Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 54 (3) 2026   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2026.54.3.113-122

Annotation:  The Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans (Homo sapiens) in Africa The Structure of Bioresources Exploited by Paleolithic Humans in the Anui River Basin, Altai An Early Neolithic Burial with a Miniature Fish-Shaped Bait on the Shore of Lake Baikal A Glass Intaglio Depicting Harpocrates (Zeus Kasios) from Markula, Abkhazia Artifacts from the Necropolises of Chersonesos as a Historical and Cultural Source: An Interpretati A Road Station in the Upper Capital of the Eastern Xia State A Mongolian Age Iron Shield from the Khakass-Minusinsk Region From the History of the Late 19th–Early 20th Century Ural Cossacks in the Aral Sea region: Confessio Large Baptismal Crosses (“Cossack Crosses”) as a Source for Reconstructing Migration Routes to Weste Tombstones of the 19th and Early 20th Century at Rural Cemeteries on the Northern Upper Ob Ob Ugrian Sanctuaries on Lake Balbanty Eurasian-American Ethnoastronomic Parallels in the Context of New Data from India The Cúng Yêu Tinh Funerary Rite Among the Bố Y People in Vietnam: Finishing the Unfi nished Cranial Affinities of the Altai Mountains Population During the Xiongnu-Sarmatian Age The Origin of the Modern Populations of Western Siberia, Based on Craniometric Data. Part I: Classif   

Eurasian-American Ethnoastronomic Parallels
in the Context of New Data from India

Y.E. Berezkin

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

New folkloric data collected in Maharashtra, India, have changed our views of the ancient ethnoastronomy of South Asia. Previous reconstructions of beliefs about celestial objects were nearly exclusively based on the comparison of data on Northern and Central Eurasia with those on the New World. Motifs relating to Ursa Major, one of the most important constellations in folk astronomy, are described. An attempt is made to assess the relative age of these beliefs by collating data on Eurasia and America. Four routes whereby people had migrated to the New World are reconstructed, one of these being related to the spread of Algonquin ancestors. Rather than being Paleolithic relicts, parallels between Siberia and India were caused by later northern influences on South Asian ethnoastronomy. `

Keywords: Ethnoastronomy, Ursa Major, Alcor, comparative mythology, peopling of Americas, Algonquians.