Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- I. Introduction: Archaeoastronomy and Its Components
- Archaeoastronomy: Twenty Years of Hindsight
- Additional Selected Readings
- II. The Historical, Ethnographic, and Ethnological Background for Native American Astronomy
- The Civilizations of Ancient Mesoamerica
- Chroniclers and Codices
- Aztec Constellations
- Astronomy and the Ethnological Record: The Importance of the Zenith Solar Passage
- Additional Selected Readings
- III. Astronomy with the Naked Eye
- The Celestial Sphere: Coordinate Reference Frames
- Charting the Sun's Movement
- The Moon, Eclipses, and Eclipse Cycles
- Cycles of the Planets
- Miscellaneous Observable Sky Phenomena
- Appendices
- A. Glossary of Astronomical Terms of Importance in Archaeoastronomy
- B. Factors Affecting the Precise Determination of Astronomical Orientations
- C. Heliacal Rise and Set Phenomena
- D. Determining the Approximate Date of Sunrise or Sunset for a Given Azimuth
- E. Change of Direction of the Magnetic Compass with Time in Mesoamerica
- F. Some Basic Formulas Useful for Fieldwork in Archaeoastronomy
- G. How to Determine Alignments with the Surveyor's Transit
- Additional Selected Readings, Electronic Resources, and Star Maps
- IV. The Mathematical and Astronomical Content of the Mesoamerican Inscriptions
- A Brief History of Calendrical Decipherment
- The Mesoamerican Philosophy of Numbers
- The Long Count
- The Calendar Round
- The Union of Time and Space in Mesoamerican Cosmology
- How the Calendar Works
- The Supplementary Series and the Lunar Synodic Month
- Tropical Year Calculations
- Planetary Events in the Monumental Inscriptions
- Astronomy in the Maya Codices, I: General Content of the Codices
- Astronomy in the Maya Codices, II: Eclipses and Eclipse Tables
- Astronomy in the Maya Codices, III: Venus
- Astronomy in the Maya Codices, IV: A Mars Table
- Was There a Mesoamerican Zodiac?
- Summary
- Appendices
- A. The Problem of the Correlation of Maya and Christian Dates
- B. A Scheme for the Conversion of Maya Dates
- Additional Selected Readings
- V. Astronomy and Architecture in the Ancient Americas and Mediterranean Basin
- The Orientation Motive
- City and Cosmos: Urban Planning in Highland Mexico
- Cosmic Order in the Aztec Capital
- Maya Cities: Architecture and Sacred Landscape
- Specialized Architectural Assemblages
- North America
- The Andean World
- Summary: Astronomy in Ancient American Cultures
- Circum-Mediterranean Archaeoastronomy
- Appendix A. An Analysis of the Pecked Cross Petroglyphs
- Additional Selected Readings
- Postscript
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
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