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Global warming has slightly slowed the Earth’s rotation — and it could affect how we measure time. A study published Wednesday found that the melting of polar ice — an accelerating trend driven primarily by human-caused climate change — has caused the Earth to spin less quickly than it would otherwise.

Explanation: Discovered by accident, this manuscript page provides graphical insight to astronomy in medieval times, before the Renaissance and the influence of Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho de Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo. The intriguing page is from lecture notes on astronomy compiled by the monk Magister Wolfgang de Styria before the year 1490. The top panels clearly illustrate the necessary geometry for a lunar (left) and solar eclipse in the Earth-centered Ptolemaic system. At lower left is a diagram of the Ptolemaic view of the Solar System with text at the upper right to explain the movement of the planets according...

Archaeologists from the University of Wyoming (UW) have uncovered a megalithic plaza in the Cajamarca Basin of northern Peru.According to the researchers, the plaza dates from around 4,750 years ago and is one of the earliest examples of a circular plaza construction in the Andean South America.The discovery was made at the Callacpuma archaeological site, consisting of two concentric walls of large, vertically placed megalithic stones held upright without the use of mortar.The form and size of the construction, alongside the absence of domestic items to indicate habitation, suggests that the monument was likely ceremonial in purpose.A study of the...

The remnants of a bronze age tomb once thought to have been destroyed and lost to history have been discovered in County Kerry on the Atlantic coast of Ireland.The tomb, known locally as Altóir na Gréine – the sun altar – stood for approximately 4,000 years on a hill outside the village of Ballyferriter on the Dingle peninsula before vanishing in the mid-19th century...Georgiana Chatterton, an English aristocrat and traveller, had visited the site and sketched the monument in 1838, but 14 years later an antiquarian named Richard Hitchcock reported that it had been broken up and carried away, presumably...

Chisel marks on a stone uncovered in Rupinpiccolo protohistoric hill fort from north-eastern Italy were suggested to be a representation of the night sky (Bernardini et al. 2022 Documenta Praehistorica XLIX). The patterns of the 29 marks are analyzed here to establish if they reproduce popular stellar asterisms. Nine marks are found to match the Tail of Scorpius and five the Orion's Belt, together with Rigel and Betelgeuse. Nine marks are found in the approximate position of the Pleiades showing some match with the cluster members. On the back side, 5 marks possibly reproduce Cassiopeia. One mark slightly North of...

For thousands of years, our ancestors found solace in the winter solstice. Today, that belief is still reflected in the astonishing sight of the sun setting on Orkney's Maeshowe tomb. Located 10 miles off Scotland's north-eastern coast, the Orkney islands are a treasure trove of history, from the famous Neolithic village Skara Brae to the hauntingly beautiful Ring of Brodgar – a spellbinding stone circle that was a site of ritual and ceremony. However, when I visited another of Orkney's famous prehistoric sites, the Maeshowe tomb, my first impression was of an unremarkable green mound surrounded by a ditch. Despite...

Located near Antequera in Malaga (Andalucia, Spain), Menga is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site consisting of three dolmens constructed between 3800 – 3600 BC. It is one of the largest megalithic structures in Europe and was built on the top of a hill with giant rocks. It is renowned for its enormous orthostats or vertical stones, one of which weighs nearly 150 tons...Using petrographic and stratigraphic analysis techniques, the researchers discovered most of the stones were calcarenites... The researchers write in their paper that moving and building a dolmen from such large, massive but fragile stones would require...

A team of archaeologists, geophysicists, geologists, and paleontologists affiliated with multiple institutions in Indonesia has found evidence showing that Gunung Padang is the oldest known pyramid in the world. In their paper published in the journal Archaeological Prospection, the group describes their multi-year study of the cultural heritage site. Gunung Padang has for many years been considered a megalithic structure—it sits on top of an extinct volcano in West Java, Indonesia, and is considered by locals to be a sacred site. In 1998, it was declared to be a cultural heritage site. For many years there has been disagreement regarding...

The Altar Stone, identified as Stone 80, is a recumbent central megalith within the Stonehenge monument from phase 3i sometime around 2600 BC.The anomalous lithology of the Altar Stone led to the previous suggestion of a provenance from the Old Red Sandstone (ORS) of west Wales, close to where the majority of the bluestones have been sourced in the Preseli area some 225 km west of Stonehenge.The Pembrokeshire bluestones, created through the crystallization of molten rock, are thought to be among the earliest stones placed at the Wiltshire site approximately 5,000 years ago...The study has revealed that the Altar Stone...

Headlines were made in 1864 when a group of excavators uncovered evidence of an "ancient British city" near modern-day Edinburgh Airport...Subsequent excavations in the 20th century found that the Craigie Hill site was not actually an "ancient British city" as claimed by the 1864 headlines, but the remains of a Bronze Age hillfort, similar to others that were once ubiquitous in the Lothians...The area around Edinburgh Airport is famous for its prehistoric settlements. In 1830, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a stone circle called the Huly Hill Cairn, which today stands preserved as a peculiar oddity given its proximity to...

Only a few miles outside of Cardiff, this impressive ancient monument is well worth a visit. Boasting the largest capstone chamber in Europe, it's not the heaviest capstone, but it is huge weighing in at 40 tonnes.Join us for a quick tour of the 6000 year old site, 1000 years older than stonehenge is estimated to be, as we explore the popular folklore.Ancient Monument in Cardiff, Wales! History & Folklore | 4:53CoralJackz | 470 subscribers | 4,964 views | August 11, 2023

Carn Glas, near Inverness, is thought to date to the Neolithic period and be about 5,000 years old.It is Scotland's longest chambered cairn, measuring 116m (380ft) in length.Bones were removed from the site on Essich Moor by antiquarians in 1918, according to Historic Environment Scotland (HES).The new photographs include images in false colours that clearly show the shape of Carn Glas...HES describes Carn Glas as having significant archaeological importance due to its potential for improving understanding of Neolithic rituals and funeral practices.It comprises three interlinked cairns.Other sites from the same period in history are close by, and include a stone...

Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious sanctuary in the central Netherlands made of burial mounds and ancient offerings of human and animal bones that has striking similarities to Stonehenge. The 4,000-year-old site was discovered in the town of Tiel and, like prehistoric stone circle Stonehenge, tracked the position of the sun on the solstices. “The largest mound served as a sun calendar, similar to the famous stones of Stonehenge in England,” the municipality of Tiel said in a statement. “This sanctuary must have been a highly significant place where people kept track of special days in the year, performed rituals and...

Around 8,000 revelers gathered around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun STONEHENGE, England (AP) — All hail the rising sun. Around 8,000 revelers gathered around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun. Druids, pagans, hippies, local residents and tourists, many clad in an array of colorful costumes and even antlers, stayed and celebrated at Stonehenge for the night and greeted sunrise on Wednesday, which is the longest...

Archaeologists have discovered a vast cemetery of Bronze Age burial mounds, thought to be up to 4,400 years old, ahead of a building development less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Stonehenge.The cemetery includes more than 20 circular mounds, known as barrows, built between 2400 B.C. and 1500 B.C. on a chalk hillside near Harnham on the outskirts of Salisbury in southwest England.Other than the site's proximity to Stonehenge, there's no evidence that the cemetery was connected with the famous monument. But the barrows were built around the same time as some of the central stages of Stonehenge, according to...

Around 40 standing stones thought to have been erected by prehistoric humans 7,000 years ago have been destroyed near a famed archaeological site in northwest France to make way for a DIY store, an angry local historian has revealed.The stones in Carnac were between 50-100 centimetres (20-40 inches) high and stood close to the main highly protected areas of one of Europe's largest and most mysterious pre-historic tourist attractions...He believes 39 standing stones -- known as menhirs -- have been lost, estimating their age to be around 7,000 years based on carbon dating conducted on stones nearby in 2010.The land...

Using a form of artificial intelligence, researchers have discovered four new Nazca geoglyphs in Peru, according to a new study recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The Nazca lines are UNESCO-protected geoglyphs dating from between 100 BCE and 300 CE that depict humans, camelids, birds, orcas, felines, and snakes. There are a range of theories surrounding their purpose, including that the Nazca geoglyphs depict deities, are a form of irrigation, or are a calendar with astrological alignments, though it remains unclear. Related Articles A hand holds a stone, penis-shaped object. Penis-Shaped Stone Used for Sharpening Weapons Found in...

Archaeologists from the Universities of Manchester and Cardiff have discovered the origins of Arthur's Stone, one of the UK's most famous Stone Age monuments. Manchester's Professor Julian Thomas, who led the excavation, says the imposing Herefordshire tomb is linked to nearby 'halls of the dead', which were discovered in 2013. It is the first time the construction—which inspired the 'stone table' in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—has been properly excavated. Dating to the Neolithic period in 3700BC, Arthur's Stone is located on a lonely hilltop outside of the village of Dorstone, facing the Black Mountains in...

A trio of archaeologists from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina, the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Institute of Research for Development, France, has found more than 100 pre-Hispanic religious sites that they believe are linked to ancient Andean cults in Bolivia. In their paper published in the journal Antiquity, Pablo Cruz, Richard Joffre and Jean Vacher, describe the sites they found and highlight one in particular that stood out from the rest.In this new effort, the researchers were studying hilltops in the Carangas region of Highland Bolivia, which was once home to pre-Hispanic people....

...To a number of scholars, there's more to Stonehenge's design than a symbolic reverence for the changing lengths of days. It's a timekeeper of some detail, a 'Neolithic computer' even...Last year, Bournemouth University archaeologist Tim Darvill published his claim that the monument operated as some kind of 'perpetual calendar', one based on a solar year equivalent to 365.25 days.Now, Polytechnic University of Milan mathematician Giulio Magli and astronomer Juan Antonio Belmonte from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, Spain, have countered Darvill's claim, stating it is based on "a series of forced interpretations, numerology, and unsupported analogies with...