A Sumerian star map or "planisphere" recovered from the 650BC underground library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, Iraq in the late 19th century. Long thought to be an Assyrian tablet, computer analysis has matched it with the sky above Mesopotamia in 3300BC and proves it to be of much more ancient Sumerian origin. The tablet is an "Astrolabe", the earliest known astronomical instrument. It usually consisted of a segmented, disc shaped star chart with marked units of angle measure inscribed upon the rim. Unfortunately considerable parts of the planisphere are missing ( approx 40%), damage which dates to the sacking of Nineveh. The reverse of the tablet is not inscribed. Still under study by modern scholars, the planisphere provides extraordinary proof of the existence of Sumerian astronomy.
Ancient peoples studied the night sky because they could see it clearly. Today with light pollution, city dwellers can see the moon and sometimes Venus. It's a different world once you get away from all metropolitan areas and live in, for example, a tent or a cabin.
ReplyDeleteI think that is cool! Those people lived and died by the stars for navigation at night. I have taught myself how to read the night sky for direction and navigate in it as well. It's an important thing to know that's for sure. We won't always have Google Skymap.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the reason why they were concerned with moon cycles was to navigate within the light of the moon because if you've ever been to deep, dark sky country the sky literally looks like static with it nearlly impossible to even find Orion or any of the most obvious constellations without some light pollution from the moon without a star chart, at least. Most fascinating!
DeleteMe encanta todo lo antiguo
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