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LONDON, November 28: Some of the oldest rock paintings in the world, discovered on European sites, reveal that ancestors may have had advanced knowledge of astronomy 40,000 years ago, reveals a study.
According to researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, animal symbols of the work illustrate constellations of stars in the night sky and are used to represent dates and mark events such as comet strikes. 40,000 years ago, humans were following the evolution of time using information about how the position of stars evolved slowly over the course of thousands of years.
The study published in the Athens Journal of History suggests that ancient peoples included an effect caused by the gradual shift in the axis of rotation of the Earth.
The discovery of this phenomenon, called the precession of the equinoxes, was previously attributed to the Greeks of antiquity.
At the time Neanderthals disappeared, Before settling in Western Europe, men could perhaps set dates within 250 years.
The results indicate that the astronomical knowledge of ancient peoples was much greater than previously thought
. The researchers explained that the seas have an impact on our understanding of prehistoric human migration.
The team studied the details of Paleolithic and Neolithic art exhibiting animal symbols on sites in Turkey, Spain, France, and Germany.
They found all the sites used the same dating method based on sophisticated astronomy, even though the art was separated in time by tens of thousands of years.
Day Turkey – which is interpreted as a memorial of a devastating comet strike to 11,000 BC. J. – C.
This strike would have been at the origin of a mini-ice age known as Younger Dryas Period
They also decoded what is probably the work of ancient art the best known, the scene of the well of Lascaux in France. The researchers suggest that the work, which features a dying man and several animals, could commemorate another comet strike around 15,200 BC. J.-C.
The team confirmed the results by comparing the age of many examples of rock art – known from the chemical dating of the paintings used. – with the position of stars in ancient times predicted by sophisticated software.
The oldest sculpture in the world, the Hohlenstein-Stadel man-lion cave, dating back to 38,000 BC, was also consistent with this ancient time measurement system.
"Early rock art shows that people had advanced knowledge of the night sky during the last ice age. Intellectually, they were little different from us today, "said Martin Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh, who led the study.
" These results corroborate a theory of the multiple impacts of comets during human development, and revolutionize the way prehistoric populations are viewed, "said Sweatman. (PTI)
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