Earliest Star Chart Found (More)

Jan. 29 — A 32,000-year-old ivory table has revealed what might be the oldest image of a star chart, according to new research to be published by the European Society for Astronomy in Culture.

Found in 1979 in a cave in the Alb-Danube region of Germany, the small rectangular mammoth ivory plate shows an anthropoid figure, and a row of 86 mysterious notches is carved on its sides and on its back.

"On the front side it shows a man-like being with his leg apart and arms raised in an adorant position. The left leg is much shorter than the right one, while the figure has an unusually narrow waist. Between the legs is an appendix which looks like a trapezoid with the wide side below," researcher Michael Rappenglück, formerly of the University of Munich and renowned for locating star charts in prehistoric art, told Discovery News. Radiocarbon dating, made possible by bone ash deposits found next to the tablet, suggested it is between 32,500 and 38,000 years old, making it one of the oldest depictions of a man ever found.

The artist belonged to the upper Paleolithic Aurignacian people. Getting their name from a rock-shelter at Aurignac in the Pyrenees, this population is best known for supplanting the Neanderthals and producing the earliest cave paintings in Western Europe.

Their spectacular art and artifacts include the stunning cave paintings in France's Grotte Chauvet, often credited as evidence of fully modern behavior.

Interpretation of the anthropoid figure ranged from a praying man, a dancer, a divine being, and a mixed creature half cat and half-man.

Instead, Rappenglück believes the artist centered the bas-relief on an anthropoid constellation in the sky, which we today know as Orion.

"The straddle-legged posture with the right foot a little more highly raised reminds of the lower part of Orion. The slim body illustrates the middle part of the constellation, while the narrow waist designates the position of Orionâ€™s belt. The perpendicularly upraised arms with the hands and the head between denote the upper part of Orion," Rappenglück said.

Astronomical confirmation of the archaeological dating came from a computer reconstruction which wound back the sky and found evidence that Orion appeared completely above the natural horizon of the cave between 32,000 and 33,500 years ago.

The appendix between the legs would show a phallic star creature, in line with ancient ideas that Orion may be responsible for the celestial insemination of Earth and for cosmic fertility.

This interpretation would also explain the meaning of the 86 notches. According to Rappenglück, they would represent a pregnancy calendar. Eighty six would indicate the number of days that Betelguese, one of Orionâ€™s most famous stars, is visible, but also the number of days that must be subtracted from a year to match the average length of a pregnancy.

"Rappenglück's hypothesis, based on serious speculation and in agreement with his ample knowledge of the art and symbolism of those periods, might be probable and even possible.

"Unfortunately, we never can be 100 percent sure," Juan Antonio Belmonte, project coordinator of the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands, said.

Very possible indeed that the figure is a representation of the constellation Orion.

Its constituent stars would have been in almost exactly the same arrangement as they are today.

That's a function of their relative distance (all are several hundred light-years away). Constellations with nearby stars have changed their patterns, sometimes quite noticeably, over millennia.

BTW, Orion is the most recognizable constellation. See it any (clear of course) night from mid-August (just before morning twilight in the east) to mid April (just after evening twilight in the west) at mid-northern latitudes.

4 posted on 02/01/2003 4:45:59 PM PST by petuniasevan (Learn more at my APOD threads! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/t-apod/browse)

"Rappenglück's hypothesis, based on serious speculation and in agreement with his ample knowledge of the art and symbolism of those periods, might be probable and even possible."

. . .sounds more than reasonable to me. . .

. . .hmmm 32,000 years old. Time. . .it's all perspective and 'space'.

Orion is just visible climbing over the southern horizon. Sirius is not, it's below the horizon. Anyway, Orion is always standing up tall at this latitude in winter. A dominant constellation.

Well, yeah, but you're at a NORTH northern latitude! ;-D

I ran my Starry Night program at a Fairbanks latitude (sure love that software). Sirius will be up (barely) in about a half-hour.

Does Starry Night have meteor showers? I added several to my old 1950.0 Ephemerides, but my cheapo computer planetarium doesn't have them.

Very possible indeed that the figure is a representation of the constellation Orion.

It is also very possible that some 13 year old kid was stuck in the cave on a rainy day and wittled a picture on a bone scrap. The 86 marks on the back could be the number of times that his mother told him to take the garbage out.

I get a great kick out of the "experts" devining what was on someone's mind 32,000 years ago.

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

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10 posted on 02/05/2006 8:00:56 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Islam is medieval fascism, and the Koran is a medieval Mein Kampf.)

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