Page 16 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2012

Ancient Astronomers Ancient Astronomers Astronomy wasn’t invented a couple og hundred years ago. The study of the stars is almost as old as humanity itself. By Len McGuire The oldest and most famous cave paintings (16,000 to 20,000 years old) are in Lascaux, France. The animal and human figures in the cave were long though to be symbols of magic or worship meant to help hunters. Eventually someone noticed that the dots of paint that decorate the animals are actually diagrams of groups of stars. Most of the constellations have different symbols today, but the giant bull (possibly the best-known image in cave art) is actually the constellation we still call Taurus - the bull. His eye is the star Aldebarab, and a V- shaped decoration of dots around it represents the Pleiades star cluster. alignment of ancient monuments, the field is piles of stones - pick out important events in the NOT JUST A PILE OF STONES wide open for speculation. New Agers (who sky: the summer solstice and the rising of the The first ancient monument to be speculate widely at least three times before bright stars Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius and identified as an astronomical observatory was breakfast) will tell you that the Egyptian Fomalhaut. There are many other medicine England’s Stonehenge. It’s attracted a lot of pyramids are time machines, UFO bases, or wheels and similar constructions in North wanna-be Druids over the years, but current gates to other dimensions. Thank heavens (no America, many of which are so damaged that researchers think it was built and rebuilt by pun intended) for the Mayans of Central it’s impossible to reconstruct their original three separate cultures between 5,000 and 3,000 America, who left detailed written documents ot alignments. But since the positions of dawn and years ago. While it’s not clear exactly what is explain the astronomy behind the construction the risings of stars have changed a little over the was used for, the astronomical alignments of the of their pyramids. It turns out that the Mayans centuries, it’s possible to date the construction stones are unquestionable. The stones mark out had a highly developed calendar system, using of them (and all the others) by accurate the sunrise at midsummer and midwinter, and astronomical events to fix magical dates for scientific methods. the rising and setting of the moon (which their rituals. Their pyramids were built on repeats in a cycle of 8.6 years). Some people alignments that pointed toward the positions of KEEPING AN EYE ON THE SKY claim to have found many more significant the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars at these It’s not surprising that great civilizations alignments and have suggested that Stonehenge special dates. It can’t be definitely proven that like the Egyptians and the Mayans could could have been used to predict eclipses - pretty the Egyptian pyramids, or the similar ziggurats develop a kind of astronomy, What’s amazing is sophisticated stuff. But did the Druids actually of ancient Mesopotamia, were built on the same that people from the Stone Age - or people still make these calculations ? We’ll probably never kind of idea, but the astronomical alignments living in the Stone Age lifestyles - also had know. are similar, and so far no one has come up with detailed knowledge of astronomy. Native a better explanation. Americans, nomads in the Sahara Desert, and STONEHENGE SOUTH even genuine cavemen were doing the math and Just as mysterious is the recently A FEW OF MAYAN FAVORITE THINGS measuring the angles.How many people today discovered stone circle of Nabta, Egypt, which For the Mayans, the two most could build an astronomical observatory out of at 7,000 years old is the oldest astronomical interesting objects in the sky were the planet lumps of rock? [] observatory of its kind so far discovered. Like Venus and the Sun. While Stonehenge and other Stonehenge, it marks sunrise and sunset at ancient sites fixed the position of the midsummer, but other than that, no one knows midsummer sun at dawn, the Mayans used the who built it or what else it might before. The moment when it was directly overhead. Venus site was abandoned after two thousand years, dips below the horizon at a variable date in the just before the rise of the Egyptian Old year and rises about 50 days later. The Mayans Kingdom. Did the ancient Egyptians get their were able to calculate this period, and they were astronomical knowledge from an older also able to predict eclipses. They marked these civilization in the Sahara? occasions with human sacrifices and chose days to go to war by consulting their astronomical SERIOUS ABOUT SIRIUS calendars. The star Sirius was worshipped by a whole range of ancient peoples, from the Arabs STONEHENGE, U.S.A. and ancient Egyptians to the West African tribes In the hills of Wyoming, there’s an of the Dogon and the Bozo (don’t laugh, they’re ancient stone construction called the Big Horn real). The Egyptians built whole rows of Medicine Wheel, which some have called the temples pointing at the spot on the horizon American Stonehenge. A similar construction is where Sirius would rise each year. This was the the Moose Mountain Wheel in Alberta, Canada. beginning of their calendar year and marked the Both were sacred sites for local Native flooding of te Nile. For them, Sirius was the Americans, but archeologists date them from resting place of the dead and the most important before the Plains Indians arrived to some star in the sky. unknowing digenous people. The Big Horn wheel has been dated to PYRAMID SCHEME A.D. 1000-1400, and Moose Mountain to about Because questions remain about the 2,000 years ago. The markers - this time neat