Revista Analele Banatului S.N. Arheologie-Istorie

Iharka Szücs-Csillik

Zoia Maxim

Școala clujeană de astronomie culturală / The School of Cultural Astronomy from Cluj-Napoca

1 Ianuarie 2022

Abstract

In 1952, Professor Gheorghe Chiş from the Astronomical Institute together with the academician Constantin Daicoviciu initiated the idea of the existence of a Dacian calendar by deciphering the sanctuaries in the capital of Dacia at Sarmizegetusa Regia, and thus laying the foundations of Archaeoastronomy in Romania. This interdisciplinary branch has expanded over time due to new excavations, which have created to more detailed research, as it has led some researchers to think about the need to describe numerical calculation methods based on some huge databases. The School of Cultural Astronomy from Cluj-Napoca was founded by scientists from the Romanian Academy, the Institute and Astronomical Observatory of Cluj-Napoca, “Babeș-Bolyai” University, the History Museum and the Ethnographic Museum. These innovative researches from Cluj were supported and diversified within the “Tiberiu Popoviciu” Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory, where many ideas crystallized and working hypotheses were elaborated, attracting, almost from all over the country, enthusiastic researchers. The diversity of research topics addressed over the years in archaeoastronomy are presented, and at the end of the article is presented a pilot project of a Neolithic astronomical observatory in the Experimental Ethno-archaeological Park of Ţaga, to demonstrate the existence of Neolithic Solar Cult, knowledge about Heaven and the movement of the stars, in establishing the agro-pastoral calendar, as well as for knowing the construction and operation of the annual calendar and the day and night clock.