You understand how some constellations take a bit of imagination to see? Yes, Leo looks a bit like a lion and Orino a bit like a hunter but then we wander into the worlds of effective levels of imagination to be able to see Pegasus as a flying horse or Telescopium as a telescope! Even squinting or tilting your head truly does not make them visible. When looking at images of 2 stone disks discovered in Italy just recently at the entryway to an ancient fort, I found the exact same issue! Teams that have actually taken a look at the stones have matched the subtle markings on them to positions of 28 bright stars in the sky! I needed to really aim to see it however I believe they might actually be right!.
I found the same issue when looking at images of 2 stone disks found in Italy recently at the entrance to an ancient fort! Groups that have examined the stones have matched the subtle markings on them to positions of 28 brilliant stars in the sky! There were 29 marks on the stone in all and the paper by Paolo Molaro and Federico Bernardini analysed precisely which stars they matched! Whether the stones genuinely represent the sky will need more analysis. The marks on the stones are thought to have actually been made in between 1800 and 400 BCE and if they do indeed map to the stars then it need to be one of the oldest sky maps ever discovered.
The 2 stones were discovered in Rupinpiccolo protohistoric (the transition period between prehistory and the earliest recorded history) hill fort in north eastern Italy. There were sculpt marks all over the stone and it was suggested that these might form markings to represent brilliant stars in the night sky..
The marks were believed to be sculpted into the stones and, given that numerous human cultures appear to identify the same popular patterns in the stars, it promised that they could be identified. The group employed analytical analysis versus known astronomical asterisms with results that revealed little mistake!
There were 29 marks on the stone in all and the paper by Paolo Molaro and Federico Bernardini evaluated precisely which stars they matched! Nine of them matched the tail of Scorpious, five represented Orion consisting of the stars of the belt, Betelgeuse and Rigel and another nine appeared to correlate with the Pleiades cluster.
This amazing noticeable light wide-field view of part of the well-known belt of the fantastic celestial hunter Orion reveals the area of the sky around the Flame Nebula. The entire image is filled with radiant gas clouds illuminated by hot blue young stars. It was produced from pictures in blue and red light forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of vision is around 3 degrees.
A mark somewhat north of Orion however has not yet been identified, perhaps it represented a nova or supernova that has not been recorded anywhere else. I need to confess though, having read the accuracy to which the marks appear to have actually been made, the innacuracy of this makes me subscribe to the nova/supernova possibility.
Whether the stones genuinely represent the sky will require additional analysis. The work of Molaro and Bernardini definitely appear to be pointing to this conclusion but it might be too early to inform, the lack of a couple of prominent stars and the existence of an unidentified item casts a little doubt however 28 marks matching the positions of 28 stars need to be much more than just co-incidence. The marks on the stones are believed to have actually been made in between 1800 and 400 BCE and if they do indeed map to the stars then it should be one of the oldest sky maps ever discovered.
Source: Possible excellent asterisms sculpted on a protohistoric stone.
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