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A study revealed that some of the oldest rock paintings in the world, discovered on European sites, reveal that the ancestors of humans may have had advanced knowledge of astronomy 40,000 years ago. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom use animal symbols representing constellations of stars in the night sky and used to represent dates and mark events such as comet strikes.
As 40,000 years ago, humans followed the evolution of time using the knowledge of the slow evolution of the position of stars over thousands of years. The study, published in the Athens Journal of History, suggests that ancient peoples understood an effect caused by the gradual shift of the Earth's axis of rotation.
The discovery of this phenomenon, called precession of the equinoxes, was previously attributed to ancient Greece. At the time of the extinction of Neanderthals, and perhaps before humanity settled in Western Europe, dates could be defined within 250 years.
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Simple rock painting or symbolic astronomical image? Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Kent suggest the latter, across a wide range of ancient art. Here we see what is called the scene of the well of Lascaux, the famous cave of Lascaux in France. It looks like a prehistoric hunt that went wrong, but according to the new study, it could actually commemorate a comet strike that occurred around 15,000 BC. The team studied ancient art on sites in Turkey, Spain, France, and Germany, and discovered what appears to be a timekeeping system using symbols of the same type. animals to represent the constellations of stars. All sites seemed to use this same dating system, although they were separated by tens of thousands of years. The results suggest that humans may have understood advanced astronomical concepts, such as the slow change in the position of stars over time, 40,000 years ago. (Credit: Alistair Coombs) . . . . #discovermagazine #cavepainting #archaeology #astronomy #symbolism #time #outfit #long #last #lascauxcave #constellations #neolithic #palaeolithic #arthistory
The results indicate that the astronomical knowledge of the ancient peoples was much greater than previously thought. According to their researchers, their knowledge may have facilitated navigation on the high seas, which has impacted our understanding of prehistoric human migration.
The team studied details of Paleolithic and Neolithic art featuring animal symbols on sites in Turkey, Spain, France, and Germany. They discovered that all sites used the same method of dating based on sophisticated astronomy, even though this art was separated in time by tens of thousands of years.
The researchers clarified the earlier results of a study of stone carvings carried out in one of these sites. sites – Gobekli Tepe in modern Turkey – which is interpreted as a memorial of a devastating comet strike around 11 000 BC. This strike was thought to have initiated a mini-ice age known as the Younger Dryas Period
. They had also decoded what is probably the most well-known work of ancient art – the scene of the Lascaux well 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 hardly differed from us today, "said Martin Sweatman, of the University of Edinburgh, who led the study. "These results support a theory of multiple impacts on comets during human development and are likely to revolutionize the way prehistoric populations are perceived," said Sweatman.
First published: Nov. 28, 2018 17:42 IST
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