Ancient engraved stone found in Italy may be the oldest map of the starry sky
Kyiv • UNN
Scientists have found a potential celestial map on a stone in Italy dating back to 1800-400 BC, which may have depicted constellations such as Scorpius and Orion. The discovery may predate the oldest known star map.
Found near Trieste (Italy) round stone, dated to the era between 1800 BC and 400 BC. BC, presents 29 engravings on the surface - they are applied, according to scientists, not not by chance, as they are arranged in well-known constellations. This may be the oldest image of the night sky known today, according to Italian archaeologists.
This was reported by. UNN with reference to Astronomische Nachrichten and Il Piccolo - Trieste.
Details
In fact, we are talking about about two round stones that were found at the entrance to the castellere Rupinpiccolo (Rupinpiccolo). A castellere is a small and ancient fortified settlement; This type of "small castles" is widespread in Istria (Croatia) and eastern Italy; they are united in the so-called Castellera archaeological culture.
Two stones, about 50 cm in diameter and about 50 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep, were found in an ancient defensive structure The two stones were found in an ancient defensive structure, which was used as a fortification in the period from 1800-1650 to 400 BC.
It is noted that one of them, apart from a circular cutout, is believed to have no other traces of processing, to represent the Sun. The other may be the oldest celestial map ever discovered. ever discovered.
Scientists' discovery
An astronomer from Inaf in Paolo Molaro, an astronomer at Inaf in Trieste, and archaeologist at Ca' Foscari University in Venice and ICTP Federico Bernardini realized this and outlined their hypothesis in a paper published last month in last month in Astronomische Nachrichten, the oldest astronomical astronomy journal still in print.
About two years ago, I was contacted by Federico Bernardini, whom I did not know, who told me that he needed an astronomer
The first reaction of the astronomer was disbelief - he took into account that the southern part of Scorpio is slightly above the horizon in local latitudes.
But then, having discovered that the precession of the equinox raises it by about 10-12 degrees and a striking coincidence with the constellation, I began to study the matter further... This is how I identified Orion, the Pleiades, and, in the depths, Cassiopeia
In total, Molaro and Bernardini identified 29 signs: 24 on one side of the stone and 5 on the other. They are are unevenly distributed, but all have a common orientation, as if they were engraved by one person - it could be a person armed with a hammer and and a rudimentary metal bit with a 6-7 mm tip, scientists suggest.
29 engravings on stone
As for the 29 signs. All but one of them coincide with the stars of Scorpio, Orion, the Pleiades, and, probably-also given the five signs on the reverse side of the stone Cassiopeia. And this is a coincidence of very high statistical significance, the authors clarify. The deviation from the true positions has an order, which indicates a great deal of care in in the execution of the study.
The 29th sign could also have been there on purpose. The authors assume that the sign could represent a supernova, or a so-called "failed supernova", i.e. one of those objects that astronauts call transient: at a certain moment they appear and then disappear again. If this is the case, Molaro and Bernardini suggest, then there could be a black hole in this part of the sky today. So it might be worth trying to detect its traces.
The oldest image of the night sky known today is probably the Nebra disk, a bronze artifact with gold appliqués representing the Sun, Moon and The Nebra disk, a bronze artifact with golden appliqués representing the Sun, Moon and the Pleiades, originates from Germany and dates from around 1600 B.C. But it is not a real map: it is a it is not a real map: it is rather a symbolic representation.
If we accept the protohistoric dating of the artifact, the relatively accurate representation of the stars on the stones from Rupinpiccolo would have been at least several centuries earlier, the the authors of the study.
