OLDEST SUPERNOVA RECORDED IN KASHMIR?

- - - And to continue in an astronomical vein, a report about a supposed supernova recorded in a petroglyph in Kashmir - - -.

Petroglyph panel at Burzahom, Kashmir, India. Photograph IGNCA (Indira Ghandi National Center for the Arts).

It seems like an ordinary hunting scene with an archer drawing a bead on a stag deer that has already been speared by another hunter who has his dog with him, until you notice that there are two Suns in the sky overhead. Could there have actually been an occasion where two suns were shining in the sky. "Scientists say this is likely what happened back in 3600 BC. Astrophysicist Mayank Vahia and his colleagues at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research believe a rock painting (actually a pecked petroglyph) found in what is today part of the Kashmir region of south Asia is the oldest record of a supernova and likely the oldest sky chart ever drawn. The artwork shows two bright objects in the sky, with figures of animals and humans underneath." (Akshat 2018:1)

Diagram of panel.

The question is about the “two bright objects” delineated in the sky of this panel. “An interesting discovery made at Burzahom was a carved stone slab that shows two hunters hunting a stag, while twin suns shine in the sky. The presence of two similar suns in the sky is a mystery. Some researchers believe that the Neolithic artists depicted two suns to indicate the duration of the hunt (e.g. two days), while a far more exotic theory has been proposed by a team of astronomers who believe that the scene represents the ancient night sky with the two suns actually representing the moon and a supernova, while the hunters and the animals represent constellations like Orion and Taurus.” (Holloway 2014) This supposition is assuming that the location in the night sky of the supernova is being indicated by the inclusion of the figures as recognizable constellations that are being referenced. Here we again run into the erroneous assumption that the Neolithic peoples of the Vale of Kashmir would have seen the same figures (Orion and Taurus) in the arrangement of stars that we do, and what about the other hunter and their dog, what constellations do they represent.

Panel superimposed on a star chart representing it as constellations.

"Vahia needed to understand why someone would draw two bright objects in the sky. It couldn't be two suns because we have and have always had only one. It couldn't be the sun and the moon, because although it's possible to see both objects in the sky at the same time, a full moon can never appear so close to the sun. (From Earth, we see the moon as 'full' when it's on the direct opposite side [of] the planet as the sun.) The only remaining explanation, Vahia figured, was a supernova: if one exploded relatively nearby our solar system (hundreds or few thousands of light years away), it could shine as bright as the sun or the moon." (Akshat 2018:2)

Remnant of supernova HB9. Photograph mysteriousuniverse.org.

The petroglyphs are found at the Burzahom archaeological site in Kashmir Valley in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. "The two objects in the rock appear to have the same brightness and appear side-by-side, ruling out the theory that they might depict the Sun and moon. Vahia believes that one of the orbs could be the moon, while the other may be an extremely bright supernova which rivaled the brightness of the moon." (Tingley 2018) If this is indeed a portrayal of a supernova it is likely one labeled Supernova HB9 which supposedly lit up the night sky with a degree of brightness comparable to that of the moon.

While this is a possibility I would like to suggest a variation of the older interpretation that says that the two bright orbs represent the duration a hunt Instead of a hunt lasting two days it may be that they represent the same sun which has changed its position in the sky during the course of a hunt that was much less than two days in length. If, for instance, the two bright orbs represent the sun having transcended an arc of roughly 35^o – 40^o degrees in the sky it would mean a hunt that lasted three to four hours, which seems more reasonable than two days for any competent hunters.

Of course at this remove in time and distance we have no way of being sure about this, but isn't it an intriguing question?

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Akshat, Rathi,

2018 5,000-Year Old Rock Art Found In India Is Likely The Oldest Depiction Of A Supernova, January 7, 2018, https://qz.com/india/1171320/5000-year-old-rock-art-is-likely-the-oldest-depiction-of-a-supernova

Holloway, April,

2014 Protection Sought for Mysterious Neolithic Site of Burzahom, 20 June 2014, https://www.ancient-origins.net

Hrishikesh Joglekar, M. N. Vahia, Aniket Sule,

2006 Oldest Sky-Chart With Supernova Record, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, http://www.tifr.res.in/~vahia/oldest-sn.pdf

Tingley, Brett,

2018 Ancient Indian Petroglyph Depicts Mysterious Twin Suns in Earth's Skies, January 17, 2018, https://mysteriousuniversi.org/2018/01/ancient-indian-petroglyph-depicts-mysterious-twin-suns-in-earths-skies