Medicine wheels of the great plains

Abstract

Medicine Wheels are unexplained aboriginal boulder configurations found primarily on hilltops and river valley vistas across the northwest Great Plains of North America. Their varied, complex designs have inspired diverse hypotheses concerning their meaning and purpose, including astronomical ones.While initial“observatory” speculations were unfounded, and quests to “decode” these structures remain unfulfilled and possibly misguided, the Medicine Wheels nevertheless represent a uniquely worthwhile case study in archaeoastronomical theory andmethod. In addition, emerging technologies for data acquisition and analysis pertinent to Medicine Wheels offer prospectively important new sight lines for the future of archaeoastronomy.​