Professor Nick Winters gave a guest lecture titled, "The Arts and Artifacts of Ancient Astronomy" at a CIERA Colloquium.
May 13, 2025
Professor Nick Winters recently gave a guest lecture at a CIERA Colloquium on May 13 titled, "The Arts and Artifacts of Ancient Astronomy." The abstract can be found below:
Of all theoretical sciences, astronomy has left by far the deepest mark on the material record of Greco-Roman antiquity. From sundials to astrolabes, calendars to star charts, the physical remains of ancient astronomy demonstrate much more than their underlying theory—they reveal the networks of collaborative expertise that made astronomy possible. Any instrument or table contains traces of the specialists in observation, calculation, manufacture, politics, trade, physical theory, and art who had to work together to create it. This lecture will survey a variety of artifacts (with modern reproductions at hand to examine) as case studies in the history of cooperative knowledge production and as windows into the theory and practice of astronomy in the ancient world.