SEAC Annual Conference:
Astronomy in Past and Present Cultures
When: November 9-13, 2015
Where: Rome, Italy

From the organizers:

The European Society for Astronomy in Culture is a professional association of scientists working in the field of Cultural Astronomy, including the interdisciplinary fields of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. In principle, past cultures should have been interested in all astronomical phenomena visible to the naked eye. However, it is obvious that some of these phenomena are so evident and linked to vital factors that it is difficult to believe they were ignored in any cultural context. The term “Archaeoastronomy” is currently used to define the studies concerning “what peoples throughout history and prehistory have made of the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role they played in their cultures” (Sinclair 2006), while Ethnoastronomy concerns the study of the influence of celestial phenomena on present day population folklore. To date, Archaeoastronomy, Ethnoastronomy and Historical Astronomy (the studies dedicated to recovering data of astrophysical interest from historical documents of pre-telescopic epoch, i.e. before the 17^th century AD) are grouped as “Cultural Astronomy”. However, researchers in nearby fields of science like History of Astronomy and Mythology are also welcomed in SEAC conferences. Furthermore, the present day cultures are also strongly influenced by astronomy: we will be glad to discuss also about these relationships.

The final program can be viewed online here. For more information please see the conference website.