Back in November, I posted about an initiative to allow astronomy sites to be recognised on the World Heritage List. I think this is a long overdue project (and part of a broader need to recognise scientific heritage more generally) so I invited Clive Ruggles, an archaeoastronomer and chair of the working group that will decide how these astronomy sites should be chosen, to write a comment piece for New Scientist about why he thinks ancient astronomy is so important for our cultural heritage. You can now read the result here, as well as view a photo gallery showing some of the world's most striking astronomical sites, as chosen by leading archaeoastronomy experts. Old favourites such as Stonehenge in the UK and Chichen Itza in Mexico are covered, but also lesser known sites like the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming (an oval arrangement of stones aligned to the summer solstice) and a 7th-century observing tower in Cheomseongdae, South Korea.
One thing I found particularly interesting about Ruggle's article was the idea that rather than simply preserving ancient sites in isolation, we should try to look after the environments in which they were placed. For astronomical sites that of course includes the sky - an ancient observatory can't be truly appreciated without the starry sky to go with it, yet today an undimmed view of the stars is distressingly rare. The last time I saw a properly dark sky was several years ago, sitting on the beach of a tiny island in Fiji, far from any artificial lights. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced; far from being dark the sky seemed alive and pulsating, an awesome (and colourful!) display of shimmering, bursting light - it's easy to see why ancient people thought they saw gods up there. "To those of us in the modern, lit-up world, the first time that we see a truly dark night sky can be breathtaking," says Ruggles. "But until relatively recently, most people experienced this spectacle every clear night, wherever they lived. If we want to appreciate the beliefs and practices reflected in the architecture of ancient temples and tombs, we cannot ignore their relationship to the sky."
This obsession with the sky was also what drove the development of much ancient technology including the first scientific instruments, from sundials to astrolabes, and of course the Antikythera mechanism.