0000000001166940
AUTHOR
Loïc Chaux
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.
Critical reading of some papers related to the Bibracte basin
Since its discovery in 1987, the monumental basin of Bibracte questions archeologists because of its atypical orientation that was thought not to follow the way on which it lies. We study 4 archeoastronomical papers dealing with the orientation of the short and long axes on the sun rise at winter solstice or on peculiar stars and we discuss the validity of these hypotheses.
Can we ascertain that an archeological site contains intentional stellar alignments?
We study the different parameters that support the presence of intentional stellar alignments on an archaeological site. We develop a rigorous criterion to quantify the probability of fortuitous orientation on a starrise or a starset. We show that the magnitude of the considered stars and the precision of the angular measurements are the two preponderant parameters. Our study aims at establishing the basis of reliable methods for archaeoastronomy.