New Study of Cave Paintings Say Ancient Man Understood Astronomy

New Study of Cave Paintings Say Ancient Man Understood Astronomy

A reinterpretation of one of the world’s most famous primitive cave paintings seems to show our ancient ancestors had a much stronger grasp on astronomy than we’ve given them credit. According to a recent study, cave paintings in France depict animals that represent the constellations, showing the artists who drew them were aware of the precession of the equinoxes — a discovery not thought to have been made before Hipparchus of Ancient Greece.

Of the paintings in question, researchers Martin Sweatman, Ph.D., and Alistar Coombs studied an image titled, “The Shaft,” which portrays a collapsing bird-headed man, a bison eviscerated by a spear, a horse, and a rhinoceros in the Lascaux caves of southern France’s Dordogne region.

In the past, this scene was interpreted as a shamanic ceremony or the scene of a hunt, however the exact meaning has been widely disputed as depictions of men were incredibly uncommon in this era. But according to Sweatman and Coombs’ latest study, the paintings show not only a more primordial understanding of astronomy, but also religion, science, and mathematics.

By comparing radiocarbon dating of paint samples to the position of constellations in the sky when the art was created, the researchers were able to match specific animals with correlating constellations of the solstice and equinox. They used this same method at similar archeological sites, including the ruins of Göbekli Tepe and Catalhöyük, as well as the famous cave art of Chauvet and Altamira.

The two also said they believe the Lascaux paintings commemorate a comet striking Earth, correlating with what they believe to be the cataclysmic impact event that marked the beginning of the Younger Dryas period – evidence of which was recently found in the form of a 19-mile wide crater beneath a Greenland ice sheet.

In addition to these sites, the researchers incorporated the Lion-man figurine from the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany, which dates back 38 thousand BCE and is considered to be the world’s oldest sculpture – they believe it too, may be evidence of zodiacal awareness. Their study was published in the Athens Journal of History.

Like any bold claim made of early humans which challenges long-held archeological timelines, this latest theory has unsurprisingly sparked controversy with some of Sweatman and Coombs’ colleagues who have labeled their method flawed.

According to their model, prehistoric men from the Stone Age discovered the precession of the equinoxes some 36 thousand years before Hipparchus – a bold claim to say the least!

But findings such as this seem to continually piece together disparate pieces of a puzzle that modern archeology has glossed over or ignored entirely. And as Graham Hancock likes to say upon the discovery of new paradigms like this may be, “things just keep getting older.”

 

For more on the anomalous archeological finds cluing us into our forgotten past, check out this episode of Disclosure with Graham Hancock:



Evidence of Seven Levels Beneath the Giza Plateau

Evidence of Seven Levels Beneath the Giza Plateau

Five miles from Cairo stands one of the most ancient and alluring sites in human history. This mystery comprises the three main pyramids of Giza that have come to represent one of the most famous ancient civilizations. The megalithic stones that form these structures lie on a great plateau, and now investigators have found something else fascinating that lies below the pyramids.

Gregg Braden explains that some of the earliest credible accounts of the Giza Plateau come from the Greek historian and geographer Herodotus, who, in the early 400s B.C.E, compiled a reference book on ancient civilizations, cultures, and technologies predating his time by thousands of years. 

Prior to Herodotus, no one had presented a systematic, thorough study of the past, attempting to link events with how they shaped history. Herodotus speculated there were hidden passages beneath the pyramids, as well as chambers, pathways, and great spaces — all of which were created when the climate and topography of Egypt were very different than it is today. Herodotus felt that beneath the pyramids lay the remnants of other ancient civilizations. 

If Herodotus was correct, the pyramids may be sitting upon the most amazing time capsule in history, revealing not only long-lost cultures but also their technologies and origins saved in the earliest of writings and images. 

Two researchers stand out in the search to uncover the underground spaces beneath the pyramids: British Consul General Henry Salt and his hired explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni. These men were able to survey the area with the limited technology of their time in the early 1800s and were led by the desert topography to an area at the edge of the Giza Plateau, now an archaeological find of its own called The Tomb of the Birds. 

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