NATS 1745 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Passage Grave, Egyptian Pyramids, September Equinox
28 Mar 2019
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Ancient astronomy part 1: paleolithic + neolithic sites. Clusters of dots on the painting could be representing star cluster pleiades . Next to bull, potentially relating to constellation taurus (?) Sequences of dots may signify measuring time in year. 13 weeks of 7 dots between spring + fall equinox. Matches have been interpreted as counting phases of moon. Notches (lata) indicating count of phases of moon. Linked to gestation period of whitetail deer. Built ~3200 bce- order than stonehenge + egyptian pyramids. One of 3 neolithic passage tombs in n. ireland. Burnt and unburnt bones for human and animals. Newgrange tomb entrance aligned with sunrise of sun at winter solstice. Today, illumination of inner tomb passage occurs ~4 minutes after sunrise at winter solstice. There is a slight shift in the orientation of the sky/ stars because the spin axis of the earth does, not point to the same spot in space forever.
