Download More Archeoastronomy

More Archeoastronomy
1
Counting Bones
Blanchard Bone (Africa)
(30,000 BC?) possibly is a 2
month lunar calendar
Ishango Bone (Africa) (8600
BC?) possibly is a 6 month
lunar calendar
Stonehenge (2800 – 1500 B.C.)
Fig 3-11, p.70
Hurston Ridge (Stone Rows)
Kermario, Carnac (Britanny) Stone Rows
Beaghmore, county Tyrone (Ireland)
Discovery of Ancient Chinese Observatory 2000 BC
One of the world's oldest observatories has been uncovered
by archaeologists near the city of Linfen in Shanxi province in
northern China.
They estimate the remains, in the Taosi relics site, are about
4,100 years old. That would make the Linfen observatory
some 3,000 years older than the Mayan observatory
uncovered in Central America, which in turn is older than the
astronomical observatory built by Ulug'bek in Samarkand in
1428.
What's been found of the observatory is a 130-ft.-diameter
semicircular platform made of rammed earth and surrounded
by 13 stone pillars within a 200-ft. outer circle. The
observatory may have been used to mark the movement of
the Sun through Earth's seasons.
Rammed earth was a construction technique in which a mixture of soil and water were molded in forms. The
forms then were removed, leaving solid earthen walls up to two feet thick.
The 13 pillars, each at least 13 feet tall, formed 12 gaps between them. Ancient astronomers observed the
direction of sunrise through the gaps.
They also were able to distinguish the seasons of the year. The site may have been used to observe stars and
the Moon.
1
Great Serpent Mound, Ohio [1200 BC?]
The Nine Ladies
(1,330-foot-long, representation of constellation?)
The oval-to-head area of
the serpent is aligned to
the summer solstice
sunset and the snake’s
coils align with the winter
solstice sunrise, the
autumnal and spring
equinox sunrises, and the
summer solstice sunrise.
Barbrook I (13 stones)
Thom suggests alignment to rising of star Spica
Men An Tol (Cornwall)
Swinside, Cumbria (52 stones)
Thom suggests alignment to winter sunrise
Beaghmore, county Tyrone
(Ireland)
2
Egyptian Pyramids, alignments to stars?
Medicine Wheel (Wyoming, 1800 AD)
Casa Rinconada, NM, alignment to summer sunrise? (1000 AD)
El Caracol, Mexico (600 AD?)
Alignments to rising of Venus, lunar standstills, and equinoxes
18
Jaipur Observatory, India (1700 AD)
References
•
•
•
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mjpowell/Photo_Archive/England/England_4.htm
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.355/viewPage/7
http://www.megalithia.com/brittany/carnac/
3