Archaeoastronism

*This article is about a non-fiction entity related to the **Astronist belief system** or the **Astronic tradition**.
Any article relating to a fictional entity will be clearly marked as being part of the **Spacefaring World***.

(Before c.3300 BCE)
**Archaeoastronism** (*List of branches*) · Proto-astralism · North Star cult · Solar religion · Star-cults · Stonehenge religion
**Ancient**
(c. 3300 BCE to c. 1 BCE)
Asteria · Astraea · Astraeus ·
Astrolatrism (Moon temple · Moon worship · Sun temple · Sun worship) · Astrology *(List of traditions)* · Morning Star · Sabaism · Stellar deity *(List)*
**Modern
(Pre-Cometanic forms)**
(c. 1 CE to c. 2000 CE)
Modern astrology · Planet worship · Russian cosmism · Transhumanism
**Contemporary
(Cometanic forms)**
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**(Non-Cometanic forms)**
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**Astronic-related religions**
Ancient Egyptian · Anthroposophy · Aztec · Babylonian · Humanism · Mandaeism · Mayan religion · Mesopotamian · Native American · Neopaganism · Shamanism · Shang-Zhou theology · Singularitarianism · Sumerian · Zoroastrianism · Zuni religion
Astrolatry · Astromancy · Astrotheology · Geocentrism · Heliocentrism · Transtellation
**Astronist**
Astrocentricity · Cosmocentricity · Cosmomancy · Humanic Exploration of The Cosmos · Millettarian cosmology · Millettarian worldview · Sentientism
**Astronic-related beliefs**

**Archaeoastronism**, also known as **proto-Astronism**, is the belief and set of related theories holding that Astronism has existed in a series of primitive forms since prehistoric times and that many non-Astronic identifying religious and cultural systems possess a covert celestial theme that in fact link them to the Astronic tradition. Archaeoastronism interacts closely with theories like Mathisenism but differs in its interpretation of how the discovery of celestial themes in both ancient and modern religious systems relates to the Astronic tradition.

The Astronist Institution currently recognises a collection of 121 ancient and prehistoric religions based on and around archaeoastronomical sites. According to the Astronist Institution, modern day Astronism, often referred to as neo-Astronism in an archaeoastronist context, is the fulfilment and completion of these many prehistoric and ancient religious systems.

Archaeoastronism is classified as a collectivity of religions existing as a subcategory of the Astronic tradition. Each are directly derived from the notion that archaeoastronomical sites held religious intentions and utilities for their constructions. The most well-known of the **archaeoastronist** religions is the Stonehenge religion.

## Branches of Archaeoastronism

* 3-Slab Site religion
* Abu Simbel religion
* Alatri religion
* Ale's Stones religion
* Almendres Cromlech religion
* America's Stonehenge religion
* Amun-Re religion
* Anderson Mounds religion
* Angkor Wat religion
* Anta Grande do Zambujeiro religion
* Antequera Dolmens religion
* Arkaim religion
* Ballochroy religion
* Beaghmore religion
* Beltany religion
* Bighorn Medicine Wheel religion
* Borobudur religion
* Boscawen-Un religion
* Brahmagiri religion
* Bryn Celli Ddu religion
* Buena Vista religion
* Cahokia religion
* Cahokia Woodhenge religion
* Calakmul religion
* Callanish Stones religion
* Calçoene religion
* Cantona religion
* Caracol religion
* Carahunge religion
* Carnac Stones religion
* Carrowkeel religion
* Casa Malpaís religion
* Casas Grandes religion
* Cañada de la Virgen religion
* Chaco Canyon religion
* Chankillo religion
* Cheomseongdae religion
* Chichen Itza religion
* Chimney Rock religion
* Choquequirao religion
* Coba religion
* Columna Jovis religion
* Copán Ruinas religion
* Crack Cave
* Cusco religion
* Dolmen of Cunha Baixa religion
* Dolmen of Menga religion
* Dowth religion
* Drombeg religion
* Dzibilchaltun religion
* El Castillo religion
* El Infiernito religion
* El Puente religion
* El Tajín religion
* Emerald Mound religion
* Giants' Churches religion
* Glauberg religion
* Goseck Circle religion
* Gyarah Sidi religion
* Göbekli Tepe religion
* Haleets religion
* Hanamsagar religion
* Holly Solstice Panel religion
* Hovenweep Castle religion
* Hunebedden religion
* Izamal religion
* Jantar Mantar religion
* Knowth religion
* Kokino religion
* La Quemada religion
* Lahore Fort religion
* Loughcrew religion
* Machu Picchu religion
* Maeshowe religion
* Magdalenenberg religion
* Magura Cave religion
* Megalithic Temples of Malta religion
* Mitla religion
* Mnajdra religion
* Monte Alban religion
* Moorehead Circle religion
* Mound 72 religion
* Mound of the Hostages religion
* Nabta Playa religion
* Namoratunga religion
* Naqsh-e Rustam religion
* Nazca Lines religion
* Newgrange religion
* Ngaut Ngaut religion
* Nuraghe religion
* Octagon Earthworks religion
* Ollantaytambo religion
* Palenque religion
* Persepolis religion
* Petroforms religion
* Peña de los Enamorados religion
* Picture Canyon religion
* Phnom Bakheng religion
* Prambanan religion
* Prehistoric Orkney religion
* Puyang tomb religion
* Rujm el-Hiri religion
* Sarmizegetusa Regia religion
* Serpent Mound religion
* Skystone religion
* St Edward the Confessor's Church
* Stonehenge religion
* Varanasi Sun Temples religion
* Taosi Observatory religion
* Teotihuacan religion
* Tikal religion
* Tulum religion
* Uaxactun religion
* Udayagiri religion
* Uxmal religion
* Vijayanagar religion
* Wally's Dome religion
* Woodhenge religion
* Wurdi Youang religion
* Xochicalco religion
* Yagul religion

## List of archaeoastronomical sites

###  Armenia

* Zorats Karer (aka Carahunge), archeological site claimed to have astronomical significance although this is disputed.

### Australia

* Ngaut Ngaut oral tradition says these engravings represent lunar cycles.
* Wurdi Youang, a stone arrangement with possible solar alignments.

### Bulgaria

* Magura Cave, Bronze Age "paintings of staggered black and white squares could have been used to count the days in a calendar month", possibly indicating the number of days in the solar tropical year.

### Cambodia

* Angkor Wat
* Phnom Bakheng, According to Jean Filliozat of the École Française, the center tower represents the axis of the world and the 108 smaller ones represent the 4 lunar phases each with 27 days.

### Canada

* Petroforms
* Medicine Wheel

### Colombia

* El Infiernito, (Spanish for "Little hell"), is a pre-Columbian Muisca site located in the outskirts of Villa de Leyva, Boyacá Department, Colombia. It is composed of several earthworks surrounding a setting of menhirs (upright standing stones); several burial mounds are also present. The site was a center of religious ceremonies and spiritual purification rites, and also served as a rudimentary astronomical observatory.

### China

* Puyang tomb, dated from 5000 BP, depicts a mosaic of constellations.
* Taosi Observatory

### Egypt

* Abu Simbel, The axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that twice a year, on October 20 and February 20, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculpture on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, the god connected with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark.[9][10]
* Nabta Playa
* Precinct of Amun-Re

### Finland

* The so-called Giants' Churches (Finn. *jätinkirkko*), which are large, from c. 20 metres (66 ft) to over 70 metres (230 ft) long rectangular or oval stone enclosures built in the Neolithic (c. 3000–1800 BC), have axis and doorway orientations towards the sunrises and sunsets of the solstices and other calendrically significant days. For example, the Kastelli of Raahe, which is one of the largest Giants' Churches, had its five "gates", i.e. wall openings, oriented towards the midsummer sunset, the winter solstice sunrise, winter solstice sunset, the sunrises of the mid-quarter days of early May (Walpurgis, Beltaine) and August (Lammas), as well as the sunrise 11 days before the vernal equinox in 2500 BC.

### Germany

* Goseck circle
* Glauberg
* Magdalenenberg (disputed)

### Guatemala

* Tikal
* Uaxactun

### Honduras

* Copán Ruinas
* El Puente

### Indonesia

* Borobudur
* Prambanan

### India

For a full list see the chapter on India in the ICOMOS book edited by Clive Ruggles and Michel Cotte. These sites include:

* Brahmagiri
* Hanamsagar
* Udayagiri
* Sun temples of Varanasi
* Vijayanagar
* Jantar Mantar
* Gyarah Sidi

J.M. Malville and Rana P.B. Singh have done much work on the archaeoastronomy of sacred sites in India.

### Iran

* Persepolis
* Naqsh-e Rustam

### Ireland

* Newgrange, once a year, at the winter solstice, the rising sun shines directly along the long passage into the chamber for about 17 minutes and illuminates the chamber floor. (Generally accepted).
* Knowth
* Dowth
* Loughcrew
* Carrowkeel
* Mound of the Hostages
* Drombeg stone circle, at the winter solstice, the sun sets into a v formed by two distant overlapping hills and makes an alignment with the altar stone and the two main uprights. Due to the nature of the site and the western hills, local sunset is c. 15:50.
* Beltany stone circle
* Beaghmore Stone Circles, a complex of early Bronze Age megalithic features, stone circles and cairns. Some archaeologists believe that the circles have been constructed in relation to the rising of the sun at the solstice, or to record the movements of the sun and moon acting as observatories for particular lunar, solar or stellar events. Three of the stone rows point to the sunrise at the time of the solstice and another is aligned towards moonrise at the same period.

### Italy

* Alatri
* Nuraghe

### Korea

* Cheomseongdae, ancient observatory in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea.

### Malta

* Megalithic Temples of Malta
* Mnajdra

### Mexico

* Calakmul
* Cantona
* Cañada de la Virgen
* Casas Grandes
* Chichen Itza
	+ The Caracol is theorised to be a proto-observatory with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events, specifically around the path of Venus as it traverses the heavens. (Debated among specialists).
	+ The main pyramid El Castillo (the Temple of Kukulkan) displays the appearance of a snake "crawling" down the pyramid at the spring equinox (Unproven).
* Coba
* Dzibilchaltun, Spring equinox, the sun rises so that it shines directly through one window of the temple and out the other.
* Ik Kil - hierophany where the sunrise on the day of the solar zenith transit aligns with the summit of Ikil Structure 1 as viewed from an observation point within Ikil Cave 1.
* Izamal
* Mitla
* Monte Alban, zenith tube
* Palenque
* La Quemada
* El Tajín
* Teotihuacan, the pecked-cross circles as survey-markers
* Tulum
* Uxmal, Venus alignment of the "Governor's Palace"
* Xochicalco, zenith tube
* Yagul

### Netherlands

* Hunebedden - Funnel Beaker Culture megalith graves ("hunebedden") in the eastern Netherlands might be oriented on moonrises.

### North Macedonia

* Kokino Situated 1030 m above sea level on the Tatićev Kamen Summit near Kumanovo.(disputed)

### Peru

* Buena Vista
* Chankillo
* Cusco
* Machu Picchu
* Nazca Lines
* Choquequirao
* Ollantaytambo

### Portugal

* Almendres Cromlech
* Anta Grande do Zambujeiro
* Dolmen of Cunha Baixa

### Spain

* Antequera Dolmens Site
	+ Peña de los Enamorados
	+ Dolmen of Menga

### Syria

* Rujm el-Hiri in the Golan Heights, territory occupied by Israel.

### United Kingdom

* Ballochroy
* Boscawen-Un Winter Solstice sunrise out of the Lamorna Gap.
* Bryn Celli Ddu – aligned with the summer solstice such that light illuminates a quartz rich stone at the back of the chamber.
* Callanish Stones
* Maeshowe, it is aligned so that the rear wall of its central chamber, a rough cube of five yards square held up by a bracketed wall, is illuminated on the winter solstice.
* Prehistoric Orkney
* St Edward the Confessor's Church, Leek. Traditional site for observing a double sunset.
* Stonehenge (Generally accepted).
* Woodhenge

### United States

* America's Stonehenge in New Hampshire
* Anderson Mounds, Anderson, Indiana.
* Bighorn Medicine Wheel
* Cahokia, large Mississippian culture site with numerous solar and other alignments
	+ Cahokia Woodhenge, equinox and summer solstice sunrise/winter solstice sunset aligned timber circle
	+ Mound 72, summer solstice sunrise/winter solstice sunset aligned burial mound
* Casa Malpaís Archaeological Site, Springerville, Arizona. Summer solstice at noon and sunset.
* Chaco Canyon, cardinal orientations, meridian alignment, inter-pueblo alignments
	+ The 3-Slab Site atop Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, which marks the solstices.
* Chimney Rock Archaeological Area, near Pagosa Springs, Colorado
* Crack Cave at Picture Canyon (Colorado) in Comanche National Grassland
* Emerald Mound and Village Site, Lebanon, Illinois
* Haleets on Bainbridge Island in Washington state
* Hovenweep Castle
* Holly Solstice Panel in Hovenweep National Monument
* Moorehead Circle, timber circle in Ohio
* Octagon Earthworks
* Serpent Mound
* Skystone near Naches Trail in Washington state
* Wally's Dome in Sacramento Mountains (New Mexico)

## See also

* List of branches of Archaeoastronism
* History of the Astronic tradition
* History of Astronism
* Historiography of Astronism
* Astronic religions