Back to Archaeoastronomy
Politecnico di Milano

Archaeoastronomy

Archaeoastronomy is the “science of stars and stones”. It is an interdisciplinary science in between architecture, archaeology, and astronomy. It studies the relationships between the ancient monuments and the sky, in order to gain a better understanding of the ideas of the architects of the past and of their religious and symbolic world. The course provides the first complete, easy introduction to this fascinating discipline. During the course, many spectacular ancient sites of archaeology – such as Stonehenge in England, Giza and Karnak in Egypt, Chichen Itzá in the Yucatan, Macchu Picchu in Peru and the Pantheon in Rome – will be visited and the fascinating events occurring there in special days of the year (such as solstices, equinoxes, or the day of the foundation of Rome) will be shown and explained. The course also provides the necessary background on Astronomy with the naked eye and a general introduction to the role of Astronomy in religion and in the management of power among ancient cultures.

Status: General Science and Research
Status: Social Studies
BeginnerCourse7 hours

Featured reviews

DG

5.0Reviewed Nov 28, 2021

I​ really enjoyed this archaeoastronomy course. Professor Magli demonstrated outstanding knowledge of the subject, and was so generous in sharing his expertise through videos of worldwide locations.

WT

5.0Reviewed Sep 17, 2019

It is a great course. I have enjoyed each of the segments covering many more ancient sites than I have known about in the past and explaining the ones I did know about in much greater depth.

SB

5.0Reviewed Oct 6, 2018

It is a wonderful course. Easy with short videos. You get to know about why the archaeology was created and what stellar or solar phenomenon can we perceive through those.

KF

5.0Reviewed Aug 2, 2020

The subject matter was exactly what I hoped it to be: a new approach to interpreting ancient structures. Week 7 was more intense than I expected but informative nonetheless.

SV

5.0Reviewed Jun 20, 2020

What an amazing course this was! The virtual tour of world-famous ancient monuments along with the excellent lectures by Prof.Magli made this a truly rewarding experience.

SC

5.0Reviewed Aug 14, 2017

awesome course, I had a wonderful time and learnt a lot also the material is very good and is of high quality. The course is well designed and it fulfilled all my needs.

TC

4.0Reviewed Aug 24, 2022

Understanding that the lecturer is Italian, but sometimes, it was hard to understand the words. Thanks to the script and subtitle provided in every video that made me complete the couse.

AG

4.0Reviewed Apr 25, 2020

Very interesting course.the test was sometimes a bit difficult for a "begginers" level, and some questions were difficult to answer based only on the course materialBut was a good experience overall

MK

5.0Reviewed Apr 24, 2021

It's a wonderful experience to learn this course from this university . Great information and Knowledge i have gained from this ! thank you coursera politecco di milano . :)

FL

5.0Reviewed Sep 25, 2019

A really interesting course, both wide-ranging and detailed. I found some of the astronomical data hard to get my head around, but still thoroughly enjoyed the course - thank you!

VK

4.0Reviewed Feb 12, 2021

Fascinating topic - great videos but I had read the notes as well because I was having difficulty understanding Prof. Magli's accent. Course covered many different parts of the world. Thank you.

HH

5.0Reviewed Sep 23, 2020

A very fun and informative course for people who like history, archeology and astronomy. Slightly hard if you're bad at math like me but other than that, it's great!

All reviews

Showing: 20 of 443

John Read
3.0
Reviewed Aug 3, 2019
Puneet Rakheja
2.0
Reviewed Apr 30, 2018
Alexander P.M. Vinkeles Melchers
3.0
Reviewed Jul 23, 2017
William Tewelow
5.0
Reviewed Sep 17, 2019
WILLIAM F. LI
3.0
Reviewed Apr 19, 2020
Fiona Leiper
5.0
Reviewed Sep 25, 2019
Javier Andrés Sandoval
5.0
Reviewed Dec 20, 2019
D Eischens
5.0
Reviewed Nov 10, 2017
Muhammad Wahaj Khan
5.0
Reviewed Jan 14, 2019
Olivia LePosa
5.0
Reviewed Jun 14, 2018
Manon van Unen
5.0
Reviewed Aug 10, 2018
antonio barletta
5.0
Reviewed Sep 13, 2019
AJ
5.0
Reviewed May 11, 2019
5.0
Reviewed Mar 4, 2019
Naomi G
4.0
Reviewed Nov 3, 2020
David Peachey
3.0
Reviewed Dec 21, 2021
Ginny Humber
2.0
Reviewed Aug 18, 2017
Aslı Tümerkan
2.0
Reviewed Oct 15, 2018
Kathryn Mann
5.0
Reviewed Feb 4, 2022
Barry Martin Fenby
5.0
Reviewed Mar 20, 2019