Locating the festival, positioning the feast: natural and calendar festivals in medieval Slovenia

Čaval, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9337-3951 (2018) Locating the festival, positioning the feast: natural and calendar festivals in medieval Slovenia. World Archaeology, 50 (2). pp. 300-322. ISSN 0043-8243 doi: 10.1080/00438243.2018.1538814

Abstract/Summary

The astronomical cycles and occurrences of the Sun, Moon, planets and certain star constellations were well known to prehistoric, Roman and medieval communities. Archaeoastronomy studies how ancient societies incorporated this knowledge into various aspects of past cultures. The discipline draws on modern astronomy, geodesy, physics, statistics, anthropology, ethnology and archaeology to study and interpret a wide range of source materials, from structural alignments to art, artefacts and inscriptions. This paper presents archaeoastronomical research on the orientation of Romanesque churches across the territory of modern-day Slovenia, focusing on an array of medieval festivals associated with the solstices and equinoxes. It demonstrates a profound connection between these festivals and the alignment of churches.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/82779
Identification Number/DOI	10.1080/00438243.2018.1538814
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Archaeology
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
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