Introduction

The winter solstice marks the beginning of winter as you know. So, you may think to yourself what is the big deal, who cares about this stuff anyway? In today's society most peoples are disconnected from observations of the sky. However, observing the sky was of great importance to many past civilizations. There are many ancient stone ruins that may be linked to observations of the sun, moon, and stars. Places such as Stonehenge in England, Newgrange in Ireland, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Chichen Itza in Central America, and Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming are a few examples.

Task

You will investigate a series of websites on any of the two places listed above. Identify how these sites are thought to be linked to ancient observations of the sun, moon and stars. What dates were of importance to these sites and how was the site used to mark these dates? What other ancient sites besides the ones listed have links to astronomy? Begin by learning about archaeastronomy.

Resources

General

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118421/largemain.html

http://www.stonesofwonder.com/archaeoa.htm

Stonehenge

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehengeD.html

http://exn.ca/mysticplaces/Stonehenge.asp

http://www.tivas.org.uk/stonehenge/stone_ast.html

Newgrange

http://www.knowth.com/newgrange.htm

http://www.iol.ie/~tobrien/new.htm

Chaco Canyon

http://www.exploratorium.edu/chaco/index.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118421/largemain.html

http://www.traditionsofthesun.org/

Chichen Itza

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118421/largemain.html

http://www.differentworld.com/mexico/places/chichen_itza/chichen_itza.htm

http://www.world-mysteries.com/chichen_index.htm

Bighorn Medicine Wheel

http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/bighorn-medwheel.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118421/largemain.html

http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2005/locations/bighorn.htm