Beyond the familiar rhythms of the sun lie deeper, subtler celestial patterns — the long-breathing cycle of lunar standstills, the slow procession of the stars, the complex paths of planets across the sky. Interpreting these advanced phenomena requires both technical skill and intellectual care: knowing not only how to find an alignment, but when to trust it.
This course invites you into the higher levels of archaeoastronomical inquiry, where measurement meets theory, and data meets interpretation.
Through focused lectures and practical analytical exercises, you will:
- Explore the phenomenon of lunar standstills and why certain monuments may encode these rare celestial extremes.
- Learn to identify and evaluate stellar alignments — understanding star phasing, precession, and temporal drift.
- Investigate planetary alignments and how the visible “wanderers” were tracked and commemorated in ancient structures.
- Gain familiarity with statistical testing: assessing whether an alignment is intentional or merely coincidental.
- Engage directly with the challenge of interpretation — examining how cultural, archaeological, and cosmological context shapes what we can reasonably infer.
- Develop the ability to craft strong, evidence-based arguments for an alignment — knowing which claims can be supported, and which rest on shaky ground.
By the end of the course, you will be equipped not merely to detect alignments, but to evaluate their significance with scholarly rigor — moving beyond surface patterns to meaningful, defensible interpretations of ancient interaction with the sky.
