Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:49:27.862Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The significance of the Sun, Moon and celestial bodies to societies in the Carpathian basin during the Bronze Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2011

Emília Pásztor
Emília Pásztor*
Affiliation:
Dunaföldvar, Sohaz. u. 4., 7020Hungary email: emipasztor@freemail.hu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Celestial events often exerted a great or even decisive influence on the life of ancient communities. They may provide some of the foundations on which an understanding of the deeper meaning of mythologies, religious systems and even folk tales can be based. These influences are reflected and may be detected in the archaeological material as well. There is good evidence that celestial (especially solar and perhaps lunar) phenomena played a particularly important rôle in the worldview of prehistoric Europe. To reveal the social and ideational significance of concepts relating to the celestial bodies in the prehistory of the Carpathian Basin, complex investigations on orientations of houses and graves, prestige archaeological finds and iconography have been accomplished. The results indicate ideological and/or social changes, which developed into a likely organized ideological system in large part of Central Europe including the Carpathian Basin by the Late Bronze Age. It might also be the first period in prehistory when people became really interested in celestial phenomena.

Keywords

PrehistoryCarpathian Basinsky loreorientationcelestial symbolsdivinization of elite
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S260: The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture , January 2009 , pp. 127 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Adams, J. & Otte, M. 1999, Current Anthropology, 40, 73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amades, J. 1994. Des étoiles aux plantes: petite cosmogonie catalane (Carcassone: GARAE/HESIODE; Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail)Google Scholar
Barna, J. P. & Pásztor, E. 2010, in Proceedings of the XV World Congress UISPP, Session C68 (Part I): Monumental Questions: Prehistoric Megaliths, Mounds, and Enclosures, Calado, D., Baldia, M. and Boulanger, M. (eds) (Oxford: BAR S2122), p. 119Google Scholar
Bereznai, Z. 1999, Cumania, 16, 115Google Scholar
Chamberlain, V. D. 1982, When Stars came down to Earth. Cosmology of the Skidi Pawnee Indians of North America (Los Altos: Ballena Press)Google Scholar
Coudart, A. 1998, Architecture et société néolithique: l'unité et la variance de la maison danubienne (Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eliade, M. 1958, Patterns in Comparative Religion (London: Sheed and Ward)Google Scholar
Endrődi, A. & Pásztor, E. 2006, Archaeológiai Értesítő, 131, 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, M. R. & Bengoa, J. A. 2001, in Astronomy, Cosmology and Landscape, Ruggles, C., Prendergast, F. & Ray, T. (eds) (Leicester: Ocarina Books), p. 15Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M. 1997, The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe. Selected articles from 1952-1993 Dexter, M. R. and Jones-Bley, K. (eds) Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph No. 18 (Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man)Google Scholar
Gurshtein, A. 2005, Journal of Indo-European Studies, 33, 103Google Scholar
Hegedűs, T. 2004, Természet Világa, 135, 14Google Scholar
Krupp, E. C. 1997, Skywatchers, Shamans, and Kings: Astronomy and Archaeology of Power (New York: John Wiley and Sons)Google Scholar
Kóvacs, T. 1977, Bronzkor Magyarországon (Budapest: Corvina)Google Scholar
Larsson, T. B. 1999, in Communication in Bronze Age Europe, Transactions of the Bronze Age Symposium in Tanumstrand, Bohuslan, Sweden, September 7-10, 1995, Orrling, C. (ed) (The Museum of National Antiquities, Stockh. Studies, 9) (Stockholm: Statens Historiska Museum), p. 9Google Scholar
MacDonald, J. 1998, The Arctic sky: Inuit astronomy, star lore, and legend (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum and Nunavut Research Institute)Google Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2005, in Lights and Shadows in Cultural Astronomy, Zedda, M. P. and Belmonte, J. A. (eds) (Isili: Associazione Archaeofila Sarda), p. 116Google Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2009a, in Landscape in Mind: Dialogue on Space between Anthropology and Archaeology, Dimitriadis, G. (ed) (Oxford: BAR S2003)Google Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2009b, in Cognitive Archaeology as Symbolic Archaeology, Coimbra, F. and Dimitriadis, G. (eds) (Oxford: BAR IS 1737), p. 13Google Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2009c, in Cosmology Across Cultures, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 409, Rubiño-Martín, J. A., Belmonte, J. A., Prada, F., and Alberdi, A. (eds) (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific), p. 457Google Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2009d, in MOMOSZ VI. Őskoros konferencia, Ilon, G. (ed) (Szombathelyi: KÖSZ/Vas Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága), p. 22Google Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2010b, in Csányi Marietta kőszőntése, Kaposvári, G. and Tárnoki, J. (eds) (Tisicum: Szolnok), p. 172Google Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2011a, in Essays to the honour of János Makkay, Fekete, M. (ed) (Pécs: University Press), in pressGoogle Scholar
Pásztor, E. 2011b, in Archaeology and Experimenting Spirituality, Gheorghiu, D. & Peatfield, A. (eds) (Oxford: BAR IS), in pressGoogle Scholar
Pásztor, E. & Barna, J. P. 2011, in Place As Material Culture, Objects, Geographies and the Construction of Time, Gheorghiu, D. and Nash, G. (eds) (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing), in pressGoogle Scholar
Pásztor, E., Barna, J. P., & Roslund, C. 2008, Antiquity, 82, 910CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pásztor, E. and Roslund, C. 2007, Antiquity, 81, 267CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1987, The Archaeology and Language: the Puzzle of Indo-European Origins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. 2004, Archaeology: theories, methods and practice (London: Thames and Hudson)Google Scholar
Rogers, J. H. 1998a, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 108, 9Google Scholar
Rogers, J. H. 1998b, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 108, 79Google Scholar
Schreiber, R. 1984, Archaeologiai Értesítő, 111, 3Google Scholar
Sümegi, P. & Törőcsik, T. 2007, Természet Világa, 138, 7Google Scholar
Szabó, L. 1990, in Népszokás, néphit, népi vallásosság, Dőmőtőr, T. and Hoppál, M. (eds) (Budapest: Akadémia Kiadó), p. 725Google Scholar
Wilk, S. R. 2000, Medusa: Solving the mystery of the Gorgon (Oxford: Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Zsigmond, G. 1999, Égitest és néphagyomány (Csíkszereda: Pallas-Akadémia Kőnyvkiadó)Google Scholar