0000000000098684
AUTHOR
Jean-michel Ladruze
Critical proofreading of the book "Les derniers jours du siège d'Alésia"
Was there a lunar eclipse that could have influenced the outcome of the Battle of Alesia? This is the argument developed in the book by Alain Deyber and David Romeuf, «Les Derniers Jours du Siège d'Alésia». Having verified the existence of an eclipse on the date given by the authors and based on the latest publications as well as on the scientific consensus, we conduct a critical study on the chronology of the siege and on the ethnological arguments, even ethno-astronomical of the authors.
CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE ARTICLE “DE BIBRACTE À AUGUSTODUNUM : OBSERVATIONS ARCHÉOASTRONOMIQUES”
Were the towns of Bibracte and Augustodunum astronomically oriented? We study in this publication an article published in the Revue Archéologique de l'Est which puts forward the hypothesis that the Gallic town of Bibracte respects, in its main buildings, orientations corresponding to sunrise on the Romanized dates of the Celtic festivals and that the Roman city of Augustodunum is rather oriented, in its urban fabric, on sunrises at the solstice, like other Roman cities. Our study tends to invalidate these hypotheses, by re-examining the reliability of the measurements taken and the chronology of the constructions in relation to the establishment of the Julian calendar.