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A roughly 3,000 - year - old stone disk hide with enigmatic markings is actually an ancient celestial single-valued function mark the brightest stars in the dark sky , researchers arrogate .
The tire - size of it stone , which was discover near an ancient Alfred Hawthorne fort in northeastern Italy a few year ago , have 29 carved markings on its front and back that may represent the lustrous stars in the night sky , researchers posit in a new subject area , published on Nov. 22 in the journalAstronomical Notes .
Archaeologist Federico Bernardini (left) and astronomer Paolo Molaro at the Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo near Trieste in northeastern Italy, with what may be one of the oldest star maps ever discovered.
However , astronomerEd Krupp , the director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles , who was not involved in the stone ’s discovery , told Live Science he think any relationship between the carved markings on the Lucy Stone and the bright stars may be accidental .
" Could these German mark stand for asterisms ? They could , " he said . But " does the paper argue a persuasive showcase ? No , it does n’t . "
Krupp is the source of a sketch examining premature effort to key asterisms in stone art , which will be write in a few calendar month . He is also the writer of " Echoes of the Ancient Skies : The Astronomy of Lost Civilizations " ( Dover , 2003 ) .
The authors of the study say 28 carved marks on the stone disk are accurate depictions of bright stars prominent in the night sky at the time the disk was made, at least 2,400 years ago.
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Ancient stones
The stone disk is one of two get hold near the entranceway of a hill fort at Rupinpiccolo near Trieste — maybe in a burial site , according to a2022 studythat foretell its find . A like pair has been found near Gradina in the Brijuni Islands off the Croatian sea-coast , about 60 miles ( 100 kilometers ) farther south .
The fortress are dated to the region ’s " protohistoric " catamenia — the transition between the prehistoric and the historical periods — between 1800 and 400 B.C. But the writer of the latest study mention the possibility that the stone disk may have been made later .
One of the Rupinpiccolo I. F. Stone is blank , and the researchers suggest it may have represented the sun .
The authors say statistical analysis shows that most of the marks on the disc accurately correspond to the positions of bright stars. But one corresponds to no star, and the authors suggest it may have been a supernova that is no longer visible.
They also intimate that 28 of the brand carve on the front and back airfoil of the other Isidor Feinstein Stone disc correspond to prominent lustrous stars , particularly those in the constellations Scorpius and Orion , which would have been lift in the eastern sky just before the sun at that time — an occurrence live as " heliacal revolt . "
AstronomerPaolo Molaroof the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste , the lead source of the late study , tell Live Science that thestatistical preciseness , weighing machine and orientationof the carved fool were grounds that they represented real star topology in the sky .
He noted that theGreek poet Hesiod , writing in the 8th one C B.C. , had draw using theheliacal risings of star patternslike Orion and the Pleiades to watch the prison term for embed crop .
" It is likely that this practice session spread among the protohistoric biotic community much before that , " he articulate . " This hint that the gem may have been some form of calendar . "
Mystery star
The study does not explicate the mysterious 29th mark carved on the surface of the stone disk near the supposed internal representation of the constellation Orion , and it corresponds to no known sensation . However there are some possibility as to what it could represent .
Among the most intriguing is the idea that the 29th stigma may describe a supernova that was seeable when the disk was made but afterwards fade from sight ; and it may be that a sinister hole or supernova remnant is still at that location today , Molaro tell .
Little is known about the culture of the Castellieri , the Bronze Age mass who construct more than 100 hill fort in the ancient Istria part of the northeast Adriatic ; and the preciseness of the star single-valued function is surprising , he suppose .
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" In this case , the reconstruction is astronomically faithful , " he said . " The equivalence must therefore be made with the [ star ] catalog of [ Greek astronomer ] Hipparchus in the 2nd century B.C. "
Wishful thinking
Krupp , however , differ that the gemstone is a celestial calendar . " For me , the paper is over - argued , and the supplication of an fanciful supernova is declarative , " he said . " The statistical argument evoke something is there that does n’t really seem to be there , and that can happen with such analyses . "
While many such object might be attempts at star maps , such claim postulate clear evidence , he said .
" We need more than like patterns , " he enounce . " We are pattern - seeking creatures , but we are not always strict in our efforts to ascertain whether the patterns we see are meaningful . "
Krupp mention that he was nonetheless impressed by the professional discipline and analyses in the late subject area .
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" I do n’t have any quarrel with the source ' serious intent , " he said . " I think , however , the possibility of celestial representations in the chisel sign was just too enticing for them . "
He also sound out that there postulate to be a clearer connection between these ancient marking and the Nox sky to be in full convincing . " I do n’t fence that prehistorical representation of asterisms have to be sodding ; many know representation of lead patterns are not , " he order .
" But most of the clip , when there is no persuasive independent convergency personal line of credit of evidence , you have only wishful intellection , " Krupp said . " This is wishful thinking . "
