Decoding Astronomy in Art and Architecture

Marion Dolan

Sep 2021 · Springer Nature

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For centuries, our ancestors carefully observed the movements of the heavens and wove that astronomical knowledge into their city planning, architecture, mythology, paintings, sculpture, and poetry. This book uncovers the hidden messages and advanced science encoded within these sacred spaces, showing how the rhythmic motions of the night sky played a central role across many different cultures.

Our astronomical tour transports readers through time and space, from prehistoric megaliths to Renaissance paintings, Greco-Roman temples to Inca architecture. Along the way, you will investigate unexpected findings at Lascaux, Delphi, Petra, Angkor Wat, Borobudur, and many more archaeological sites both famous and little known. Through these vivid examples, you will come to appreciate the masterful ways that astronomical knowledge was incorporated into each society’s religion and mythology, then translated into their physical surroundings.

The latest archaeoastronomical studies and discoveries are recounted through a poetic and nontechnical narrative, revealing how many longstanding beliefs about our ancestors are being overturned. Through this celestial journey, readers of all backgrounds will learn the basics about this exciting field and share in the wonders of cultural astronomy.

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Dr. Dolan received her BS, MFA and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in medieval manuscripts, minoring in medieval architecture and history of astronomy. She taught at the University of Pittsburgh and Carlow University for many years. Now an independent scholar, she continues her research on the transmission of astronomical knowledge and lectures on art history at the NSU Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where she also serves as a docent. Archaeoastronomy has been a lifelong area of study; she has taught the subject many times, including aboard a ship during a cruise around the world as faculty member for Semester at Sea based at the University of Virginia, where she was able to observe firsthand and to teach students at many historic sites.
Dr. Dolan has studied astronomical manuscripts in the libraries of Europe, specializing in the surviving Aratea manuscripts. Her research was published in the book Astronomical Knowledge Transmission Through Illustrated Aratea Manuscripts (Springer, 2017).