Volkov, V. V., E. N. Kaurov, M. F. Kosarev, and T. M. Potyomkina, eds. Archaeoastronomy: Emerging Problems. Moscow: Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1996. [A collection of papers from a conference held in Moscow in 1996. In Russian.]
Waddell, John. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Galway: Galway University Press, 1998. [Detailed and authoritative.]
Walker, Christopher, ed. Astronomy before the Telescope. London: British Museum Press, 1996. [A broad range of case studies spanning archaeoastronomy, the history of astronomy, and indigenous astronomies. Provides an excellent overview.]
Watkins, Alfred. The Old Straight Track. London: Abacus, 1974. Originally published in 1925 by Methuen, London. [The original publication that gave rise to the ley line phenomenon in its various manifestations. Of historic interest only.]
Waugh, Albert E. Sundials: Their Theory and Construction. New York: Dover, 1973. [A technical overview of different types of sundials and how they function.]
Wheatley, Paul. The Pivot of the Four Quarters: A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character of the Ancient Chinese City. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971.
Whittington, E. Michael, ed. The Sport of Life and Death: The Mesoamerican Ball-game. London: Thames and Hudson, 2001. [Overview papers accompanying what started as an exhibition catalog, in large format with excellent color illustrations. An excellent introduction.]
Whittle, Alasdair. Europe in the Neolithic: The Creation of New Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. [Detailed, wide-ranging, and authoritative synthesis with thought-provoking interpretations.]
———. The Archaeology of People: Dimensions of Neolithic Life. New York: Rout-ledge, 2003. [An innovative interpretative framework by a leading British prehistorian offering fresh insights into daily life in early Neolithic Europe.]
Williamson, Ray A., ed. Archaeoastronomy in the Americas. Los Altos, CA: Ballena Press, and College Park, MD: Center for Archaeoastronomy, 1981.
———. Living The Sky: The Cosmos of the American Indian. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.
Williamson, Ray A., and Claire R. Farrer, eds. Earth and Sky: Visions of the Cosmos in Native American Folklore. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. [A collection of papers presenting ethnoastronomical studies in a range of native North American communities.]
Williamson, Tom, and Liz Bellamy. Ley Lines in Question. Tadworth, England: World’s Work, 1983. [A critical but serious examination of ley lines and of “alternative archaeology” in general, by two archaeologists.]
Wood, John E. Sun, Moon and Standing Stones. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978. [One of a number of books describing archaeoastronomy for a general audience that followed in the wake of Alexander Thom’s theories before their reassessment.]
Xu Zhentao, David Pankenier, and Jiang Yaotiao. East Asian Archaeoastronomy: Historical Records of Astronomical Observations of China, Japan and Korea. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, 2000. [An extremely useful sourcebook of references to astronomical phenomena among East Asian historical sources, including original texts, English translations, and commentaries.]
Zaldua, Luix Mari. Saroeak Urnietan [Stone Octagons in Urnieta]. Urnieta, Spain: Kulturnieta, 1996. [In Basque, Spanish, and English.]
Zedda, Mauro Peppino. I Nuraghi: Il Sole La Luna. Cagliari: Ettore Gasperini Editore, 1991. [Methodologically unconstrained identifications of numerous solar and lunar alignments between Sardinian nuraghi, written before the author embraced stricter procedures. In Italian.]
———. I Nuraghi tra Archeologia e Astronomia. Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy: Agorа Nuragica, 2004. [Detailed descriptions with the author’s own interpretations. In Italian.]
‰era∞ska-Kominek, S√awomira, with Arnold Lebeuf. The Tale of Crazy Harman. Warsaw: DIALOG, 1997. [An epic narrative from Turkmenistan with commentary including interpretations of its astronomical/cosmological imagery. Originally published in Polish.]
Ziу√kowski, Mariusz, and Robert Sadowski, eds. Time and Calendars in the Inca Empire. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports (International Series 479), 1989. [A collection of papers presented at a conference in Bogotб in 1985. Contains articles in English and Spanish.]
Zuidema, R. Tom. The Ceque System of Cuzco: The Social Organization of the Capital of the Inca. Leiden: Brill, 1964. [Pioneering work on the Cusco ceque system, establishing their relation to concepts of space and time and social engineering. Reprinted in Spanish by Pontificia Universidad Catуlica del Perъ, Lima, in 1995.]
This glossary gives short definitions of certain terms that occur regularly within thematic entries and case studies. Some readers will find useful a fuller explanation of some of these concepts, and an asterisk indicates that the topic is elaborated further in the main body of the encyclopedia. Italicized words cross-refer to other glossary entries.
*ACCURACY. The closeness of a measurement to the true value. Cf. Precision.
*ACRONICAL RISE. [Alternatively spelled “acronychal,” for example in British usage.] Strictly, the rising of a star at sunset. This event is not directly visible and the term is sometimes loosely applied to the annual last visible rising of a star in or after the evening twilight.
*ACRONICAL SET. [Alternatively spelled “acronychal,” for example in British usage.] Strictly, the setting of a star at sunrise. This event is not directly visible and the term is sometimes loosely applied to the annual first visible setting of a star in or before the morning twilight.
*ALTITUDE. The angle between the direction to an observed point and the horizontal plane through the observer, with a positive value indicating that the point is above the observer. Cf. Elevation.
ANTIZENITH. The point directly beneath the observer, also known as the nadir. Cf. Zenith.
ARC MINUTE. An angle equal to one sixtieth part of a degree, and hence 1 / (60 Ч 360) or one 21,600th part of the whole circle. This angle is roughly equivalent to the distance between the front and back of a sheep or similar-sized animal viewed side-on (one meter, or three feet) at a distance of about three kilometers (two miles). The apparent diameter of the sun and moon, by comparison, is about thirty arc minutes.
ARC SECOND. An angle of one sixtieth of an arc minute, and hence 1 / (60 Ч 60 Ч 360) or one 1,296,000th part of the whole circle. This angle is roughly equivalent to the distance between the eyes of a sheep or similar-sized animal viewed front-on (ten centimeters, or four inches) at a distance of about eighteen kilometers (eleven miles).
ASTERISM. In modern astronomy, a grouping or pattern of stars that does not form a (modern Western) constellation; in cultural astronomy the term may also be applied to a (historical or indigenous) constellation.
ASTROLABE. An instrument for measuring and determining the positions of the sun and bright stars as seen from given locations at given times; in many senses a precursor to the modern planisphere.
*AZIMUTH. Bearing clockwise from due north.
CELESTIAL NORTH POLE. Point on the celestial sphere, visible from any location in the northern hemisphere where the relevant part of the sky is unobscured, around which the celestial bodies appear to rotate daily (in a counterclockwise direction).