Start year
1993
Organizational Unit
Organizing institutions
Grants related:
General
Description
The main objective of this project is to study the importance of astronomy as a fundamental part of human culture and civilization from Paleolithic to the present day. Our interest is mainly devoted to the people of the ancient Mediterranean cultures from the Atlantic to the Middle East, with a special dedication to Spain, its geographical neighbourhood and ancient Egypt. However, we are also developing projects in Mesoamerica, Peru and the Pacific islands.
Members
Principal investigator
Juan Antonio
Belmonte Avilés
Project staff
César
Esteban López
Collaborators
Antonio
Aparicio Juan
Dr.
José Luis Escacena
Dr.
Magdi Fekri
Dr.
M.C. Gallegos
Dr.
Marco García Quintela
Dr.
Michael Hoskin
Dr.
Dimiter Kolev
Dr.
Migel Ángel Molinero Polo
Dr.
Mª Antonia Perera Betancor
Dr.
Manuel Pérez
Dr.
Andrea Polcaro
Dr.
Margarita Sanz de Lara Barrios
Dr.
Antonio Tejera Gaspar
Dr.
José María Vaquero
Dr.
Mauro Zedda
Results
- The summit of Gran Canaria has been considered as an excellent example of a Cultural Landscape worthy of being declared World Heritage site within the Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative of UNESCO and the IAU. In 2018 the memory has been completed and the process of evaluation by ICOMOS has begun.
- A rock engraving or petroglyph of the aboriginal era on the island of La Palma (Benahoare) has been interpreted as an island map where its major landmarks are represented for purposes of sympathetic magic. This is without doubt one of the finest examples of prehistoric map produced before the development of modern cartography.
- The megalithic monumental complex of Castillejo del Bonete stands as the first evidence of a solar marker (towards the winter solstice sunrise) in a megalithic site of the Iberian Peninsula, indicating that the precise location of the monument was carefully chosen (Benítez de Lugo Enrich, L., Esteban, C., 2018).
Scientific activity
Related publications
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Archaeoastronomy: A Sustainable Way to Grasp the Skylore of Past SocietiesIf astronomy can be understood as the contemplation of the sky for any given purpose, we must realize that possibly all societies throughout time and in all regions have watched the sky. The why, who, how and when of such investigation is the pursuit of cultural astronomy. When the research is done with the archaeological remains of a given societyGonzález García, A. C. et al.
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42019 -
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El equinoccio en el ritual ibérico. El santuario de La Malladeta (La Vila Joiosa, Alicante)Presentamos un estudio arqueoastronómico del yacimiento arqueológico de La Malladeta (La Vila Joiosa, Alicante), santuario ibérico y posteriormente romano altoimperial que se utilizó entre los siglos iv a. C. y i d. C. situado en la cima de un promontorio costero. El seguimiento fotográfico de los ortos solares desde la cima del santuario en fechasEsteban, C. et al.
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32018 -
Arquitecturas simbólicas orientadas astronómicamente durante el Neolítico Final, el Calcolítico y la Edad del Bronce en el sur de la MesetaResumen: Este trabajo presenta los resultados arqueoastronómicos de un proyecto interdisciplinar que estudia yacimientos de La Mancha fechados durante la Prehistoria Reciente. El centro ceremonial monumentalizado de Castillejo del Bonete muestra un marcador del amanecer del solsticio de invierno en la montaña más peculiar de su horizonte, así comoBenítez de Lugo Enrich, L. et al.
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22018 -
Estudio arqueoastronómico de dos santuarios ibéricos en abrigos rocosos: Cueva del Rey Moro (Ayora, Valencia) y Cueva Negra (Fortuna, Murcia)Presentamos un estudio arqueoastronómico de dos santuarios rupestres situados en abrigos rocosos, Cueva del Rey Moro y Cueva Negra. Cueva del Rey Moro es un santuario ibérico asociado al poblado de Castellar de Meca. Aunque descartamos resultados anteriores que proponían la orientación del núcleo del santuario hacia el ocaso del solsticio de veranoEsteban, C. et al.
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52018 -
Astronomy in Roman urbanism: a statistical analysis of the orientation of Roman towns in the Iberian PeninsulaThe work presented in this article is part of a wide-ranging and ambitious project, started few years ago, to study the role of astronomy in Roman urban layout. In particular, the main aim is to check whether Roman cities present astronomical patterns in their orientations. The project emerged from ideas on how to properly orientate the mainRodríguez Antón, A. et al.
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92018 -
Astronomy and ritual in the protohistory of the southeast of the Iberian peninsulaAlong the first millennium BCE and up to the beginning of the Roman conquest at the end of III century BCE, the southeast part of the Iberian Peninsula was colonized by Phoenicians, Greeks and Punics. All these cultures influenced the religious and funereal world of the indigenous peoples. Tartessians and Iberians were the main ProtohistoricEsteban, C.
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92018 -
Astronomy and Cartography in Benahoare: an orientated map of the Canary island of La Palma in an ancient petroglyphThe Canary island of La Palma (ancient Benahoare) is one the richest island territory of the world in rock art manifestations (Martín Rodríguez and Pais Pais, 1996); there are dozens of petroglyph stations in a territory of only 700 km2 . These groups of petroglyphs, carved in a delicate way by picking or lining techniques, often arePérez Gutiérrez, M. et al.
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92018 -
The ‘Almogaren’ of Risco Caído: a singular astronomical sanctuary of the ancient CanariansThe almogaren (rock-cut sanctuary) of Risco Caído was discovered in 1996 in the Canary island of Gran Canaria. It is a paradigmatic example of a complex where light and shadow effects of an astronomical character have been found within the recent archaeological discoveries of a religious and ritual character in the Canaries. The main artificiallyCuenca Sanabria, J. et al.
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92018 -
The development of a utopian city? Comparing land- and skyscapes in Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristobal de La lagunaWe discuss the peculiar planning of the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, in the Canary Island of Tenerife (Spain), when compared to the nearby and essentially contemporary Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which served as a maritime port of the former city. For this we review our previous study of the exact spatial orientation of twenty-one historicGangui, A. et al.
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92018 -
An archaeoastronomical approach to Roman urbanism: orientation of Roman settlement across the Empire.In this work we try to identify if there exist specific patterns in the orientation of Roman towns and military settlements across the Roman Empire, and whether this can be explained by astronomy, as suggested in a number of ancient texts and latter discussed by contemporary scholars. In order to check if cosmology was present in the urban planningRodríguez-Antón, A. et al.
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92018 -
The cultural landscape ‘Risco caído and the sacred mountains of Gran Canaria: a paradigmatic proposal within UNESCO Astronomy and Wolrd Heritage initiativeThe island of Gran canaria in the Canarian Archipelago is characterized by the presence of sanctuaries at the top of significant mountains and on the scarps of the huge volcanic calderas of the island (the so-called almogarenes) where particular rituals took place at precise moments of the year. In particular, the area of the Caldera de TejedaBelmonte J.A. et al.
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92018 -
Urban Planning in the First Unfortified Spanish Colonial Town: The Orientation of the Historic Churches of San Cristóbal de La LagunaThe city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna in the Canary Island of Tenerife (Spain) is of exceptional value as the first unfortified colonial city to follow regular plan - a grid, outlined by straight streets that form squares - in the overseas European expansion. It constitutes a historical example of the so-called "Town of Peace", the archetype of aGangui, A. et al.
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82018 -
Petra Revisited: An Astronomical Approach to the Nabataean Cultic CalendarPetra, the ancient Nabataean capital, has been one of our main research objectives since the first field campaign on site in 1996.1 In December 2015 a new visit to the city was made to coincide with the winter solstice. Historical, ethnographic, epigraphic and archaeological records are compared in order to gain an insight on the Nabataean calendarBelmonte, J. A. et al.
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42017 -
The Orientation of Pre-Romanesque Churches in the Iberian PeninsulaThe orientation of Christian churches is a distinctive feature of its architecture, repeating patterns from early Christian times that show a general tendency to orientate their apses in the solar range, with a predilection for orientations near the astronomical equinox. We measured the orientation of a total of 167 churches built prior to A.DGonzalez-Garcia, A. C. et al.
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72015 -
Astronomy, Architecture, and Symbolism: The Global Project of Sneferu at DahshurThe two pyramids built during the Old Kingdom by the Fourth Dynasty King Sneferu at Dahshur are usually considered as two consecutive projects, the second – that of the Red Pyramid – being generated by a presumably failure of the first, the Bent Pyramid. In the present paper, we show that the archaeological proofs of such a scenario are far fromBelmonte, J. A. et al.
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62015 -
Orientatio ad sidera: astronomy and landscape in Qart Hadašt/Carthago NovaArchaeological investigations in Cartagena –the ancient Punic Qart Hadašt, Roman Carthago Nova– have manifested the existence of ritual, urban and topographical elements that could be analyzed from the perspective of Cultural Astronomy. Therefore, in October 2013, an interdisciplinary team of astronomers and archaeologists conducted a fieldGonzález-García, A. C. et al.
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62015 -
The Pillars of the Earth and the Sky: Capital Cities, Astronomy and LandscapeSome cities were built with the idea of establishing cosmic order. The sky used to be a very important component of the landscape that has been lost completely in our modern, overcrowded and excessively illuminated cities. However, this was not the case in the past. Astronomy actually played a most relevant role in urban planning, particularly inBelmonte, J. A. et al.
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52015 -
An evanescent Vision of the Sacred? The equinoctial Sun at the Iberian Sanctuary of CastellarWe present results of an archaeoastronomical study of the Iberian cave-sanctuary of La Cueva de la Lobera in Castellar (Jaén, Spain), whose foundation has been dated to the second half of the fourth century BCE. The sanctuary consists of several terraces, a cave and a rock shelter that have been artificially modified. The main axis of the cave isEsteban, C. et al.
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72014 -
ON THE ORIENTATION OF EARLY BRONZE AGE TOMBS IN ANCIENT MAGANOrientation studies have recently received considerable attention in the archaeological domain as a source of information that may shed light on a number of anthropological issues such as beliefs systems or landscape and territory apprehension by past cultures. This is especially important in those cultural contexts, such as the ‘megalithic’Belmonte, J. A. et al.
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92014
