Posted on 03/12/2005 11:40:38 AM PST by 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
That would have been Dot Petroski, I knew her too.
LOL
I don't see the Big Dipper anywhere on that stone.
Maybe a "double eagle" coin in the forunner of the curency with a hole in it.
But the Big Dipper? More than likely, Liu Baoshan will end up feeling like a big dip for publicly stating that.
Baoshat
I wonder if they can compare it to constellations as they were 5000 years ago. Due to stellar motions in space as as orbit the center of the Milky Way, the constellations would change over time. Still, maybe 5000 years is maybe too little to notice a change unless you have special instruments but I remember seeing pictures of what the Big Dipper would have looked like 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000 years ago as well as 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000 years into the future. If you go back 1,000,000 years, the Big Dipper would have resembled a spear.
Somebody put some effort into it, but not to much, it looks like gray sandstone. I don't think he had the stars in mind... who knows?
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
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You can't fight in here! This is the War Room!
Looks like a pulley stay to me. Snake a rope through one end, loop it around a pulley or capstan and bring the same end back through the other hole and make an overhand knot. Now you can use this gismo to adjust the tension or length of the loop by pulling on gismo, when you release it, the tension makes the rope bind and it won't slip through.
The assertion that the design represents a constellation is risible on its face.
Shouldn't it be: "Histoey" and "Phoory"?
OK, so we've got some pretty dots on a stone. Astronomy? hardly.
I saw a cloud yesterday that looked liked a volkswagon.
How would 'stone age' people even know what a 'dipper' was?
The assertion is that it represents *two* constellations, which is even more, uh, risible. :')
It's a barrette.
True, and the Chinese government, much like the Soviets and Nazis, are using dubious archaeological and historical interpretations to bolster nationalism and as you stated, superiority. Makes it easier to kill someone when you feel they are inferior and primative.
It's not a knife either. It looks to be a slate gorget or something akin to it, much like stone gorgets found in the southeastern US.
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