Mediterranean Archaeotopography and Archaeoastronomy: Two Examples of Dolmenic Necropolises in the Jordan Valley

On these monuments, see Stelekis M. , Les monuments mégalithiques de Palestine (Archives de l'Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Mémoires, no. 15; Paris, 1935); Joussaume R. , “Le proche-Orient, Syrie, Liban, Israël, Jordanie”, in his Dolmens pour les morts (Paris, 1985), 310–20; Zohar M. , “Rogem Hiri: A megalithic monument in the Golan”, Israeli exploration journal, xxxix, nos 1–2 (1989), 19–31 (Fig. 1, a map of megalithic necropolises in the Levant, is especially relevant); and Guilaine J. , La mer partagée: La Méditerranée avant l'écriture (Paris, 1994), 230–3.

For a discussion of the term ‘archaeotopography’, see Hoskin Michael , “One specialist among many”, Archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy newsletter, no. 21 (September 1996), Editor's Column. Hoskin argues that the term ‘archaeoastronomy’ is unfortunate, since it implies that the investigator will stop at nothing before assigning an astronomical motivation to a custom of tomb orientation; and he suggests that the Greek origins of ‘archaeotopography’ convey the meaning of a study of the orientation of tombs in relation to their geographical environment, whatever the nature of the motivation underlying the custom of orientation.

Belmonte J. A. , “Petra: Arqueoastronomía y arqueotopografía”, Investigación y ciencia (the Spanish edition of Scientific American), cclii (1997), 43–45.

Stekelis M. , “La necrópolis megalítica de Ala Safat, Transjordania”, Ampurias, xx-xxi (1960–61), 49–128.

Stekelis , ibid., gives dates between 3200 and 2850 b.c.; however, he thinks that the monuments were in use during most of the third millennium. Yassine Kh. , “The dolmens: Construction and dating reconsidered”, Archaeology of Jordan (Dept of Archaeology, University of Jordan, 1988), 47–54, proposes Early Bronze I on the basis of pottery characteristics.

Guilaine , op. cit. (ref. 1), 232.

The average declination for ten of the monuments (omitting nos 3 and 8) is −44°.5. If we assume an error of some 2°, only Fomalhaut had a declination in the relevant range (−42°.8 around 4000 b.c. and −44°.5 around 2500 b.c). The Southern Cross would not have had the appropriate declination until around 1500 b.c., too late for our purposes.

In Sardinia, for example, only 3 out of 252 tombe di giganti faced anywhere near to north, and north-facing tombs are even rarer in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. See Zedda Mauro Hoskin Michael Gralewski Renate and Manca Giacobbe , “Orientations of 230 Sardinian Tombe di Giganti”, Archaeoastronomy (supplement to Journal for the history of astronomy, no. 21 (1996), S33–54, and references therein; and Hoskin Michael and Zedda Mauro , “Orientations of Sardinian dolmens”, ibid., no. 22 (1997), S1–16.

Epstein C. , “Dolmens excavated in the Golan”, Atiqot, xvii (1985), 20–58. Of 36 excavated monuments, 21 (58%) had an entrance towards the east, 5 (14%) towards the west; and 11 (31%) were built on a N-S axis.

On the Palermo Stone (a Fifth Dynasty monument), a “stretching of the cord” ceremony is already reported as taking place during the reign of a king of the First or Second Dynasties (c. 3100–2800 b.c.) ( Belmonte J. A. , “Astronomía y arquitectura: El papel de los astros en el arte y la cultura del antiguo Egipto”, in Arte y cultura del antiguo Egipto (University of La Laguna, in press)).

In Ptolemaic times, we have texts where a clear orientation to the Akh Msjtyw (“the bright [star] of the Thigh”, i.e. a star of the Plough (Big Dipper)), or simply to Msjtyw, is reported. See Krupp E. C. , “Astronomers, pyramids, and priests”, in Krupp (ed.), In search of ancient astronomies (New York, 1977), 186–218, pp. 203–4, or, for the actual hieroglyphic text, Leitz C. , “Der Edfutempel und die Orientierung nach dem Grossen Bären”, Studien zur Agyptischen Astronomie (Ägyptologische Abhandlungen; Wiesbaden, 1991), 61–65.

An azimuth interval with an extreme amplitude of some ±25° (see Table 1) can be obtained either with a star or asterism rising and setting at these azimuths or, even better, with a circumpolar star or asterism with a maximum digression from due north of ±25°. This can arise with a star or asterism with a minimum declination of about 65°. In this connection, it is worth noting that Alcaid (η UMa) had a declination of 65°.9 in 3200 b.c., so that the seven stars of the Plough (Big Dipper) provided the dolmen builders of Ala Safat with a perfect guide for the orientation of monuments to the north.

See Epstein , op. cit. (ref. 9).

Guilaine , op. cit. (ref. 1), Fig. 153.

First Dynasty mastabas at Saqqara, and the Luxor and Edfu temples, are good examples of parallel construction. The temple of Carnac or the “Temples of a Million Years” at Western Thebes are good examples of perpendicular construction. See Belmonte , op. cit. (ref. 10).

For a recent review, see Gardner S. L. , “The state of Archaeo/ethnoastronomy and the Land of the Bible”, Archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy news, no. 24 (June 1997), Editorial. Some astronomical skill has been detected in the impressive monument of Rogem Hiri (see e.g. Zohar , op. cit. (ref. 1), or Mizrachi Y. , “Towards an understanding of a Bronze Age megalithic monument in the Levant”, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University (UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, 1993). Its astronomical orientations to the summer solstice and to the equinoxes reflect the cult interests of the builders. For a preliminary account of the Palestian temples and high places from the Chalcolithic to Iron Age I, see Gardner S. L. , “Scratching the surface of astronomy in the land of the Bible: The sun and stars as seen by the ancient Canaanites and Israelites”, paper presented to the “Oxford V Conference on Cultural Aspects of Astronomy”, Santa Fe, 1996 (in press).