Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Archaeoastronomy

Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultures". Clive Ruggles argues it is misleading to consider archaeoastronomy to be the study of ancient astronomy, as modern astronomy is a scientific discipline, while archaeoastronomy considers symbolically rich cultural interpretations of phenomena in the sky by other cultures.

2 episodes

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  1. Angkor Wat

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing and massive Cambodian temple commissioned by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, a centre for Hinduism, Buddhism and Animism.

    23 June 2022

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    Featuring: Piphal Heng, Ashley Thompson, Simon Warrack

     
  2. The Antikythera Mechanism

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2,000-year-old Greek astronomical computer, one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology.

    14 November 2024

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    Featuring: Mike Edmunds, Jo Marchant, Liba Taub