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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Archaeoastronomy by Politecnico di Milano

4.5
stars
1,341 ratings

About the Course

Archaeoastronomy is the “science of stars and stones”. It is an interdisciplinary science in between architecture, archaeology, and astronomy. It studies the relationships between the ancient monuments and the sky, in order to gain a better understanding of the ideas of the architects of the past and of their religious and symbolic world. The course provides the first complete, easy introduction to this fascinating discipline. During the course, many spectacular ancient sites of archaeology – such as Stonehenge in England, Giza and Karnak in Egypt, Chichen Itzá in the Yucatan, Macchu Picchu in Peru and the Pantheon in Rome – will be visited and the fascinating events occurring there in special days of the year (such as solstices, equinoxes, or the day of the foundation of Rome) will be shown and explained. The course also provides the necessary background on Astronomy with the naked eye and a general introduction to the role of Astronomy in religion and in the management of power among ancient cultures....

Top reviews

DG

Nov 27, 2021

I really enjoyed this archaeoastronomy course. Professor Magli demonstrated outstanding knowledge of the subject, and was so generous in sharing his expertise through videos of worldwide locations.

ID

Mar 2, 2019

Amazingly made MOOC. Perhaps it feels a bit short in comparison to some of the others, but the material is well presented and the suggested readings give plenty of opportunity for further learning.

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301 - 325 of 415 Reviews for Archaeoastronomy

By Sorella F

Sep 26, 2018

I found this course extremely interesting! However once it came to the actual astronomy theory I found the explanations to be very short. As a consequence some of the tests were HILARIOUSLY difficult and unrealistic. The questions that were asked (week 1 and week 6) could not possibly be answered with the information provided in the course. Also I thought it was a pity the sixth week was mostly reading, with no videos. In short - definitely take this course for the interesting content, but beware of the astronomically difficult tests in week 1 and 6 ;)

By Anvita B

May 11, 2021

Interesting course material brought to life by the wonderful and helpful graphics in every video. The subject matter got a little too technical for my taste sometimes, and I had to do a lot of pausing and rewinding to understand it. A good course if you want to know more about the reasoning for the structure and placement of almost all early architecture all around the world. This course will tell it to you beautifully. Definitely learned a lot of new things over these 7 weeks! Thanks to Prof. Magli!

By Pamela S

Jul 13, 2017

I found the lectures about the architecture and its relationship to the environment fascinating and impressive. The material was well presented and I could answer the quiz questions easily by reviewing my notes. The lectures about actual astronomical measurement did not familiarize me with those concepts and I had a very difficult time passing the two tests on that material. I did search out some additional information about azimuth but I did not do that for all the astronomical terms and concepts.

By Leonardo T

May 6, 2020

Excelente, soy novato en astronomía, sin embargo quería aprender sobre alineamientos, constelaciones, azimut y declinaciones, además de las curiosidades y enigmas que las grandes civilizaciones dejaron plasmadas en sus construcciones. Lo único malo del curso, es la dificultad de los tests, la mayoría de las preguntas se obtienen por razonamiento o jugando el software Stellarium, pero uno tarda en aprender a usarlo. Gracias al equipo del Politécnico de Milano por este maravilloso curso.

By Tessa D V

Apr 26, 2018

This was a very interesting course. I joined out of curiosity and finished the whole thing in a couple weeks time. I'm a complete newbie to the subject but still managed to grasp most of it.

Some of the lessons are a LOT more challenging than others though. I especially struggled with the last week's materials but did manage to get the majority of it in the end. All in all, definitely worth taking if you have an interest in the subject.

By Francisco J M N

Mar 29, 2020

Un curso sorprendente, que te replantea la manera de observar la arquitectura antigua y la relación que los antiguos tenían con los astros, tan fuertemente arraigada. Ha sido muy ameno y en todo momento ha conseguido mantener mi interés y despertar mi curiosidad sobre nuevos emplazamientos y su relación con el cielo. Tengo una nueva visión de los monumentos de la antigüedad. Ya sé cómo debo mirarlos ahora.

By Fethi O Ö

Jul 7, 2017

First of all many thanks for University Politecnico Di Milano,Coursera community and Mr.Giulio Magli Proffesor.Archaeoastronomy isn' well known subject by the people in the world But all branches of sciences. are interested in each others.Differences between of archaeology and astronomy are the places where work.You are looking to the past always in both. I felt ike timetraveller here.

By Carlos E F

Apr 19, 2022

Es un excelente curso introductorio. La secuencia de sesiones está bien organizada y los temas son abordados de forma clara e interesante lo que motiva a aprender más del tema. Las pruebas son relevantes y pertinentes a los contenidos estudiados. Lo recomiendo a cualquiera que esté motivado por la integración entre arquitectura y astronomía.

By Karen

Feb 8, 2021

Fascinating class with great examples. Given the criticality of the concepts of Azimuth throughout the course it would have been better to cover that more thoroughly up front, perphps with written materials to look at similar to the last section on formulas. Loved all the examples of ancient buildings/places where this is applicable.

By Jose N

Dec 16, 2020

It is a brief but interesting view of the relationship between ancient civilizations, astronomy, and monumental architecture. It is slightly more in-depth than a NatGeo documentary. You don't need any background to take it, but the first and last quizzes assumes that you have powers of divination to answer. It is fun to get it done.

By Amulya K

May 17, 2021

This course is very interesting! As a student of Architecture, I've always wanted to delve deeper into diverse subjects and I've been curious about Astronomy since I was young. The course was a wonderful amalgamation of Architecture and Astronomy. The videos were very informative and the subject as a whole was taught very well.

By Lerato K

Mar 15, 2018

As a basic course on the rudimentary elements of what constitute archeoastronomy it is very informative and a good grounding for anyone seeking to learn about how astronomy has been part of the social and cultural life of human evolution, and in some ways the roots that led to the birth of Astro physics from ancient times.

By Alvaro P

Jun 26, 2017

Muy buen curso. Los test son suelen irse por detalles que con frecuencia pasan inadvertidos. Me gustó mucho y aprendí mucho.

Si algo se me complicó particularmente, fue el acento del instructor. tuve que basarme mucho en las transcripciones para lograr una comprensión más cabal de los temas. De cualquier forma, muy bueno.

By Eva B

May 18, 2022

Fascinating course with wonderfully explained details. Dr Giulio Magli gave a lot of insight regarding ancient astronomy and archeology, and answered many of my questions regarding monuments. Looking forward to find the time for the exercises and to read is book. I can only recommend Archeoastronomy as a study subject.

By Marianthi P

Dec 2, 2020

One of the most interesting courses I have found so far in coursera. However, I think there was a huge gap in the 6th week regarding the classical word, since there was not even a slight reference about the Mechanism of Antikythera , the theater of Epidaurus and other astromically -related ancient Greek monuments.

By Mahbub A K

Oct 15, 2017

It's a great course about ancient archaeology with its relation with astrology. It is apparently new subject but developing much rapid pace. It will shade light on many things which are clouded by current pseudo science of ancient astronauts. Only difficulty I face with this course is the accent of the instructor.

By Erin H

Oct 11, 2020

Fabulously interesting material but weeks 1 and 7 were jam-packed with complex info that needed a lot more unpacking. I felt that I gained very little in terms of genuine comprehension from these weeks. The other weeks were fantastic - I just wish the quality had been a bit more consistent throughout the course.

By zeta_laz@windowslive.com

Apr 1, 2020

Fascinating course! I really enjoyed it. I will definitely read more about archaeoastronomy. The length of the course and the materials used were just about right. Thank you all for making it possible. As a total novice on the matter, I found it easy to follow. Overall a very interesting course!

By Vasiliki C

Apr 16, 2021

The material was very interesting and the videos were great.

The first and last test, however, were too hard and you had to be familiar with material that was not presented in videos or could not be deduced from the readings.

Anyway, I learned a lot of things and I'm glad I participated.

By Antonia d C B

Mar 27, 2018

Very good course to give you a basic overview of archaeoastronomy as a branch of science. The quiz questions tend to be too "technical" and sometimes really challenging as it requires a lot of focusing on the parts where astronomical phenomena are described. The course could be longer.

By D S

Mar 28, 2017

Loved the course videos and lectures were entertaining. I was a bit dissappointed with the outright dismissal of non-traditional understnadings of these ancient monuments and thought the explanations on why and how they were built, were lightly treated.

A great course ...

By Vladislav K

Aug 25, 2017

Very good! This is uniqe scientific course. The Author gives a complete and important informaion about the connections between visible sky and buildings on the Earth. I give four stars to this course because no practical methodic for evaluation of the ancient sites is given.

By Evelyn

Feb 10, 2021

very fun introduction to the subject of archaeoastronomy, one issue with language use in the documents in the last week and the phrasing of some questions makes it difficult to understand what the question is asking for and trying to decipher the information to answer.

By Mariela G

Nov 21, 2020

Very interesting course, however I found the pace of the lectures a little too fast paced with a ton of information given in a very short videos. At times I found it hard to remember everything taught in the lessons in order to complete the quiz at the end of the week.

By S V

Mar 24, 2020

The lectures in the course were really good, but in the last week, all of the course material was just reading and a quiz that asked questions that don't appear to have been fully addressed in the text, which was frustrating after the clarity of the other units.