Join Professor Clive Ruggles at our Preston Campus as he dives into the ancient secrets of the sky with Sun, Stones, and Stars.
In the 1960s Stonehenge and many other British prehistoric monuments were interpreted as "ancient observatories". These are ideas that generated a huge wave of popular interest but were also highly controversial among academics.
They pitted astronomers against archaeologists as they reached fundamentally different conclusions on the basis of the same evidence. Over 500 years later, archeoastronomy (the study of beliefs and practices about the sky in the past) is studied by academics around the world. Though for many it still remains controversial.
Join me at the Darwin Building Lecture Theatre on 4 November as we look at the history of this intriguing but often turbulent field. You'll learn how archeoastronomy relates to World Heritage and to dark sky places. I'll also be focusing on prehistoric Britain and Ireland but also drawing upon examples from around the world. This will include my own fieldwork in Hawaii and Peru.