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- Archaeoastronomy (2)
- Boyne Valley (2)
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- Climate history (1)
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- Einstein ring (1)
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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy
The Dark Sky Character Of Archaeological Landscapes: Cultural Meaning And Conservation Strategies, Frank Prendergast
The Dark Sky Character Of Archaeological Landscapes: Cultural Meaning And Conservation Strategies, Frank Prendergast
Book/Book Chapter
This paper presents the first ever study of light pollution at selected Irish prehistoric archaeological landscapes. The concepts of cosmology and landscape are first briefly described and followed by a summary of early human settlement of the island. Building on this, the extant corpus of early prehistoric megalithic burial tombs is illustrated to show their contrasting distribution patterns and typology. Analysis of tomb locations using nearest-neighbour statistical methods reveals evidence of intentional clustering. Further geo-statistical analysis identifies the geographical locations and the density ranking of these nucleated clusters - a feature especially evident in the passage tomb tradition on this …
Why Is An Einstein Ring Blue?, Jonathan Blackledge
Why Is An Einstein Ring Blue?, Jonathan Blackledge
Articles
Albert Einstein predicted the existence of `Einstein rings' as a consequence of his general theory of relativity. The phenomenon is a direct result of the idea that if a mass warps space-time then light (and other electromagnetic waves) will be `lensed' by the strong gravitational field produced by a large cosmological body such as a galaxy. Since 1998, when the first complete Einstein ring was observed, many more complete or partially complete Einstein rings have been observed in the radio and infrared spectra, for example, and by the Hubble Space Telescope in the optical spectrum. However, in the latter case, …
A New Archaeoastronomical Investigation Of The Irish Axial-Stone Circles, Frank T. Prendergast, Clive L. Ruggles
A New Archaeoastronomical Investigation Of The Irish Axial-Stone Circles, Frank T. Prendergast, Clive L. Ruggles
Conference Papers
This paper presents the preliminary results of a project undertaken in 1994 to investigate the astronomical potential of the axial-stone circles (ASCs) of seven or more stones in Counties Cork and Kerry, south-west Ireland. This group of sites is of particular interest in that the monuments in the group bear a striking resemblance to the recumbent stone circles (RSCs) of Aberdeenshire, eastern Scotland, which appear to exhibit a strong pattern of alignment in relation to prominent hilltop summits and the rising and setting position of the moon. The first indications from the Irish data are that similar patterns of alignment …
Shadow Casting Phenomena At Newgrange, Frank Prendergast
Shadow Casting Phenomena At Newgrange, Frank Prendergast
Articles
A digital model of the Newgrange passage tomb and surrounding ring of monoliths known as the Great Circle is used to investigate sunrise shadow casting phenomena at the monument. Diurnal variation in shadow directions and lengths are analysed for their potential use in the Bronze Age to indicate the passage of seasonal time. Computer-aided simulations are developed from a photogrammetric survey to accurately show how three of the largest monoliths, located closest to the tomb entrance and archaeologically coded GC1, GC-1 and GC-2, cast their shadows onto the vertical face of the entrance kerbstone, coded K1. The phenomena occur at …