The Puzzle of the Western Zodiac: Its Wisdom and Evolutionary Leaps

About the Book

Though familiar to all, the twelve-strong Western Zodiac remains an enigmatic artifice of the archaic past. To date, no scholar has been able to determine who conjured up its constellations and when this might have happened. Nor do we know what the grand design behind this innovative endeavor might have been. This book, however, goes a long way towards answering those questions by combining together a variety of clues from multiple disciplines, including astronomy, archaeology, and linguistics. It provides a comprehensive framework that greatly expands our understanding of the genesis and purposes of this remarkable intellectual relic of our cultural heritage. The book’s overarching outcome – that the zodiacal necklace in the sky appeared gradually over time in three different stages, with each reflecting the immanent social and spiritual concerns of its time – provides a fundamental impact to reconsider our understanding of prehistory. No special knowledge is necessary to understand this captivating writing.

About the Author

Alexander A. GURSHTEIN was born in Moscow, Russia and graduated from the Moscow University for Geodesy and Cartography with a major in astrometry and theoretical geodesy. His career dawned as an observer in the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute (Moscow University), where he got the degree of Candidate of Science (Physics & Mathematics). For years he worked for the space industry: Korolev's Design Bureau, hailed for the creation of Sputnik and manned spaceships, and the Institute for Space Research (Academy of Sciences). His extended book Eternal Enigmas of the Heaven appeared in 1973; two editions followed with a circulation of about half a million and a translation into Spanish. He has authored books, hundreds of research papers, reviews and 5 certificates of inventions. He got a Ph.D. (Doctor of Science in Physics & Mathematics) from the Main Astronomical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (Pulkovo) and moved to the Vavilov Institute for History of Science & Technology (Moscow). His contributions on history of astronomy and the Zodiac have appeared in Russian, English, Chinese, German, Italian, and Polish. A scientific activist, he served as the Editor-in-Chief for the annual on History of Astronomy and Space, Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the Russian Academy’s Nature, the Head of the Board for Astronomical Education (Ministry of Education), and as the Vice Director for the Institute for History of Science & Technology (Academy of Sciences). In 1995, he departed for the US to teach in Colorado. A member of several scientific unions, he was honoured as the President for the Commission on History of Astronomy (International Astronomical Union). In this capacity, he proposed to declare 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy, the initiative being promoted by the IAU, UNESCO, and the UN.