Abstract
We present preliminary findings of a study of astronomical phenomena observed and extant in written sources from Georgia and Armenia. By way of background, we discuss prior research by Georgian and, to a lesser extent, Armenian scholars on the practice of astronomy in medieval Georgia and Armenia. To date, we have assembled numerous regional accounts of naked eye observations of comets, meteor showers, solar and lunar eclipses, and other Solar System phenomena. We show how the primary accounts prove useful to Applied Historical Astronomy—a field to which one of the authors (FRS) has made many contributions over the past four decades.
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Notes
- 1.
That is, archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy. According to Ruggles (2005:19) ‘archaeoastronomy’ is “…best defined as the study of beliefs and practices concerning the sky in the past, and especially in prehistory, and the uses to which people’s knowledge of the skies were put.” ‘Ethnoastronomy’ is “The study of beliefs and practices concerning the sky among modern peoples, and particularly among indigenous communities, and the uses to which people’s knowledge of the skies are put … There is no clear dividing line between archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy, and many would prefer simply to combine the two fields under one heading, such as cultural astronomy.” (ibid: 152). See, also, Ruggles and Saunders (1993).
- 2.
Applied Historical Astronomy is the application of primarily pre-telescopic (i.e. pre-AD 1609) astronomical records, mostly written, to fields of modern science (see Stephenson 1996).
- 3.
The dates of the manuscripts included by Kevanishvili were compared with the manuscript descriptions of collections A, H, Q, or S published by the National Centre of Manuscripts. See Garitte (1961).
- 4.
Perhaps also in 560 and 571—it is not yet clear whether these dates are given in the Armenian calendar or in years AD. As the result possibly of volcanic activity, see Arjava (2005).
- 5.
The uncertainty of the year arises because the year is written alphabetically; here we have 1000, then 80, then 90.
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Acknowledgments
An earlier version of paper was delivered by one of us (JS) at the Ninth Biennial History of Astronomy Workshop at University of Notre Dame (USA) on 12 July 2009. One of the authors (JS) is grateful for the opportunity to participate in the StephensonFest Conference. Finally, one of the authors (WO) wishes to thank Professor Boonrucksar Soonthornthum for offering him a Visiting Professorship at NARIT in 2012, where he was able to complete the revision of this paper.
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Sauter, J., Simonia, I., Stephenson, F.R., Orchiston, W. (2015). Historical Astronomy of the Caucasus: Sources from Georgia and Armenia. In: Orchiston, W., Green, D., Strom, R. (eds) New Insights From Recent Studies in Historical Astronomy: Following in the Footsteps of F. Richard Stephenson. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 43. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07614-0_8
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