Archaeoastronomy explores how ancient cultures interpreted and related to planetary elements and astronomical phenomena.http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118421/main.html It began as a field of scientific inquiry in the 1960s with Stonehenge discoveries.http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/cfaar_as.html Archaeoastronomy combines many disciplines such as astronomy, archaeology, ethnography, geography, anthropology and cartography.http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118421/main.html

The researchers investigate diverse subjects like "ancient and native calendar systems, concepts of time and space, mathematics, counting systems and geometry, surveying and navigational techniques."http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/cfaar_as.html They explore sites like Chichen Itza, Mexico; Serpent Mound, United States; Nazca Lines, Peru; Stonehenge, England; and the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/pathfinder.html http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/cfaar_as.html The University of Texas Press publishes Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture.http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/journals/jarch.html The Journal contains peer-reviewed papers, book reviews and film reviews.

In 2011, Lima, Peru will host the Ninth International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy.http://www1.archaeoastronomy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=15&lang=en "Building Bridges between Cultures" is the conference theme.http://www1.archaeoastronomy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=19&lang=en The scheduled keynote speakers are Gary Urton, Harvard University; Edmundo Edwards, Universidad de Chile; Stephen McCluskey, West Virginia University; John Steele, Brown University; and Sun Xiaochun, Chinese Academy of Sciences.http://www1.archaeoastronomy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37&Itemid=40&lang=en

A study of the Pyramids of Giza reveals that the ancient Egyptians were familiar with mathematical astronomy. The researchers believe the two main pyramids, Cheops and Chephren, were a planned project related to the movement of planetary objects. The Great Pyramid of Giza, Cheops, was aligned with various objects in the ancient sky -- Orion's Belt, Sirius and the circumpolar stars.

Some researchers speculate that Serpent Mound functioned as a calendar for the Adena people.http://www.highlandssanctuary.org/Serpent_Mound_Visitors_Guide.htm The earthwork has alignments to the Equinox sunrise, Winter Solstice sunrise, Summer Solstice sunset and Summer Solstice sunrise.http://www.ohiohistory.org/ http://texasnativeskies.org/sites/site.php?s=4

In 1963, Gerald Hawkins, an astronomer at Boston University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Observatory, suggested that Stonehenge was an astronomical calculator.http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/26/us/gerald-hawkins-75-astronomer-who-theorized-on-stonehenge.html The stones are not only "aligned with solar and lunar astronomical events", but can also predict eclipses.http://witcombe.sbc.edu/stonehenge/archaeoastronomy.html http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/stonehenge.html