particular eclipses, astronomical descriptions by subject matter of archaeoastronomy as astronomical belief or bit of knowledge Owen, and studies by Schulz of the "the apparent use of astronomical can one reliably deduce from the pres- moon's movements and of eclipses. techniques in the construction of me- ence of a few symbols? The fact that these scholars see dif- galithic and other monumental struc- Now that archaeoastronomy is begin- ferent significance in particular dates tures of ancient times." Why merely ning to develop, it would be helpful which they put at different points in the "megalithic" and the "monumen- to have statistical analyses of the ran- real time is implicit in mentioning tal"? If we imagine an ancient observa- dom occurrences of astronomical ori- different correlations of the Mayan tory in every dolmen (even if in addi- entations in different natural and calendar with our own. Every astron- tion to its tomb function), then not man-made situations so that re- omer who has worked on the material even modern astronomers could hope searchers can determine if particular has come up with a different answer for so well developed a set of observa- orientations have a low or high proba- and a different interpretation, and in tion points. But if we concentrate our bility of having been deliberately set. no case do they agree with colonial attention only on the most complex I should also like to note that a bad and modern calendrical evidence. I structures, probably indeed especially pre-Revolutionary reconstruction of have recently found inscriptional evi- designed for astronomical observa- the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacin dence suggesting interest in Jupiter- tions and predictions, then the rich led everyone to believe that its adosada Saturn conjunctions, but a check of information on the use of astronomical was originally built to face the setting about 40 correlations showed that none knowledge in ancient times which may sun on the day the sun passed through of them put Jupiter-Saturn conjunc- be obtained from the orientation of the zenith. Only very recently have tions at the indicated dates. Smiley, ordinary tombs will be lost (and in this excavations shown that the original Hochleitner, Escalona Ramos (1940), respect I see no distinction between adosada had the same orientation as and I have all developed correlations the dolmen and the catacomb or shaft the Pyramid itself. This discovery did which identify the same dates as grave). Further, since we usually in- not invalidate my main conclusions equinoxes and solstices, but Smiley's clude studies of petroglyphs in archae- that the entire city of Teotihuach was winter solstice is my spring equinox, ology and not ethnography, why must oriented to the setting of the Pleiades Hochleitner's summer solstice, and we deal with ancient solar and lunar and the rising of Sirius (Dow 1967). Escalona's fall equinox. Without con- symbols in the frame of ethnoastron- The widespread concern with the trol from the written texts, scholars omy and not archaeoastronomy? Pleiades and other Tauran stars in are playing a simple game of numbers. The supposed ties of Caucasian semitropical zones in the northern When one sees how many brilliant megaliths with Iberian ones are hemisphere could be due to the fact scholars must be wrong on the inter- supported neither archaeologically nor that their heliacal risings coincide with pretation of Mayan astronomical ma- by evidence from linguistics and folk- the spring arrival of the tropical rain. terials simply because their solutions lore. The connections of Caucasian are incompatible, one becomes skepti- dolmens with the modern Caucasian cal of alleged solutions of this sort. This cultures are very problematic, al- is the most generic criticism which can though possible. The connections of by P.-R. GIOT be made of many of the studies cited modern Caucasian languages with that Rennes, France. 20 11 73 by Baity. In most cases, we do not know of the Basques have never been dem- About Brittany I only want to improve what the builders of monuments onstrated. The Caucasian dolmens are the bibliography by reference to the thought they were doing, and struc- typologically much closer to the North earlier hints of Du Cleuziou (1882: turally correct "interpretations" may European than to the Iberian ones. 117-22; 1887: 486), Gaillard (1888, sometimes derive from geometic or In general, Baity's impressive sum- 1897),Grossin (1898), Kerviler (l904a, mathematical necessities. This seems mary emphasizes once more the ten- b), Devoir (1908, 1909), Martin (19 1l), to me also the central problem of dency to reevaluate the intellectual and the later elaborations of Merlet Thom's work. He has demonstrated power of early man and the antiquity (1929, 1935); the influence of mega- impressive regularities in the construc- of human characteristics. The first step lithic orientations on modern field tion of megalithic monuments which in this direction was taken by Boucher structures has been advocated by can be correlated with specified astro- de Perthes and the evolutionists when Meynier (1943 a, b; 1944 a, b; 1945; nomical phenomena. If the regularities they discovered the immense antiquity 1958: 70-71). can only be explained by those partic- of man, the second step by Breuil and Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 his contemporaries when they recog- "astra facts," "astra events," "megalith- I nevertheless consider this article nized Palaeolithic cave art, Palaeolithic ic astra ritual pattern," etc., are neces- to be a very worthwhile attempt to cultural diversity, and the relatively sarily a useful contribution to archae- come to grips with an archaeologically great effectiveness of Palaeolithic ological terminology.) It must be con- intriguing, complex, and somehow hunting. The third step is being taken cluded that any astronomical purposes elusive subject, in which an admirable now. It consists of the establishment are marginal, a mere by-product of amount of scholarly research has been of an age of the Anatolian or European megalithic culture. Indeed, one might invested to some effect. By collating Neolithic and an antiquity of man twice legitimately ask whether such unique and reviewing work done in this field as great as earlier supposed and the constructions as Stonehenge, some of so far, the author has fulfilled the aim discovery of unexpectedly great intel- the other stone circles in England, or she set for herself and deserves high lectual abilities in Upper Palaeolithic aligwmats in Brittany, although in- praise; it is not really she who is to man. It seems that the intellectual deed made of big stones, really deserve blame if the picture she presents is abilities of early man and the antiquity to be labelled "megalithic" at all, since still somewhat blurred. of human characteristics grow along they are not typical of megalithic cul- with the growth of our own modern tures elsewhere. That these "stone civilization. Perhaps this means that circles and their non-circular variants" our own abilities to see and understand are a highly localized phenomenon by ROLFMULLER humanity are growing. Anf if we are which thus cannot be taken as a para- becoming better at seeing humanity in digma of megalithic cultures in general Nussdorf/Inn, Germany. 9 111 73 such remote beings, so we may also was recently acknowledged by no less The megalithic monument in the ruins be growing to understand each other an authority than Atkinson (1968). of Tihuanaco (the Sun Temple Kala- better in our own modern world, As is unavoidable in such a wide- sasaya) was measured in 1932 by Pos- where we are divided inter alia into ranging survey, the author is obviously nansky and myself. The most signifi- generations, races, peoples, states, and more familiar with some areas than cant result was that the equinox of the holders of beliefs. It is in this perspec- with others. This becomes painfully people of Tihuanaco was not the as- tive that the emergence of archaeoas- clear when considering anything out- tronomical equinox, but a point that tronomy may be seen. side the well-trodden cultural path divided the year into two equal parts leading from Western Europe to (with a declination of the sun of +0.5", Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China, exactly the same value Thom found by H. H. E. Loom and Mesoamerica. For example, for megalithic man in Britain; see Canberra, Australia. 20 111 73 Southeast Asia, although full of mega- Miiller 1972). Not being an astronomer, but claiming lithic cultures, living, dying, or dead Slngeorzan (1970) has discussed the to know something about this nebulous (Loofs 1967, 1970), gets little mention, orientation of 320 skeletons from the matter of what constitutes the "Mega- and what there is does not always seem Neolithic Boian Culture (ca. 4000- lithic," my main criticism of Baity's to be based on adequate documen- 3500 B.c.) excavated near Bucharest, article is that, although the author tation. A question such as "are these Rumania, 300 of which were oriented clearly did a tremendous amount of constructs older than Hinduism in the to the rising sun. In this epoch, man research on the astronomical side, her Indonesian Archipelago?" is not really had a clear and distinct concept of the homework on megalithic cultures and to the point, as Buddhist influence may yearly motion of the sun. The bodies ideas in general leaves something to have been just as old as, if not older were buried with the face toward the be desired. Proof of this may be found than, that of Hinduism in the area. rising sun. More than half (164) faced in the omission from an otherwise truly By plotting known megalithic cultures directly east, the position of the sun impressive bibliography of the many and instances of "archaeoastronomy" at the equinoxes. works dealing with this latter problem, on a map, particularly in the case of ranging from Fergusson's Rude Stm Southeast Asia, the author would have Monuments in All Countries (1872) to easily discovered that the little overlap- the latest contributions by Heine-Gel- ping that there is of the two does not dern (1959, 1963), Varagnac (1959, warrant the assumption that they must by RICHARDPITTIONI 1961), Schmitz (1961), Closs (1966), inherently be connected. Vienna, Austria. 5 111 73 and Jettmar (1971), to name but a few. Insufficient attention is also some- 1 can restrict my comments to the Only Schuster's (1960) admittedly sig- times given to chronological consider- statement that the author has very nificant, but hardly all-encompassing, ations, in particular as far as alleged clearly and lucidly presented the re- nine-page article is included. transmissions of archaeoastronomical sults of research done up to the present The reason I stress this point is that concepts are concerned. It is difficult time. It becomes clear in particular from this article it would appear that to understand, for instance, how such that, as early as the Neolithic, knowl- there is an inherent link between a transmission from the 2d millennium edge of natural processes must have megaliths and astronomy, and this has B.C. Indus Valley to the 1st millennium been substantially more extensive than in no way been proved. On the con- A.D. Mesoamerica can be postulated has generally been assumed. It is much trary, scholars dealing with the tricky without somehow analyzing it further to the author's credit to have made problem of the purpose of megaliths in time and space (through Southeast this even more evident by drawing on seem to be practically unanimous in Asia?). Chinese, Tibetan, and Burmese pertinent material from the fields of concluding that it is mainly to enhance "models" are treated as if they were ethnology and folklore. the prestige of living or dead persons, contemporaneous; there may well be As a supplementary remark in the to serve as a link between the living 1,000 years' difference between them. field of ethnoastronomy, I might men- and the dead, to commemorate wealth, The same attitude is also shown in the tion the often ascertainable time-indi- to enable people to partake of the use of such nonsensical (especially in cative names of mountains (e.g., Mit- wisdom of their ancestors, to promote the context of a worldwide survey!) tagskogel 'noon-peak'), which originat- fertility, and the like, and make no terms as "megalithic man," "Megalithic ed in the relation of these mountains mention of astronomy. (Incidentally, Age," etc. Are we back to Perry's Chil- to specific positions of the sun (cf. I wonder whether expressions like dren of the Sun (1923)? Willvonseder 1928).

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY by EWILIEPLESLOVA-STIKOVA Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY Prague, Czechoslovakia. 23 11 73 This new subdiscipline is very useful are seen by many peoples as having into a ripple rock endangering canoe for understanding the past of humani- souls related to all other souls in this traffic. ty. Though the present results are still world. Baity's thesis envisages ancient ar- partly hypothetical, there is much evi- For instance, there are many aborig- chitects plotting the movements of the dence to be considered which has not inal paintings on more or less smooth, sun and the moon on their flat draw- yet been subjected to astronomical vertical rock faces along innumerable ing-boards, not only at Wiltshire's study. This is the case, as Baity notes, lakes and streams in the forested Pre- Stonehenge, but also wherever a pyra- in Central Europe. Here some steps cambrian Shield of Canada in which mid was built or a pot painted with in this field were taken some time ago sunlight plays a vital role in casting respect to an observed circling of by Miiller (1936a, b), whose recent a magic spell. On bright, calm days, heavenly bodies. It focuses on how man book I have had no chance to read. the sun's dazzling beams are reflected has used the constant rate of motion Therefore, and being a layman in the by slightly rippling waters in repetitive, evident in the sun and the moon to field of archaeoastronomy, I can only shimmering patterns on the rock walls. measure time, so that clocks and calen- suggest two promising Neolithic and Glittering lights appear to be released dars emerge as man-made constructs Aeneolithic structures in Czechoslova- like dancing spirits from the stone, and reflecting celestial cycles. My view is kia, not yet fully excavated, which it is easy to understand what is meant that people have generally relied far ought to be carefully examined in this by some old people who still say that more on earthier cues like birds mi- light. The first is a settlement of the even rocks can harbour spirits with the grating or rivers freezing than on the oldest phase of the Moravian painted- power to harm or heal. The spectacle position of the sun to guess when ware culture (Tgs'etice-Kyjovice, Znoj- of the paintings in their natural settings another season was beginning. I am mo district, Moravia), where there is may be further enhanced by some tempted to quip that the invention of a circular, monumentally enclosed area vague awareness of their mystic mean- the clock never revolutionized rabbit 50-55 m in diameter, probably of some ings. There is no doubt that many of hunting. Baity's theory may not apply cult character, with two known en- the painted symbols represent dream- so much to ordinary people, who are trances orientated to the north-south like or visionary experiences of the most concerned with just surviving. (Podborsk? 1972). The second is a painter. Yet the paintings, which lack Hungry people find little time to gaze settlement of the older phase of the any representations of sun or moon at the sky in order to reckon time. Funnel Beaker culture (Makotfasy, or stars, defy exact comparison with I would accept her thesis as true for Kladno district, Bohemia) with a rec- any other religious art in the world, the better-fed part of mankind, who tangularly enclosed area (two corners representing such fantastic creatures may have nothing better to do with known) 300 m by at least 280 m, with as horned serpents and thunderbirds time than measure it. diagonals to the southwest-northeast (prominent deities in Indian tales and (?), southeast-northwest(?) (Linington origin myths). 1969, Pleslovi-Stikovi 1972). In this The floor plan of the so-called sun by JONATHANE. REYMAN connection I would mention Neolithic dance ceremony in central Saskatch- Normal, ILL., U.S.A. 9 111 73 Kothingeichendorf in Bavaria (Maier ewan is naturally oriented according Baity's article is an important contri- 1962), with a structure similar (in to the cardinal directions. All ritual bution and adds another dimension to shape, diameter, entrances) to that of activities and movements, including the anthropological study of both pre- Tgs'etice-Kyjovice, and the complicat- dancing, must be done in a clockwise historic and ethnographic populations. ed enclosed structure at Altheim direction, that is, following the path In addition, it represents a fair and (Altheim group) in Bavaria (Maier of the sun. However, there is no calen- thorough synthesis of much of the 1962). Good results on archaeoastron- drical significance here. existing literature and current argu- omy have been published for the much One of the most spectacular rock- ments; her bibliography will remain younger (Celtic period) sanctuary of carvings in southern Saskatchewan a basic reference source in archaeoas- Libenice in Bohemia (Holub 1962). occurs at St. Victor, on the edge of tronomy for years to come. Her use a high cliff that was used as a buffalo of the term "archaeoastronomy" in- jump. Buffalo and bear tracks are stead of "astro-archaeology" is also imprinted on the limestone rim, but welcome from the standpoint of ety- by ZENONS. POHORECKY can be seen only at sunrise and at mology: we are studying ancient astro- Saskatoon, Canada. 26 111 73 sunset; the sun bleaches them out dur- nomical practices, not doing celestial I would agree with Baity that men have ing the rest of the day. The religious archaeology. always attached great importance to significance of these vanishing petro- It is difficult not to take issue with events observed in the sky. I would glyphs is linked to sympathetic magic some of the arguments of others which go even further than she to say that used to hunt animals, of course, but Baity cites. In certain cases I feel that the sun and the moon were seen not the mystery is enriched by the symbols' she should have included critical com- only as the calendrical cues noted by becoming invisible in broad daylight ments (e.g., Cowan's [I9701 state- calculatingastronomers, but also as the and at night. ments regarding the "rudimentary" aesthetic, spiritual, and even naviga- The Plains Cree in Saskatchewan trigonometry of the megalithic geom- tional phenomena which have fascin- once had a gigantic 100-ton rock, called eters); perhaps these can be included ated star-gazers for millennia. Mistaseni, which looked like a huge if this article is expanded into a book. The sun and the moon, especially, reclining bufalo at sunset and at There are a number of points on which have been viewed as sources of many sunrise. During the day it looked like I would like to comment. Much of what powers embodied in almost everything a common haystack. Its daily transfor- I have to say can best be considered on earth, because men have always mations into a buffalo made it a shrine. as an addendum to rather than a been more interested in meaning than The sun had somehow revealed the criticism of her paper. in measurement; this seems a proper spirit. Still, dam engineers had it Baity states that "the high degree priority, although Baity tends to ne- blasted in 1966, since its inevitable of organization and administration glect it. Objects we see as inanimate flooding threatened to transform it responsible for the impressive Breton Vol. 14 - No. 4 . October 1973 alignments and the presence in Brit- who first described the astronomical explanations of the data. However, all tany and Scotland of identical units alignments at Group E, Uaxactun. As such schemes are "artificial" constructs [of measure] suggests a common cul- for the Wadi Halfa burials, Saxe does and are not verifiable on the basis of ture." There is no doubt that contacts regard the skull orientations as indica- the unknowable. Perhaps nothing il- and/or cooperative efforts existed be- tive of patterned behavior but adds lustrates this point better than the tween peoples in the two areas, but "we find it dfficult to decide the basis several recent "reconstructions" of the that these geographically and tem- of this patterning at this point" Adosada at Teotihuacin. porally separated groups possessed (1971:49). With regard to my work at Finally, I would like to make three a common culture does not seem likely. Anasazi sites, the astronomical align- technical points: (1) With regard to They occupied very different ecologi- ments are not quite as well-document- ancient Egyptian astronomical prac- cal niches and presumably used astro- ed as Baity suggests, although the loose tices,I note the curious omission of nomical observations for different ends should be tied up in the near classic references such as Breasted purposes, e.g., navigation in south Ar- future. More important, however, is (1905). (2) The long-held assumption gyllshire (Thom 1971:10-1 1) and ag- that the astronomical ceremonialism is that the Egyptian pyramids were con- riculture in Brittany. The sites may not "caught red-handed," but enters, structed in accordance with a celestial incorporate the same unit of measure, in conjunction with improved varieties referent has been challenged and an but some structures are lunar in orien- of maize and other crops, as an integral alternative hypothesis proposed which tation (Temple Wood), some are pri- part of the planned and systematic exploi- states that their present alignment may marily solstitial (Kintraw), and others tation of the Southwest by Mexican pochte- be due to continental drift (Pawley and include both types of orientations ca, particularly in the Anasazi and Abrahamsen 1973). (3) Baity's conten- (Stonehenge, the Crucuno rectangle). Hohokam regions. These astronomical tion that Upper Paleolithic iconog- What evidence exists, aside from the practices became the basis for adapta- raphy was created by "advanced astronomical data, to indicate a com- tion of the various cultigens to the Homo sapiens" is untenable on genetic mon culture? Can we reasonably infer ecologically marginal agricultural con- grounds; rather, we are only beginning this from the settlement patterns? re- ditions which existed throughout to understand the degree of intellec- source exploitation and trade? artifact much of the Southwestern Plateau. tual development and sophistication assemblages and their distributions in The use of astronomical observations possessed by prehistoric peoples and time and space? in connection with the agricultural nontechnologically advanced societies. Baity accurately describes the pur- cycle is frequently discussed in the So-called primitive thought is no less pose for which many and perhaps ethnographic and archaeological liter- developed than ours, but it is expressed most of the current archaeostronomi- ature relating to the Southwestern in a very different symbolic system, cal studies are being conducted, i.e., Pueblos (e.g., Bunzel 1932, Benedict one based on manifest or concrete data collection. If there is one criticism 1935, Stephen 1936, Parsons 1939, properties instead of abstract entities to be made of these recent projects, Lange 1959, Dutton 1963, Kelley 1966, (Lkvi-Strauss 1966). it is that they are data- and not prob- Ellis and Hammack 1968, and Lange The breadth and depth of Baity's lem-oriented. An enormous amount of and Riley 1970:69-70). One further study are impressive: she has written information has been -gathered con- technical point is that my photographs the definitive synthesis of archaeoas- cerning the astronomical alignments of of the corner of a pueblo splitting the tronomy and ethnoastronomy to date. numerous buildings- and how these rising sun and the shadow time-keep- Baity has provided both the data for alignments could have been used from ing sequence were all taken at the problem-oriented research and the a technical (observer's) standpoint; autumnal equinox, not the summer impetus to conduct such studies. She however, there is a dearth of hypothe- solstice. is to be commended. ses dealing with why there was this Baity's mention of the controversy intense interest in the sky and what concerning the beginning of the Maya these astronomical data may mean in year is interesting, especially since she terms of cultural-ecological adapta- draws on important but unpublished by S. B. Roy tions. Baity is not to be faulted for discussions. It seems to me that Kelley New Delhi, India. 3 IV 73 this, and, indeed, she does state that has the stronger argument (vernal In her well-documented article, Baity new hypotheses are needed, listing equinox = Zero Day, rather than June has given a comprehensive account of several possibilities. However, she does 23, 3392 B.c.) both on archaeological recent work (1950-72) on archaeoas- not provide a definite method for grounds and because the sun's position tronomy and ethnoastronomy. As this hypothesis formulation and testing is (relatively) constant through time, article is likely to be a basic source within archaeoastronomical studies. whereas the positions of Procyon, the because of its comprehensive coverage, This shortcoming, in part, may reflect Pleiades, and Antares change with she might also have given a brief digest her acceptance of MacKie's (1969: 11) comparative rapidity. of the earlier work on these subjects. position that because we are not as- Baity's use of the term "reconstruc- The great Indologist Sir William Jones tronomers we do not know how or tion" with regard to lifeways and even (1790) suggested that the precession where to look for evidence of prehis- buildings is conceptually unacceptable. of the equinoxes could be used to toric astronomical practices. This posi- Tavlor (1948:35) and Goldstein define the chronology of Indo- tion disregards the vital role which (1962:177), among others, have noted European prehistory reflected in the ethnographic materials play in the for- that while the facts per se may be Vedic works. Wilson (1861) did the mation, testing, and evaluation of hy- verifiable, what actually happened in pioneering work of identifying the potheses, whether they are related to the past is not. Therefore, when we nakshatrasthe 27 bright stars used to archaeoastronomical studies or to discuss the past, that which we describe define the positions of the moon in some other archaeological problem. is our construction and not a reconstruc- the celestial circle in which the moon On several occasions Baity uses sec- tion; one cannot reconstruct what is moves during the month. Jacobi (1893) ondary sources and/or takes quotes not actually known in the first place. showed that the traditions of year- out of context. For example, it was This does not mean that all contexts beginnings contained in the Rig-Veda Ricketson (1928; see also Ricketson or historical schemes are equally useful go back to ca. 4400 B.C.Independently, and Ricketson 1937) and not Morley and valid; some do seem to be better Tilak (1894) reached the same conclu-

CURRENTANTHROPOLOGY sion. Biihler (1893) supported these Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY pioneering attempts. The source book for these scholars in the early Pleistocene, the female Incidentally, the linking of the full was the Vedic texts. Of them, the must have noticed the correspondence moon with the star at which it occurs Rig-Veda is of unique value for ethnol- between the full moon and her own automatically calls for the inclusion of ogists. It is a collection of hymns monthly period of menstruation. The an extra full moon in the third year (sacerdotal, mystical, and astronom- ramifications of the Vedic root rt will (observationalintercalation!). Thus, 37 ical), a complete index of which was be clear from the following: rtu 'sea- full moons were needed to complete made ca. 1300 B.C.by the scholiasts son,' 'menstruation'; rtam 'grand cos- a cycle of about three years called yuga, Shaunaka and Katyayana. Since then, mic law,' 'truth,' 'right'; rtvij 'priest' and a year was made up of 370 "moon- it has been preserved intact by a com- (who knows the seasons and performs days" (called tithis). An extra month plex scheme of variant recitations that the rituals accordingly). (Cf. the En- was needed after 30 years for finer permits not even half a syllable to be glish right, rhythm, ritual.) correction. Viswamitra I, a brilliant changed. It is, therefore, an indis- It is also apparent that the first astronomer-poet of the Rig-Veda, ob- pensable source of perfectly main- astronomer-cum-calendar-maker was served that a similar result was tained traditions (traditions already of female: perhaps it was she who was achieved by a secondary intercalation hoary antiquity in 1300 B.c.!) for the deified as a mother goddess, for not after the ninth year. The method was student of Indo-European prehistory. only was she the procreatrix par excel- so accurate that he determined that For example, in Vedic astronomy, a lence, but also she controlled the future a period of nine years contained 3,339 bright star was used to mark the because she knew the mystery of time. moon-days (see the Rig-Veda hymn equinox: h Orionis (long. 84"), called According to the Rig-Veda, she was 3.9.9). This means that a Viswamitra Mrga-s'iras, literally "stag's head." The Aditi, the mother of 12 luminous year was made up of 371 tithis, equiv- full moon at the "stag's head" marked beings called Cdityas (stars marking alent to a period of 365.20 days. Vis- the autumnal equinox in ca. 4100 B.C. months). Aditi declared Punarvasu wamitra lived ca. 2600 B.c.,and there- What is of crucial importance in apply- (Pollux) to be the autumn star; she fore his determination was an achieve- ing astronomical methods to the chro- is, therefore, its presiding deity. ment of the very first magnitude by nology of periods prior to 6000 B.c., Baity has laid too much emphasis any standard. however, is to keep in mind the on the solar calendar; the importance All this was achieved by naked-eye quarter-phase shift every 6,500 years. of moon astronomy has not been suffi- observation of the moon with no clock For instance, the full moon at this star ciently stressed. The first observations other than the clock of the seasons and marked the summer solstice in 10,600 of Pleistocene man must have been the menses. Therefore, the importance B.c.,the spring equinox in 17,100 B.c., crude and therefore simple. He (or, of moon astronomy should not be the winter solstice in 23,600 B.c., and rather, she, as I have suggested) ob- minimised, particularly for the periods the autumnal equinox in 30,100 B.C. served only the points at which the prior to 2000 B.C.(Roy 1972). Similarly, if the observation is of the moon was full when a season was To sum up: new moon (or the heliacal rising of beginning. The primary rituals were 1. Baity has made a good case for a bright star, which is the same thing), the purnamCsa, or full-month, rituals. intensive study of astronomy by the there is a half-phase shift. For instance, Autumn was the first season, and the ethnologist and the archaeologist. the heliacal rising of the star P Arietis, autumnal equinox was marked by the There is a grand cosmic clock in the which represented the god-hero "autumn star." "A hundred autumns" heavens whose invisible hands turn Ashva-Yujau, marked the spring meant 100 years. The calendar was, once every 26,000 years. Those who equinox in 500 B.c.,the winter solstice therefore, simple enough for Pleisto- can read it can read the past with in 7,000 B.c., the autumnal equinox cene man to follow. unerring accuracy, for the sun and the in 13,500 B.c., the summer solstice in The Indo-Europeans also used a moon will bear witness to what they 20,000 B.c., and the spring equinox simple calendar based on the stepwise say. in 26,500 B.C. motion of the full moon in the nakshatra 2. The astronomical legends of the Imagination should not be allowed circle. Rigvedic lore prescribes elabo- Rig-Veda, containing the prehistoric to boggle while considering these vast rate full-moon and new-moon rituals traditions of the Indo-Europeans, distances in time, but the worker to be observed at particular nakshatras. would be a fruitful source of explora- should carefully analyze the phenome- The observation of the bright star at tion for ethnoastronomers. non observed, the event to which it which the full moon (or the new moon) 3. More attention should be given is related, the geographical locale, and, occurs was a hallmark of Vedic (and to the simple, crude moon observations above all, the culture to which it is related pre-Vedic) calendar-making. For in- of the pre-Vedic Indo-Europeans before drawing any chronological in- stance, when Punarvasu was declared than to the more accurate (and, there- ference. to be the autumn star, the autumn fore, more sophisticated) observations Primitive man of the Pleistocene rituals were observed when (and only needed for a solar calendar. used the moon, not the sun, as a when) the moon was full at Punarvasu. 4. It would be necessary to go time-measurer. Marshack (196472) Being star-bound, the system is ad- beyond the first quarter-phase of the has shown that the Aurignacian peo- mirably suited to chronological precession cycle of 26,000 years in ples knew that the moon completes two computations. It is hardly necessary to studying astronomically the astro- full cycles in 59 days (in sets of 30+29 point out that when the moon is full religious symbolism of the Magdalen- or, more probably, 15, 15, 14, 15). The at, say, Rohini (Aldebaran; long. 69"), ian (14,000-8,000 B.c.), the Solutrean ancient (pre-Vedic) Indo-Europeans the sun will be at long. 249" (i.e., 69" (18,000-14,000 B.c.), the upper Peri- also used a season of two months and + 180"); the "opposite" star (at long. gordian (23,000-18,000 B.c.), and the called it rtu. The English word "moon" 249") was called Jyeshtha Rohini, Aurignacian (28,000-23,000 B.c.). is related to the measurement of time "elder Rohini," showing that the Vedic 5. A comp1,ehensive but simple text through menstruation, both being astronomers had a clear notion of the on moon astronomy is a desideratum derived, according to the Oxford En- celestial circle even ca. 3 100 B.C.(when for the archaeologist. The ethnologist glish Dictionary, from the root me 'to the autumnal equinox took place at must learn to look at the stars and measure' (cf. the Vedic root mi).Even the Rohini full moon). know how to locate the east, for one Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 cannot hope to understand and inter- There are at least a few errors of but gross structure to gross structure, pret the spirit of Aurignacian man fact in this overwhelming compilation, and I see no reason why they could unless one can mentally go back to his but I hope that its reviewers will avoid not have been established empirically epoch and rejoice when the sun turns caviling over relatively trivial points. by use of good sense and reasonable north. The real importance of Baity's contri- care after repeated observation. bution will probably be that it marks The same sort of thought applies an end to the specimen-collectingstage to the assumed high level of ancient by CHARLESH. SMILEY in the development of the subdisci- astronomical knowledge necessary for Providence, R. I., U.S.A. 18 III 73 pline. We can now hope for some travel over the deserts and the seas. Baity's report makes a valuable contri- discussion of proper classification. It Until the relatively late domestication bution in fields crossing two or more makes little sense to discuss Stone- of camels, caravans did not travel sand disciplines. Many of the persons work- henge, South African rock art, Su- deserts of any size, but rather stony ing in these fields are experts in only merian astrology, the orientations of deserts, with their distinctive land- one or two disciplines and cannot nec- burials, Medieval symbolism, Mayan marks. Again, from personal experi- essarily be trusted in other areas. Nor calendrics, and the Plains Indian Sun ence, I know that one traversing such can these experts hope to keep in- Dance as if they were comparable deserts sets a general course by the stars formed in all areas. Baity has served phenomena. We can look forward to by night and by which cheek the sun well in summarizing and evaluating the development of classification, ex- falls on by day, but the course is general burgeoning publications in fields as far plicit theory and method, and syn- and designed to establish a heading apart as astronomy, archaeology, lin- thesesof several different kinds. Unless to bring one to a sighting of a distinc- guistics, and engineering. Her splen- this new subdiscipline advances quickly tive "landfall," just as on the sea one did list of more than 600 references and carefully, there is a good chance steers largely by landfalls to whose will allow scholars to fill in gaps in that volumes of nonsense will accumu- proximity one is brought by use of a their backgrounds and avoid duplicat- late in our libraries, burying and dis- sextant but could have been brought ing work already completed by others. crediting valid findings. by grosser astronomical observation. That the ancients had to have more precise astronomical knowledge than by DEAN R. SNOW by JAMESL. SWAUGER a modern desert traveler or sailor, I Albany, N.Y., U.S.A. 17 111 73 Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.A. 16 111 73 doubt. Again, I think empirical knowl- What I hoped for, but did not find, Interested in the general subject of this edge largely sufficient. in Baity's article was a clear statement article because of my work with dol- of methodology. As a science, archae- mens and other megalithic structures ology suffers because its subject matter in Palestine and with petroglyphs in by P. M. VERMEERSCH is made up of fragmentary traces of the northeastern United States, I asked Leuven, Belgium. 2 1 111 73 often unique and unrepeatable human permission to comment in order that The attempt of the author to gather activity. Hypotheses proliferate, but I would become familiar with current the scattered data of this new discipline adequate proofs do not, much less an theory and studies. Confronted by can only be acclaimed. This review accepted measure of adequacy. In this Baity's Niagara of information and article opens new perspectives to those regard, I think that archaeoastronomy citation, I became aware of my igno- scholars who are not directly involved is particularly vulnerable. That some rance and was abashed. It will take in this research. Such research can specified site had a specific set of me some months of hard reading of undoubtedly throw new light on the astronomical functions prehistorically cited sources to begin to comprehend spiritual world of prehistoric societies. must be shown to be probable through enough of the information in Baity's It seems to me that traditional archae- the use of explicit techniques and article to make meaningful appraisals ology pays too little attention to such methods, and that is no easy task. A of data and deductions, but I'm most problems, probably because of hesita- consensus of archaeologists is not grateful for such a comprehensive tion as to the interpretation of obser- enough. guide. vational data. Moreover, it happens In its conclusion, the article advo- There are, however, attitudes im- that the fancy of some scholars proves cates a methodology of comparing ob- plied in archaeo- and ethnoastronomy the sceptics to be right. Nevertheless, jective astronomical data to prehistoric of whose validity I will have to be one should not be blind to certain facts constructs, but this is strategy, not convinced. For instance, there is as- requiring interpretation. methodology. Baity comes closer to the sumption of necessity for sophisticated Still, I don't feel secure about the latter when discussing Thom's predic- astronomical and mathematical knowl- idea that the wide distribution of some tion and subsequent discovery of eight edge in the arrangement of sighting astronomical constructs is the result of stations around Er Grah and his similar structures such as menhirs. From my diffusion by trade-colonists, mariners, prediction and discovery of a stone own experience I know that sighting and caravan masters. It seems to me platform at Kintraw. The essential dif- along a menhir's top line to another that some customs and inventions may ference between investigators like such structure to fix a point on a arise independently in different re- Thom and the likes of Erich Von horizon presents the viewer with gions. As an example I should point Danikenis not truthfulness as opposed enough of an arc of observation, out the appearance of microlithic tech- to falsehood, but scientific rigor as depending on the angle of his vision, niques at the end of the Upper Palaeo- opposed to the lack of it. Indeed, to permit another to say the observer lithic not only in Europe but also in without the concerted development of is fixing almost any point on a consid- the Near East and Africa. There are rigorous methods in the near future, erable stretch of the horizon. Trained no sound indications that the world- this new subdiscipline may be lost in as a surveyor, I know how difficult it wide appearance of these new tech- a maelstrom of haphazard specula- is and how much knowledge is re- nological habits was supported by tions. To judge from the popular quired to fix two points in order to trade-colonists. We must recognise that press, it looks as though we might establish a line of sight, but the lines in the present state of research there already be moving into another round of sight used by the ancients in many is not yet a valid explanation of this of Egyptian pyramid numbers magic. cited instances were not point to point phenomenon. To me it seems accept-

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY able that some innovations, pehaps Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY some "subjective astronomical con- structs" may appear independently over a large area. Why is another question.

ship between Brittany and Britain. He indicate rituals similar to those of the cites early Neolithic chambered tombs Iberian and Indian cattle-keepers scattered along Europe's western sea- which I have suggested (Baity 1968) by ELIZABETHCHESLEY B~ln board and the late Bronze Age square- may have also been practiced in the Black Sea region. The Soviet authors Chapel Hill, N.C., U.S.A. 13 IV 73 sectioned socketed axes made in France but also appearing in England. place this art in the 5th-3d millennia The comments and references offered Keeping in mind the priority of Breton and trace the motifs in painted pottery, by the commentators add greatly to tombs and the possibility that an Clite as I do, and we agree that the horned the potential usefulness of this pio- was familiar with both areas whatever animals with astra symbols possibly neering essay. Loofs' bibliographical the economic and cultural differences represented both deities and constella- data on megalithic studies and Giot's in the peasantry, we may also consider tions. Without seeing the full text, it specialized list will be helpful to all who recent evidence from Ireland. In a talk is impossible to determine if the Soviet have fallen behind on their megalithic reported in the Cleveland Press (March researchers also find evidence of cult homework through difficulties in lo- 29, 1973), Ruaidhri de Valera said, rituals in which animals wearing horn- cating pertinent studies. The absence "We are developing a detailed picture torches may have impersonated a ce- of references to astronomical orienta- of the people who came from north- lestial event, such as heliacal rise-set tions noted by Loofs does not to me west France to the northwest coast of or other phenomena at solstice or prove a lack of astronomical interests Ireland about the year 3000 B.c."; he equinox which marked the New Year. on the part of megalithic draftsmen, reports the unearthing of prehistoric To the hypothesis of these workers that but instead suggests the probability tombs, larger burial grounds, and the "sparkling goat" represented a that, faced with the necessity of mea- houses in Counties Mayo and Sligo. lightning deity, I offer the suggestion suring time in order to allay anxieties Klejn emphasizes the importance of that a horn-torch ritual may also have or to schedule essential renewal rituals the orientation of ordinary tombs (as been involved, the deity construct orig- in a world lacking clocks, television, I did above), which accords with the inating perhaps in Ice Age observa- and printed calendars, they were more evidence from Miiller and PleslovP-Sti- tions of electrical displays on animal acute observers of the heavenly clock- kovL. To me, if not to Reyman, the horns during storms (the "St. Elmo's work than megalithic sholars have range of burial orientations cited by fire" effect) and among some Bronze been. How many of these scholars can Saxe and others does imply a very early Age cultures represented by Taurus determine the times of solar and lunar ability to determine the positions of wearing the torch of the Pleiades. If solstices and equinoxes and predict the rising sun at solstices and equi- my hypothesis is plausible, the winter- eclipses? There remains little doubt noxes. With regard to the Basque-Cau- solstice New Year best fits Thom's that megalithic astronomers of Britain casian parallelisms, Klejn and I may megalithic calendar. and Brittany could do so, bp methods be familiar with different bodies of Many archaeoastronomical studies so remarkably similar that, despite scholarship that should be collated. have been made since 1968, and At- Reyman's reservations, at least a com- The linguistic parallelisms of Fita, kinson (cited by Loofs) would not today mon astronomical subculture must be Schuchardt, Trombetti, DumCzil, refer to stone rings as "an almost attributed to them. Recent work Bouda, and Lafon are summed up by exclusively British phenomenon." Des- strengthens this case, as Thom (per- Tovar (195425-27), as is the hypothe- pite the zeal of Charlemagne and later sonal communication, 17 111 73) has sis of Menghin that in the 3d millenni- Christians, who systematically de- been kind enough to confirm: um proto-Caucasian speakers may stroyed the rings as the prime sites There is such similarity between megalithic have come to the West. The enormous of satanic revels, many somehow remains in Britain and Brittany that there body of Western scholarship with re- escaped destruction (perhaps because is little doubt that they belong to the same gard to linguistic and folkloric parallels they wer: still in use; cf. Borst 1969). culture. . . .We find an identical value for suggests the usefulness of a similar PleslovP-StikovP gives valuable docu- the megalithic yard in Orkney and Brittany. We find megalithic eggs in Brittany laid comparison with regard to the orienta- mentation as to circular structures in out with the same terms of reference as tion of the megaliths; in the West there Central Europe, certainly not suffi- those in Britain. At Kerlescan we find the is considerable evidence that Basques ciently studied. Gordon (1960:pl. remains of a huge cromlech, set out in may have had megalithic peoples XXXII) publishes a prehistoric Indian circular arcs, centered on the corners of among their ancestors. Evidence for stone circle. Until measurements are a right-angled triangle reminiscent of the common ritual practices in these two made, we cannot assert an astronom- ring at Avebury but with smaller stones and areas comes from rock-carvings in So- ical function for all of these rings, some no ditch. We also find extrapolating sectors viet Armenia studied by Tumanian and of which may be imitative. A flat hori- for the huge lunar observatory in Morbi- Petrosian (1970), Martirossian and zon anywhere could have suggested a han, reminiscent of those in Caithness. Need one look further? Israelian (1971), and Petrosian (1971) circular model for the observing of and reviewed by Petri (for whose notes rise-set phenomena (though the re- I am originally endebted to R. L. Mer- markably flat horizon of Yucatan does MacKie (personal communication, ritt, and who has himself sent me his not appear to have done so), but in 28 111 73), while pointing out that the summary of the latter book and a the light of Thom's findings I would techniques outlined by Thom were the further reference to Okladnikov find this a reductionist explanation. only ones that could have been prac- [1972]). Petri's summary confirms my Several referees have suggested that ticed effectively to get accurate results original impression that the "sparkling there may be alternative explanations: with Neolithic technology, shares goat" and "goat with stellar symbols" I have noted above that Burl's work Thom's view as to a cultural relation- discussed by Martirossian and Israelian should also be studied. According to Vol. 14 No. 4 . October 1973 439 Burl (1973), there are over 900 stone dated before 2000 B.C. (uncorrected). of adapting high-yield cultigens to the circles known from Cornwall to the Whether this indicates a rather long uncertain growing season of the Orkneys and from Yorkshire across to sea voyage with intermediate stops or Southwestern plateau. Kerry: he provides a provisional chro- the persistence of megalithic traits, I Clark's questioning of Thom's nology (in C 14, not real, years) for their do not know. megalithic yard is legitimate; I am told, geometrical designs, basing his study Clark's comments about the uncriti- however, by a correspondent who at- on an examination of 166 megalithic cal inclusion of references and the tended the London symposium on an- rings (40 circles, 32 flattened circles, advisability of limiting the problem cient astronomy in December, 1972 84 ellipses, and 10 egg-shaped rings). scope seem beside the point in a first that Hogg there withdrew his alterna- In view of De Valera's evidence with bibliographical synthesis of a new sub- tive explanation in an aside to Thom. regard to the French immigrants in discipline not yet indexed (aside from If Thom's case rests on "circumstantial Ireland, it is of interest that the earliest the astronomy covered by the Peabody evidence which can, at any point, be known date for a stone circle is from Museum Catalogue and the Human contradicted in detail," studies doing New Grange, County Meath. The la- Relations Area Files). Though the so have escaped my attention, and it test, from Sandy Road, is as late as data-collection stage is not yet termi- is clear that Clark should have cited 1200 B.c.. We have seen that Muller nated (as Snow hopes), that of hypothe- some. (Another former critic, Burl applies Thom's theorems to Central sis formulation has begun, with the [1973], has fitted Thom's typology to European rings and that Wittry assigns Southwest as one of the richest areas British rings to establish chronology, a probable solstice function to mound- for the task because of abundant eth- as I have indicated above.) Because of building posthole circles (about which nographic data, well-preserved ar- restrictions of space, I necessarily limi- more will be known when ongoing chaeological and iconographic evi- ted the data supporting some of my work with the Sanders and Reyman dence, and the presence of living own arguments; in case this should computer program is completed). Jo- aboriginals who still remember tradi- unfairly prejudice some readers seph Mountjoy (personal com- tional astronomical practices and be- against archaeoastronomy itself, I feel munication, 7 111 73) reports a site in liefs. Reyman has estimated that in six that I should identify my own hypoth- northern Mexico where aerial pho- months of hard reading one could eses and briefly sketch the type of tography indicates the presence of a cover the source materials well enough evidence on which they are based. number of circles; with a colleague, for hypothesis formulation. For ex- I have suggested above that docu- he will test for astronomical signifi- ample, Stephen's (1936) Hopi journal mentary and folkloric evidence in me- cance a group of eight circles sur- and Parsons' (1939) Pueblo Indian Reli- galithic areas appears to support rounding a central one. Muller (1972; gion would, he estimates, furnish evi- Thom's megalithic calendar, and that cf. fig. 18) notes that among the large dence for at least a half-dozen hypoth- astronomical skills and rituals (perhaps stone installations in the Tihuanaco eses, all equally plausible, regarding tied to critical agricultural tasks) trav- region there are stone rings that in the astronomical alignment of kivas eled with the Neolithic, megalithic, and startling fashion resemble those with and other structures to solar and stellar Bronze Age expansions. When further astronomical orientations occurring by referents (cf. his references above and documented with ethnohistorical and the hundreds in Neolithic Europe. He also DiPeso 1968, Ellis 1970, Fewkes archaeological data and tested in indi- sees a cult significance for the circles, 1900, Goldfrank 1962, Judd 1964, cated areas, these hypotheses will be as I do, both on the basis of archaeoas- Kelley 1960, Reed 1956). Reyman proven or disproven, but to dismiss tronomy and on that of European (1973a) cites Bandelier (as quoted by them without testing as "speculative" folkloric survivals. Measuring with a Lange and Riley 1970:69-70) with re- or "diffusionist" misses the point that theodolite various of the Peruvian gard to the astronomical function that hypothesis formulation in a new sub- sacred structures and complexes, Mul- might be attributed to towers: "The discipline must start somewhere. I ler suggests that winter-solstice orien- year begins about the winter solstice. suggested that Thom's megalithic cal- tations were highly significant, early The sun tower is used as follows. In endar is archaeologically and ethnolog- records also indicating that nobles winter, they look through a notch in ically testable, and I further suggest came from all regions to Cuzco to take the western wall, over a pillar to the that such archaeoastronomical re- part in the ceremonials of the winter- east. When the sun rises over a certain search may in some cases indicate by solstice sunrise (occurring in Peru in point, there in a line with the pillar, conflicting legends and dates that pre- June). The chronology of the appear- then it is midwinter or the beginning cession has invalidated the ancient as- ance of megalithic traits seems to me of the year. In summer they look from tronomical "announcer" data. A spe- to have been fairly confused before a pillar in the summer gardens to the cific and testable finding is also evident I compounded the confusion by ad- sun tower." In papers that are model in Muller's statement that the Tihuan- ding astronomy. Sankalia (1962: 100- studies in method (which Snow wishes aco people did not use the astronomical 105) cites a number of megalith types to see), Reyman (1970, 1971a, b, 1972) equinox, as unsophisticated astron- including the cairn circle (with two or uses this Southwestern ethnology for omers would have done, to divide the more subtypes) and the usual run of the formulation and testing of hypoth- year into halves, but apparently used dolmens, porthole cists, and menhirs, eses: he observes that every pueblo was a sun declination of +0.5", the value frequently connected with secondary and is significantly involved with astro- Thom finds for megalithic man. If, burials and associated with stone rings. nomical observations organized on an upon testing by precision methods, this He relates these to the earliest Tamil institutional basis, linked with archi- is found to be true in a statistically culture, as I do the cattle and solstice tecture and ritual (including an accu- significant number of cases, these data rituals. He cites Christoph von Fiirer- rate horizon calendar based on fixed will tell us something for which an Haimendorf's theory that the mega- observation points) and demonstrating explanation must be found-especially lith-builders were a people of Mediter- attention to the sun (the major deity), if they occur in the context of a com- ranean stock practicing irrigation and the moon, Venus, the Pleiades, Orion, plex of other parallelisms. Is it "specu- metallurgy who entered South India and Polaris, among other heavenly lation" based on "superficial impres- by sea around 500 B.c., the evidence bodies. As he points out above, he sees sions taken out of context" to insist including the dolmenoid cist with astronomy as developing coincident that such astronomical functions for porthole which in Western Europe is with the sedentary village as the means megalithic and other ancient structures

CURRENTANTHROPOLOGY will be proven or disproven not by Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY argument but by ethnohistoric re- search followed by precision mapping pre-Vedic astronomical knowledge, events, he suggests, are described in and measuring, combined with the use which, in my hypothesis, drew heavily the historical documentation upon of aids such as Aveni's tables (see upon proto-Indian sources (cf. Shafer which Velikovsky has built his hypoth- below) and Sanders and Reyman's 1954). Necessary archaeoastronomical eses. Cyr (1970) discusses the Vail computer program? tasks for this area are the precision hypothesis of ice crystals which may While I may differ from some of measurement of Indus structures to have given special effects to Stone- the commentators with regard to the determine possible astronomical align- henge and other monuments of the extent of such speculation admissible ments and the further study of Indus megalithic period. in the pioneer data-collection and cosmogony, in which planets were dei- Like Berger, I wonder why megalith- hypothesis-formulation stages of a new ties (cf. Parpola above). I have noted ic observatories fell into disuse; were subdiscipline, it seems evident that the a strong iconographic tradition of the astronomers who manned them the greater number of them do not quarrel bull sacrifice (or play) associated with victims of conquest or of natural disas- with my major hypothesis-that pre- astronomical icons, evident in the ter? Who, if not the Egyptian astron- historic and early historic men encoded Harappa city sherds and suggestive of omers, would have been held respon- a remarkable degree of astronomical a fire-bull cult in those of Cemetery sible for not having predicted or pre- knowledge in architecture, art, and H. The "stag's head" to which Roy vented that appalling catastrophe so ritual and carried this knowledge with refers is of interest in view of the graphically described by an eyewitness them when they traveled. It is clear frequent appearance of a stag in 4th- in the Papyrus Ipuwer (Van Seters that we will never recover all elements millennium Western Asian iconog- 1964) that destroyed Egypt's Middle of belief, but I have theorized that we raphy (Iranian in particular) and in Kingdom? In an article that gives valu- may recover with assurance many data ritual scenes of the Camonica Valley, able documentation from this source, with regard to astronomical knowl- Iberia, and Noth Africa; but which astronomer Be11 (1970, 197 1) advances edge, building orientations that indi- rise-set phenomena this star or con- the alternative hypothesis that the di- cate which stars and constellations were stellation was associated with, and saster was caused by a failure of the of significance, and the dates and gen- whether it announced a solstice or Nile floods; her argument is cogent, eral nature of calendric rituals, not equinox New Year, remain to be de- but as yet she has not completed her only those in text-aided areas such as termined. The quarter-phase shift to plan to account for other Bronze Age the Americas but also those in mega- which Roy alludes takes us in time (i.e., disasters in areas with different climat- lithic Western Europe. Specific hy- in four quarter shifts) through the ic conditions. The drought hypothesis potheses for which the evidence un- complete precession cycle; though as- does not to me account for all of the fortunately is not yet published include tronomers are capable of computing conditions described by Ipuwer or for the following: (1) that the Indus com- the position of significant asterisms the Mycenean Dark Age, the Indus mercial sphere extended into and well throughout this 26,000-year period, and Minoan catastrophes, and the across Africa; (2) that West Africa must some readers may have observed that Western Asian tectonic disasters. be investigated as a type of staging area the accuracy of such long-range Vermeersch has suggested that simi- between the East and the New World; computation is questioned by a coun- lar subjective constructs might have (3) that European folkloric evidence terhypothesis that questions the stabil- arisen independently. While this could and surviving witchcraft practices, if ity of the earth's crust throughout this hardly apply to highly complex con- closely studied, will afford much evi- period. structs with a known history-such as dence as to the function and use of By May, 1973, the reviewer of ar- the lunar mansion construct, which stone rings and of Thom's megalithic chaeoastronomy studies can hardly may be identified in oracle-bone in- calendar; and (4) that archaeoastron- overlook Velikovsky's (1950, 1955, scriptions of about the 14th century omy may be yet another discipline to 1963) view, mentioned in passing B.G. and is also known from early Indi- afford evidence for pre-Columbian in- above, that near-collisions of Venus an documentary evidence-I would terhemispheric contacts. with Mars ca. 2400 B.G., 1500 B.G., and agree that the Big Dipper could have Mitra (1927:308-1 I), discussing In- 800B.G. caused worldwide catastrophes been seen in unrelated cultures as a dian megaliths, has characterized the involving volcanic action and changes swastica, dipper, or spoon. That the southern seaboard of India as an area in sea levels (see Talbott 1972). MacKie same asterism would also have been in which dolmen-like structures with (1973) sees the argument as having two seen as a bear is less plausible unless cup marks are found near Asura sites parts-that catastrophes afflicted the one hypothesizes a common heritage occupied over a wide range of time earth in past ages and that planets have from ancient times. Certainly other from the Neolithic onward and asso- come into near-contact in historic asterisms should be studied, among ciated with long-headed peoples prac- times. Attempting to test the first, he them the Pleiades, the dragon and his ticing Mediterranean rites including charts radiocarbon dates having to do American cousin the feathered cremation. Fergusson (18723498)- with volcanic action and changes in serpent, the Asian-American turtle whose citation by Loofs remedies an fossil shorelines and finds them to and scorpion, the Southeast Asian ma- omission--compares Eastern with cluster, as the catastrophism hypothe- caraand crocodile, the Asian feline and Western dolmens, asserting that the sis would predict. Juergens (1972) the American jaguar, which Hatch holed dolmen and the simulated cist argues that while celestial mechanics (197 1) takes to be an analogue to Ursa are part of a system affording innu- in 1950 could not accommodate such Minor. (I note in passing a possible merable points of contact and that "it a disordering of planets, recent space connection of the water-loving felines seems very difficult to refuse to believe probes have indicated that the inter- and bears with rain symbolism.) A that both styles were the product of planetary medium is not a vacuum but comparative study of the north cir- one kindred race of men . . . more a plasma (an ionized gas) and that cumpolar constellations would be es- or less directly in communication with planets have shielding mechanisms, pecially interesting in view of their one another." space-charge sheaths, which would near-invisibility in Peru, where the Roy's comments and references fur- unleash electrical fields and forces on north pole star is below the horizon ther support the high importance of approach, with disastrous effects. Such and the seasons are reversed. The Vol. 14 . No. 4 October 1973 independent appearance of similar terhemispheric contact," a subject tures. The gnomon, which was virtual- subjective constructs over a large area upon which much interdisciplinary ly universal among the ancient cul- could, however, imply a major cosmic scholarship of high quality is edited tures, could have been independently event of an exceptional and threaten- by Riley et al. (1971) and Ashe (1971). invented as a result of observations of ing nature which in the course of 24 Somewhat less critically, Gordon shadow-casting natural objects. All hours would be seen over the entire (1971) brings together evidence from peoples with fixed dwellings must have globe. The appearance of comets and various fields to support his hypotheses observed that the midwinter and mid- novae is recorded early in China; regarding the specific peoples in- summer sunrises reached certain dis- Needham (1959:424 and fig. 182) volved. tant markers on the horizon and then publishes an engraved oracle-bone Kelley's statement that I see a Neo- changed directions. We have seen that dating from about 1300 B.C. which lithic base for astronomical ideas which the Greeks used sky-charts suited to records "a great new star" in company he regards as coming together only the skies of a millennium earlier; the with Antares. Not only the Chinese and during the Hellenistic period prompts proportion of sophisticated astron- the Japanese, but also (as Breternitz me to observe that I am discussing omers in any culture may have been points out) the Southwestern Indians beginnings whereas he is studying a small and their science closely guarded, recorded the nova which became the finished product (the lunar mansion and their overthrow could have wiped Crab Nebula. construct of Chinese, Indians, and out astronomical knowledge and train- As Berger states, another article the Mesoamericans). Western Asian ico- ing systems. length of this one could have been nography suggests to me that these The inadequate coverage of South- written on ethnoastronomy; the vast subjective systems constructed on ob- east Asia is, as Loofs suspects, due to field of astronomical myth (cf. LCvi- ser;ations bf the ecliptic had their my unfamiliarity with textual materi- Strauss 1969), for example, has hardly origins in a limited way when archaic als. In fact, however, it was curiosity been touched. De Santillana and Von astronomers first observed, in connec- aroused in this region that directed Dechend (1969) interpret ancient tion with fixing the rise-set positions me into protohistory. Angkor, the myths as a codified statement personi- of the sun at its solstices, that certain Burmese stupas, and other great ar- fying the precession of the equinoxes star groups served as "announcers" of chitectural works overwhelm the and presenting it as the overthrow of this by their heliacal rise-set times, that imagination, but Bali nourishes it a world order. (Most authorities have is, by their first appearance after oc- gently; it is touching to be shown the placed a knowledge of precession at cultation due to conjunction. It is of very seat (a megalithic one) occupied a later date than the probable origin course speculation on my part (based by the Sun God when he visits, fortu- of these myths.) No less interesting is on iconography and on recorded or nately only in spirit. Though a difficult their thesis that the geography of the surviving rituals) that in Iran (and area, somewhat lacking in stone and myths is not that of earth but that of again in Iberia) a stag constellation characterized by a climate and vegeta- the star-filled sky, the fateful events (whether zodiacal or a paranatellon) tion that destroys wooden structures they depict not the acts of men but may have served thus in the 5th-4th and disrupts stone ones, Southeast Asia of gods who are also the astra. They millennia, and at the moment it is is particularly important to this study. see this cosmology as expressed in a equally speculation that such an event Perhaps someone qualified to do so structure of number, something per- might have occurred at a solstice occa- will discover and list archaeoastronomy ceived as a whole and expressed in sion in certain cultures, whereas dur- studies. When measurements with a myth and iconography. he^ inter- ing the 4th-2d millennia Taurus transit can be made, Southeast Asian pret an ancient iconogram-that of the appears to have announced a spring sacred structures should be compared horned animal carrying between his equinox New Year to others. (Note, with remarkably similar ones in the horns (in Western Asia) or on his flank however, that Old World astronomers Americas and elsewhere. Needham (in iconography I have observed in the may have observed meridian passages well documents the region as a route American Southwest) the square of as well as rise-set phenomena.) These of passage for early Chinese and Indi- "the inhabited earth7'-as representing hypotheses are yet unproven: in gen- an travelers, including the Buddhist not our earth but that ideal plane eral, a concern with summer and ones I should have noted above. A located by archaic astronomers along winter solstices appears more reason- massive influence is archaeologically the ecliptic, the two solstices and the able for the colder north and a spring indicated by Chinese and Indian types two equinoxes. They place Time Zero date with the needs of Neolithic agri- of architecture and art, including as- around 5000 B.c., when the bounding cult&alists, but we also must think in tronomical proto-chess and other constellations of this "inhabited earth terms of hunters changing hunting forms of prognostication or imitative were Gemini and Sagittarius, with grounds seasonally. magic. Le May (1954) has noted pyra- Pisces and Virgo at the other two Kelley has objected to the inclusion mid orientations to the cardinal points corners, and the Milky Way ran along of studies which are "contradictory in and published a terraced square pyra- the celestial meridian. detail and principle," but, again, is not mid and a round tower which would In further reply to Clark, whether one function of a synthesizing review have been at home in ChichCn Itz5. or not trait association is a weak reed the indication of differing points of Though in the absence of systematic depends, it seems to me, upon the view? Kelley, Dow, and others have measurements or orientations it is fu- weight and nature of the evidence un- stressed the necessity of control from tile to speak of function or resem- derconsideration. Heyerdahl (I971 a,b) the written sources. Not all areas, blances, I do call attention again to has demonstrated that a sufficient however, provide texts, and not all Kelley's citations of parallels in the number of reeds bound together can scripts have been adequately translat- Asian and Mesoamerican lunar man- cross oceans, whether or not early ed, while iconography often affords sions, Heine-Geldern's and Ekholm's Egyptian prototypes of Ra did so. If quite explicit evidence with regard to comparative studies of art, Kirchhoff's the "diffusionist paradigm" is rituals. study of similar religious traits, and bankrupt, I suspect that like many Swauger and others have questioned various studies of archaeological par- another bankrupt concern it has the necessity for sophisticated astro- allels (Meggers 197 1; Meggers, Evans, opened up a flourishing business else- nomical and mathematical knowledge and Estrada 1965; Beirne 1971; where under an assumed name: "in- in the arrangement of sighting struc- Heyerdahl 197 1a, 6; Sorenson 197 1).

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Loofs' suggestion that known mega- aity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY lithic cultures and evidence of ar- chaeoastronomy be plotted on a map there was extensive knowledge about in right ascension, marked for the is a good one. When the requisite astronomy; the evidence of pre- Olmecs the summer solstice, the au- archaeoastronomy studies make this Neolithic burials indicates some rea- tumnal equinox, the winter solstice, possible, I for one will be surprised sonably precise method of determining and the vernal equinox respectively if there is not considerable overlap- the sun's rising position at the equi- with their midnight transits.) Thus, she ping. noxes and solstices. holds, the La Venta site at 18" north I agree with Aveni that a clearer I did not mean to imply that Morley latitude was oriented ca. 1000 B.C.to distinction should have been made was the first to describe the Group-E- CP Ursae Majoris, which set on the between studies of site orientations type alignment, and am glad Reyman horizon 8" west of north. She attributes based merely on map inspection and noted this, as in fact I took Ricketson's to the Olmecs a practical astronomy those based on measurements with a (1928) article along when inspecting and glyphic records of such phenome- transit. Though Aveni may not consid- an alignment of this type (but reversed, na as meridian transits in connection er himself that improbable hybrid the perhaps for the observation of sunset with solstices. Her hypothesis is of well-rounded archaeoastronomer, I phenomena) at the Temple of the Dolls further interest in that the Olmec con- suggest that MacKie, Reyman, Kelley, at Dzibilchaltun in January; this com- cern with circumpolar constellations, and others here listed whose profes- plex, meticulously measured by Aveni, like Olmec art, is suggestive of Chinese sion is archaeology are becoming suffi- will be discussed by him in a subsequent influence. Fuson (1969), working with ciently aware of astronomical facts to publication (cf. Andrews 1959a, b). the orientations of Mesoamerican indicate that the archaeoastronomer is I am chagrined at the proofreading sacred structures and city sites, ob- not far in the future. Aveni, as director slip which deprived Paleolithic artists serves what appear to be culturally of a seminar and field research pro- of the final sapiens due them, observed important solar and stellar rise-set gram, should, however, agree that ar- by Reyman but I hope not by my alignments; he has also assembled evi- chaeology students must be taught how students. I dislike neologisms as much dence supporting M. D. Coe's sugges- to identify potentially significant sites, as the next person, but "astra," as a tion that a magnetite object found in to map by astronomical north, and to collective term, is useful to those to southern Veracruz may have been part scan the foreground for markers or whom "celestial" evokes romantic of an early Olmec magnetic compass. postholes and the horizon for distant overtones, while Thom's "megalithic A group from Colgate University markers. Though archaeoastronomy man," though doubtless as mythical as headed by Aveni has been conducting will remain interdisciplinary, the early the all-round archaeoastronomer, is field investigations in Central Mexico studies of Reyman, Molloy, Hatch, and too valuable a portmanteau term to and Yucatan to determine whether others indicate that doctoral candi- abandon. Other errors which are less particular site alignments obtained dates can make outstanding contribu- defensible (including doubtless still with a transit are correlated with astro- tions to theory and method. others generously not noted) are ex- nomical rise-set phenomena (Aveni Nor do I feel that Aveni really ques- plainable in the phrase Samuel John- 1970). The field program utilizes a set tions the heavy astronomical content son used in reply to an irate reader's of tables (Aveni 1972) giving rise-set of Maya texts. In addition to the refer- question as to why he had made a dates of bright stars for a combination ences listed above, the following certain error in his encyclopaedia, "Ig- of epochs, latitudes, and horizon ele- sources are important to archaeoas- norance, Madam, ignorance!" Happi- vations. Preliminary results with re- tronomers: Forstemann (1904), Guthe ly, ignorance is vincible. gard to Building J at Monte Alb5n (cf. (1932), KeHey (1970, 1972), Nuttall Since final submission of this paper, Caso 1932) have been analyzed (Aveni (1901), Sahagun (1953), Seler (1904), I have learned of much significant and Linsley 1972) in a paper which Smiley (1970), Spinden (1916, .1928), research. In a paper of great heuristic suggests the possible importance of the Teeple (1931), Thompson (1972), and value for archaeoastronomy, Hatch heliacal rising of Capella as an "an- Weitzel (1949). An 11-page fragment (1971) assigns an astronomical func- nouncer" of a solar zenith passage. which may be part of a fourth surviving tion to the site plan of La Venta, where Students of Aveni are making studies codex has been described by Michael around 1000 B.C. the Olmecs con- in depth of astronomical glyphs. Coe (New York Times, April 2 1, 197 1) structed a hugh fluted-cone pyramid Computerized results of the field sur- as covering 25 Venus cycles (almost as part of an impressive ceremonial veys should be available within the 104 solar years) and as furnishing complex oriented along a line 8" west year. additional pictorial information on the of true north. In her hypothesis, the On the basis of archaeoastronomical, Venus calendar and its influence on builders of La Venta had inherited iconographic, and textual studies, Zui- Maya religion and astrology. This a tradition appropriate to 2000 B.c., dema (personal communication, 1 v codex shows that the Maya considered when to observers in the northern 73) independently confirms Miiller's all four phases of the Venus cycle to hemisphere the summer solstice would (1972) views with regard to the astro- be malevolent and threatening: "The have been marked by a stellar configu- nomical basis of the Inca architecture gods ruling each phase of Venus are ration including not only Ursa Major, and cosmology. He has identified cer- depicted as killing and capturing peo- but also Cygnus, the Pleiades, Leo, and tain markers (pillars) which may have ple and burning towns." The new Scorpio; i.e., the center of the bowl of been used as sighting devices for the fragment, with Coe's interpretation, the Big Dipper (her CP Ursae Majoris) determination of the winter-solstice will soon be published by the Grolier made a lower transit of the meridian sunrise and plans to investigate this Club (47 E. 60th St., New York, N.Y.). going each way less than 15 minutes possibility further this summer. His We must agree with Pohorecky that before midnight, crossing the triangu- research indicates 328 sacred sites in meaning was important, but when cul- lum of Cygnus making the transit Cuzco; when these are added to others tures had developed to the point where going west, while at the same time the in the Temple of the Sun, the total agricultural rituals required precise Pleiades rose in the east and Scorpio is 365. The days of this solar year were, dating, measurement and food-getting set in the west. (In her hypothesis, these in his hypothesis, arranged in nine-day must have coincided. Pittioni shares my four equidistant constellations, follow- weeks and 27+-day months, indicating feeling that as early as the Neolithic ing each other by approximately 90' lunar as well as solar calendric obser- Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 vations. From the Temple of the Sun, junction with the British Academy, spread parallels indicate the possible he suggests, 41 lines radiated like the December 7-8, 1972; the discussion diffusion of astronomical concepts spokes of a wheel in groups of three stressed Thom's findings in regard to throughout the Neolithic world (cf. linked to a pillar indicating the new megalithic astronomy and further Lewis 1972b:45-82 on steering by the month. His nine-day week is of interest confirmed the significant role of as- stars). The Maya astronomical system in connection with Kelley's (1972) tronomy in the early cults of Mesopo- was discussed by Thompson (1972), study of the Nine Lords of the Night, tamia, Egypt, and China. Newton who called attention to objective astro- in which he examines Maya glyphs, (1972) analyzed the need of ancient nomical knowledge of such precision Mexican sources, and a Zapotec calen- astronomers to develop methods of that the corrected error in Venus rev- dar list and concludes that the Lords dealing with rise-set and other appar- olutions is one day in 6,000 years. represented nine days named for gods, ent phenomenain terms of a coordinate A symposium arranged and chaired the planet list indicating that they system based on the observer's horizon. by me was jointly sponsored by the began their rule at midnight. Kelley Aaboe (1972) broadly classified pre- departments of anthropology, ge- turns to Indian sources for an expla- scientific astronomy, compared late ography, and physics of the University nation of the number nine, finding with earlier Babylonian astronomy (at- of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on evidence that the gods involved in their tributing the uniqueness of Babylonian March 7, 1973, and additional papers day-name order were Sun, Moon, mathematical astronomy to its base in were read at a joint meeting of the Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and a particular type of mathematics), and Southern Anthropological Society and Saturn (precisely the same as in the traced its influence in Hellenistic, In- the American Ethnological Society at Latinized names of our weekdays), the dian, and Islamic astronomy. Sachs Wrightsville Beach on March 8. Aveni two remaining deities being the moon's (1972) gave evidence of systematic as- (1973a,b) discussed the determination ascending node (Rahu, head of the tronomical observation early in the 2d of astronomical orientations by mea- eclipse dragon) and its descending millennium B.c., during which period surement with a transit and the use node (Ketu, tail). His study of the Venus was closely scrutinized. Parker of his tables (cited above). Fuson characteristics of the Mesoamerican (1972) summed up Egyptian calen- (1973a) discussed a new research tool, Nine Lords and the Indian day-list drics. Hawkins (1972) offered new evi- "magneto-archaeology," the study of deities also indicates parallels in attri- dence on Stonehenge and on the the deliberate alignment of structures butes; he sees the time indicated by Amon Ra temple, which he found to to magnetic north, and (1973b) showed the order of the Indian lists as some- be oriented to sunrise at the winter that a large number of Maya sites have what postdating the 2d century B.c., solstice. Needham (1972) described longitudinal alignments to present a period also suggested by his study early Chinese astronomy as polar and magnetic north and that dramatic of the lunar mansions. (I point out equatorial rather than planetary and shifts in orientation occurred at ap- again that specific evidence of this ecliptic and as bureaucratic rather than proximately the same time (as indicat- nature need not lead us to assume that scholarly, also emphasizing the signifi- ed by dated stelae) in widely separated a first contact is indicated; if Proto-In- cance of astronomy in the development sites. Magnetic north is of course a dian travelers were in Africa, as the of the other sciences and the arts. strictly local and shifting phenomenon, evidence seems to me [see Jones 1964, Thom (1972) summarized the mega- though the low latitude of the Maya 197 11, the further step to the Americas lithic designers' use of an integral sites cuts down the variation somewhat. is not inconceivable.) That the Indus right-angled triangle, their observa- (Readers interested in magnetoar- people were great astronomers as well tions of the moon's perturbations, and chaeology should see Needham's as magicians we know from Vedic the structure of the megalithic calen- [1962:229-3341 discussion of magnet- sources; though Roy assigns these as- dar (cf. Thom and Thom 1972). In ism, divination, and chess; it is also tronomical traditions, already evident connection with the study of the of interest that Maya noblemen, the in Vedic materials in 1300 B.c., to moon's perturbations, Thom de- Lords of Totonicapin, stated that their Indo-Europeans, the similarity of Kel- scribed the extrapolation sectors in ancestors brought to Mesoamerica a ley's data to the astronomical materials Caithness, the Orkneys, and Brittany "sacred director" and were led by four described by Parpola from the decod- and suggested that the alignments at principal leaders, whose names B. P. ing of Indus seals leads me to believe Le MCnec may provide an adjustment Reko identifies as the four constella- that the invaders took over what they for the moon's varying speed in its tions representing the four quarters could of the Indus science. Zuidema's orbit. Atkinson (1972) reaffirmed his of the heavens [cf. Ferguson 1962: 17- comments on Peruvian astronomy fur- support of Thom's high opinion of 381.) Reyman (1973a,b), discussing ther indicate the importance of ar- Neolithic engineering and stressed the ethnographic accounts of Puebloan as- chaeoastronomical studies in this area impact of corrected radiocarbon chro- tronomical practices, listed sources for where a variety of evidence indicates nology on the dating of Western Euro- the formulation of archaeoastronomi- many Old World-New World parallels. pean cultures, with its implication that cal hypotheses. Smiley's (19736) com- Increasing interest in archaeoas- mining, megalithic construction, and munication was of particular interest tronomy is evidenced by recent semi- perhaps the wheel may have developed for introducing yet another celestial nars. At a Mesoamerican symposium independently in the West. Climatic variable which has been a concern of at Cambridge University, August 29- factors which had bearing on the early archaic astronomers-the differing 31, 1972, Marshack (1972) discussed cultures were reviewed by Lamb positions of the Milky Way throughout Gossen's (1972) find of a surviving (1972). MacKie (1972) discussed his time, from approximately the 5th mil- aboriginal Mesoamerican solar calen- two archaeological tests of Thom's as- lennium to the Classic Maya period. dar of evident antiquity, Digby (1972a; tronomical implications. Kendall Comparing the orientations of a Maya see also 19726) described a hypothet- (1972) analyzed the difficulties in deal- platform described to him by Ruiz with ical astronomical instrument suggested ing with Thom's megalithic quantum those of the longest of the Nasca desert by representations in the codices, and of 5.44 ft. (1.66 m.) on the basis of straight lines, Smiley (1973a) suggested Baity (1972) reported on recent re- current studies. Lewis (1972a) contrib- that the Peruvians may have had pri- search. "The Place of Astronomy in the uted data on astronomical navigation ority in constructing a match to the Ancient World" was the title of a meet- and weather lore in Polynesia and Mi- position of the Milky Way (cf. Cowan's ing held by the Royal Society, in con- cronesia and suggested that wide- hypothesis below with reference to

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY template matches). Smiley suggested Baity: ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND ETHNOASTRONOMY that when this research tool is refined, it can perhaps be used to date these progressed, in the general time period elements in maize cultivation, and and other constructions and lines. I of the estimated date of the Codex, offers further evidence that the helia- (Baity 1973a,b) surveyed some of the and suggests that the pages deal with cal risings of specific constellations and evidence from other scientific disci- a "serpent calendar." stars may have governed the timing plines which indicates the possibility Hochleitner (1973) will analyze six of agricultural operations. Cook de that mariners could have brought a Long Count dates found in the Dres- Leonard (1973a) studies the survival knowledge of Old World astronomical den Codex in support of his correlation of feasts related to the agricultural instruments and constructs to the New of Maya and Christian calendars: he cycle, together with the celebration of World. finds evidence here of a match with events on or about the solstices and A seminar on archaeostronomy in two solar eclipses and a lunar eclipse. equinoxes, to explain coincidences in pre-Columbian America (part of the Utilizing the rattlesnake (Pleiades) and the dates of Christian and aboriginal program of the American Association the turtle (Gemini-Scorpio) constella- festivities. She also (19736) studies the for the Advancement of Science) to tions, he reconstructs a hypothetical four panels on the walls of the Tajin be co-chaired by Aveni and Hartung Maya zodiac which places the begin- ballcourt (dated ca. A.D. 1000), using in Mexico City in mid-June aims to ning of the year at the spring equinox. known astronomical signs to aid in the explore the astronomical knowledge His equation puts the date of the last interpretation of others in order to add and skills of the ancient peoples of the Mayan calendar reform (according to a timetable to their contents. New World and their effect upon other De Landa) in A.D. 1081. Owen (1973) The orientations of Mesoamerican aspects of life. To judge from the will use Makemson's correlation in the structures and ceremonial centers will abstracts at hand, this meeting should interpretation of the astronomical be discussed by Aveni, Drucker, Fuson, bring new evidence to bear on prob- meaning of the "ten pictured" intervals Hartung, and Hurtado. Aveni (1973~) lems of the origin and correct correla- in the Dresden Codex eclipse table. will report on fieldwork with a transit tion of the Mesoamerican calendar and Other iconographic evidence of in- in several areas; he has found nearly the role of astronomical orientations terest in connection with the begin- identical orientations for the Pyramid and calendric rituals in Mesoamerican nings of Maya astronomy will be cited of the Sun at Teotihuacin and the sacred architecture; a secondary focus by Marsh (1973), among them a possi- pyramids of Tenayuca (cf. Marquina will be on the astronomical record in ble pre-Mayan numbering system, 1932)and Tepozteco, all of which align the rock art of the southwestern United eclipse hieroglyphics, and other icons approximately 17' north of west, con- States. Coe's (1973) keynoting paper which he compares with Asian icono- firming an early match with the will compare the information provided graphic symbols, suggesting a relation- Pleiades-set position noted by Mar- by the codices, the carved monuments, ship. Schove (1973) suggests that a quina and Ruiz (1932). Aveni suggests and native intellectuals and Spanish comparison of Aztec astronomical and that further measurements must be scholars writing shortly after the Con- meteorological dates with Chinese and made to establish whether a "17' family quest with that derived from modern European astronomical records might of orientation" exists. (This should be ethnography to determine which be used to determine when the Mixtec compared with Miiller's [19721 indica- heavenly bodies and asterisms were of and Maya peoples would have ob- tions of architectural alignments in interest to ancient Mesoamericans-an served datable astronomical events Peru that appear to match setting phe- analysis designed to provide informa- such as comets, eclipses, conspicuous nomena and with MacGowan's [1945] tion applicable to the problems of site meteor showers, or unusual mete- remarkable one-page paper antici- and building orientations. Though the orological conditions such as severe pating Aveni's findings.) Aveni's mea- seminar focuses on Mesoamerica, droughts. With a "spectrum of time" surement of Caracol windows suggests Hawkins (1973) will summarize his thus established, he suggests, a com- two alignments with Venus-set posi- recent research in Europe and Egypt parison might be made of proposed tions when at extreme declinations, an as well as in Peru and Central America, solutions of the Maya correlation argument supported by Kelley's dis- and Jon Olson (personal com- problem. Harber (1973), on the same covery of Venus representations on munication, 28 XI 72) will also discuss assumption that the Maya recorded Caracol Stela 3 (A. F. Aveni, personal Old World materials. Olson suggests comets, novae, and other temporary communication, I 73). This and other that the Stanton Drew stone circles, astronomical events, tests the theory findings discussed above indicated the three large Neolithic stone circles 60 by his hypothesis that the "cross- use of alignments in calendar setting, km. northwest of Stonehenge, could legged" glyph (Glyph X, form 40) was the use of "announcer" stars to predict have been used to mark the seasonal used to signify the arrival of a comet solar zenith passage, and the use of risings of the sun and full moon in or nova. On the basis of this hypothesis Group-E-type structures to indicate a similar but more complex manner he compares Chinese and European solstices and equinoxes. than at Stonehenge. His study of records of comets and novae with Drucker (1973), arguing that the megalithic rings as counting devices Mayan dates associated with this glyph, main axis of Teotihuacin was original- shows a preference for groupings of finding confirmation for certain calen- ly oriented 15"25' east of true north 12 and 13,18 and 19,29 and 30 stones, dar correlation constants. A concor- (the same orientation having been fol- leading him to suggest that the circles dance table is also to be presented by lowed in a major rebuilding of the city may have indicated the numbers of Noriega (1973), who will analyze Maya around A.D. 600, by which time preces- months, years, and days in lunar and and Nahua calendric systems and as- sion would have rendered this orienta- solar cycles. Marshack (1973) will ana- tronomical computing and describe tion obsolete), concludes that a solar lyze an arithmetic-calendric Olmec mathematical-astronomical symbols rather than a stellar orientation is indi- mosaic dated to around 1200 B.C. used by the Aztecs. cated and finds this further suggested Hatch (1973) finds that pictures ac- Several papers indicate that astro- by indications of winter-solstice obser- companying the 260-day count in the nomical events were routinely used to vation from the pyramids of the Sun Madrid Codex (pp. 12-18) correlate date essential agricultural tasks. Shaw and of the Moon. Fuson (1973~)adds with constellations as they would have (1973), studying the 260-day calendar, further evidence with regard to factors been observed after sunset as the year concludes that it marks critical time affecting the orientations of the cere- Vol. 14 No. 4 . October 1973 monial structures, concluding that as- ed by the Chinese astronomer Yang tested with the Nasca figures and even tronomical and geomagnetic factors Wei-Tak on July 4, 1054--is repre- with Asian city plans. Many ancient were the principal determinants of the sented by both a pictograph and a sites, he notes, involve single-point Mesoamerican alignments. Hartung petroglyph in Fern Cave and that these alignments, where a fixed terrestrial (1973) adds further evidence of the also record a rare conjunction visible point coincides with a single stellar importance of astronomical knowledge essentially only from western North object on the horizon; the effigy in Mesoamerican sacred architecture America, the crescent moon a few mounds, however, may be actual and suggests rigorous criteria for dis- degrees north of the supernova. His models or reproductions of constella- tinguishing the class of lines relating argument, like that of Miller, is based tions (bears, serpents, birds) or, in to visual functional composition from partly on the rare appearance of cres- short, a template match. (Could a that having to do with astronomical cents in the North American rock art translation into architecture of this and other orientation directions. Hur- collated and discussed by Heizer and principle-i.e., the Chinese polar- tad0 (1973) analyzes an archaeological Baumhoff (1962), Schwartz (1963), cum-four-quarters model in astron- plaza with regard to both its cultural and Grant (1967). Ellis (1973), in a omy and governmental structure-be ambit and its astronomical function. study of Southwestern calendric ob- present in the Southeast Asian stepped Chamberlain (1973) will examine as- servation and symbols, suggests, cones of pyramids which are sur- tronomical legends and symbols which however, that this symplegma may be mounted by a central stupa surround- appear in pictographs, petroglyphs, a sun-moon-morning-star combination ed by four others?) kiva art, dry paintings, and more re- pertaining to solstice observations. She Reyman (1973~)notes that many cent art. Williamson et al. (1973) will offers evidence that stars were impor- archaeoastronomical studies have not review evidence that the Indians who tant as symbols of certain supernatural produced convincing results because occupied Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, beings (as we have seen they were in the investigators have neither ade- from A.D. 700 to 1200 had a sophisti- Indus and Mexican cosmology) and quately defined their problem nor cated understanding of astronomy and that the astra were observed as time- considered the incompleteness of the used their structures as crude astro- markers. The system, she suggests, archaeological record; he offers a pro- nomical instruments, astronomically may have been introduced from Mexi- gram for the formulation and testing aligning their great kivas. They note co by traders. Britt (1973) will summa- of archaeoastronomical hypotheses. perpendicular directional markings rize the literature on the 14 "star ceil- A significant function of the Mexico cut into a rock which appear to align ing" archaeological sites of early Nava- City seminar will be to draw together with winter-solstice sunrise, a hypothe- jo origin in the Cafion de Chelly and the threads which indicate the strongly sis which agrees with that of Smiley report on his work with Navajo inter- astronomical nature of Mesoamerican (1973a) with regard to the Nasca lines. preters to correlate pictographs with culture and to indicate some directives Citing previous work by Miller (1955) Navajo star mythology. for continuing archaeoastronomy and and Brandt et al. (1972), Williamson Cowan (personal communication, 28 ethnoastronomy in the Americas, the (1973) hypothesizes that the Crab 11 73) will advance a hypothesis with topic of my summarizing report (Baity Nebula supernova explosion-which, regard to the function of effigy 1973~). according to the Sung-shih,was report- mounds which, I suggest, should be

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Vol. 14 . No. 4 . October 1973 447 [SBRI pects of Polynesian and Micronesian as- l'aide de I'astronomie, la date approxi- JETTMAR,KARL.197 1. "Einige ~berle~un- tronomy. Paper read at symposium "The mative de certains monuments mt- gen zum Megalithproblem," in Milanges Place of Astronomy in the Ancient galithiques? Mhoires de la Sociiti d'His- de prihistoire, d'archiocivilisation et d'ethno- World," Royal Society and British Aca- toire et d'Archiologie- de Bretame- 10: 13-26. logie offerts ci Andre' Varagnac, pp. 477-85. demy, London, December 7-8. [PRGI Paris: Sevpen. [HHEL] . 1972b. We, thenavigators: The ancient . 1935. Valeur mttriaue du pied JONES,A. M. 1964. Africa and Indonesia. art of landfinding in the Pacific. Honolulu: employ6 en Gaule, commd mesurd de Leyden: E. J. Brill. University of Hawaii Press. longueur, avant ]'$re chrttienne. Mi- . 1971. "Africa and Indonesia: An Loo~s,H. H. E. 1967. Elements of the mega- moires de la Sociiti d'Histoire et d'Archiologie ancient colonial era?" in Essays on music lithic complex in Southeast Asia: An anno- de Bretagne 16: 133-45. [PRG] and history in Africa. Edited by Klaus P. tated bibliography. Canberra: Australian MEYNIER.ANDRE. 1943a. Champs et chemins Wachsmann. Evanston: Northwestern National University Press. [HHEL] de ~rdta~ne.Confirences ~iiversitairesde University Press. . 1970. "The use of stone by the Breta e 1942-43, pp. 159-78. rPR8 JONES,SIRWILLIAM. 1790. A supplement to Ifugao (Luzon, Philippines)." Proceedings, L- --- 2 the essay on Indian chronology. Asiatick VIIIth International Congress of Anthro- . 1943b. Une enquste sur le bocage Researches 2:389. [SBR] pological and Ethnological Sciences, 1968, breton. Annales de Bretagne 50: 102-3. JUDD,NEILM. 1964. The architectureof Pueblo Tokyo and Kyoto, vol. 3, [PRGI Bonito. Smithsonian Institution Miscella- ~okyo:Science Council o~qapZ!~~' . 1944a. Sur de curieux alignements neous Collections 147(1). [HHEL] de chemins et de monuments en Bre- JUERGENS,RALPH.1972. "Reconciling celes- LININGTON,ROBERTE. 1969. The prospect- tame. Annales de Bretaae 51: 125-29. tial mechanics and Velikovskian ing campaign undertaken in Czechoslo- [P~G] catastrophism," in Immanuel Velikovsky vakia in 1968. Rospezioni archeologiche . 1944b. Notre enquste sur les reconsidered II. Edited by Stephen L. Tal- 4: 13 1-38. [EPS] champs Bretons. Annales de Bretagne bott, pp. 612. Portland: Student Aca- MACKIE,E. W. 1969. An archaeological view 51:136-39. [PRG] demic Freedom Forum. of Neolithic astronomy. Glasgow: Hun- . 1945. ~e;ense-ignements gtogra- KELLEY,DAVID. 1970. Indo-Greek cosmolo- terian Museum. [JER] phiques de la photographie atrienne Plt- gy and science in ancient Mesoamerica. . 1972. Archaeological tests on htrel. Annales de Bretagne 52:73-81.

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the American Ethnological Society, Svstems Conference.~ ~. Dumbarton Oaks. . 1972. Gods from outer space. Trans- Wrightsville Beach, N.C., March 8. ~;ly 22-24. lated by Michael Heron. New York: Ban- . 1973c. The nature and nurture of , 1973a. The astronomical signifi- tam Books. [JWD] archaeoastronomical hypotheses. Paper cance of the Nasca desert ground figures. WEITZEL,R. B. 1949. The dark phase of prepared for symposium "Archaeoas- Paper read at the archaeoastronomy the moon and ancient Maya methods of tronomy in Pre-Columbian America," seminar at the University of North Caro- solar eclipse prediction. American Antiq- American Association for the Advance- lina at Chapel Hill, March 7. uity 3:230-33. ment of Science, Mexico City, June 20-22. . 19736. Milky Way orientations in WILLIAMSON,R. A. 1973. Possible rock art City, June 20-22. the distant past. Paper read at the joint records of the Crab Nebula supernova RICKETSON,0. G., JR. 1928. Astronomical meeting of the Southern Anthropological in the western United States. Paper observatories in the Maya area. Geograph- Society and the American Ethnological prepared for symposium "Archaeoas- ical Review 18:215-25. [JER] Society, Wrightsville Beach, N.C., March tronomy in Pre-Columbian America," RICKETSON,0.G., JR.,and E. B. RICKETSON. R American Association for the Advance- 1937. Uaxactun, Guatemala: Group E SGTH,CHARLES PIAZZI. 1880. Our inheritance ment of Science, Mexico City, June 20-22. (1 926-1 931). Carne ie Institution of in the Great Pyramid. London: W. Isbister. WILLIAMSON,R. A., A. F. WILLIAMSON,H. Washington, publ. 475 [JER] [JWDI J. FISHER,and C. COCHRAN.1973. The RILEY,CARROLL L., J. 'CHARLES KELLEY, SPINDEN,HERBERT. 1916. The question of astronomical record' in Chaco Canyon, CAMPBELLW. PENNINGTON,and ROBERTL. the zodiac in America. Natural Science N.M., U.S.A. Paper prepared for sympo- RANDS.1971. Man across the sea: Problems 18:53-80. sium "Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Colum- of pre-Columbian contacts. Austin and , 1928. Ancient Mayan astronomy. bian America," American Association for London: University of Texas Press. Scientific American, January, pp. 8-12. the Advancement of Science, Mexico ROBINSON,L. J. 1961. Astronomy in anthro- STEPHEN,A. M. 1936. Hopi journal. Edited City, June 20-22. pology. Astronomical Society of the Pacific by E. C. Parsons. Columbia University WILLVONSEDER,KURT. 1928. Zeitbestim- Leaflets 380. JDB] Contributions to Anthropolo y 23 mende Bergnamen. Jahresbericht.der akad. ROY, S. B. 1972. Chronological infra- TALBOT~,ST~PH~N L. Editor. 1952. lmman- Sektion Wien des Deutschen und Osterreich- structure of Indian protohistory. Paper uel Velikovsky reconsidered. (Special issues ischen Alpepvereins, pp.-3-16. [RP] presented at a seminar held at Kurkshetra of Pensie.) Portland: Student Academic WILSON,H. H. 1861. Collected works. Lon- University, November. [SBR] Freedom Forum. don. [SBR]

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