The knowledge of territory in ancient civilizations temples and sacred sites as prehistorical geodetic networks?

Lucia G. Gregori, Giovanni P. Gregori

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1996, 7, 193-212

Abstract

A hypothesis is proposed dealing with the way by which ancient societies could get knowledge and control of their territory, by means of some kind of a former “geodetic” network, conceived as some basic frame reference for orientation of travellers. Mythology was a practical and effective tool for training people. Zodiacal signs appear to be almost some kind of “universal” former “alphabet”, suitable either for characterizing every given town, or for measuring angles of any kind, or for assisting a traveller in his orientation. In the Aegean Sea the natural reference points were the islands themselves. In western Anatolia and Greece, they set up a system of temples and sacred sites. In Egypt, possibly, there was a network of obelisks and pyramids and in other areas there was something equivalent. Some observational evidence is already available, and proposed interpretation can already be found in literature, dealing either with the Anatolian-Aegean-Greek world, or with ancient Egypt. In any case, ancient Greeks were apparently capable of estimating the latitude of a site with high precision (+- 0.05° latitude, equivalent to -+5 km on Earth’s surface; standard deviation). These topics are briefly reviewed here. Then, it is shown how a suitable file containing the latitude, longitude, and dedication of all temples and sacred sites of a given area (or the location of obelisks and pyramids that existed in Egypt) can allow for the creation of a formal analysis capable of assessing whether such a hypothesis is only a simple although fascinating speculation, or whether it is supported by objective observational evidence.

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