1. The Lights We See
How the sky works and how we use it: Day and night
Directions
The seasons
The year
Precession
Cycles of planets
Cycles of the moon
The sky symbolism of Osiris
2. The Skies We Watch
"Ancient and prehistoric observatories: "Stretching of the Cord" ceremony (Egypt)"
Bronze age inscriptions in China
Babylonian astronomical tables
"The "Sun Circle" at Cahokia, Illinois"
"Kintraw, Scotland"
Megalithic lunar observatories
Inca skywatchers at Machu Picchu
"The Caracol of Chichén Itzá, Yucatán"
Gnomons in ancient China
3. The Gods We Worship
"Sky gods around the world?why we have them and what they mean: Sun gods, divine planets, and sacred stars"
"Gods of rain, fertility, and storm"
Sacred kingship?the connection between sky and earth
4. The Tales We Tell
"Sky myths and the cycle of cosmic order: Phaëthon, a Greek myth"
"The Pleiades and the opossum (Barasana Indians, Colombia)"
The Omaha Indian myth of the sacred pole
The birth of Huitzilopochtli (Aztec)
The retreat of the sun goddess and her return (Japan)
5. The Dead We Bury
The celestial components of funerals and tombs and the journey of the dead: The Great Pyramid
Royal Tombs of New Kingdom Egypt
The tumulus of China's first emperor and other Chinese tombs
Burial and the city plan of Cahokia
The Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque (Maya)
Newgrange (prehistoric Ireland)
6. The Vigils We Keep
Shamanism and the celestial travels of the soul: California Indian sun shrines
Mystical star treaders of China
Tukano Indians and their shamans (Colombia)
Medicine wheels of North America
Sun priests in the American Southwest
"Fajada Butte, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico"
7. The Days We Tally
Calendars and the sacred structure of time: Notation and the Ice Age hunters of Europe
Stone rings and the calendar of prehistoric Britain
Namoratunga II and the calendar in ancient Kenya
The three calendars of dynastic Egypt
"Calendars, omens, and kings in China and Babylon"
The Inca calendar and Inca society
Calendar cycles of the Maya and the Aztec
8. The Rituals We Perform
Ceremonies that celebrate the sky: The Hopi Indians and the winter solstice
"The "Burning of Tara" and the Irish Celts"
Imperial ritual in old Beijing
The Inca festival of Inti Raymi
The Babylonian New Year
"Bundling the Years" in ancient Mexico (Aztec)"
"The "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony in ancient Egypt"
9. The Space We Enclose
"Astronomy, geometry, and sacred space: Stonehenge"
Other megalithic rings in England
Scotland's recumbent stone circles
Sarmizegetusa?a Thracian temple
10. The Temples We Align
Astronomical orientation and symbolism in ancient temples: Casa Rinconada and other kivas (American Southwest)
The Skidi Pawnee earth lodge
Kogi temples (Colombia)
"Alta Vista, Monte Albán, Uaxactún, and Uxmal?celestial alignment in ancient Mexico"
Solar sanctuaries of New Kingdom Egypt
11. The Cities We Plan
Sacred capitals and the source of world order: Beijing
Pueblo Bonito
Tenochtitlán
Cuzco
Teotihuacán
12. The Symbols We Draw
How we code the sky and what those messages say about our brains: Mescalero Apache and the four-pointed star
Cross glyphs and pecked crosses from ancient Mexico
"The Aztec "Calendar Stone"
The serpent of equinox sunlight at Chichén Itzá
"Irish rock art, Knowth"
A honeycomb mural from prehistoric Turkey (Çatal Hüyük)
Babylonian boundary stones
Winged suns from Mesopotamia and Egypt
Horizon symbols and astronomical observation
The UFO?a modern sky symbol
13. The Universes We Design
Cosmology and why we do it: The Desana Indian cosmos (Colombia)
The bell-shaped universe of the Warao (Venezuela)
Greek cosmologies
The sky and earth in ancient China
"The heralds of modern cosmology?Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton"
The hierarchical universe of ancient Mexico
Hubble's redshift and the expanding universe
Bibliography
Index