GIMME SOME OLD TRIBES + Why do it?

Stonehenge (completed 1550 BC)

• If you stand in the middle:
• the directions of sunrise & sunset on the solstices is marked.
• the directions of extreme Moon rise & set are marked.
• The Aubrey holes are believed to be an analog eclipse computer. These holes may be in fact a type of lunar calendar.

Mayans (fl. A.D. 400 - 1200)

• lived in central America
• accurately predicted eclipses
• Venus was very important
• marked zenial passages
• Mayan mathematics - base 20 system - invented the concept of "zero"

Anasazi (ca. A.D. 1000)

• lived in "four corners" area of SW USA
• built structures to mark solstices and equinoxes

Planes tribes of North America

• Plains Tribes of N. America star maps and sighting circles were drawn on the ground to mark:
• solstice rising points of Sun
• helical rising points of stars

archeologists & anthropologists surmise:

• to keep time
• for agricultural purposes
• for religious purposes

As far as we can tell, none of these ancient cultures tried to build a physical model based on their observations.
Instead, they created myths to explain the motions of the objects in the sky.