Why were people of the past so interested in the stars? And how does a modern day scientist determine that a building was constructed for that purpose? In this interview, astrophysicist and archaeoastronomy researcher David S.P. Dearborn discusses why people of the past were so interested in the stars, what kinds of things researchers are able to tell us about the methods, and how he became interested in this fascinating subject. David S. P. Dearborn is an astrophysicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and co-editor of Archaeoastronomy: A Journal for Astronomy in Culture as well as Archaeoastronomy & Ethnoastronomy News. In addition, he is a founding member of ISAAC (the International Society for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture), an organization promoting a professional standard in this interdisciplinary study that all too often suffers from spectacular claims involving more enthusiasm than evidence. For over 20 years, Dr. Dearborn has worked in collaboration with archaeologists to study the Inca and their uses of astronomy. Dr. Dearborn also compiled an archaeoastronomy bibliography for us:
- Astronomy of the Americas
- Astronomy of Ancient Egypt
- Near Eastern and Biblical Regions
- Europe and Classical Regions
- Slavic Literature
- Asia and Pacific
- Japanese Skylore
- General
- Popular
- Supplementary Material
Comments