Journal article
A methodology for testing horizon astronomy in Australian aboriginal cultural sites: A case study
TM Leaman, DW Hamacher
Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry: International Scientific Journal | University of the Aegean | Published : 2018
Abstract
Aboriginal people connect landscape to the positions of the Sun and Moon throughout the year for time reckoning, seasonal calendars, and mythology as a memory aide. This can include the rising or setting of the Sun, Moon, and stars over significant landscape features. A significant corpus of Wiradjuri (Wiradyuri) astronomical knowledge has been fragmented, lost, or damaged due to colonisation. To aid in reconstructing this knowledge, we develop a novel methodology to examine potential links between the landscape and celestial movements. Our methodology, which we call Significant Horizons, ranks Aboriginal cultural sites according to their potential for astronomical utilisation. This is done ..
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Awarded by Arthritis and Osteoporosis New South Wales
Funding Acknowledgements
Hamacher acknowledges support from Australian Research Council project DE140101600. Leaman is funded by the Australian Postgraduate Award, the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, and project CT00156, a grant from the Central Tablelands Local Lands Services (CT-LLS) in Orange, NSW. Ethnographic fieldwork is supported by UNSW Human Research Ethics project HC15037. Leaman also acknowledges the School of Humanities and Languages at UNSW and the Astronomical Society of Australia for providing travel grants to present an overview of this paper at the INSAP X/Oxford XI/SEAC 25th Conference "Road to The Stars" in Santiago de Compostela, Spain from 18-22 September 2017.