[blam]

"Does anyone have a star chart program handy? Fire it up and tell us how the stars of Orion looked in 30,500 BC. What does 32,500 years of stellar movement do to Orion's shape? (In other words, did it look like the figurine back then?)"

Dadgumit, my son gave me a program Planetarium Gold for Christmas. We (he) had it look at something in 2,000BC when he was here for Christmas. Unfortunately I don't know how to use it or if it will go back that far. I've pinged him.

[Charge Carrier]

Planetarium Gold does not do proper motion. Only recently has such data become available anyway - extrapolation by 30,000 years may be a bit pushing it. Nevertheless, given that any figure could be superimposed on the stars (e.g. see "A Beautiful Mind") it seems a bit weak if that was it.

However, I find it interesting that there are exactly 12 rows of holes. The only signifigance of that number in pre-history I can think of is the number of lunar cycles in a year. So that seems to lean to some sort of annual/lunar calender related bookkeeping. Keeping track of the seasons would seem a lot more useful to hunters then caring about the stars.