In 2008, a scientific study revealed an astonishing fact about the paleolithic humans ― several cave paintings, some of which were as old as 40,000 years, were products of complex astronomy that our primitive ancestors acquired in the distant past.
According to what experts revealed in their fascinating discovery, the ancient paintings that were thought to be symbols of prehistoric animals are old star maps.
Early cave art shows that people had advanced knowledge of the night sky in the last ice age. Intellectually, they were hardly different from us today. But these particular cave paintings revealed that humans had a sophisticated knowledge of stars and constellations more than 40,000 years ago.
During the Paleolithic Age, or also called the Old Stone Age ― a period in prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers almost 99% of the period of human technological prehistory.
Ancient star maps
According to the breakthrough scientific study published by the University of Edinburgh, ancient humans controlled the passage of time by watching how stars change positions in the sky. As previously thought, the old works of art found in various places in Europe are not simply representations of wild animals.
Instead, animal symbols represent constellations of stars in the night sky. They are used to describe dates, marking events like asteroid collisions, eclipses, meteor showers, sunrise and sunset, solstices and equinoxes, lunar phases, etc.
Scientists suggest that ancient peoples perfectly understood the effect caused by the gradual change in the Earth’s axis of rotation. The discovery of this phenomenon, called the precession of the equinoxes, was previously credited to the ancient Greeks.
One of the lead researchers, Dr. Martin Sweatman from the University of Edinburgh, explained, “Early cave art shows that people had advanced knowledge of the night sky in the last ice age. Intellectually, they were no different from us today. These findings support a theory of multiple impacts of comets throughout human development and are likely to revolutionize the way prehistoric populations are viewed.”
Sophisticated knowledge of constellations
Experts from Edinburgh and Kent universities studied several renowned arts in ancient caves in Turkey, Spain, France, and Germany. In their in-depth study, they had achieved the era of those rock arts by chemically dating the paints used by ancient humans.
Then, using computer software, the researchers predicted the position of the stars exactly when the paintings were made. This revealed that what may have appeared before, as abstract representations of animals, can be interpreted as constellations as they arose in the distant past.
Scientists concluded that these incredible cave paintings are clear evidence that ancient humans practiced a sophisticated method of timing based on astronomical calculations. All of this, although the cave paintings were separated in time by tens of thousands of years.
“The oldest sculpture in the world, the Lion-Man from the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, from 38,000 BC, was also considered compatible with this ancient timing system,” revealed experts in a statement from the University of Edinburgh.
The mysterious figurine is believed to commemorate the catastrophic impact of an asteroid that occurred around 11,000 years ago, initiating the so-called Younger Dryas Event, a period of a sudden cooling of the climate worldwide.
“The date carved in the ‘Vulture Stone of Göbekli Tepe is interpreted as being 10,950 BC, within 250 years,” explained the scientists in the study. “This date is written using the precession of the equinoxes, with animal symbols representing stellar constellations corresponding to this year’s four solstices and equinoxes.”
So, this great discovery reveals the truth that humans had a complex understanding of time and space thousands of years before the ancient Greeks, who are credited with the first studies of modern astronomy. Not only these but there also are several other instances, such as the Sumerian Planisphere, the Nebra Sky Disk, Babylonian Clay Tablet, etc., which imply more sophisticated knowledge of modern astronomy than our ancient ancestors once acquired.
