Posted on 02/09/2015 10:12:51 AM PST by Theoria
Among the mysteries of how ancient people created structures to mark the solstice and equinox with astonishing accuracy, this one is central: How did they determine the dates of those astronomical events?
Houstonian Gordon Houston, who is pursuing a doctorate on this riddle, says he believes he has figured out the answer for centuries-old glyphs known as the Pictographs of Paint Rock, Texas.
Found on a private ranch near San Angelo in northern Concho County, these approximately 1,500 pictographs on a limestone cliff include about a dozen that "had a solar interaction," Houston said. "Some were incredible."
Houston will talk about his findings at the Houston Archeological Society's next meeting, 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at M.D. Anderson Hall at the Umiversity of St. Thomas. The meeting is free and open to the public.
Perhaps the most striking of these dozen pictographs is a red circular design painted on the cliff about 20 feet above the ground. At exactly noon on the day of the winter solstice -- the shortest day of the year and the traditional beginning of the winter season -- there's a dagger of light hitting the exact center of the glyph as the sun shines through spaces between layers of broken limestone.
Whoever put that glyph in the right spot demonstrated a level of accuracy exceeding even more famous monuments, such as Stonehenge in England, said Houston, who holds a master's degree in astronomy and is the Schaefer Observatory director at Blinn College's Schulenburg campus.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Virtually every ancient monument connected to celestial events are still accurate to within a degree or two. After all, even things 5000 years old are very recent on the time scale of the earth.
The moon is more difficult - I think it's a 19-year cycle. So to get two of them, you would need 38 years.
Don't ask me about Uranus!
I was thinking the same thing. Actually all the auto manufacturers need this formula. The last two trucks I had that were red had the paint turn white and fall off after 6 years.
At least the Grand Canyon so Texas possible. They seemed to love lots of hot sand.
Good point.
That looks like prime rattlesnake country.
Do the overhangs protect them from earthquakes?
It’s among the more stable geological locations on the planet.
Templars and Vikings.
[but I love Scott]
:D
Dammit.
I was not fast enough.
LOL
Total random bull$h!t.
Cool!
Isn’t this the Indiana Jones theory?
Thanks for the ping!
Or Tom Hanks?
Ol Scotty, never solves anything. That’s his stich. he just asks the question “why does anyone watch this show”?
Back to the pictographs, either someone has graffittied them up or they are pure graffiti.
Years ago we were driving through the country near Paint RockTexas and we went off the main highway to see some pictographs. I can't imagine that we went onto private property to see them and I can't remember how we knew they were there.
HA!
” i need to paint my shed and I want the new paint job to last a LONG time”
Milk paint.
You can’t get that stuff off without involving fire.
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