Belmonte, J. A.; Gonzalez-Garcia, A. C.; Polcaro, A.; Rodriguez-Anton, A.; Shaltout M.
Bibliographical reference
Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 16 , No 4 , (20 16 ), pp. 93 - 101
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12
2016
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0
Description
The OAS Project has been run with the support of the Spanish research funding agencies during the last dozen years . Within its framework, research on cultural astronomy has been developed for a s eries of ancient civilizations , from the Atlantic Islands to the Arabian Peninsula and beyond, with the Meditterranean Sea as the principal axis of action of the project. A catalogue of studies has been performed in a set of cultures such as the Megalithic Phenomenon (Gon zález - García and Belmonte, 2010; Belmonte; Go nzález - García and Polcaro, 2013a ), ancient Egypt (Belmonte and Shaltout, 2009; Belmonte, 2012), Middle East Bronze Age (notably on the Hittites: González - García a nd Belmonte, 2011) and Iron Age ( notably on the Nabataeans: Belmonte, Go nzález - García and Polcaro, 2013b ) civilizations and the Roman World (e.g. González - García, Rodríguez - Antón and Belmonte, 2014), among many others. In this essay a general scope of the project and a series of most inte resting highlights will be presented. The evolutionary ties of the megalithic monuments of the Iberian Peninsula and elsewhere, the pattern of orientation of Egyptian temples and skyscaping practices within the Hittite or Nabataean cultu res, among others, will be briefly explored; including a comprehensive, statistical and comparative study of the orientation patterns of thousands of ancient monuments of the Mediterranean region (González - García and Belmonte, 2014). Finally, a sketch of our most recent, sti ll ongoing, research will be a compelling and promising closing remark of our analysis.