Dr Rappenglueck says: "[86] is the number of days that must be subtracted from a year to equal the average number of days of a human gestation."
Baloney. Normal human gestation is 263-266 days, meaning that the number of notches should have been 99-102 not 86 if the good doctors interpretation were correct.
Dr Rappenglueck says: "[86] is also the number of days that one of Orion's two prominent stars, Betelguese, is visible."
Baloney. If we neglect twilight, Betelguese would be visible for about 180 days per year. When considering the effect of twilight, there are three standards that could be used: Civil, Nautical and Astronomical twilight. Astronomical is the most rigorous of these and is defined as where the sun is 18º below the horizon. Subtracting 18º from both horizons means that Betelguese is visible for 146 days per year, not the 86 days that the doctor claims.
Dr Rappenglueck says: "The 'sword' on the ivory tablet also corresponds to a famous and well-know feature that can be seen in Orion."
Baloney. No metal working = no swords and the Bronze Age was still 30,000 years in the future. Moreover, the concept that the stars in question in Orion might represent a sword is entirely a cultural presumption and it begs credibility to presume that two independent cultures would interpret the various star patterns the same way (especially when they didn't have swords).
Dr Rappenglueck says: "Dr Rappenglueck allowed for this effect by using a computer program to wind back the sky."
Baloney. If the Orion constellation had matched an overlay of the figure on the ivory carving, you can bet your bottom dollar that would be photo number one in this article. Or at the very least, the good doctor would have claimed that it had matched up. 32,000 years equals a hell of a lot of proper motion and the shape of the Orion constellation would more likely correspond to road kill than a standing man with a "sword".
Typical BBC crap.
Regards,
--Boot Hill
First, it is the number of days that must be subtracted from a year to equal the average number of days of a human gestation. This is no coincidence, says Dr Rappenglueck..... It is also the number of days that one of Orion's two prominent stars, Betelguese, is visible. To ancient man, this might have linked human fertility with the gods in the sky.
Baloney.
The "mysterious Aurignacian people" who "moved into Europe from the east supplanting the indigenous Neanderthals" some 32,500 years ago probably had more urgent priorities than keeping track of silly statistics like this, even if you believe that the earth was spinning at the same speed and the gestation period for prehistoric girls was 9 months and these people kept track of gestation periods over the years and averaged everything out to come up with a single number and... ah, heck with it.
This is off the baloney-meter.