Clive Ruggles
Biographic Data
| ID | 291868 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Clive Ruggles |
| GIVEN NAMES | Clive |
| FAMILY NAME | Ruggles |
| SIGNATURE | RUGGLES C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leicester |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 127 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Iau Working Group on Star Names (Wgsn)
The IAU-Working Group on Star Names consists of scholars with a huge diversity of cultural backgrounds. In our monthly discussions of cultural names from different places and times, this year we came across some interesting facts in intercultural comparisons. In particular, the constellation of Andromeda was depicted as the Syriac goddess Derketo in early al-Sūfī manuscripts, the ՙHorse՚-constellations of the Arabic, Babylonian, Greek and Indian …
The Iau Working Group on Star Names (Wgsn)
The pre‐contact temple system of Hālawa Valley, Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands
Building upon a pioneering 1909 survey of Moloka‘i Island heiau (temples) by archaeologist John F. G. Stokes, the pre‐contact temple system of Hālawa Valley is described and analysed. Ten heiau were relocated and mapped, with seven sites test excavated and radiocarbon dated. The majority of sites are terraces or terraced platforms in architectural form, ranging in size from 72 to 1300 square meters in basal area. Functionally, the temples include…
Iau Inter-Commission C1-C3-C4 Working Group on Ethnoastronomy and Intangible Astronomical Heritage
How Waun Mawn stone circle was designed and built, and when the Bluestones arrived at Stonehenge
In response to Timothy Darvill's article, ‘Mythical rings?’ (this issue), which argues for an alternative interpretation of Waun Mawn circle and its relationship with Stonehenge, Parker Pearson and colleagues report new evidence from the Welsh site and elaborate on aspects of their original argument. The discovery of a hearth at the centre of the circle, as well as further features around its circumference, reinforces the authors’ original interp…
Possible New Solstitial Sightline in the Stonehenge Landscape
The landscape around Stonehenge contains a number of major Early Neolithic monuments dating to the fourth millennium BC, including the Stonehenge Cursus, the Lesser Cursus, Robin Hood’s Ball causewayed enclosure and several long barrows. A previously unsuspected Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure whose northeast rim was uncovered in 2016 on the slopes of Lark Hill, just to the north of the World Heritage Site boundary, represented a major new d…
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
Whose Equinox
At Knowth ... the orientation ... suggests that there could have been two ceremonies at different times, the vernal equinox on 20 or 21 March and the autumnal equinox on 22 or 23 September. At these times, the sun rises and sets directly in the east and west, while day and
Postscript
Stonehenge's Avenue and 'Bluestonehenge
Ideology, ceremony and calendar in pre-contact Hawai'i
The Hawaiian people before Western contact gathered at special places during the Makahiki period, a time that was sacred to the god Lono, and during which sports, games and other ceremonies took place. Archaeological excavation and archaeoastronomical investigation together suggest that an approximately 40 m2 rock enclosure in the uplands of Honouliuli on the island of O†̃ahu was such a special gathering place. Radiocarbon dating indicates that t…
Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy
Time and a Place
The capacity to conceptualise and measure time is amongst the most important achievements of human societies, and the issue of when time was “created” by humankind is critical in understanding how society has developed. A pit structure, discovered in Aberdeenshire (Scotland), and dated to the 8th millennium BC, has been re-analysed and appears to demonstrate a basic calendrical function and provides an intriguing contribution to this debate. The …
The pānānā or 'sighting wall' at Hanamauloa, Kahikinui, Maui
A unique stone monument consisting of a notched, linear wall and associated features, situated at Hanamauloa in Kahikinui District, Maui Island, is interpreted as a probable pre-contact navigational structure. Ethnographic testimony refers to the structure as a pānānā or "sighting wall". Archaeological investigation revealed that the wall and associated cairn and upright are positioned so that the notch precisely frames the stars of the Southern …
Desert labyrinth
The shapes drawn out by the famous Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert are at their most evident from the air-giving rise to some famously fantastic theories about their origin. The new understanding offered here is the result of a piece of straightforward brilliance on the part of our authors: get down on the ground, where the original users were, and see where your feet lead you. Using stratigraphic and taphonomic reasoning to decide which lines…
Temples, Stars, and Ritual Landscapes
The study of astronomical knowledge and observations in ancient cultures has enabled and enriched archaeological interpretations in contexts as diverse as pre-Columbian America, later prehistoric Europe, Egypt, Babylonia, and the Far East. The application of archaeoastronomy to the study of ancient Greek religion has been less successful and has been hampered by poor practice. Through a case study that investigates the astronomy in Alcman’s Parth…
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the aut…
Las Trece Torres de Chankillo
Las Trece Torres son un conjunto de estructuras dispuestas en una hilera de orientación Norte-Sur en la cima de una colina en Chankillo, un centro ceremonial del siglo IV a.C. ubicado en la costa norte del Perú. A partir de puntos de observación evidentes en los edificios adyacentes al este y al oeste de las torres, estas estructuras conforman un horizonte artificial "dentado" que comprende, casi exactamente, el arco anual de salida y puesta del …
Tombs, Temples and Their Orientations
Will the data drive the model? A further response to Euan MacKie
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Shifting Perceptions
The changing cosmological symbolism incorporated in Phases 1 and 2 at Stonehenge is reviewed in the light of new evidence from patterns of deposition prior to the construction of the bluestone and sarsen stone settings. The early structure of the monument and attendant depositional practices embodied a scheme of radial division, including a symbolic quartering primarily demarcated by solstitial rising and setting points. Through sustained ritual …
Cosmology, calendars and society in Neolithic Orkney
The authors examine critically MacKie's long-standing contentions concerning Neolithic Britain - theocratic control of society, the relationships between monuments and sunrise or sunset on significant days of the year, the use of an 'elaborate and accurate' solar calendar and its survival into the Iron Age and into modern times
Spatial Analysis of Visible Areas from the Bronze Age Cairns of Mull
Ritual and Landscape on the West Coast of Scotland
In view of the theories of the astronomical significance of standing stones proposed by Alexander Thom, extensive fieldwork was undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s in the west of Scotland to reassess the field evidence. Two groups of sites were identified from this work that seemed to support an astronomical interpretation, but the poor condition of many of the sites made identification of their original orientation problematical. Excavat…
Megalithic science
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the aut…
Spatial Analysis of Visible Areas from the Bronze Age Cairns of Mull
Shifting Perceptions
The changing cosmological symbolism incorporated in Phases 1 and 2 at Stonehenge is reviewed in the light of new evidence from patterns of deposition prior to the construction of the bluestone and sarsen stone settings. The early structure of the monument and attendant depositional practices embodied a scheme of radial division, including a symbolic quartering primarily demarcated by solstitial rising and setting points. Through sustained ritual …
Agreeing to Disagree
The Mursi are cultivators and cattle herders who live in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia and whose methods of measuring duration have so far been unaffected by contact with literate cultures. In this article it is shown how the Mursi solve the problem of relating a cycle of seasonal events to a nonintegral series of lunar months, while remaining unaware that this cycle is related, in fact, to the solar year. This analysis leads to t…
Time and a Place
The capacity to conceptualise and measure time is amongst the most important achievements of human societies, and the issue of when time was “created” by humankind is critical in understanding how society has developed. A pit structure, discovered in Aberdeenshire (Scotland), and dated to the 8th millennium BC, has been re-analysed and appears to demonstrate a basic calendrical function and provides an intriguing contribution to this debate. The …
Ritual and Landscape on the West Coast of Scotland
In view of the theories of the astronomical significance of standing stones proposed by Alexander Thom, extensive fieldwork was undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s in the west of Scotland to reassess the field evidence. Two groups of sites were identified from this work that seemed to support an astronomical interpretation, but the poor condition of many of the sites made identification of their original orientation problematical. Excavat…
Ideology, ceremony and calendar in pre-contact Hawai'i
The Hawaiian people before Western contact gathered at special places during the Makahiki period, a time that was sacred to the god Lono, and during which sports, games and other ceremonies took place. Archaeological excavation and archaeoastronomical investigation together suggest that an approximately 40 m2 rock enclosure in the uplands of Honouliuli on the island of O†̃ahu was such a special gathering place. Radiocarbon dating indicates that t…
Stonehenge's Avenue and 'Bluestonehenge
Temples, Stars, and Ritual Landscapes
The study of astronomical knowledge and observations in ancient cultures has enabled and enriched archaeological interpretations in contexts as diverse as pre-Columbian America, later prehistoric Europe, Egypt, Babylonia, and the Far East. The application of archaeoastronomy to the study of ancient Greek religion has been less successful and has been hampered by poor practice. Through a case study that investigates the astronomy in Alcman’s Parth…
The pānānā or 'sighting wall' at Hanamauloa, Kahikinui, Maui
A unique stone monument consisting of a notched, linear wall and associated features, situated at Hanamauloa in Kahikinui District, Maui Island, is interpreted as a probable pre-contact navigational structure. Ethnographic testimony refers to the structure as a pānānā or "sighting wall". Archaeological investigation revealed that the wall and associated cairn and upright are positioned so that the notch precisely frames the stars of the Southern …
Desert labyrinth
The shapes drawn out by the famous Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert are at their most evident from the air-giving rise to some famously fantastic theories about their origin. The new understanding offered here is the result of a piece of straightforward brilliance on the part of our authors: get down on the ground, where the original users were, and see where your feet lead you. Using stratigraphic and taphonomic reasoning to decide which lines…
Las Trece Torres de Chankillo
Las Trece Torres son un conjunto de estructuras dispuestas en una hilera de orientación Norte-Sur en la cima de una colina en Chankillo, un centro ceremonial del siglo IV a.C. ubicado en la costa norte del Perú. A partir de puntos de observación evidentes en los edificios adyacentes al este y al oeste de las torres, estas estructuras conforman un horizonte artificial "dentado" que comprende, casi exactamente, el arco anual de salida y puesta del …
Cosmology, calendars and society in Neolithic Orkney
The authors examine critically MacKie's long-standing contentions concerning Neolithic Britain - theocratic control of society, the relationships between monuments and sunrise or sunset on significant days of the year, the use of an 'elaborate and accurate' solar calendar and its survival into the Iron Age and into modern times
How Waun Mawn stone circle was designed and built, and when the Bluestones arrived at Stonehenge
In response to Timothy Darvill's article, ‘Mythical rings?’ (this issue), which argues for an alternative interpretation of Waun Mawn circle and its relationship with Stonehenge, Parker Pearson and colleagues report new evidence from the Welsh site and elaborate on aspects of their original argument. The discovery of a hearth at the centre of the circle, as well as further features around its circumference, reinforces the authors’ original interp…
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
The pre‐contact temple system of Hālawa Valley, Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands
Building upon a pioneering 1909 survey of Moloka‘i Island heiau (temples) by archaeologist John F. G. Stokes, the pre‐contact temple system of Hālawa Valley is described and analysed. Ten heiau were relocated and mapped, with seven sites test excavated and radiocarbon dated. The majority of sites are terraces or terraced platforms in architectural form, ranging in size from 72 to 1300 square meters in basal area. Functionally, the temples include…
Possible New Solstitial Sightline in the Stonehenge Landscape
The landscape around Stonehenge contains a number of major Early Neolithic monuments dating to the fourth millennium BC, including the Stonehenge Cursus, the Lesser Cursus, Robin Hood’s Ball causewayed enclosure and several long barrows. A previously unsuspected Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure whose northeast rim was uncovered in 2016 on the slopes of Lark Hill, just to the north of the World Heritage Site boundary, represented a major new d…
Whose Equinox
At Knowth ... the orientation ... suggests that there could have been two ceremonies at different times, the vernal equinox on 20 or 21 March and the autumnal equinox on 22 or 23 September. At these times, the sun rises and sets directly in the east and west, while day and
Postscript
Will the data drive the model? A further response to Euan MacKie
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Stone Age Science in Britain? [and Comments and Reply]
In the last few decades, several writers have drawn attention to indications of the existence of science in nonliterate, Neolithic societies. One proponent of that idea is Alexander Thom, who has carried out extremely exact measurements of Neolithic stone monuments in Britain. Thom maintains that perhaps the main purpose of several megalithic monuments was to serve as astronomical observatories-that the exact sightlines they provide would make it…
Agreeing to Disagree
The Mursi are cultivators and cattle herders who live in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia and whose methods of measuring duration have so far been unaffected by contact with literate cultures. In this article it is shown how the Mursi solve the problem of relating a cycle of seasonal events to a nonintegral series of lunar months, while remaining unaware that this cycle is related, in fact, to the solar year. This analysis leads to t…
On the Measurement of Duration in Nonliterate Communities
Megalithic science and some Scottish site plans
A cairn supported at its edge by large stones may be removed. ... The ring which is left looks like a stone circle.' (Thom, 1967, 65).Professor A. Thom has surveyed a large number of archaeological sites (Thom, 1967; 1971). These surveys provide the basis from which he deduces the existence of the Megalithic Yard (MY), Megalithic Geometry and Megalithic Astronomy. In considering his evidence for these aspects of 'megalithic science' it is pertine…
Stone Age Science in Britain? [and Comments and Reply]
In the last few decades, several writers have drawn attention to indications of the existence of science in nonliterate, Neolithic societies. One proponent of that idea is Alexander Thom, who has carried out extremely exact measurements of Neolithic stone monuments in Britain. Thom maintains that perhaps the main purpose of several megalithic monuments was to serve as astronomical observatories-that the exact sightlines they provide would make it…
Megalithic science
Ritual and Landscape on the West Coast of Scotland
In view of the theories of the astronomical significance of standing stones proposed by Alexander Thom, extensive fieldwork was undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s in the west of Scotland to reassess the field evidence. Two groups of sites were identified from this work that seemed to support an astronomical interpretation, but the poor condition of many of the sites made identification of their original orientation problematical. Excavat…
Spatial Analysis of Visible Areas from the Bronze Age Cairns of Mull
Cosmology, calendars and society in Neolithic Orkney
The authors examine critically MacKie's long-standing contentions concerning Neolithic Britain - theocratic control of society, the relationships between monuments and sunrise or sunset on significant days of the year, the use of an 'elaborate and accurate' solar calendar and its survival into the Iron Age and into modern times
Shifting Perceptions
The changing cosmological symbolism incorporated in Phases 1 and 2 at Stonehenge is reviewed in the light of new evidence from patterns of deposition prior to the construction of the bluestone and sarsen stone settings. The early structure of the monument and attendant depositional practices embodied a scheme of radial division, including a symbolic quartering primarily demarcated by solstitial rising and setting points. Through sustained ritual …
Will the data drive the model? A further response to Euan MacKie
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Tombs, Temples and Their Orientations
Las Trece Torres de Chankillo
Las Trece Torres son un conjunto de estructuras dispuestas en una hilera de orientación Norte-Sur en la cima de una colina en Chankillo, un centro ceremonial del siglo IV a.C. ubicado en la costa norte del Perú. A partir de puntos de observación evidentes en los edificios adyacentes al este y al oeste de las torres, estas estructuras conforman un horizonte artificial "dentado" que comprende, casi exactamente, el arco anual de salida y puesta del …
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the aut…
Temples, Stars, and Ritual Landscapes
The study of astronomical knowledge and observations in ancient cultures has enabled and enriched archaeological interpretations in contexts as diverse as pre-Columbian America, later prehistoric Europe, Egypt, Babylonia, and the Far East. The application of archaeoastronomy to the study of ancient Greek religion has been less successful and has been hampered by poor practice. Through a case study that investigates the astronomy in Alcman’s Parth…
Desert labyrinth
The shapes drawn out by the famous Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert are at their most evident from the air-giving rise to some famously fantastic theories about their origin. The new understanding offered here is the result of a piece of straightforward brilliance on the part of our authors: get down on the ground, where the original users were, and see where your feet lead you. Using stratigraphic and taphonomic reasoning to decide which lines…
Time and a Place
The capacity to conceptualise and measure time is amongst the most important achievements of human societies, and the issue of when time was “created” by humankind is critical in understanding how society has developed. A pit structure, discovered in Aberdeenshire (Scotland), and dated to the 8th millennium BC, has been re-analysed and appears to demonstrate a basic calendrical function and provides an intriguing contribution to this debate. The …
The pānānā or 'sighting wall' at Hanamauloa, Kahikinui, Maui
A unique stone monument consisting of a notched, linear wall and associated features, situated at Hanamauloa in Kahikinui District, Maui Island, is interpreted as a probable pre-contact navigational structure. Ethnographic testimony refers to the structure as a pānānā or "sighting wall". Archaeological investigation revealed that the wall and associated cairn and upright are positioned so that the notch precisely frames the stars of the Southern …
Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy
Ideology, ceremony and calendar in pre-contact Hawai'i
The Hawaiian people before Western contact gathered at special places during the Makahiki period, a time that was sacred to the god Lono, and during which sports, games and other ceremonies took place. Archaeological excavation and archaeoastronomical investigation together suggest that an approximately 40 m2 rock enclosure in the uplands of Honouliuli on the island of O†̃ahu was such a special gathering place. Radiocarbon dating indicates that t…
Stonehenge's Avenue and 'Bluestonehenge
Whose Equinox
At Knowth ... the orientation ... suggests that there could have been two ceremonies at different times, the vernal equinox on 20 or 21 March and the autumnal equinox on 22 or 23 September. At these times, the sun rises and sets directly in the east and west, while day and
Postscript
Possible New Solstitial Sightline in the Stonehenge Landscape
The landscape around Stonehenge contains a number of major Early Neolithic monuments dating to the fourth millennium BC, including the Stonehenge Cursus, the Lesser Cursus, Robin Hood’s Ball causewayed enclosure and several long barrows. A previously unsuspected Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure whose northeast rim was uncovered in 2016 on the slopes of Lark Hill, just to the north of the World Heritage Site boundary, represented a major new d…
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales
Iau Inter-Commission C1-C3-C4 Working Group on Ethnoastronomy and Intangible Astronomical Heritage
Archaeology (21 works) · History (19 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (15 works) · Geography (15 works) · Historical and Architectural Studies (10 works) · History (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Geology (8 works) · Ancient history (7 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (7 works)