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- Newly discovered archaeoastronomy sites
have scientists wondering if more ancient cultures than previously thought
understood the timing of the universe.
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- The announcements of two astronomical
petroglyph discoveries were made last week at the national meeting in Austin,
Texas, of the American Astronomical Society.
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- Rosina Iping, an astronomer at the University
of Guam, discovered astronomical petroglyphs in a cave two months ago while
hiking on the Pacific island of Guam. Several petroglyphs appear to show
stick figures beneath constellations in the sky. One appears to show how
to sail to another island using the Southern Cross constellation -- known
as "Triggerfish" to the Chamorro people, who have inhabited Guam
for nearly 4,000 years.
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- Most intriguingly, Iping said, there
is a petroglyph with 16 horizontal and 16 vertical dots that she speculates
may be a kind of calendar for keeping track of months. Chamorro people
use a calendar with one year divided into 16 unequal-length months, each
of which is designated by the rising of a particular constellation.
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- Iping said stars were important in sailing,
and traditional methods of navigation are still being taught. "When
you're out at sea you can see the horizon all around," she says.
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- The petroglyphs have not yet been dated
but are at least 500 years old, Iping said.
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- At Paint Rock in central Texas, astronomer
Robert Robbins of the University of Texas found evidence of some ancient
pictographs that were used to mark the summer and winter solstices.
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- Viewed near noon on the winter solstice,
a dramatic dagger of light touches the center of a pictograph of a shield.
According to Robbins, oral history indicates the shield painting signified
a council meeting conducted by five bands of Indians who met to divide
hunting lands.
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- Robbins also discovered that a sun dagger
illuminated a nearby pictograph of a turtle at the time of the summer solstice.
He said the slow-moving turtle is often used to symbolize the solstice
because that is the time of year the sun appears to move most slowly through
the sky.
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