The study of the effects of transient electromagnetic phenomena on human civilisation is an interdisciplinary enquiry drawing on the history of astronomy, archaeoastronomy, cultural astronomy, archaeology, art history, the history of religion and comparative mythology. The following images give a flavour of the types of data drawn from these fields.

pioneers of classical astronomy:

Pythagoras of Samos (fl. 540 BCE) Greek mathematician and mystic	Plato (±428-±348 BCE) Greek philosopher	Aristotle (384-322 BCE) Greek philosopher
Ptolemy (>83-161 CE) Egyptian astronomer, astrologer, geographer and mathematician	Zhāng Héng (78-139 CE) Chinese astronomer, mathematician, geographer, politician and poet	Guō Shŏujìng (1231-1316 CE) Chinese astronomer and mathematician
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543 CE) Polish astronomer, mathematician, physician, classicist and jurist	Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727 CE) English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist and theologian	Sir Edmond Halley (1656-1742 CE) English royal astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician and physicist

pioneers of plasma cosmology:

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642 CE) Italian scientist	Anders Celsius (1701-1744 CE) Swedish astronomer	Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820 CE) English naturalist and explorer
Coined the term boreale aurora.	Discovered that the aurorae are a magnetic phenomenon.	First observed the aurora australis.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790 CE) Founding Father of the United States of America, author, printer, politician, scientist, inventor	Alexander, Freiherr von Humboldt (1769-1859 CE) German naturalist and explorer	Sir William Herschel (1738-1822 CE) English astronomer and composer
Proved that lightning is electric.	Coined the term 'magnetic storm'.	Linked sunspots to earth climate.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867 CE) English scientist	James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879 CE) Scottish mathematician and physicist	Kristian Birkeland (1867-1917 CE) Norwegian scientist
Discovered the 'fourth state of matter.'	Developed the electromagnetic field theory.	Proved that the aurorae are caused by electrical influences from the sun.
Irving Langmuir (1861-1957 CE) American chemist and physicist	Hannes Alfvén (1908-1995 CE) Swedish plasma physicist	Thomas Gold (1920-2004 CE) Austrian astrophysicist
Coined the term 'plasma'.	Founded 'plasma cosmology'.	Coined the term 'magnetosphere'.

ancient observatories:

El Caracol, Chichén Itzá, Mexico (±600-±1200 CE)	Cheomseongdae, Gyeongju-si, South Korea (built 632-646 CE)
Templo del Sol, Ingapirca, Ecuador (1438-1533 CE)	Chankillo, Casma, Peru (built 4th century BCE)

cosmograms, star maps and cosmologies:

representation of the mythical mountain Xūmí Shān or Sumeru, Yōnghé Gōng, Beijing, China (after 1700 CE)	concept of the world according to the Osage people, Oklahoma, United States of America (19th century CE?)	concept of the world according to the old Icelandic tradition, drawn by Finn Magnussen (early 19th century CE)
the god Viṣṇu as Viśvarūpa or the 'cosmic man' comprising the cosmos, opaque watercolour on paper, Jaipur, Rājasthān, India (±1800-1850 CE)	concept of the world according to the people of Paumotu, drawn by Paiore, Tuamotu, Polynesia (1869 CE)	bì disc, representative of the sky, China (4th to 3rd century BCE)
concept of the world according to the Chimú people, northwest Peru (modern reconstruction)	Buddhist model of the universe, Nagasaki, Japan (modern?)	typical Buddhist diagram of the cosmos or maṇḍala
Roman wall painting with a celestial globe, from the peristyle (E) of the villa of Publius Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, near Pompeii, Italy (±50-40 BCE)	diagram of the cosmos according to Ptolemy, drawn by Peter Apian, Cosmographia (1539 CE)	edition of the works (Opera) of Galileo Galilei, published in Florence, Italy (1718 CE)
apparent star map of the Moche culture (left), with detail (right), Ceremonial Plaza, Huaca de la Luna, Trujillo, Peru (100-800 CE)
replica of an Inca star map, drawn by Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua, Relación de Antigüedades de Este Reyno del Pirú, Qoricancha, Cusco, Peru (±1613 CE)	detail showing a map of circumpolar constellations on a carpet, Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, Spain (15th century CE)	brass globe with constellations made by Muḥammad al-Mawsili, Mosul, Iraq (±1275 CE)

keeping track of time and space
(clocks, calendars, navigational instruments):

sundial, Changdeokgung, Seoul, South Korea (17th or 18th century CE)	armillary sphere, Ancient Observatory, Beijing, China
bronze astrolabe, by Ibrahim ibn Said of Toledo, Spain (1067 CE)	replica of a calendar wheel, Aztec, Mexico (±1425 CE)

astronomical records:

Babylonian clay tablet with an astronomical diary (273 BCE)	Babylonian clay tablet with observations of the planet Venus	sidus Iulium or Julius Caesar's comet, reverse of a denarius coin (27 BCE to 14 CE)
meteorite worshipped in the cult of Astarte, reverse of a coin from Sidon, Phoenicia (218-222 CE)	Julius Caesar's comet, yellow marble, Tunisia (1st century BCE)	aurorae observed at Gdańsk, Poland, on the 17th March 1716 CE, drawn by Joachim Frederik Ramus
solar eclipse, Ancient Observatory, Beijing, China		the aurora borealis, sketch made by a member of the Chukchi people, northeastern Siberia, Russia (1889-1899 CE)

sacred texts with cosmic significance:

fragment of the Pyramid Texts, limestone relief from the pyramid of king Pepi II Neferkare, Saqqara, Egypt (±2250 BCE)	fragment of the Book of the Dead of Takerheb, Egypt (3rd to 1st century BCE)
±81,000 woodblocks containing the full Korean Buddhist canon or Tripiṭaka Koreana, Janggyeonggak, Haeinsa Temple, South Korea (13th century CE)	facsimile of a fragment of the Mayan Codex Tro-Cortesianus, Campeche, Mexico (1250-1500 CE)

geoglyphs and petroglyphs:

La Estrella or 'The Star', a geoglyph at Palpa, Peru (500 BCE to 300 CE)	the Long Man of Wilmington, a geoglyph at Wilmington, East Sussex, United Kingdom (first attested in 1710 CE)	petroglyphs at Tsagaan Sala, Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia (±3000 BCE?)
petroglyphs at Tsagaan Sala, Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia (±3000 BCE?)	petroglyphs at Tsagaan Sala, Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia (±3000 BCE?)	petroglyphs at Chichictara, Palpa Province, Peru (±3000 BCE?)
petroglyph at Sugok-ri, Andong-si, South Korea (date unknown)	petroglyph at Capo di Ponte, Valcamonica, Lombardy, Italy (±8000 BCE?)	petroglyph at Chichictara, Palpa Province, Ica Region, Peru (±3000 BCE?)

alignments in monuments:

monolith called La Huanca due north of the Pirámide de la Huanca, Caral, Peru (±2600-2000 BCE)	Meoto-iwa or 'Husband and Wife Rocks' Gōmen, Kōchi, Shikoku, Japan (natural formation)
megalithic stone circle Stonehenge, Wiltshire, United Kingdom (3100-2200 BCE)	Intihuatana or 'Hitching Post of the Sun' Machu Picchu, Peru (±1450-1550 CE)

sacred architecture:

stepped pyramid of king Djoser, Saqqara, Egypt (27th century BCE)	El Castillo, the Mayan pyramid of Cuculcán at Chichén Itzá, Mexico (±600-±1200 CE)
stūpa at Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), Bangkok, Thailand (±1785 CE)	symbolic ceiling decoration with dragon in the centre, Huáng Qióng Yŭ (Imperial Vault of Heaven), Beijing, China (1406-1420 CE)

religious iconography:

victory stele of Narām-Sîn, king of Akkad, Iraq (fl. 2170 BCE)	sacred tree, panel 23, room B, Northwest Palace, Nimrūd, Iraq (±865-860 BCE)	sacred tree, detail of a papyrus containing the Book of the Dead of Ḫonsu-renpe, priest of Amūn (16th to 11th century BCE)

mythology:

the Egyptian god Shu (600-300 BCE)	rainbow dragon of the Chimú religion, Huaca Arco Iris o Dragon, Trujillo, Peru (±850-±1470 CE)	the Hindū god Agni, Bihar, India (11th century CE)

scene from the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Hindū Rāmāyaṇa epic, Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok, Thailand (18th or 19th century CE)	the death of Phaethon, carving on a Roman sarcophagus (2nd century CE)
dragon and lion on a Babylonian clay tablet (date?)	dragon scene with pearl, Dōngyuè Miào, Beijing, China (14th century CE or later)

visionary and shamanic experiences:

shamanic scene, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea (modern)	Jacob's dream of a ladder to heaven, painting by Michael Willmann (±1691 CE)
The Ladder of Paradise, icon after Saint John Climacus († 606 CE)	Saint Dominic ascending to heaven on a ladder (1170-1221 CE), painting in the Iglesia de Santo Domingo del Cusco Qorikancha, Cusco, Peru (date?)

sacred landscapes:

Mount Olympus, Greece	Mount Parnassus, Greece	Mount Kailash, northern side, Tibet, China
Ceiba pentandra, sacred tree of the Maya	Bodhi tree with the head of Buddha, Wat Phra Mahathat, Ayuthaya, Thailand	typical ovoo or Buddhist prayer tree, Töv Aimag, Mongolia
the reputed middle of the world, Misminay, Máras, Sacred Valley, Peru	umbilicus urbis Romae or 'navel of the city of Rome' representing the centre of the earth, Forum Romanum, Rome, Italy (±200 CE)	marble rock representing the omphalós or 'navel' of the earth, temple of Apollo, Delphi, Greece (3rd century BCE to 1st century CE)

religious rituals and festivals:

annual circumambulation of the Qa`ba, al-Masjid al-Ḥarām mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia	depiction of the Sun Dance around the Sun Dance Pole, Teton Lakota people, North and South Dakota, United States of America (±1885 CE)	Maypole, Korean Juseok celebration at the British Museum, London, United Kingdom (August 2007)
decorated pillar, Zang or Yi people, Qīnghăi Province, China	dragon decoration of a pillar, Húběi Province, China	annual ritual kindling of fire, Manisan, Ganghwa-do, South Korea (October 2005)
dragon dance, Shànghăi Province, China

© Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs for most of these images.
These images may not be reproduced digitally or otherwise without prior permission.

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