“The impact of solar eclipses on Mesoamerican culture and on virtually all other early civilizations cannot be overstated,” according to Bruce Masse, formerly of the University of Hawaii and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In a paper published in the journal Vistas in Astronomy, he said that such celestial events pervade “cosmology, art iconography, chiefly symbols, architecture, time reckoning, and religious and chiefly rituals,” as well as myths and historical accounts.

Witnessing, and then surviving, an eclipse must have seemed like coming back from the dead.

The origin of the word “eclipse” comes from the Greek term ekleipsis, meaning an abandonment, a feeling shared by the Inca of South America. Worshippers of the sun god Inti, the Inca felt that their leader was mad at them whenever the moon obscured the sun. They rarely practiced human sacrifice, but a wave of killing would follow solar eclipses. The irony is that the leaders were desperately trying to give Inti what they were supposed to value the most.

While such a response would be unthinkable today, solar eclipses continue to captivate. From likely prehistoric gatherings at Stonehenge to anticipation of this year’s August 21 total solar eclipse, these incredible sky shows remain some of the solar system’s most compelling events.