Legends, Megaliths And Astronomy In Corsica Island
Abstract
This paper presents a study performed in the framework of an interdisciplinary project developed at the University of Corsica involving information technology researchers and engineers, anthropologists and people from the field of astronomy. The goal of the project is to reveal the Mythology of the Corsica Island, which has been buried under thousand years of invasions. More than 6000 years ago, Corsica, an island of the west Mediterranean basin saw the emergence of megaliths all over the island territory. These megaliths are signs that define a sacred space linked with a very old mythology. This forgotten mythology is also highlighted through toponyms, beliefs and legends. The combination of oral culture, insularity and megaliths defines an underground sacred geography all over the territory. In the first steps of the work which has to be done we have studied the link between megaliths and astronomy. In order to achieve this goal, we integrate modern information technology like GIS, database, GPS surveying, 3D mapping, and statistical components and archeaoastronomy field survey. An example of application is presented in detail. This example has an anthropological part with the study of a legend of the Corsican oral culture: “A fola di u Lurcu” linked with megaliths. We will present in detail how we use archeaoastronomy technologies in the framework of the study of megaliths linked with the legend of north Corsica : a fola di u Lurcu (the story of the giant) The presentation is organized as follows. After a summary of the previously introduced legend, we first present the megaliths involved in the legend ; in a following part of the presentation we present the orientations of the different surveyed structures. The fourth part deals with the astronomical analysis of the different sites of the legend. Finally the last part deals with the perspectives and draws some conclusions.
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