Scientists have found a new meaning of ancient rock drawings

Scientists have carried out a new badysis of images on the arches of many European caves and concluded that they are badociated with astronomical phenomena, such as constellations and comets. The authors of the new study suggest that 40,000 years ago people used stars to determine the weather. The results are published in the Athens Journal of History, "Indicator" reports.

For a long time, people used the stars to navigate and determine the time. However, when such methods have emerged, it is not entirely clear. Stars can be used both to determine the time of day during the night and to calculate much longer time periods. This can be done by badyzing the precession of the axis of rotation of the Earth – a phenomenon by which the positions of all stars are shifted. The precession period is about 26 thousand years old. Previously, scientists thought that this phenomenon was known only from the time of ancient Greece.

The new work offers a different perspective on the astronomical knowledge of much older people. British researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Kent claim that, by the time Neanderthals were gone in Europe, people could determine the time accurately with a precision of about 250 years. This conclusion led the researchers to study the drawings in the caves of Spain, Turkey, France and Germany. They believe that images that are generally considered hunting scenes are actually available to light constellations during important events.

"Early rock art shows that the inhabitants of the last ice age had a deep knowledge of the night sky. In terms of intelligence, they are hardly inferior to modern humans, "said Martin Sweetman, co-author of the book.

The scientific community discusses the hypothesis of astronomical involvement in rock art for at least 40 years. However, for the moment, supporters of this idea have not been able to convince the very large number of specialists that this interpretation is correct.