Art of Ancient Astronomy

Description

Authors: Krehbiel, Jim and Cunningham, Natalie

Publisher: Angry Owl Press

Pub Date: 2022

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Very Good.  This is a NEW book.

Notes: Exhibit catalog, for an exhibit featured at the Edge of Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding, Utah.  An archaeoastronomical  survey of southeast Utah (Cunningham is an astrophysicist), combined with artwork inspired by the astronomical observations.  Astronomy data from 344 archaeological sites, sometimes just one or two rooms high on a ledge, in southern Utah.  “When we started this project, we were working with the idea that astronomical knowledge of the sun and moon was developed  and refined at Chaco Canyon then dispersed into the outer reaches of the Ancestral Pueblo world.  As the project progressed, however, we found solstices, equinoxes, cross-quarters, and lunar standstills at pueblos that were distinctly Pueblo I and petroglyph panels that were diagnostically Basketmaker as well as many observatories at Pueblo II and III sites that proliferated around the region.”  (From the Introduction)  “The experience of witnessing a well-designed astronomical alignment is akin to interacting with a work of art” (Ibid.)  Krehbiel’s art on the recto pages, astronomical observations on the verso (though there is sometimes overlap).    In terms of Krehbiel’s art works, the closest artistic analogs I can imagine are Dan Namingha and James Rosenquist.   Beautiful book, well designed.