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Archaeoastronomy
People have gazed at the stars for eons, and celestial phenomena have played
a vital role in agricultural, calendrical, and ritual practices throughout
history. Archaeoastronomy attempts to define the structure and function
of the relationships between people and celestial phenomena by drawing upon
archaeology, astronomy, ethnography, and ethnohistory. Andean archaeoastronomy
has developed for over half a century, and seminal works in Nazca and Cuzco
in Peru have laid a solid foundation for a research methodology in other
parts of the Andean region (Hawkins 1969; Aveni 1990; Zuidema 1964; Dearborn
and Bauer 1996; Bauer 1998)..
The focus of this archaeoastronomical study is a 22,000-square-kilometer
area mapping in the Carangas region of the southern Bolivian altiplano.
Marking this landscape are thousands of straight lines or pathways, carved
into the earth by ancient peoples by removing the top layers of soil to
reveal lighter soils beneath. Using Geographic Information System (GIS)
technology, the lines in the region were mapped and analyzed. Also a study
of the ethnography, ethnohistory, and archaeology provided the context of
human inhabitation in the region. The nature of this investigation dovetails
the mapping of astronomical events through incremental periods of history
with the mapping and georeferencing of the lines from aerial photographs
and satellite imagery in order to find correlations between the azimuths
of the lines and celestial phenomena that have been deduced as important
in the Andean region. The analysis is still in progress and results will
be presented in the near future.
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References-->
| introduction | context
| hypotheses | proposal
| process | resources
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