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Ideas & Inventions / Global milestones

W ABORIGINAL
ASTRONOMY
Australia’s indigenous people
can lay claim to being the
world’s oldest astronomers

Aboriginal Australians were among the
world’s first astronomers. For at least
10,000 years, astronomy has been a
fundamental part of Aboriginal culture.
By identifying different stars and
constellations, Aboriginal people have
linked the heavens to major life events.
The Kamilaroi people hold male
initiation ceremonies with the setting of
Djulpan – a constellation representing a
hunter in a canoe. What makes this all
the more intriguing is that Djulpan
actually corresponds to the European
constellation known as Orion, also a
hunter. (Although in the southern
hemisphere Orion is upside down!)
Astronomy also serves a range of
more practical functions for Aboriginal
Australians. The seafaring Yolngu
people track the position and phase of
the moon in order to predict the height
of the tide. Similarly, the Wardaman
people of northern Australia are able to
navigate across the desert at night,
simply by following the stars. Today, this
ancient astronomical knowledge can
still be found in rock engravings across
Australia. Just to the north of Sydney, in
the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park,
you can find a series of incredible
engravings made by the Kuringgai
people. Perhaps over 4,000 years old,
one of these represents the ‘Emu’ Cuneiform script and illustrations on a Babylonian tablet show a set of
constellation. And on a clear autumn problems relating to calculating volume, together with the solutions
night, the engraving aligns perfectly
with the stars in the sky,
an archaeological testament W BABYLONIAN MATHEMATICS
to Aboriginal Australian An advanced Mesopotamian numbers system
astronomy.
that we still use 4,000 years later
Ever wondered why there are should then have 60 hours
60 seconds in a minute? Or 360 in a day and 60 days in a month!).
degrees in a circle? The answer Historians and archaeologists
lies in ancient Babylon (modern have deciphered clay tablets,
The ‘Emu’ day Iraq). Today, the majority of some dating to 1800 BC, which
constellation mathematics is done in what is show that ancient Babylonian
that aligns with known as base ten. You learn at people did really complex
ancient Aborigi- school that there are units, tens, mathematics in base 60. Many
nal engravings
of an emu on hundreds and thousands. This of these tablets relate to the
the ground makes things pretty easy for administration of the Babylo-
counting on your fingers. But nian empire, calculating interest
nearly 4,000 years ago, the on loans or the size of land
people of ancient Babylon used plots. But there is also BARNABY NORRIS - WWW.EMUDREAMING.COM/ALAMY
base 60, which divides each evidence that Babylonian
unit into 60 parts. The easiest mathematicians developed
way to understand this is to geometrical theorems well
think of time: we have 60 before the Greeks. The ancient
seconds in a minute and then people of Iraq knew
60 minutes in an hour. (To be Pythagoras’s theorem before
really consistent in base 60, we Pythagoras himself.

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