Ancient Knife Proves Longer Astronomical History

Xinhuanet/China View. ^ | 3-12-2005

[blam]

Ancient knife proves longer astronomical history

www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-12 09:51:05

XINING, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Archaeologists in northwest China's Qinghai province claimed that a 5,000-year-old stone knife with designs of constellations will extend China's history of astronomical observation by 1,000 years.

The finely-polished stone knife, six centimeters long and threecentimeters wide, was unearthed at the Laomao Ruins, a New Stone Age site nine kilometers west of Lamao Village in Qinghai.

Archaeologists also unearthed many other relics from the site including pottery pieces, stone and bone tools.

Liu Baoshan, head of the Qinghai Provincial Cultural Relics andArchaeology Research Institute, said seven holes on the stone knife clearly form the Big Dipper and another three holes form theof the Altair.

Liu said China has along history of astronomy. The Collection of Ancient Texts records the world earliest solar eclipse in 2137 B.C. and there were records of astronomical phenomena during the Xia (2100 B.C.-1600 B.C.), Shang (1600 B.C.-1100 B.C.) and Zhou (1100 B.C.-221 B.C.) dynasties.

Sawtooth on both end of the knife also means that the stone tool is very unique, Liu said. Stone knives with sawtooth have notyet been unearthed in the area.

Liu and his colleagues found that the stone knife had never been used, so they asserted that the knife was possibly a ritual implement used by a holy man. Enditem

[martin_fierro]

Histoey

Phooey.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Publius6961]

to a boy with a hammer... everything he sees is a nail

My feeling is that if you simply throw a random pattern of 18 dots on anything and, allowing for primitive "artistic license" in positioning the resulting pattern, someone will find an astronomical significance... every time.

[e_engineer]

This artifact looks more like an optical tool than a knife. Held at arms length, the two central holes form a viewfinder of sorts.

Liu Baoshan should contact the nearest astronomer, and take this thing out at night to figure out how it works.

[Natural Law]

Today in breaking news, China threatened the break away province of Orion........

[RedwM]

It looks more like a pendant with a random design to me.

[RJL]

to a boy with a hammer... everything he sees is a nail

LOL... When my son was young, everything he could grip was a hammer too.

[EternalVigilance]

Today in breaking news, China threatened the break away province of Orion........

Yeah, but they'll never make it across the Belt alive.

Time to sell more starcruisers to the Orionese...

[ngc6656]

My feeling is that if you simply throw a random pattern of 18 dots on anything and, allowing for primitive "artistic license" in positioning the resulting pattern, someone will find an astronomical significance... every time.

Your are probably correct. I think "artistic license" was used by Liu Baoshan if he thinks there is any arrangement of seven holes on the side shown of that piece of stone that resembles the Big Dipper.

[Cvengr]

Looks to me as though some reasonable fellow just wanted to sharpen some pointy sticks and maybe sharpen some flint,...as if he simply used a hard rock to make some arrowheads,...as one area became worn he made a new notch to keep his edge honed,...then again I'm just being simple about it,....perhaps its the key to a subterranean preCambrian nuclear reactor connected to the Doomsday machine like Ambassador DeSadesky alluded...

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It does look like a view finder. Useful for hunting as well as star gazing.

I get annoyed with every unknown object either being categorized as a "toy" or "religious object". According to most archaeologists ancient man spent all his time praying and playing!

[woofer]

This artifact looks more like an optical tool than a knife.

Reminds me of arrow shaft straighteing tools I have found while arrow head hunting in my youth, but the two large holes would have to be at least three-eights of an inch in diameter or larger for this.

[Ruth A.]

I didn't see constellations in the dots. Will show my husband who actually knows some.

[longtermmemmory]

Remember about 10-15 years ago when these french school boys found a stone mask that was THOUSANDS of years old? In the end they not only confessed it was a hoax that all the "experts" had dated and hailed as genuine, they went on TV and demonstrated how they made it by making another "ancient mask".

[spunkets]

"stone tool"

That's a soft, fine grain, metamorphic stone. It's claylike, so it's carved with stone tools, rather than knapped. It looks like jewelry, such as a pendant, or fastener. It looks like a face and that sawtooth pattern is hair.

[farmfriend]

Of interest to you guys maybe?

[brooklin]

"I didn't see constellations in the dots. Will show my husband who actually knows some."

I've met a few Dots in my life and I didn't see any constellations. Although one Dot in particular did have me seeing stars.

[RightWhale]

The star design is vertical plane mirror symmetric, something real constellations aren't.