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2009.06.26 -If you enjoy puzzles there are four day and rotation numbers in various readings, and clues elsewhere. One follows below in this reading. Can you solve the mystery?

2009.06.30 - Epoch_v2009 is updated. The "calc" worksheet has a new orbit calc table to equate lunar and solar orbit motion. You enter the number of days and read the calculations. Planetary orbits and synodic cycles are also converted. New code terms for the planetry periods are added using the latest values available. A planetary code term lookup menu is on the same page. And, more clues to the ancient mystery puzzle are now in plain sight. Enjoy!

Newark Archaeogeodesy
Assessing Evidence of Geospatial Intelligence in the Americas

2009.04.04 - I've discussed geodetic geometry of monument latitudes .... One of the oldest known stone circles, situated one-fourth the distance from equator to pole at Nabta Playa, Egypt, infers intentional latitude placement originates at an early date. In contrast to simple integers of spatial geometry, the latitudes at Newark and Marietta present solar and lunar modules ... Marietta's latitude equals 40 times solar orbit per day (40 SO). The same astronomy module arose in relation to Ur Ziggurat ... The Newark to Tikal arc distance equals 24.0 SO .... In about 322 A.D, obliquity of the ecliptic—the inclination angle of the earth's rotation axis—also equaled exactly 24 SO. Permalink.

newark_arcs.kmz     newark_arcs.kml

2009.04.09 - Epoch_v2009.xls is updated, introducing a more comprehensive variable set with improved AeGeo terms and code. More lookups, an eclipse calculator, and selector menus enhance the applet's utility. Development continues, with several recent formula refinements yet to follow.

2009.02.02 - Google Earth v5.0 (beta) has new layers - A recent e-mail alerted me to new features in Google Earth 5.0. Video Tour. The 'previous images' layer, controlled with a user chronology slider, is very useful to archaeologists. Now, a variety of aerial images for the same place provide more visual information. Also, click the toolbar and v5 will record your place flying, allowing creation and sharing of visual experiences. The new flying under the ocean feature is not archaeology, but the vastly improved oeanographic imagery makes visualization of the Pleistocene shoreline much easier. I still have not explored the cosmology features. Will a temporal slider one day allow capture of an ancient moonrise over the Octagon Work? Will the ocean go back down?

I'm re-reading David Macaulay's 1979 Motel of the Mysteries, a hilarious tour of archaeological interpretation, methodology, and critical thinking. His volume improves with age (perhaps just with my age?). I scored an original cloth edition some library had withdrawn. How such classics are discarded by libraries is another mystery. It has the 50 cents tag, the 818 MAC tag, the bold WITHDRAWN stamps, and the damage from tearing out the borrower's card sleeve and the library label. Evidence of which library was sooo ignorant is now lost for all time under a layer of pollutantus aliterati.

Anyway, if you are an archaeo student, this is a must read before taking M&T, Methods and Theory, and a great read before taking your first anthropology class. I find it useful in imagining how other cultures might interpret Eastern Usa today, and how ancient humans might react to a real Great Urn when it suddenly flushes. If concepts like a new layer of pollutantus gravitas and pollutantus literati sound interesting, check out the tome, or buy it cheap. Apparently, used book stores are today's investor paradise, as libraries are disvested of knowledge.

Does the Foot Fit Britannia? -

2009.01.27 - A recent e-mail exchange led to reconsidering the English foot as a geodetic construct. ... at Avebury's latitude, a meridian degree measures 365,014.7 feet, not 365,256 as would be expected for days per orbit ... where the foot fits matters. Permalink.

2009.01.24 - Data Visualization in Archaeology - Place relational linking in virtual space provides some of the same benefits as going to the actual place, and time.

In Google Earth, I just stumbled into another lost city of pyramids in Peru, Tucume. I also got lucky at the bookstore today, and found a Lister and Lister Those Who Came Before clothbound edition, a 1983 state-of-the-art visual experience of Southwestern archaeology in the United States National Parks System.

The only Tucume placemark led to a GIS Development magazine article, Natural and Cultural Large Site Modeling, with 3-D site model graphics of Tucume and Xochicalco, Mexico. Therefrom ensued this posting, and here are some highlights:

View a 3D model of the Tucume adobe complex textured with old aerial images. Huaca Larga, is the 545 m long mound topped with an Inka stone building. Below follows a Google Earth high resolution image of Tucume. Another large huaca is not shown in this screen capture.

Also in the same issue, 3D Source for Egyptian Monument Information System and Replicas of world - a reality soon. Aerial survey and ground captured data are being transformed into incredibly precise virtual replicas of the world, especially when combinded with 3D visualization multimedia.

I was also recently excited by UCLA's impressive Google Earth model of Karnak ruins, featuring a temporal slider that allows you to construct the site chronologically! Archaeologists have already added a temporal dimension to data visualization. From an educators perspective, the interactivity dimension is perhaps the most useful. When the viewer controls the joystick to the past, that dimension becomes more engaging. The floating placemarks (image above) lead to photographically rich illustrations and websites. See: Digital Karnak from UCLA.

Today, a friend sent links to 2008 data visualiation awards,
including a link to Wordle. I could not resist creating a few.

I've completed a PowerPoint of Newark, Marietta and Grave Creek, assembling
the basic facts with graphics and links to the photo galleries and placemarks.

2009.01.06 - Newark Archaeogeodesy - When is a prehistoric monument an astronomical observatory? In both the popular press and academic articles, this question is often not addressed when claims of astronomical observations are made. Archaeogeodesy offers avenues of inquiry for the question, albeit these transcend current paradigms in archaeology. Well, reality is transcendental, independent of thought about it. Paradigms in science, while resistant to alterations, do crumble in the face of incontrovertible evidence even if slowly. The Google Earth file I'm posting today, Newark Archaeogeodesy, challenges archaeological paradigms with new evidence of the sophistication of ancient geodesy and astronomy in the Americas.

As incontrovertible as the actuality of arc distances and astronomical constants may be, I expect considerable resistance from archaeologists regarding acceptance of what the data I present infers. As usual I'm trying to steer clear of interpretations. I'm presenting evidence, "facts" I determine with transparent methods. Nonetheless, the inferences are very apparent.

If ancient astronomy and geodesy questions interest you, check out the web article, Newark Archaeogeodesy, where I'll present and discuss the findings in the Newark Arcs .kmz placemarks file. If you detest challenges to your paradigms, well, run and hide in that darkness because the monuments are not going to move to new positions to accommodate your thinking. If you are new to Google Earth, the virtual globe browser, check out my Ancient Monuments Placemarks page first.

I first presented an Avebury arcs file on Winter Solstice a year ago, in Winter Solstice and Long Barrows. A new Avebury Lunar Arcs placemarks file focuses on the core Averbury area and lunar constants.  It is also no coincidence that today's release comes on the Epiphany instead of the solstice, on the feast of the Three Wise Men in Christian traditions. I'm not saying I expect readers will have an epiphany. The evidence does infer new meaning for "wise men" and women in antiquity. That is the discussion I hope will ensue, along with one about paradigms in science and their origins in culture and history. The questions I offer this semester are these: "Are we as 'wise' as humans were in prehistory?" and "If not, how would we know?"

Several tools have been updated for the upcoming semester. Epoch 2000 has been displaced by Epoch v2009. More variables have been added to the code. The new version contains calculators employing the codes, including an eclipse calculator. There are also handy code and values lookup menus. Archaeogeodesy v2009 also has these same new features, plus more site coordinates. Please report any bugs. Happy Julian New Year and Happy Epihany too.

Landscape Geometry of the 'Cursus' and Stonehenge

2008.06.12 - Stonehenge is in the news again, this time due to new dating of the "Cursus". Permalink.

The Ur and Harran Latitudes, and Göbekli Tepe

2008.04.25 - When is a "moon temple" an observatory? Recent press reports called my attention to Göbekli Tepe in Turkey ... more ...

2008.04.16 - New Google Earth™ Placemarks - I just uploaded a new SW Archaeology Spring 2007 GPS Placemarks file, and an Excel dataset with all SW 2007 waypoints. Finally! I journeyed in the Southwest fully a year ago. To better share the customized placemark formatting, I also saved as KML file type (southwest_archaeology.kml), readable UTF-8 text. Google Earth uses two formats, KMZ and KML. The KML files display a readable XML application, and KMZ is the zipped format of KML. To examine code, open KML files in any simple text editor. KMZ files can be saved as KML in Google Earth. I first created the file with Excel using the column fill down command for the redundant code snippets. With this method, hundreds of placemarks incorporating a custom design can be created quickly with any dataset.

southwest_archaeology.kml     southwest_archaeology.kmz

Don't miss my entire collection of Ancient Monuments Placemarks. A popular download is The Inca Tail and Machu Picchu. I recommend the Chicama-Moche Canal. It is set up to navigate along the length of the canal by clicking the placemarks in sequence. Some of the Eastern Woodlands files includes Squier and Davis map overlays. I plan to update the Southwest file with image thumbnails and overlay maps, and previous files with styling. That may take another year!

Winter Solstice and Long Barrows

2007.12.22 - Astronomy Constants and the Avebury Landscape? Perhaps. Long Stones Long Barrow, West Kennet Long Barrow, and East Kennet Long Barrow are older Neolithic structures near Avebury and Silbury Hill ... more ...

2007.12.20 - Bend of the Boyne Winter Solstice Webcast. To view the webcast go to the Heritage Ireland website. The 2007 Newgrange Winter Solstice Webcast is the first time illumination of the passage and chamber will be streamed live. A Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre exhibition celebrates the 1967 discovery of the Winter Solstice illumination at Newgrange and will broadcast sunrises of the 21st and 22nd near 9 GMT. The event will remain available via online stream.

2007.10.04 - Google Earth updates Bend of the Boyne. The new aerial imagery is quite high resolution. Download the Google Earth placemarks file, boyne.kmz, or use the coordinates below to locate a specific monument.

2007.07.16 - Southwest Spring 2007 Travel Posts

2007.03.02 - Ancient Peruvian Astronomical Observatory at Chankillo.  

2007.01.30 - The Three Major Neolithic Complexes page has the research update:

2007.01.14 - The Thornborough Page is updated with a study results summary. The results caused me to contemplate a new perspective on eclipses, a heliocentric model. In the results, an eclipse related module termed S22 is prominent. S22, my AeGeo programming term for solar orbit per lunar nodal period, equals 26.820613 degrees. We think of eclipses from a geocentric perspective...

2007.01.11 - Celebrating Twenty Years of Archaeogeodesy Studies. On this date in 1987, I wrote down the quantification of the analytic modules used in my archaeogeodesy studies. These are now available as a new worksheet in archaeogeodesy.xls v2007.01.11. The update includes an eclipse calculator using Excel's vlookup function, so you only input the terse AeGeo code terms to do calculations.

2006.11.27 - Big News: Cuzco imagery has updated in Google Earth™ (GE). I've anxiously awaited these new aerial photos. Recent ArchaeoBlog entries related to GE placemarks have moved to a new page, ../blog/placemarks.html, and I continue the Cuzco placemarks discussion thread there, with some early results reported too.

2006.11.14 - Time flies. The first transparencies used on this domain were scanned beginning a decade ago, at 675 dpi with a Polaroid SprintScan 35 slide scanner. I just re-scanned some images for the Machu Picchu Photo Gallery, the most visited photo page. Meanwhile, other recent scans were languishing offline. Image updates in the last week also include Teotihuacan ruins and mural art. Others updates will follow as time permits. Some days, a photo stock request determines which site is scanned next, so updates gets sprinkled all about: Betatakin, Vernal Rock Art.

2006.06 - Ancient Earthworks of the Eastern Woodlands

More ArchaeoBlog Pages:

• Thornborough Henges and the Ure-Swale Monuments
• Neolithic Monuments in Northeastern Europe Threatened
• Summer Solstice 2006 - Big Horn Medicine Wheel
• Google Earth Placemarks