Don't you guys think it's absolutely amazing how much ancient cultures knew about the sky and cosmos without such a specialist equipment like we have today? Too bad so many traces and information are lost and destroyed because I think we could learn A LOT from them. It would be especially awesome to be able to exchange knowledge with those people. Impossible I know I know
Perhaps the most well known of these early sites is Stonehenge, which stands on Salisbury Plain in southern England. A group of massive standing stones, Stonehenge was built in three phases over a period of about 400 years, beginning around 1700 B.C. Most archaeologists believe the monument served as a ceremonial or religious structure. Some astronomers, however, believe Stonehenge could have been used to observe the winter solstice (the time when the rising of the Sun is farthest south) and the extreme rising and setting positions of the Moon.
While some ancient observing sites were simple, others were much more complex. Astronomical observations figured greatly in the culture of the Maya, native people of Central America and southern Mexico. Between 700 and 1263, the Maya built the elaborate city of Chichén Itzá on the northern Yucatan peninsula. The Caracol, a building probably designed as an observatory, and several other important ceremonial buildings at Chichén Itzá featured steeply ascending steps and ornately carved and painted relief sculptures. All were almost precisely aligned to face significant Sun and Venus positions in the sky.
Read more:
http://www.scienceclarified.com/Al-A...#ixzz3CoDkodH4
http://www2.archaeoastronomy.org/
http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~tlaloc/a.../cfaar_as.html
For those who'd like to know more:
