Modern Archaeoastronomy: From Material Culture to Cosmology

Abstract

The Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) 2014 was hosted by the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) at the University of Portsmouth. It was held from June 23–26 2014 and was sponsored by the RAS, STFC, SEPnet and Winton Capital.As part of this meeting a session stream titled Modern Archaeoastronomy: From Material Culture to Cosmology took place on Monday 23rd proposed and organized by Brian Sheen (Roseland Observatory) and Daniel Brown (Nottingham Trent University). It consisted of an illustration of the many aspects of archaeoastronomy or cultural-astronomy as it has developed and embraced areas such as anthropology, public engagement and sociology.Anita Heward (Press Officer NAM) stated that 'sessions on the history of astronomy have been a feature of many NAM programmes over the years, but NAM 2014 was the first to include a dedicated session on archaeoastronomy.' It was motivated from past decades where our understanding of astronomy of our ancestors has become more strongly based on factual data. As such it allowed researchers to identify possible traces of astronomical knowledge in archaeological remains and artefacts. Archaeoastronomy is an ideal example of the advancement in this area as well as the power of interdisciplinary work that in recent times has started to interpret these findings through cultural, anthropological and educational research. This session will offer an opportunity to present a multitude of different approaches of analyzing the perception and origins of astronomy in ancient and modern cultures, and also bring together young researchers and students in the field to present their research to a wider community.