Archaeoastronomy is the study of how folk during the past understood the phenomenon happening in the sky, how they made use of the phenomenon and what part the sky played in the culture of these people. Archaeoastronomy can be said to be closely associated the historic astronomy. It is also related with the historical records of heavenly events which can often be used to answer astronomic issues. A range of techniques are used in Archaeoastronomy to uncover the evidences of the practices of the past. These include archaeology, anthropology, statistics, astronomy and probability. These methods are diverse and the information used is from alternate sources this makes it a problem for the archaeoastronomers to integrate all these Problems into one consistent debate.

Archaeoastronomy fills all of the complimentary positions in both landscape and cognitive archaeology. Material evidences can show and help us to appreciate how a broader and wider landscape can be combined into sentiments which exist about the cycle of nature. One such example is the connection between the Mayan astronomy and its complex relationship with the agriculture. Archaeoastronomy is a subject which is relevant and applicable to all cultures and all time periods.

Elizabeth Chesley Baity in the year 1973 employed the term 'Archaeoastronomy' for the first time. There are a considerable number of arguments as to who was the first archaeoastronomer. Clive Ruggles believes that Heinrich Nissen who worked in the middle nineteenth century was the 1st archaeoastronomer. According to Rolf Sinclair, Norman Lockyer was the father of Archaeoastronomy.

Since long, Archaeoastronomy has been considered as an interdisciplinary subject that utilises both written and unwritten proof to study the astronomies which existed in other cultures. There's no absolute technique to be followed in Archaeoastronomy. Different archaeoastronomers tend to follow different techniques. The strategy followed depends upon the on the situation of the type of info that is available to the analysts. Broadly the research methods can be split into two classes : green Archaeoastronomy and brown Archaeoastronomy. Green Archaeoastronomy got its name from the color of the book 'Archaeoastronomy' in the Old World. Its basis is essentially statistics and the method is most appropriate for ancient sites. In such ancient sites the social evidence is sort of infrequent in comparison to the significant period.

Brown Archaeoastronomy is closer to the history of astronomy. It draws the ethnographic facts to enrich the appreciation of early astronomies and the relationship they hold with calendars and ritual.

Archaeoastronomy has a varied range of sources which give information regarding the astronomical practices. A few common source of material are alignments, artifacts, art and inscriptions, ethnographies, for example. Now there are three educational affiliations offering courses for scholars of Archaeoastronomy. They are ISAAC- world society for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in culture ( founded in 1995 ), SEAC- La Societe Europeenne pour I'Astronomie dans la Culture ( set up in 1992 ) and SIAC- La Socieded Interamericana de Astronomia en la Cultura ( founded in 2003 ). Book for the History of Astronomy is a journal which publishes many archaeoastronomical papers. In the last twenty-seven volumes it also revealed a once a year supplement of Archaeoastronomy.