Archaeologist Uses 2,000-Year-Old Sky to Study Roman Ruins

If archaeology was once about digging through dirt , it is increasingly — like almost every other profession — about computer programing computers . Bernie Frischer , an Indiana University “ archaeo - informaticist , ” has came up with a new possibility about two Roman monuments . His determination are establish on 3D reconstructions of the monuments using video game engineering and calculations of the Lord’s Day ’s position 2,000 class ago .

Frischer ’s body of work is made potential in part by ephemerides , or tables that give the position of celestial soundbox at different point in time . Ephemerides were once real tables write on newspaper publisher , but now they ’re software programs , like NASA’sHorizons systemthat can mother the stance of an object in the sky at any time in chronicle .

object lesson of ephemerides , viaWikimedia Commons

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For Frischer , the prison term of interest is 2,000 days ago , when Rome ’s Ara Pacis , “ Altar of Peace . ” was dedicated to then - emperor Augustus . The Ara Pacis sits in front of the 71 - pes high Obelisk of Montecitorio . Archaeologists had long believed that the two monuments were so positioned that the shadow of the Obelisk would point directly at Ara Pacis on September 23 , Augustus ’s birthday .

After creating 3D models of the two monuments using thegame engine Unityand studying the sun ’s position , however , Frischer and his team consider the existent engagement of interest is October 9 . On this sidereal day , the sun would would go through directly over the top of the obelisk . He explicate in an Indiana University press button :

“ So the raw date of the alignment , Oct. 9 , is actually what we know to be the one-year natal day festival of the Temple of Palatine Apollo , ” he say . “ No other date on the papistic religious calendar would have been as appropriate as this . ”

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