RESCHEDULED: An Archaeology of the Cosmos: Evidence of Advanced Astronomical Knowledge Encoded in Ancient Art and Myth
(Room Lanier Grand Ballroom J)
27 Aug 21
3:00 PM
-
4:15 PM
Tracks:
Speaker (Non-Member)
For millennia before the development of abstract numbers or the invention of writing, ancient cultures watched the night skies and preserved their observations orally as myths and visually as artistic motifs on monuments and handicrafts. This early mnemonic system was remarkably effective at preserving and transmitting advanced astronomical knowledge in the form of metaphor. However, civilizational upheavals and the precession of the equinoxes combined to sever the connection between these meticulously encoded insights and their genesis in celestial events. Fortunately, many of these ancient narrative and visual traditions survive as cryptic cultural vestiges. However, recognizing the profound knowledge they contain has been challenging for modern scholars. In this presentation, Christopher will present novel insights based on a new analytical approach integrating three processes. These include 1) parsing surviving mythical narrative traditions, 2) establishing iconographic connections between these myths and corresponding culture-specific works of visual art, and 3) affiliating this visual/textual synthesis with constellations and other seasonal astronomical phenomena that were visible with the naked eye. This approach allows obscure mythological and artistic themes to be decoded to reveal the sophisticated knowledge of cosmic cycles held by ancient cultures in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. This presentation will avoid familiar exemplars of ancient astronomical knowledge to concentrate on new research.