WAS THE PARTA NEOLITHIC SANCTUARY IN ROMANIA ASTRONOMICALLY ALIGNED?

Since its discovery, the Neolithic sanctuary from Parta, Timis county, Romania has been the subject of many archeoastronomical and ethnoastronomical studies. While interesting, the sanctuary itself is no longer visible in situ, with a scaled replica, based on original materials, accessible inside the National Museum of Banat in Timisoara. Studies have focused on its solar alignment, lunar and stellar symbolism, eclipses, and horizon astronomy. The lack of actual azimuth readings of the original sanctuary make any astronomical alignment studies challenging if not impossible. The only evidence lies in the original experiment performed in situ during the autumnal equinox sunset on 23 September, 1982, and on maps showing the direction of the North. Regarding eclipses, the high ΔT uncertainty in Neolithic times makes any eclipse study questionable. In this paper we critically review prior work and introduce our own hypotheses regarding some interesting aspects of the sanctuary. We also identify possible horizon markers for the WSSR and equinoxes.