Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great Ancient Cultures

Needed this book this semester and Amazon had the cheapest option thanks

I read this when it first came out and have had it ever since. A perfect place to start your study on archaeoastronomy. Still a classic after all these years by one of the best scientists on the subject. Great for those having Mayan 2012 nightmares. A wealth of history and science that will appeal to many readers. Accessible but scholarly. See also Stonehenge Complete, The Mayan and Other Ancient Calendars and The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology.

This is a fascinating book on the astronomy of 3 ancient cultures that we know built monuments with astronomical alignments: the people who built Stonehenge, The Maya, and the Inca. However, please be aware that there is a significant part of the book that tries to explain the astronomy and what would be visible in the night sky unaided by the telescope.This book was published about 25 years ago, and there is a lot of time explaining how the various celestial bodies would appear in the different locations covered by this book. It's very interesting, and quite important to understanding what the author is talking about in his studies of the various cultures, but it's quite dense and wasn't as easy for me to follow. There are some illustrations to describe what the author is describing, but I found it more helpful to go online to look for some videos that would illustrate these issues. A basic understanding of astronomy would be helpful before reading this book.One of the things that I appreciated about Dr. Aveni was that he stressed that we can not take our modern scientific view of astronomy and apply it to these ancient cultures. First, they did not have telescopes so this was only dealing with what could be seen by the naked eye. Second, these societies astronomy would seem much more like astrology to us. Third, things that we may not even notice in the night sky, may have been very important in these cultures watching of the night sky; an excellent example of this is the importance of Venus to the Maya and the Inca.This book was apparently written as a text book, with exercises to try observing the night sky yourself in the appendices. There is also information about how you would measure a possible astronomical alignment at an archaeological site.If you enjoy technical books on the topic of archaeology this will probably interest you. If you are convinced that Stonehenge was just a giant clock for the ancient inhabitants of Salisbury plain, this book might give you some additional information to consider. Finally, this is an interesting book dealing with the field of archaeoastronomy and if you'd like to learn more about this topic Stairways to the Stars is a great starting point.

This book is fascinating and I love this author's methodical, reasoning and respectful approach to history and cultures. I loved his book on the Nazca Lines, Between the Lines, and then picked up this one. It is teaching me so much about how the sun, moon, and planets behave in the sky, how to look for them, and what these movements probably meant to each of the ancient cultures. I trust this author more than any I have read on the ancient cultures and meanings of the ancient monuments. He is very thorough in his research and his writing.

I came to the book as a part of a quick study on the origins of the 7 day week with particular regards to the Sabbath and the questions i have surrounding it.I like the author's style of writing, comprehensiveness and scientific mindset, so much that i started his Empires of Time this morning. I think i read these two books in the wrong order, i'd recommend reading empires first and then this book. there are a few places that background information would have made stairways a bit easier to understand and perhaps flow a bit smoother.I appreciate the author's expertise and ability to made difficult ideas understandable while at the same time explain what went into his thinking so that i can recapitulate from his data and perhaps understand his reasoning from the inside out. it is a field a bit confused by sloppy thinking and bad pseudoscience like astrology and numerology and i really appreciate his desire to present the best science and not speculate further than the data extends, a refreshing feeling after scanning lots of trash while getting the basic info for my study.he must be an excellent teacher.

Not very good book, I expected more information, basic book.