Archaeologists Discovered 40,000-Year-Old Star Maps With Expertise In Modern Astronomy

A surprising discovery about Paleolithic humans was disclosed in 2008, when numerous cave paintings dating back to 40,000 years ago turned out to be works of sophisticated astronomy obtained by out predecessors during the ancient times. Initially believed to depict prehistoric animals, the ancient paintings were reassessed to be star maps, said the involved experts.

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How prehistoric humans had such modern understanding of astronomy has been illustrated in a number of Earth’s oldest cave paintings. The animal symbols portray star constellations in the sky at night, also utilized to mark dates and events, including comet strikes, suggested analysis from the University of Edinburgh.

Advanced comprehension of the sky at night during the last ice age is depicted in the early cave arts, which wasn’t far from identical to our present-day knowledge. But the understanding of star systems and constellations is a difficult and much more sophisticated aspect, yet able to be illustrated by the ancient humans 40,000 years ago.
It would not be exaggerated to say that almost 99 per cent of the period of human technological prehistory was covered in the Paleolithic period, the so-called Old Stone Age, distinguished by the initial invention of stone tools.

Ancient constellations

Prehistoric men are believed to have got a hold of the passage of time just by observing the stars changing their position in the sky, as per breakthrough scientific study published by the University of Edinburgh. The prehistoric paintings discovered in several cave sites in Europe did not only depict wild animals like what people believed.
Instead, the animals are the symbols of star constellations in the night sky, utilized to depic dates, indicating incidents including asteroid collisions, eclipses, meteor showers, sunrise and sunset, solstices and equinoxes, lunar phases and etc.

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17,000 years ago, the Lascaux painted a peerless work of cave arts that is widely recognized by now. However, scientists now deduce the paintings to be depictions of the star maps observable in the sky by the ancient humans from the Magdalenian era. Gradually, with these theories, identified in numerous other Paleolithic caves, our perception related to ancient Rock Arts might be altered.

Throughout these paintings, experts believe that our ancestors excellently acknowledged the impact of the gradual change in the Earth’s axis of rotation. Previously attributed to the ancient Greeks, the discovery of this phenomenon is also known as the precession of the equinoxes.
Head of the experts, Dr. Martin Sweatman, from the University of Edinburgh clarifies, “Early cave art shows that people had an advanced knowledge of the night sky in the last ice age. Intellectually, they were no different from us today. These findings support a theory of multiple impacts of comets throughout human development and are likely to revolutionize the way prehistoric populations are viewed.”

Complex understanding of star maps

A number of famous arts in ancient cave sites situated in Turkey, Spain, France and Germany were examined by scientists from Edinburgh and Kent universities, finding out the era of these prehistoric men’s rock paintings through chemically dating method, followed by computer software to determine the exact location of the constellations.
The results were quite exceptional, as they show us the complex method of timing based on astronomical calculations carried out by ancient humans. “The oldest sculpture in the world, the Lion-Man from the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, from 38,000 BC, was also considered compatible with this ancient timing system,” said the scientists from the University of Edinburgh.

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The 40,000-year-old Löwenmensch figurine or Lion-man of the Hohlenstein-Stadel is a prehistoric ivory sculpture discovered in the Hohlenstein-Stadel, a German cave in 1939.

They believe that the puzzling statuette marked the catastrophic impact of an asteroid taking place 11,000 years ago, which commenced the so-named Younger Dryas Event, a time when global climate suddenly cooled.

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At around 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe in south-east Turkey has been billed as the world’s oldest temple. Various animal arts can also be seen in this prehistoric site, and the ‘Vulture Stone’ (down-right) is significantly one of them.

“The date carved in the ‘Vulture Stone’ of Göbekli Tepe is interpreted as being 10,950 BC, within 250 years,” clarified the experts. “This date is written using the precession of the equinoxes, with animal symbols representing stellar constellations corresponding to this year’s four solstices and equinoxes.”

The bottom line

The extraordinary findings might reveal that prehistoric men had sophisticated comprehension of time and space thousands of years before the ancient Greeks, previously attributed with initial findings related to modern astronomy. Several other examples, like the Sumerian Planisphere, the Nebra Sky Disk, Babylonian Clay Tablet all refer to much complex understanding of modern astronomy acquired by our predecessors.