Discovered in Türkiye in the 1960s, the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe is believed to be the origin of the oldest solar calendar to date. In any case, this is the hypothesis supported by a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh. They discovered seven pillars buried in the ground. About thirty meters each, they constitute an ancient solar calendar dating from 12,000 years ago.
The arrangement of the pillars suggests that they previously formed a large arch on which animals and pictograms were engraved. The shape, too, recalls another site near Edinburgh on which there is also an 8,000 year old calendar. This is how the researchers came up with their hypothesis of a calendar.
“The symbols present can be interpreted as a countdown of the days of the year, like a calendar,” analyzes Martin Sweatman, professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and for whom each of these shapes would represent a single day, indicates Discover Magazine .
The precession of the equinoxes
According to the study published in the journal Time & Mind, this solar calendar exists in memory of a cluster of comet fragments. The latter would have struck the Earth 13,000 years ago, or approximately 10,850 years BC. Furthermore, other previous research carried out by Martin Sweatman suggests that a sculpted pillar called “vulture stone” would be a date stamp . It would represent a sort of memorial to comets.
For Martin Sweatman, this lunar calendar hypothesis would indicate advanced knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes, a phenomenon of rotation of the Earth’s axis causing a change in the position of the stars. “This research says a lot about what people were capable of if we are right,” underlines the researcher. “This shows us that they were good astronomers, much more…
Read more on Slate.fr
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