The 7,500-year-old Nabta Playa may be the oldest known astronomical observatory.Image credit: Mike P Shepherd / Alamy Stock Photo
Posted on 10/09/2024 11:15:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Nabta Playa in Egypt is an ancient stone circle that researchers suspect was used to determine the summer solstice, which signaled rain was on the way.
Today, its main stones are in a museum in Aswan to protect them from vandalism. But originally, Nabta Playa consisted of dozens of upright stones, each a few feet high, in the desert about 60 miles (100 km) west of the Nile.
In addition to a pile of stones above a central tomb, many of the stones seemed to have been deliberately placed in a circle to align with the rising of certain stars.
The circle's six inner stones may have been used in rituals or to mark important alignments. These inner stones were surrounded by 29 standing stones that some researchers think formed a primitive calendar.
Excavations of the central tomb in 2001 uncovered no human remains but revealed the complete skeleton of a cow. Along with other evidence, that suggests Nabta Playa was built by ancient people who depended on driving herds of cattle between seasonal lakes.
The researchers suggested that distinctive stones in the calendar circle may have indicated sunrise on the summer solstice, which was a signal for these Stone Age people to soon expect rainfall that would replenish the lakes.
It's also been proposed that three of the central stones represented the "belt" of Orion and that some of the stones marked seasonal risings of the bright stars Arcturus, Sirius and Alpha Centauri.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
The 7,500-year-old Nabta Playa may be the oldest known astronomical observatory.Image credit: Mike P Shepherd / Alamy Stock Photo
“The circle’s six inner stones may have been used in rituals or to mark important alignments. These inner stones were surrounded by 29 standing stones that some researchers think formed a primitive calendar.”
how do they know, now that they’ve moved it?
surrounded by 29 standing stones that some researchers think formed a primitive calendar
And the rest lying about ore hours and minutes?
Today, its main stones are in a museum in Aswan to protect them from MUSLIM vandalism.
another attempt at Egypt First.
“And the rest lying about are hours and minutes?
I think even now on a modern clock human attention is limited to checking it only every half hour to quarter hour. And I am sure back then the pace was much slower and minutes were not that special or important. They were not on a time clock. Every month, half month, or week was probably as accurate as they needed to get for their needs. Especially with the slow moving sun as a source of time.
Sometimes we base these things from our own perspective in a very fast paced world where every minute counts to us. We tend to forget it wasn’t that way back then. life was a much slower pace. Even in our lifetimes there was a time back when we actually had to find something to occupy our extra time because it was so bountiful and slow paced. :)
I wish it was still like that... I miss that. Now we cannot find enough time in the day to get done what we need to get done to survive. It is just too fast paced to the point of chaos. There are a lot of negative side effects from everyone being in too much of a hurry.
I thought Nabta Playa was a rapper name.
Not bad!
Imagine a time in the dim past, before “wait a minute!” was first uttered.
Make a good cover for a Who album.
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