Solarizing the Moon: Essays in honour of Lionel Sims
Edited by Fabio Silva Edited by Liz Henty
Paperback (Published)
(July 2022)
ISBN: 9781803271125
6.85 x 9.69 inches
Price: $64.00
In stock
Lionel Sims has produced an influential body of work that has challenged existing narratives about British prehistoric monuments and provided innovative ways to approach and think about skyscapes. This book, in his honour, is divided into three parts: Anthropology and Human Origins, Prehistory and Megalithic Monuments, and Theory.
In the United Kingdom and Europe generally, the study of prehistoric monuments has long been the domain of archaeologists who excavate, measure, date and record them. From the 1960s onwards, archaeoastronomers provided an alternative picture based on their belief that the builders understood celestial movements and consequently enshrined astronomical alignments into their monuments. This picture was highly contested by most archaeologists and the two fields, archaeology and archaeoastronomy, have gone their separate ways. One of the scholars who broke this stalemate was Lionel Sims who, as an anthropologist, had a wealth of ethnographic material to draw from, allowing him to envision archaeoastronomy from a multidisciplinary perspective by combining a number of methodologies and approaches to examine how archaeoastronomy could deal with cultural complexity. Lionel Sims has produced an influential body of work which has challenged existing narratives about British prehistoric monuments and, equally importantly, provided innovative ways to approach and think about skyscapes. His work is not without controversy, but his unique take and thought-provoking conclusions have had an impact on the thinking of numerous students and collaborators. This festschrift gathers contributions from many of his colleagues who wish to honour and pay their respects to him. Following an introduction that discusses the legacy of his work, the volume delves deeper into three areas: Anthropology and Human Origins, Prehistory and Megalithic Monuments, and Theory. Its thirteen chapters contextualise Lionel’s work and expand it in new and exciting directions for skyscape archaeology.
Introduction: Lionel's Legacy - Fabio Silva and Liz Henty Part I: Anthropology and Human Origins Lunarchy: The Original Human Economics of Time - Camilla Power Hunting by the Moon in Human Evolution - Ian Watts Enchantment in Stone - Chris Knight Part II: Prehistory and Megalithic Monuments Prehistoric Interest in Stations of the Sun and the Moon - Fact or Fiction? - Emilia Pasztor The Sun and the Moon: Double Alignments in the Iberian Peninsula - A. Cesar Gonzalez-Garcia The Long Dark Night: Neolithic Ritual as Palimpsest - John Grigsby Entangling the Cosmos: Astronomy of the Ancestral Pueblos - Sacred Skyscapes and Medicine Bundles - J. McKim Malville Hats Off To Lionel: The Moon's Vertical Descent into Robin Hood's Ball and Other 'Dualities' - David Fisher Fire-drills in the Neolithic Near East - Estelle Orrelle Part III: Theory Human Beings in Cosmic Lifeworlds: Anthropology, Ecospheres and Cultural Cosmologies - Michael A. Rappengluck Exploring Theory in Skyscape Archaeology: Symbols, Materiality, Relationality and Rhizomes - Nicholas Campion Skyscape Archaeology as Ontological Turn: Towards an Archaeoastronomy Rooted in Modern Archaeological Theory - Fabio Silva Breaking the Mould: Space, Place and Phenomenology - Liz Henty, Introduction: Lionel’s Legacy – Fabio Silva and Liz Henty Part I: Anthropology and Human OriginsCamilla PowerIan WattsChris Knight Part II: Prehistory and Megalithic MonumentsEmília PásztorA. César González-GarcíaJohn GrigsbyJ. McKim MalvilleDavid FisherEstelle Orrelle Part III: TheoryMichael A. RappenglückNicholas CampionFabio SilvaLiz Henty
Fabio Silva is Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Modelling at Bournemouth University and co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology. His research focuses on how societies have perceived and conceived their environment and used that to time and adjust social, productive and magico-religious behaviours. His books include Skyscapes: The Role and Importance of the Sky in Archaeology (co-edited with N. Campion, Oxbow Books 2015). He was awarded the Fifth Carlos Jaschek Award from the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) in 2016.
Liz Henty is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Skyscape Archaeology. Apart from her research into the history of archaeoastronomy she also conducts archaeoastronomical surveys at the recumbent stone circles of Northeast Scotland. Her books include Visualising Skyscapes (co-edited with Daniel Brown, Routledge 2020) and Exploring Archaeoastronomy: A History of its Relationship with Archaeology and Esotericism (Oxbow Books 2022).
- Edited by Fabio Silva
- Edited by Liz Henty
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