A Sky Dome Visualisation for Identification of Astronomical Orientations

Figure 1: Virtual reconstruction of a look through one of the doors in the neolithic Kreisgrabenanlage of Steinabrunn in Lower Austria. The singular post appears to be aligned to the rising point of the Pleiades star cluster, which with their rising in the morning shortly after spring equinox possibly announced the beginning of the agricultural year. Astronomical alignments like this have been identified using the method described in this paper. Screenshot from StarryNight Pro 4.5, foreground from virtual reconstruction courtesy of Imagination Computer Services, Vienna. It has long been known that ancient temples were frequently oriented along the cardinal directions or to certain points along the horizon where the Sun or the Moon rises or sets on special days of the year. In the last decades, archaeologists have found evidence of even older building structures buried in the soil, with doorways that also appear to have distinct orientations. This paper presents a novel diagram combining archaeological maps with a folded-apart, flattened view of the whole sky, showing the local horizon and the daily paths of the Sun, Moon and brighter stars. By use of this diagram, interesting groupings of astronomical orientation directions, e.g. to certain sunrise and sunset points could be identified, which were evidently used to mark certain days of the year. Orientations towards rising and setting points of a few significant stars very likely indicated the beginning of the agricultural year in the middle neolithic period

Más allá del paisaje: análisis de los sistemas de fosas circulares neolíticas de la Baja Austria con arqueoastronomía virtual avanzada

[EN] This paper describes developments in virtual archaeology that started in a research project about the possible astronomical entrance orientation of Neolithic circular ditch systems (German Kreisgrabenanlagen, KGA) of Lower Austria. Starting from data analysis in a Geographical Information System (GIS), we will cover a simple way of modelling, and discuss three ways of visualisation for the combination of landscape and human-made buildings together with celestial objects. The first way involves extensions to the modelling program SketchUp to bring in just enough astronomical data for scientific evaluation. The second introduces a set of extensions to the open-source desktop planetarium program Stellarium, which can meanwhile be used to load a standard 3D model format to allow detailed research in astronomical orientation patterns, and light-and-shadow interaction over many millennia, even for researchers less familiar with astronomical programming. The third presents a “serious gaming” approach, which can provide the most natural view of the landscape, but requires at least some, if not deep, familiarity with astronomical and 3D computer graphics programming and, therefore, due to this considerably larger effort, appears to be mostly useful for outreach of high-profile results to the public. The entrances to the KGA of Lower Austria turned out to be mostly oriented following a purely terrestrial pattern of up- and downward sloping terrain, but with one noteworthy exception.Highlights:Virtual archaeology can help to better understand archaeological remains embedded in the landscape. Occasionally, the “landscape” concept must be extended to include the celestial landscape.Open-source development allowed the combination of a desktop planetarium with 3D landscape and architecture visualisation. Also, datable changes in the landscape can meanwhile be simulated.Astronomical elements added to a game engine can also be used to faithfully provide important insights while providing the most appealing visualisation environments so far, but with considerably more effort.[ES] Este artículo describe los desarrollos en el campo de la arqueología virtual que se iniciaron en un proyecto de investigación sobre la posible orientación astronómica de la entrada de los sistemas de fosas circulares neolíticas (Kreisgrabenanlagen en alemán, KGA) de Baja Austria. Partiendo del análisis de los datos en un Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG), cubriremos una forma sencilla de modelización, y discutiremos tres formas de visualización para la combinación de los paisajes y los edificios construidos por el hombre junto con objetos celestes. La primera forma implica extensiones del programa de modelado SketchUp que aporta sólo los datos astronómicos necesarios para la evaluación científica. El segundo introduce un conjunto de extensiones al programa de sobremesa, de código abierto y de planetario denominado Stellarium, que pueden utilizarse para cargar un formato de modelo 3D estándar que permita la investigación detallada de patrones de orientación astronómica y la interacción luz-sombra a lo largo de muchos milenios, incluso a investigadores menos familiarizados con la programación astronómica. El tercero presenta un enfoque de "juego serio", que puede proporcionar la visión más natural del paisaje, pero que requiere al menos cierta, si no profunda, familiaridad con la programación astronómica y de gráficos por ordenador en 3D y, por lo tanto, debido a este esfuerzo considerablemente mayor, parece ser mayormente útil para la divulgación de resultados destacados al público. 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