IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB381806022

Testing Landscape as Cultural Expression (2018)

Higginbottom, Gail (Author)
Clay, Roger (Author)
Fabien Voisin (Author)
Phong Nguyen (Author)

Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry
Volume: 18
Issue: 4
Pages: 441-451
Publication date: 2018
Language: English

DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.1477042

URI: https://zenodo.org/record/1477042

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Astronomical chronology Applied statistics Archaeoastronomy Technology and culture Monuments Spatial analysis; space Models and modeling in science Landscape; landscapes Scotland

Traditional archaeological location modelling, whilst very informative about spatial patterns across a 2D spectrum, can be limited in its contribution to understanding human choice about location. On the other hand, projects combining statistical tests with models influenced by individual immersion techniques have a far better chance of understanding the choices people made in regards to place and confirming the likelihood of these apparent choices. In the past we have statistically tested and confirmed the likelihood that the points on the horizon as indicated by monument alignments as a regional group, were statistically different in terms of direction, altitude and distance from the monuments, compared to any other place on the surrounding visible horizon for monuments within particular regions. That is, the chosen points on the horizon indicated by the alignments do not appear to be random. We then tested the likelihood that monuments were erected with astronomy in mind in different locations across Scotland, using simpler standing stone monuments by region, and some complex monuments individually, like stone circles. We have also used 3D panoramas to view how things were seen at each site from the viewpoint of an individual. We have now created new statistical approaches to test different questions we might have of these panoramas. Most pertinently, we now have a test that can assess whether the two dominant horizon shapes found, which affect which astronomical bodies can be seen at these monuments, were likely chosen by their builders or if their shapes are likely determined by chance factors.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB381806022

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Victor Reijs; (2018)
The Reappearing Sun in Neolithic Orcadian Landscape and Culture (/p/isis/citation/CBB671027825/)

Book Giulio Magli; (2020)
Sacred Landscapes of Imperial China: Astronomy, Feng Shui, and the Mandate of Heaven (/p/isis/citation/CBB285359378/)

Article Georg Zotti; Florian Schaukowitsch; Michael Wimmer; (2018)
Beyond 3D Models: Simulation of Temporally Evolving Models in Stellarium (/p/isis/citation/CBB991117441/)

Article Marc Eduard Frincu; (2019)
The Skyscape of Mount Murad, Armenia: A Possible Pastoral Calendar and Ritual Site (/p/isis/citation/CBB021451340/)

Article Cecilia Dal Zovo; A. César González-García; (2018)
The 'Path of the Spirits': A Preliminary Approach to North-West/South-East Oriented Rows of Cairns in the Altai Mountains, Mongolia (/p/isis/citation/CBB471372055/)

Article Liz Henty; (2015)
Continuity or Change? A Microscopic Scale Analysis of Monuments and Ritual in Aberdeenshire (/p/isis/citation/CBB346775076/)

Article Marco V. García Quintela; A. César González-García; (2018)
The Rock Sanctuary of Baroña Hill Fort as an Exchanger, Interface and Cross-Roads among the World Layers of Celtic Cosmology (/p/isis/citation/CBB328560349/)

Book John Hill; (2021)
The Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire: Archaeology, Design, Astronomy and Methods (/p/isis/citation/CBB053148693/)

Article J. Anna Estaroth; (2018)
The Clava Cairns of Scotland, Midsummer Full Moon and the Major Lunar Limit (/p/isis/citation/CBB728148747/)

Article Dimitris Sinachopoulos; (2019)
A further application of Google Earth in studying the orientation of ancient Greek monument (/p/isis/citation/CBB440032726/)

Article Juan Antonio Belmonte; Julio Cuenca Sanabria; José Carlos Gil; José de León; Cipriano Marín; Clive L. Ruggles; (2018)
The Cultural Landscape "Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria": A Paradigmatic Proposal Within Unesco "Astronomy and World Heritage" Initiative (/p/isis/citation/CBB717935173/)

Article Andrea Orlando; Sebastiano Tusa; Davide Gori; (2018)
The Prehistoric Villages of the Aeolian Archipelago and Milazzo: Astronomy and Landscape, Preliminary Result (/p/isis/citation/CBB865204495/)

Article Hans Martz De la Vega; (2018)
Case Studies with Archaeoastronomic Approach in the State of Tabasco, Mexico (/p/isis/citation/CBB409210922/)

Article J. McKim Malville; (2018)
The Archaeoastronomy of High Altitude Inca Ceremonialism (/p/isis/citation/CBB516121863/)

Article Munirah A Almushawh; (2018)
An Archaeoastronomical Approach to the Megalithic Sites of Saudi Arabia (/p/isis/citation/CBB964816795/)

Article Trevor M. Leaman; Duane W. Hamacher; (2018)
A Methodology for Testing Horizon Astronomy in Australian Aboriginal Cultural Sites: A Case Study (/p/isis/citation/CBB683468213/)

Chapter Dragana Ćorović; (2022)
The Quest for a New Urban Landscape: Spatial Transformation in the Nineteenth-Century Belgrade Environment (/p/isis/citation/CBB129314499/)

Article Gustavo Corrado; Sixto Giménez Benítez; José L. Pino Matos; Nicolas Balbi; (2018)
Comparison Between Two Inca Sites, Located North and South of the Tropic of Capricorn (/p/isis/citation/CBB290380059/)

Book Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin; Elaine Tierney; Charlotte Wildman; (2022)
Researching urban space and the built environment (/p/isis/citation/CBB626768689/)

Article Melissa Charenko; (2022)
Blowing in the Wind: Pollen’s Mobility as a Challenge to Measuring Climate by Proxy, 1916–1939 (/p/isis/citation/CBB259434945/)