Farnese Atlas
Posted on 03/30/2005 10:35:09 AM PST by Between the Lines
Studying a statue of Atlas holding the sky, an American astronomer finds key evidence of what could be a major fraud in science history.
In a sunlit gallery of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Italy, astronomer Brad Schaefer came face to face with an ancient statue known as the Farnese Atlas.
For centuries, the 7-foot marble figure of the mythological Atlas has bent in stoic agony with a sphere of the cosmos crushing his shoulders.
Carved on the sphere - one of only three celestial globes that have survived from Greco-Roman times - are figures representing 41 of the 48 constellations of classical antiquity, as well as the celestial equator, tropics and meridians.
Historians have long looked on the Atlas as a postcard from the past - interesting largely as astronomical art.
But as Schaefer approached, he began to notice subtle details in the arrangement of the constellations. It wasn't that anything was wrong with the statue. If anything, the positions of the constellations were too perfect to be mere decoration.
He was more than a little intrigued. No, this was no mere piece of art. Taking out his camera, he was about to take a journey through the centuries to unravel one of the great mysteries of the ancient world and uncover key evidence in what may be one of the biggest cases of fraud in the history of science.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
bump
"There was no doubt in Schaefer's mind "
Seems pretty speculative to me.
In never ceases to amaze me how brilliant people in antiquity were sometimes.
And how little they did with it.
But that was due to Politico-religious reasons more than anything else.
A few years ago, he decided to try to determine the actual date of Christ's Crucifixion using purely scientific methods. He wrote a computer program that factored in all the astronomical data he could unearth from the time. Then, because the Crucifixion is thought to have taken place 14 or 15 days after a crescent moon first became visible, he added in thousands of modern records of atmospheric haze to approximate periods of high and low visibility in the ancient Middle East.
Rolling back the calendar more than 1,900 years, he came up with two dates: AD 30 and 33.
Bible scholars, comparing biblical texts with historical records, have arrived at similar dates.
It will take all of his genius and a ton of money to get the answer to that question! < /sarcasm >
GGG ping?
Thanks, CD, I'll add it to the GGG catalog. It appeared on the GGG ping list in a similar thread:
LSU Researcher Solves Ancient Astronomy Mystery (Farnese Atlas)
Innovations Report/LSU | 1-14-2005 | Bradley E. Schaefer/LSU
Posted on 01/14/2005 2:36:12 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1321067/posts
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Sounds like a study of the Maunder Minimum; the fewer sunspots, the lower the solar output, and based on the spotty (sorry) sunspot reports going back a way, it appears that the Sun had few sunspots during the Little Ice Age. I.E., the Earth's climate derives from the Sun, which is an amazing coincidence, since the Sun is nearly the Earth's sole source of heat.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Bump.
If you see any updates on Schaefer's work on the sun and global warming, I'd love to be pinged.
World-ranked tiddlywinks player?
Peep this.
That was a big sport at MIT.
Astronomy ping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.