Skywatchers : A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico [Paperback]

Anthony F. Aveni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2001

From reviews of the first edition: ". . . a clear, well-written introduction to archaeoastronomy [that] should be on the shelf of anyone interested in the subject." --Archaeology ". . . a splendid book, interesting both as science and as history." --Sky and Telescope ". . . a well-written, stimulating, and excellently illustrated book. Buy it or borrow it!" --Archaeoastronomy Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico helped establish the field of archaeoastronomy, and it remains the standard introduction to this subject. Combining basic astronomy with archaeological and ethnological data, it presented a readable and entertaining synthesis of all that was known of ancient astronomy in the western hemisphere as of 1980. In this revised edition, Anthony Aveni draws on his own and others' discoveries of the past twenty years to bring the Skywatchers story up to the present. He offers new data and interpretations in many areas, including: o The study of Mesoamerican time and calendrical systems and their unprecedented continuity in contemporary Mesoamerican culture o The connections between Precolumbian religion, astrology, and scientific, quantitative astronomy o The relationship between Highland Mexico and the world of the Maya and the state of Pan-American scientific practices o The use of personal computer software for computing astronomical data With this updated information, Skywatchers will serve a new generation of general and scholarly readers and will be useful in courses on archaeoastronomy, astronomy, history of astronomy, history of science, anthropology, archaeology, and world religions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anthony F. Aveni is the Russell B. Colgate Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology at Colgate University in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; Revised and Updated edition (August 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292705026
• ISBN-13: 978-0292705029
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable update to a classic, April 17, 2010

By 

Pdecordoba - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skywatchers : A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico (Paperback)

PRELIMINARY REMARKS
1. This book is available in Spanish as Observadores del cielo en el Mexico antiguo (Seccion de Obras de Antropologia) (Spanish Edition). But please be careful not to confuse it with the previous edition, whose cover appears to be identical.

2. It's a shame that Amazon's "Look Inside" feature doesn't let prospective customers view Part I, since that's where Aveni explains what he's updated, and why. However, you CAN view that information, apparently just once, in the Google Book version. (See link in first comment, below.) Especially important is the section entitled, "Archaeoastronomy: Twenty Years of Hindsight". There, Aveni explains that advances in our understanding of the mesoamerican astronomy had made parts of the first edition "embarrassingly out of date". (E.g., regarding the Maya and their calendars.)

In addition, Aveni discarded the sections about doing calculations on calculators that use magnetic cards (I remember them well), and replaced those sections with lists of modern software for home computers.

REVIEW OF THE BOOK ITSELF
In short, this is a valuable update to a classic. Its section on naked-eye astronomy, and what can be deduced therefrom, is invaluable to a novice like me. I intend to write more at a later time, but for now I think prospective customers would be better served by searching the web for reviews written by more-qualified people. A link to a brief on-line review is given in the first comment.

6 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Landmark Book, November 19, 2005

By 

Mark H. Gaffney (Chiloquin, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Skywatchers : A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico (Paperback)

This is one of my favorite books. I am a writer and happened to stumble onto this amazing book while researching Velikovsky, the current failed comet model, earth changes and much more. Aveni produced this fine scholarly work on the central american archaeological sites. I was blown away when I realized from this source that the grid axes of nearly all of the ancient meso american sites are skewed to the east. Aveni didn't grok on the reason but his reliable data is invaluable. And the reason? The ruins are much much older than the so called experts claim -- and date to before the last crustal shift which probably occurred at the close of the last ice age -- around 9500 BC. Thereabouts. The ruins, in other words, were once oriented N-S just like the pyramids of Giza today -- but when the crust moved so did the temples.

Aveni's analysis of the Berlin Codex is also a treasure. Amazingly, the Codex includes an authentic Mayan ephemeris of Venus -- and it is telling. Aveni is puzzled by it -- and wonders how these Mayans (whose calendar was accurate to how many decimal points -- and yet they) couldn't manage to record the stations of Venus accurately. Aveni doesn't get it -- but his translation and analysis is nonetheless a tremendous contribution. Of course the Mayans did record the stations accurately. They recorded what they saw: namely, a planet (Venus) that was in an extremely elliptical orbit. (Venus today has an almost perfectly circular orbit.) Velikovsky was right. Venus was then a comet in the process of being captured by the sun. And this confirmatory evidence - which Velikovsky did not know about -- has been lying around since 1980 when this book was published -- and no one (except for me) has even noticed.

Aveni's scholarship is second to none. The book is a gem.