William Romain (archaeologist)

Last updated
William romain at angkor wat april 2017.jpg

William Francis Romain (born 1948) is an American archaeologist, archaeoastronomer, and author. William Romain received his Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Leicester and M.A. and B.A. degrees in anthropology from Kent State University. He specializes in the study of ancient religions, cognitive archaeology, and archaeoastronomy. William Romain is a Research Associate with the Indiana University, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Managing Editor for the Journal of Astronomy in Culture. He serves on the editorial board of the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club. Romain has served as an advisor to the Board of Trustees for the Heartland Earthworks Conservancy, [1] as well as Research Associate with the Indiana University, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Newark Earthworks Center at Ohio State University. He is a recipient of the Archaeological Society of Ohio's Robert Converse award for Outstanding Contributions to Ohio Archaeology. [2] William Romain is a licensed private pilot (fixed wing aircraft) and holds certifications in marine celestial navigation and search and rescue land navigation. He has conducted archaeoastronomic fieldwork in the Eastern United States, China, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma).

In 2011 Romain led a team of archaeologists (The Serpent Mound Project) in an investigation of Serpent Mound, in Adams County, Ohio. [3] This was the first major investigation of the effigy in more than one hundred years and included Geoprobe coring, hand coring, limited excavation, ground-penetrating radar, and electric resistivity analysis. Among the results were new radiocarbon dates for the effigy suggesting it was built about 2,300 years ago by people of the Early Woodland period. [4] [5] Other work has included archaeoastronomic assessments for Poverty Point and Watson Brake in Louisiana, Mound City in Ohio, the Newark Earthworks, Great Hopewell Road in Ohio, and Cahokia in Illinois. [6] [7] Most recently William Romain has published new archaeoastronomic findings for Angkor Wat in Cambodia, [8] the Great Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq, [9] Xanadu in Inner Mongolia, [10] and the Jokhang, Samye, and Tradruk temples in Tibet. [11]

Romain's research identified multiple solstice alignments at Poverty Point and Watson Brake. Watson Brake is the earliest known geometrically-shaped earthwork in North America. At Cahokia in Illinois, Romain showed how Rattlesnake Causeway and Rattlesnake Mound were likely associated with the Milky Way Path of Souls and how orientation to the Milky Way likely accounts for the site's peculiar 5-degree skew from true north. Research at Angkor identified multiple solstice alignments for Angkor Wat and more than a dozen surrounding temples. Also proposed were geomantic and archaeoastronomic explanations for the location of Angkor Wat and Rong Chen temple. At Ur, in Mesopotamia, Romain found that not only is the Great Ziggurat lunar-aligned - but the entire city is lunar aligned. (The moon was the patron god for Ur.) Research at Xanadu in Inner Mongolia showed how the summer palace for Kublai Khan was situated and oriented with respect to feng shui concepts and the winter and summer solstices. Research in Tibet provided explanations for the locations and orientations the Jokhang, Samye and Tradruk temples and showed how the emperors' tombs in the Chongye Valley were oriented to selected mountains having legendary importance. Most recently Romain [12] has documented the probable location and celestial alignments for the St. Louis Mound Group in St. Louis, Missouri. This group of 25 mounds located across the Mississippi River from Cahokia was leveled in the 1800s as a result of urban development.

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hopewell tradition</span> Ancient North American indigenous civilization

The Hopewell tradition, also called the Hopewell culture and Hopewellian exchange, describes a network of precontact Native American cultures that flourished in settlements along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern Eastern Woodlands from 100 BCE to 500 CE, in the Middle Woodland period. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society but a widely dispersed set of populations connected by a common network of trade routes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serpent Mound</span> Prehistoric effigy mound in Ohio, United States

The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-feet-long (411 m), three-feet-high prehistoric effigy mound located in Peebles, Ohio. It was built on what is known as the Serpent Mound crater plateau, running along the Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. The mound is the largest serpent effigy known in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timber circle</span> Rings of upright wooden posts

In archaeology, timber circles are rings of upright wooden posts, built mainly by ancient peoples in the British Isles and North America. They survive only as gapped rings of post-holes, with no evidence they formed walls, making them distinct from palisades. Like stone circles, it is believed their purpose was ritual, ceremonial, and/or astronomical. Sometimes in North America they are referred to as woodhenge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Ancient (Lebanon, Ohio)</span> United States historic place

Fort Ancient is a Native American earthworks complex located in Washington Township, Warren County, Ohio, along the eastern shore of the Little Miami River about seven miles (11 km) southeast of Lebanon on State Route 350. The site is the largest prehistoric hilltop enclosure in the United States with three and one-half miles (18,000 ft) of walls in a 100-acre (0.40 km2) complex. Built by the Hopewell culture, who lived in the area from the 200 BC to AD 400, the site is situated on a wooded bluff 270 feet (82 m) above the Little Miami. It is the namesake of a culture known as Fort Ancient who lived near the complex long after it was constructed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mound Builders</span> Pre-Columbian cultures of North America

Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "Mound Builders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks that indigenous peoples erected for an extended period of more than 5,000 years. The "Mound Builder" cultures span the period of roughly 3500 BCE to the 16th century CE, including the Archaic period, Woodland period, and Mississippian period. Geographically, the cultures were present in the region of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, Florida, and the Mississippi River Valley and its tributary waters. Outlying mounds exist in South Carolina at Santee and in North Carolina at Town Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adena culture</span> Pre-Columbian Native American culture

The Adena culture was a Pre-Columbian Native American culture that existed from 500 BCE to 100 CE, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system. The Adena culture was centered on the location of the modern state of Ohio, but also extended into contiguous areas of northern Kentucky, eastern Indiana, West Virginia, and parts of extreme western Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren K. Moorehead</span>

Warren King Moorehead was an American archaeologist and writer who worked on excavating and surveying various Native American sites, including Fort Ancient. Moorehead the first curator of the Ohio Archaeological Society and was deemed the "Dean of American archaeology". He died on January 5, 1939, at the age of 72, and is buried in his hometown of Xenia, Ohio.

Moorehead Circle was a triple woodhenge constructed about two millennia ago at the Fort Ancient Earthworks in the U.S. state of Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earthworks (archaeology)</span> General term to describe artificial changes in land level in history and pre-history

In archaeology, earthworks are artificial changes in land level, typically made from piles of artificially placed or sculpted rocks and soil. Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features, or they can show features beneath the surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistory of Ohio</span>

Prehistory of Ohio provides an overview of the activities that occurred prior to Ohio's recorded history. The ancient hunters, Paleo-Indians, descended from humans that crossed the Bering Strait. There is evidence of Paleo-Indians in Ohio, who were hunter-gatherers that ranged widely over land to hunt large game. For instance, mastodon bones were found at the Burning Tree Mastodon site that showed that it had been butchered. Clovis points have been found that indicate interaction with other groups and hunted large game. The Paleo Crossing site and Nobles Pond site provide evidence that groups interacted with one another. The Paleo-Indian's diet included fish, small game, and nuts and berries that gathered. They lived in simple shelters made of wood and bark or hides. Canoes were created by digging out trees with granite axes.

The Cloverdale archaeological site (23BN2) is an archaeological site located near present-day St. Joseph, Missouri. It is situated at the mouth of a small valley that opens into the Missouri River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mound 72</span> Ridgetop Mississippian mound in Madison County, Illinois

Mound 72 is a small ridgetop mound located roughly 850 meters (2,790 ft) to the south of Monks Mound at Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville, Illinois. Early in the site's history, the location began as a circle of 48 large wooden posts known as a "woodhenge". The woodhenge was later dismantled and a series of mortuary houses, platform mounds, mass burials and eventually the ridgetop mound erected in its place. The mound was the location of the "beaded burial", an elaborate burial of an elite personage thought to have been one of the rulers of Cahokia, accompanied by the graves of several hundred retainers and sacrificial victims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marietta Earthworks</span>

The Marietta Earthworks is an archaeological site located at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers in Washington County, Ohio, United States. Most of this Hopewellian complex of earthworks is now covered by the modern city of Marietta. Archaeologists have dated the ceremonial site's construction to approximately 100 BCE to 500 CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cahokia Woodhenge</span> Series of timber circles at the Cahokia archaeologial site, US

The Cahokia Woodhenge was a series of large timber circles located roughly 850 metres (2,790 ft) to the west of Monks Mound at the Mississippian culture Cahokia archaeological site near Collinsville, Illinois, United States. They are thought to have been constructed between 900 and 1100 CE, with each one being larger and having more posts than its predecessor. The site was discovered as part of salvage archaeology in the early 1960s interstate highway construction boom, and one of the circles was reconstructed in the 1980s. The circle has been used to investigate archaeoastronomy at Cahokia. Annual equinox and solstice sunrise observation events are held at the site.

Bradley Thomas Lepper is an American archaeologist best known for his work on ancient earthworks and ice age peoples in Ohio. Lepper is the Curator of Archaeology and Manager of Archaeology and Natural History at the Ohio History Connection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shriver Circle Earthworks</span> Ohio Hopewell culture archaeological site

The Shriver Circle Earthworks are an Ohio Hopewell culture archaeological site located in Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio. At 1,200 feet (370 m) in diameter the site is one of the largest Hopewell circular enclosures in the state of Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angkor Wat Equinox</span> Astrological phenomenon in Cambodia

The Angkor Wat equinox is a solar phenomenon considered as a hierophany that happens twice a year with spring and autumn equinox, as part of the many astronomical alignments indicative of a "fairly elaborate system of astronomy" and of the Hindu influence in the construction of the vast temple complex of Angkor Wat, in Cambodia.

References

  1. "Heartland Earthworks Conservancy is Founded « Heartland Earthworks Conservancy". www.earthworksconservancy.org. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  2. "Ohio Archaeologist: Volume 42, Number 2 (Spring, 1992)". 2 March 1992. hdl:1811/55904.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Jessica E. Saraceni (March 30, 2011). "Archaeology Magazine News Archive 2008-2012". Archaeology Magazine . Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  4. Herrmann, Edward W.; Monaghan, G. William; Romain, William F.; Schilling, Timothy M.; Burks, Jarrod; Leone, Karen L.; Purtill, Matthew P.; Tonetti, Alan C. (2014). "A new multistage construction chronology for the Great Serpent Mound, USA". Journal of Archaeological Science. 50: 117–125. Bibcode:2014JArSc..50..117H. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.07.004.
  5. Romain, William (2019). "Serpent Mound in its Woodland Period Context: Second Rejoinder to Lepper". Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology. 44 (1): 57–83. doi:10.1080/01461109.2018.1511155. S2CID   165272228.
  6. Romain, William F. (2018) "Ancient Skywatchers of the Eastern Woodlands". In Archaeology & Ancient Religion in the American Midcontinent, edited by Brad H. Koldehoff and Timothy R. Pauketat. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
  7. Romain, William F. (2015) "Adena-Hopewell Earthworks and the Milky Way Path of Souls". In Tracing the Relational: The Archaeology of Worlds, Spirits, and Temporalities, edited by Meghan E. Buchanan and B. Jacob Skousen, pp. 54-82. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
  8. Romain, William F. (2018). "Solstice Alignments at Angkor Wat and Nearby Temples: Connecting to the Cycles of Time". Journal of Skyscape Archaeology. 4 (2): 176–200. doi:10.1558/jsa.35712. ISSN   2055-3498. S2CID   86799374.
  9. Romain, William F. (2019). "Lunar alignments at Ur: Entanglements with the Moon God Nanna". Journal of Skyscape Archaeology. 5 (2): 151–176. doi: 10.1558/jsa.39074 . ISSN   2055-3498. S2CID   215828817.
  10. Romain, William F. (2017-04-03). "The archaeoastronomy and feng shui of Xanadu: Kublai Khan's imperial Mongolian capital". Time and Mind. 10 (2): 145–174. doi:10.1080/1751696X.2017.1310567. ISSN   1751-696X. S2CID   164633207.
  11. Romain, William (2021). "Subduing the Demons of Tibet: Geomantic Magic During the Yarlung Dynasty: A Landscape Archaeology Assessment". Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. March 2021: 33–71. doi:10.1080/1751696X.2021.1864946. S2CID   233016068.
  12. Romain, William. "In Search of the St. Louis Mound Group: Archaeoastronomic and Landscape Archaeology Implications". Journal of Astronomy in Culture. 2 (1).