Blurb:

The author re-examines 21 rock art depictions, typically of a crescent Moon alongside a star, that had been interpreted as representations of the Crab supernova of 1054 AD in the American Southwest and beyond. He concludes that all documented cases are ambiguous, “and the supernova interpretation of several of them is fatally flawed”. His paper highlights the importance of reflexivity as well as cultural, artefactual and iconographic context in interpretations; something that fits well with skyscape archaeology as we believe this should apply not only to the interpretation of rock art but also structural alignments.