For thousands of years, we have looked up to the heavens and asked ourselves: Where did we come from? How did the world (today the gigantic cosmos) come into being? How is it structured? How did it develop? What is its and the human future? From the first cave paintings and the shadow stick to the latest discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope - humankind has always tried to understand its existence in the world. Travelling through time shows us how our perspectives have changed. In the past, myths dominated, filling the sky with divine beings and stories about them.  People shaped their relationships with the cosmos in a variety of cultural manifestations. Cosmic phenomena, processes and objects became 'earthbound' and tangible: in the landscape, in architectural monuments, on objects, clothing, in the fine arts, in games, in religious, social, political symbols, myths and rituals, partly up to the present day. Today we use scientific methods to explore the cosmos. The transition from a mythological to a scientific cosmology is a prime example of a paradigm shift that has revolutionised our view of the world. With the James Webb telescope, but also many other instruments, now also supported by AI, we are on the threshold of new insights and paradigmatic upheavals in our world view and our worldviews. Some of our questions about the deepest mysteries of the cosmos, which have preoccupied us since prehistory, will be answered, but many new ones will be raised. The cosmologies of cultures, as studied by a cultural cosmology, reflect our human possibilities and limitations, our embeddedness in ecospheres and intellectual history. v The lecture thematises the connections between anthropology, ecospheres, and cultural cosmologies from prehistory to the present day.

This presentation is part of the SEAC conference (European Society for Astronomy in Culture) and "Gesellschaft für Archäoastronomie".

Admission: 12 euros, reduced 7.50 euros. Duration: approx. 90 minutes.

In English