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Volumes / Journal / 7 - 1996 / Gregori L., Gregori G.

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

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Fig. 1, a-d – Some examples of zodiacal interpretation of the decoration of metopes and pediments in a few Greek temples (figures borrowed from Richer 1989, see text). Considering every temple asthecentre ofanazimuthal frame of reference, every azimuth was associated with a zodiacal sign, that was related to some God according to the mythological standards ofthattime. Topto bottom: Delphi (temple of Apollo); Olympia (temple of Zeus); Samotracia (Hieron); and temple of Assus (Troas).

Fig. 1, a-d – Some examples of zodiacal interpretation of the decoration of meto...

Fig. 2 – “The great alignments” (from Richer 1989, see text). The two lines across Delos and Sardes, respectively, are two parallels almost exactly at ~1 mutual latitudinal difference, with an error of ± ~0.05, equivalent to an linear distance on Earth’s surface of ±5 km (standard deviation). This cannot be a matter ofchance. They could actually afford ingetting such a precision by means of wooden palls erected on flat platforms (see text).

Fig. 2 – “The great alignments” (from Richer 1989, see text). The two lines acro...

Fig. 3 – “The sculptured pediments and the zodiacal geography”, or the omphalos system centred at Delphi (from Richer 1989, see text).

Fig. 3 – “The sculptured pediments and the zodiacal geography”, or the omphalos ...

Fig. 4 – “System centred at Ammonium” (from Richer 1989, see text). Four omphaloi are envisaged by Richer (ibidem), centred, respectively, at Sardes, Delos, Delphi, and Ammonium. Sardes, Delos and Delphi arelocated on the vertices ofanisosceles triangle. Similarly, also Sardes, Delphi and Ammonium are the vertices of another isosceles triangle. While it is reasonably easy toconceive how they afforded ingetting theneeded triangulations forthefirst such triangle (by means ofline-of-sight measurements and fires duringclear nights), itappears amystery how they afforded in measuring the relative longitude of Delos and Ammonium. See text.

Fig. 4 – “System centred at Ammonium” (from Richer 1989, see text). Four omphalo...

Fig. 5 – The stages of the cognitive process (the “scientific method”). See Table 1. The morphological stage M applied to the observational database (Explanandum), is followed by the “incoding” or parametrization stage C/P and by the choice of a rationale or of the working hypotheses (stage R). The stages C/P and R unavoidably imply an intrinsic arbitrariness (hence, the different shading in thissketch). The next step is the inductive stage I followed by the deductive stage D. Different checks can now be carried out. On one side, one can “forecast” some features ofthe “system”, and make reference anew to the original observations, in order to check whether the facts “forecasted” by deduction correspond towhat actually occurred. On the other hand, it is possible to carry out a statistical search for a possible coincidence (stage S). When all such checks have been carried out, the final result is a set composed of either none, orjust one, or several, possible explanation models (Explanans), here called a, b, etc. See text.

Fig. 5 – The stages of the cognitive process (the “scientific method”). See Tabl...

Fig. 6 – a) Our knowledge is the final target of a sum of contributions from the disciplines of exact sciences andofhumanities. Thetools are here simply indicated in terms of “common sense”. Redrawn according to a sketch shown by Gardin, this volume. b) Slight modification of Fig. 6a, where itisspecified therole of logics, mathematics, and statistics. Amutual interaction between common sense and the disciplines (of either branch) must provide mathematics etc. with some information, thatis critically essential for defining the algorithms thatought tobeapplied foranoptimum analysis of observations. This results into some kind of logical “circulation” by which the cognitive process iteratively improves itself. The final step istheoutput provided to“Knowledge” byeither setofdisciplines. c)Thesame asFig.6b,where, however,theinput from common sense into mathematics etc. is cut down. Theafore-mentioned logical “circulation” is stopped. Mathematics provides both kinds of discipline with mathematically rigourous algorithms, that, however, areeventually intrinsically logically unsuited forthespecific application of concern in every case. This isa very frequent case in thepresent geophysical literature, and itshould beavoided, asitoriginates misunderstandings and a great waste of efforts and time. See text.

Fig. 6 – a) Our knowledge is the final target of a sum of contributions from the...

Gregori L., Gregori G. 1996, The knowledge of territory in ancient civilizations temples and sacred sites as prehistorical geodetic networks?, Archeologia e Calcolatori 7