Ancient Reconstruction of the Heavens on the Ground, by Sam Newbold - LexiLine Journal 277

Here is a nice posting by Sam Newbold to a discussion list
that I found online at

http://astronomyphysics.com/read.php?f=16&i=25&t=23

replying to a question about the ancient's knowledge of astronomy:

>Author: sam newbold (snewbold@elon.edu)
>Date: 02-21-02 15:45

>ancient cultures were not able to see more than their naked eye
>would allow. However, through painstaking astronomical recordings,
>they were able to reconstruct the heavens onto the ground. this is
>revealed through many megalithic structures that were built
>millinea in the past. some examples are: the Giza plateau in Egypt -
>built to replicate the 3 belt stars of Orion (Osiris), Ankor Wat
>and Ankor Thom in Cambodia - built to replicate Draco (Dragon), and
>the Candelabra of the Andes - shaped to replicate the Southern
Cross.

>the sky-ground dualism that ancient civilizations tried to capture
>was a process that gradually developed through monotonous
>calculations. actual observatories were built to study the sky
>like: stonehenge, the temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak, and the Maya's
>Chichen Itza. Astronomy was religion in these cultures, which is
>why they were so determined to build these structures.