Archaeoastronomy & Celestial Geometry: Understanding the Mysteries of Ancient Astronomies is scheduled to be held at the Ruidoso Convention Center July 7-9, with tours and other activities on July 10. Researchers will be speaking on projects from the Tularosa Basin and surrounding areas, the greater Southwest, across the USA, from Mexico/Mesoamerica, South America, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Archaeoastronomy is basically translated as ancient observations of astronomical events, according to David Greenwald, conference director and president of the Jornada Research Institute in Tularosa.
“It’s watching the sun or moon, the stars, constellations or asterisms,” Greenwald said. “Asterisms are easily recognized patterns of stars that are part of the night sky. For example Orion’s belt is easy to identify so it is an asterism,”
Greenwald describes the event as “a gathering of researchers and professionals, presenting on various topics that relate to prehistoric relationships, observations between people and their universe and ethnographic knowledge.”
For ancient people, the cycles of the sun and the moon would have been particularly significant in their lives. Day-to-day living from planting crops to weather patterns could have meant the difference between survival and failure to thrive.
“Native peoples in North America and South America, observe the sun and the moon to track time in relationship to economic activities like agriculture to predict when rains would come,” Greenwald said. “Also, as a way to keep track of the annual cycle of ritual.”
He said ethnographers’ studies in ancient societies indicate a lot of ritual activity during months when planting and harvesting agriculture was not something they were busy with.
At the Creekside Village archaeological site just north of Tularosa, the Jornada Institute has been excavating an ancient way of life in the Tularosa Basin. They have found water management systems and evidence of agricultural activity from a time when there were supposed to be only hunter/gatherers. They also are in the process of uncovering a Great Kiva astrologically aligned to the movements of the moon and sun.
Tours of Creekside Village are planned during the conference as well as a presentation.
In all, there are close to 30 participants coming from around the world to present for the event.
Starting from our southwest legacies, including a presenter from Colorado about spiral petroglyphs, to further places in the US, like the professor from Illinois who will talk about the Hohokam system and how its related to astroastronomy to a speaker on Stonehenge and the keynote speaker, Lenie Reedijk, from Denmark.
As far back as Creekside Village (673AD-724AD) to Stonehenge (3200BC) and even temples on Malta (possibly as old as 9000BC), humans have been watching the stars, planets, moon and sun to count their lives. This conference invites participants to look closely at those times and people.
On Thursday, July 10, the conference offers an open house free to the public, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. held at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo. This also includes presentations and demonstrations. The museum will open its doors at no cost for the day.
Visit jornadaresearchinstitute.org for a link to conference information and registration.
