VISUAL PUNS REVISITED - ABRI DE LAUSSEL PLAYING CARD VENUS:

Aubri de Laussel, France. Internet image, public domain.

Another example of what I call a visual pun, or a visual Mondegreen (see below) in rock art, and image which can be two things in one. It is a bas-relief sculpture on a slab of limestone created at the Abri de Laussel during the Gravettian period 27k - 22k BCE, and discovered there in 1911 along with six others including the famous "Venus with a horn."

“A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.” (Wikipedia) In my current usage this image is the visual equivalent of a mondegreen because of the many different interpretations it has been given.

Abri de Laussel undergoing excavation, 1911-1912. Internet image, public domain.

The Abri de Laussel is a rock shelter, not a cave as such, which explains the dearth of cave paintings. They could not be expected to last that long exposed to the elements. It was, however, found to contain a large deposit of artifacts including seven bas-relief sculptures. "Bas-relief sculptures, restricted to small protable objects during the Aurignacian, are executed on a larger scale during the Gravettian. A prime example is at the site of Laussel in southwest France, where a series of limestone blocks clustered in the midst of a living site were sculpted in bas-relief with a series of human figures. In these cases, not only the overall figure is raised in relief against the stone support, but details such as arms are placed in relief against the body of the person represented." (White 2003:82)

'Venus of Laussel, Museum of Aquataine, France.'

The best known of these sculptures is the Venus of Laussel (Femme a la Corne), the figure of a corpulent woman holding up a bovine horn in her right hand. Other so-called ‘Venus’ figures were also retrieved there as well.

"Engraving known as 'les deux personnages' (the two people), Laussel (Dordogne), France - Gravettian. Combined height of figures: 20cm. Musee d'Aquitaine." White 2003:84.

Also known as 'the Playing Card Venus,' Rotated 180 degrees. Randall White, 2003:64.

“This engraving from Laussel, dated from 32,000 BP to 20,000 BP has been identified as a male-female copulation scene, a birthing scene, or most recently as a Double Goddess in mirror reflection. Perhaps as a 'Playing Card' image of two women, it represents the changing of the seasons from winter to summer, and the resulting dark and light cycle that occurs.” (Hitchcock 2022) This is somewhat akin to asking people what they see in Rorschach tests. The same image but so many different interpretations.

“It was discovered in 1911 at almost the same time as the Femme à la Corne, and was created by pecking the stone. It is engraved on a sandstone block, probably originally attached to the wall. It was discovered 'in the rubble', and may have been completed on the stone after it had detached from the wall. The photo on the left is the traditional way to look at the sculpture, but if we rotate it through 180° a second Venus appears, shown at right, with the head at the top, a neck, and breasts.” (Hitchcock 2022) In my opinion it was, of course, completed on a rock that had fallen from the wall of the shelter. To create this effectively the creator probably had to be able to rotate it and manipulate it, and view it from both directions. Hitchcock referred to this as sandstone. Other sources refer to it as limestone and I suspect this is correct as this is the region of limestone caves and their art.

There is not much information available on this piece, it is outstripped by its more famous sister, the above-mentioned ‘Venus.’

So what is it really meant to represent. I really don’t know, but as I stated above I like to think of it as a visual pun created by someone with a sense of humor – a very long time ago. And that makes them a whole lot more like us than we used to give them credit them for.

NOTE 1: Discrepancies in dates may indicate different estimates by different studies, or improved dating technologies.

NOTE 2: 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 these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Don Hitchcock, 2022, The Venus of Laussel – La Femme a la Corne, 4 May 2022, https://www.donsmaps.com/lacornevenus.html. Accessed online 16 July 2023.

White, Randall, 2003, Prehistoric Art, the symbolic journey of humankind, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.

Wikipedia, Mondegreen - Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org-wiki-mondegreen. Accessed 16 July 2023.

ANAMORPHISM IN CHAUVET CAVE ART:

 

The modern entrance to Chauvet Cave, France. Image from donsmaps.com.

As readers will be able to see from my recent columns on foreshortening in rock art, I am fascinated by these incredibly early manifestations of portraying aspects of perspective that we thought had only been discovered (or invented) during the Renaissance. Along with foreshortening, ancient cave artists are known to have used the technique known as Anamorphism or Anamorphosis in which an image that is meant to be seen at an extreme angle will have its proportions altered to look more normal from that angle.

Red auroch, Lascaux Cave, France. Megaloceros room, photo Norbert Aujoulat, fr. donsmaps.com.

In March of last year I wrote a column in RockArtBlog about an example of reported Anamorphosis (Anamorphism) in Lascaux Cave - a red auroch (Faris 2022). "The Stone Age cave paintings at Lascaux may make use of anamorphic technique, because the oblique angles of the cave would otherwise result in distorted figures from a viewer's perspective." (Wikipedia) The Lascaux art dates to the Magdalenian period of ca. 17,000 years BP. It would appear that the artists of the painted caves in Europe had discovered the optical distortions of angle and distance on an image and also used anamaphosis to counter them. “When our ancestors painted beautiful works of art, were they intending them to be viewed by others, or did they just paint for their own pleasure? The Lascaux caves in the Dordogne region of France, may have the answer. There you can see a painting of a red cow with a black head high on one of the walls. Up close the cow appears to be stretched from head to toe, but when viewed from the ground the cow regains normal proportions. This technique, known as anamorphosis, is highly advanced and suggests the painter was considering his audience as he painted the cow.” (Ravilious 2010)

The anamorphosis of the red auroch in the Megaloceros room is angled so that it would look correct to a viewer coming from the passage visible in the photograph forward toward it. The head is small and the body is outsized and elongated so viewing it from that position would make it seem to be more correctly proportioned. This suggests that the animal may have been painted by an apprentice reacting to instructions from a master positioned at the far end of the room. “Put the line there, no, a little farther back.” From that viewpoint anamorphosis would work to make it look correct to him, but out of proportion when seen from any other angle.

Rhinoceros, Chauvet Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

I was recently reading a small book titled “The Oldest Enigma of Humanity” (David, and Jacques-Lefrere 2013) when I ran across a single line description under an illustration that said “Anamorphic rhinoceros in the Chauvet Cave.” And in a single glance I confirmed that the rhinoceros illustrated appears to display anamorphosis. This led me to search online for “Chauvet cave art public domain” to check for this and any other examples that might be found.

Chubby horse, Chauvet Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

Bison, Chauvet Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

Further searching has turned up examples of painted animals in the Chauvet Cave, which, based upon recent dating studies, makes its art 10 to 15 thousand years older. “Based on radiocarbon dating, the cave appears to have been used by humans during two distinct periods: the Aurignacian and the Gravettian. Most of the artwork dates to the earlier, Aurignacian, era (32,000 to 30,000 years ago). The later Gravettian occupation, which occurred 27,000 to 25,000 years ago, left little but a child's footprints, the charred remains of ancient hearths, and carbon smoke stains from torches that lit the caves. The footprints may be the oldest human footprints that can be dated accurately. After the child's visit to the cave, evidence suggests that due to a landslide which covered its historical entrance, the cave remained untouched until it was discovered in 1994.^” (Wikipedia)

Wounded rhinoceros, Chauvet Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

A detailed study published in 2016 pushed the dates for the paintings in Chauvet back about 10,000 years. “From their analysis, the researchers discovered a totally new timeline for the cave. According to their results, humans left their first marks inside the Chauvet Pont d'Arc Cave from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago, and then occupied the cave again from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago. Analysis of the animal bones, meanwhile, show that cave bears also liked to prowl the cave up until about 33,000 years ago—although the researchers don’t think humans and bears tried to live in the cave at the same time.” (Pilny 2016)

In the other examples here we must keep in mind that the abnormally thickened bodies of many of them may just be a stylistic feature and possibly not anamorphosis. Now, I have not personally had the opportunity to visit Chauvet so I do not know the locations of these examples I have selected. If they are anywhere near eye level for easy viewing their proportions are merely stylistically exaggerated. If, however, they are somewhere up higher on the cave wall then the exaggerated proportions may indicate anamorphosis from 37,000 to 33,500 BCE.  

The art of Chauvet is undeniably spectacular, and now we know it is considerably older than previously thought. This means that the development of anamorphism was much earlier than we thought.

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 these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

David, Bertrand, and Jean Jacques-Lefrere, 2013, The Oldest Enigma of Humanity, Arcade Publishing, New York.

Faris, Peter, 2022, Another Example of Perspective Anamorphosis in Rock Art – The Lascaux Red Bull, 19 March 2022, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com/search/label/anamorphosis

Pilny, Susanna, 2016, French cave paintings are 10,0 00 years older than we thought, oldest in the world, 12 April 2016, https://www.redorbit.com/news/. Accessed online 17 June 2023.

Ravilious, Kate, 2010, The Writing on the Cave Wall, New Scientist, 17 February 2010, https://www.sott.net/article/203166-The-writing-on-the-cave-wall.

Wikipedia, Chauvet Cave, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave. Accessed 29 June 2022.

Wikipedia, Anamorphosis, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphosis#. Accessed 30 June 2023.

NEW RADIOCARBON DATING STUDY GIVES DATES FOR CHAUVET CAVE AS 10,000 YEARS OLDER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT:

Cave Lion panel, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

A remarkable and comprehensive study published on 2016 pushed the dates of the art of Chauvet Cave in France back to about 10,000 years earlier than we previously thought.

“Chauvet-Pont d’Arc is a cave located in the Ardèche département, a region that is found in south-central France. Discovered in 1994, it features human hand prints as well as drawings of 14 different animal species, ranging from cave bears to big cats. It was long believed to be the oldest known human-decorated cave in the world, with its artwork estimated to be from between 22,000-18,000 BCE.” (Pilny 2016) Chauvet is certainly one of the most admired painted caves in Europe for the striking quality and sophistication of its imagery.

Horses and rhinoceros panel, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

“From their analysis, the researchers discovered a totally new timeline for the cave. According to their results humans left their furst marks inside the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago, and then occupied the cave again from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago - although the researchers don’t think humans and bears tried to live in the cave at the same time.” (Pilny 2016) These dates are within the Upper Paleolithic period known as the Aurignacian.

Coexisting with cave bears might have periodically been a slippery situation. Humans did hunt cave bears on occasion and, when we consider the number of people killed by bears in the modern world, I would suspect the opposite may have also happened once in a while as well.

Cave bears panel, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

"Before these cave painters could move into their respective studios, some of them had to evict existing tenants. In two French caves containing paintings dating back around 32,000 years ago, ancient humans displaced cave bears in order to claim the sites for themselves, according to a study published in April in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Cave bears even appear on some of the art on the wall. Researchers came to this determination after they 'performed radiocarbon dating, mitochondrial DNA analysis and isotope investigations of cave bear remains from Chauvet-Pont d'Arc and Deux-Ouvertures caves located along the Ardeche River in France,' according to Discovery News' Jennifer Viegas. Whether humans are responsible for the broader cave-bear extinction in the region is still unclear. Environmental and/or climatic changes may have also played a role." (DNews 2016)

"We compiled a set of more than 250 radiocarbon dates related to the rock art, human activities, and bone remains in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave (Ardeche, France) and derived a modeled absolute chronology of the human and cave bear occupations of this site, presented here in calendar years. It provides an insightful framework for the successive events that occurred in the cave during the Paleolithic period.” (Quiles 2016)

Rhinoceros, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

"Radiocarbon dates for the ancient drawings in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave revealed ages much older than expected. These early ages and nature of this Paleolithic art make this United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) site indisputably unique. A large, multidisciplinary dating program has recently mepped the anthropological evolution associated with the cave. More than 350 dates (by ¹⁴C, U-Th, TL and ³⁶Cl) were obtained over the last 15 y. They include 259 radiocarbon dates, bainly related to the rock art and human activity in the cave. We present here more than 80 previously unpublished dates. All fo the dates were integrated into a high-precision Bayesian model based on archaeological evidence to securely reconstruct the complete history of the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave on an absolute timescale. It shows that there were two distinct periods of human activity in the cave, one from 37 to 33,599 y ago, and the other from 31 to 28,000 y ago. Cave bears also took refuge in the cave until 33,000 y ago." (Qiles 2016)

Rhinoceroses, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

“Other dating methods were applied to different materials. Heated wall fragments were dated by thermoluminescence to determine the age of hearth structures. Uranium-series dating was applied to carbonate concretions superimposed on some ¹⁴C-dated charcoal, yielding a “terminus ante quem” for the deposit of this charcoal. The latter was recently confirmed by ³⁶Cl exposure dating of rock, indicating collapses that occurred in the past and that sealed off the (paleo) entrance of the cave, thereby confirming the early age of the art contained inside.” (Quiles 2016) Notice the detailed dating using different methods as cross-checks. C¹⁴ dating with Uranium series dating, Chlorine 36 dating and thermoluminescence dating. As a layman I find this very impressive and am inclined to give their results considerable weight.

"Using a robust interdisciplinary approach, our modeled results clearly support previous hypotheses postulating two different occupations of the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave. They definitively show that humans frequented the site during two distinct time periods, between 37,000 - 33,500 and 31,000 - 28,000 y ago. These clear results, based on a large number of dates obtained from diverse materials introduced into the cave through various biological or anthropogenic processed, provide a decisive argument in favor of the realization of the parietal art works before 28,000 y ago. They now enable further extensive exploration of the remarkable rock art created in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave during these two occupation phases." (Quiles 2016)

Full panel of multiple animals, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

“However, dangerous rock slides drove both humans and bears away from the cave, with the mouth finally being sealed by rock around 23,500 to 21,500 years ago. Either way, though, the new timeline of the animal cave paintings puts them in the same range as the Sulawesi ones in Indonesia, meaning Chauvet-Pont d’Arc may just contain the oldest known animal drawings on Earth.” (Pilny 2016)

Based upon these results the team has stated that Chauvet cave art may be the oldest in the world and that seems a stretch when much of the cave art we know of has not yet been dated, to say nothing about cave art not yet discovered. And, since their study was published, a cave painting in Sulawesi, Indonesia, has been dated to 43,500 BCE which is considerably older (6.5k) than the new dates for Chauvet.  Still, this is a very impressive study for very impressive art, and a positive contribution for which we should all be grateful.

NOTE: 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 these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

DNews, 2016, Cave Art in France 10,000 Yrs Older Than Thought, 13 April 2016, https://seeker.com/. Accessed online 16 June 2023.

Pilny, Susanna, 2016, French cave paintings are 10,000 years older than we thought, oldest in the world, 12 April 2016, https://www.redorbit.com/news/. Accessed online 17 June 2023.

Quiles, Anita et al., 2016, A high-precision chronological model for the decorated Upper Paleolithic cave of Chauvet-Pont dArc, Ardeche, France, 11 April 2016, PNAS, 113 (17), 4670-4675, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1523158113. Accessed online 16 June 2023.

 

 

A 5,355 YEAR-OLD ANCIENT IRISH RECORD OF AN ECLIPSE – OR NOT?

Cairn "L", Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. Online image public domain.

Recently reports have surfaced about carvings on stone panels in a Neolithic passage tomb known as “Cairn L,” on Carbane West, at Loughcrew, outside Oldcastle, in County Meath, Ireland which supposedly record an eclipse that happened in 3340 BC. I think this is another huge over-reach in interpretation, but you can read below and make up your own minds.

In 2013, Dr. Frank Prendergast completed a detailed study of the monument and found no reason to assign any such significance to any of the carvings.

Chamber of cairn "L", Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. Online image public domain.

“The chamber and passage are orientated east-south-east. There are no apparent distinctive topographical or monumental features on the horizon in this direction. This could suggest an alternative imperative for the orientation of the tomb. The summary astronomical investigation presented here was undertaken as part of a national survey of passage tombs undertaken by the writer. From that, the measured passage orientation (azimuth or direction relative to true north), the horizon altitude and the geographical location of Tomb L were used to calculate the indicative astronomical declination (δ). From δ, the likely dates of sunrise for the north and south azimuth limits of the tomb/passage and the central axis were determined. Although the azimuths were derived from compass bearings, above data are sufficiently accurate to allow for a determination of the dates and date ranges of solar illumination within the tomb to an accuracy of a few days. These should be consistent with what would be seen by an observer located in the chamber.” (Prendergast 2013)

 “In assessing the significance and meaning of tomb orientation, numerous criteria/factors (including astronomical) can explain any possible intentionality and, thus, deliberate axial alignment. There is also the possibility that tomb orientation can be random. In the case of Tomb L, and in the apparent absence of any indicative/distinctive natural or built horizon feature that might have acted as a focal target, the tomb may have been simply built to face the rising sun.” (Prendergast 2013) Notice Prendergast’s conclusion that the tomb was built to face the rising sun, but not aligned with any specific landscape features.

“These phenomena are interpreted by the writer as not having had any calendrical significance in the prehistoric past and popular ideas of Tomb L being aligned towards the mid-quarter dates of November 5/February 4 are thus challenged here for several reasons. Although sunlight will penetrate to the edge of cell 6 around these dates, any claim for the alignment of the passage axis being calendrically significant in an early prehistoric context has little basis in fact. Tomb L was built in the Neolithic and, as such, predates (by almost three millennia) any late Iron Age/early Medieval evidence for calendrical subdivision of the solar year.” (Prendergast 2013) Prendergast found no significant archeoastronomical orientations at Tomb L. He also made no mention of any of the stone carving supposedly portraying an eclipse. Prendergast’s conclusion is that this tomb, and thus its carvings, have no celendrical significance. Brennan (1983) conducted an extensive study of Irish Burial Mounds, including Tomb L, and found numerous carved images that he identified as lunar images.

'Eclipse' stone in the chamber of cairn "L", Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. Online image public domain.

But then, the theory popped up that the carved boulder at the end of the passage in Tomb L portrays the earliest known record lf a solar eclipse. “Our ancient Irish ancestors carved images of an ancient eclipse into giant stones over 5,000 years ago, on November 30, 3340 BC to be exact. This is the oldest known recorded solar eclipse in history.” (Hayes) I believe that this extraordinary claim can be first attributed to Dr. Philip J. Stooke, Philip J. (1994) who stated “The historian Diodorus Siculus (writing shortly before the time of Christ but quoting Hecataeus, some five centuries earlier, 'and certain others') wrote of the 'Island of the Hyperboreans' ... ‘there is also on the island both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is spherical in shape... They say also that the moon, as viewed from this island, appears to be but a little distance from the Earth and to have upon it prominences, like those of the Earth, which are visible to the eye. The account is also given that the god visits the island every nineteen years....’ The nineteen year period is presumably that between almost identical eclipses.” (Stooke 1994)

Close up of 'eclipse' stone in the chamber of cairn "L", Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. Online image public domain.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and I have been unable to find any explanation of this claim except Stooke’s reference to Diodorus Siculus who had never, of course, visited Ireland. Another citation sends us to “Irish archaeo-astronomer Paul Griffin has announced the confirmation of the world's oldest known solar eclipse recorded in stone, substantially older than the recordings made in 2800 BC by Chinese astronomers. This finding was made at the world's oldest lunar eclipse tracking multi cairn site at the Loughcrew Cairn L Megalithic Monument in Ireland, and corresponds to a solar eclipse which occurred on November 30, 3340 BC, calculated with The Digital Universe astronomy software.” (Colomba 2020) Now I do not doubt that there was an eclipse then if astronomers agree on it, I just doubt that these petroglyphs have anything to do with it.

I have written a few times on RockArtBlog about eclipses (check the cloud index at the bottom). The thing that is really unique and impressive about a solar eclipse is that most partial eclipses would have been missed, the sun is partially eclipsed but it is still too bright to look directly at so all the viewer would notice is the world around him is not as bright for a while. A total solar eclipse, on the other hand, is a tremendously impressive with its blackout and the ring of fire. It is my belief that the ring of fire, by far the most impressive part of a solar eclipse, is what would be shown by someone recording the event. To see a record of a total solar eclipse I would expect to find an empty circle with no internal details, but externally some rays or markings could represent the solar coronal glow and discharge. These markings at Cairn L just don’t look right to me to be a record of a total solar eclipse. And I have been unable to find any explanation of that claim. Now concentric circles just might represent a sun, but not one being eclipsed.

Transit of Venus panel in the chamber of cairn "L", Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. Online image public domain.

But this is not the most extreme claim made for the astronomical symbolism at Cairn ‘L.’ ”Just on the left, as you enter the chamber, is a lovely little design of nested arcs, some 13 in all, radiating out and down from what seems to be a rising heavenly body. Close by is another smaller set of nested arcs. Martin Brennan has suggested that this image may represent an image of a transit of Venus.” (Fr. O’Flanagan History Center) Now we are supposed to accept that 5,355 years ago ancient Irish astronomers made naked eye observations of a transit of the planet Venus in front of the sun’s disk? To believe that they could see that is even more preposterous than the eclipse claims. The first transit of Venus recorded in history was on 4 December 1639 by English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks (Naeye 2012) so I have to be skeptical about the Cairn ‘L’ claim to that as well. All in all these claims appear to be a whole load of fantasy with apparently no proof to back them up.

NOTE 1: I contacted the Fr. O’Flanagan History Center asking for clarification and information but I have received no reply. I have also failed to find Irish Archaeo-astronomer Paul Griffin’s paper that apparently leads to the conclusion involving the portrayal of an eclipse. My search for that paper online leads to a dead end every time. My negative conclusions are based on a lack of confirming data.

NOTE 2: 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 these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Ancient Pages, 2015, Ancient Irish Were First To Record An Eclipse – 5,355 Years Ago, 31 July 2015, https://www.ancientpages.com. Accessed online 12 May 2023.

Brennan, Martin, 1983, The Stars and the Stones, Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland, Thames and Hudson, Inc., New York.

Columba, Iona, 2020, Ireland in History Day by Day, 30 November 2020, https://irelandinhistory.blogspot.com. Accessed online 26 July 2023.

Fr. O’Flanagan History Center, The art within Cairn L at Loughcrew, Old RIC Barracks, Cliffoney, County Sligo, Ireland, http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/loughcret/cairnlart.html. Accessed online 11 June 2023.

Hayse, Cathy, Loughcrew (Irlande): Ancient Irish were first to record an eclipse – 5,355 years ago, http://www.archeolog-home.com. Accessed online 30 June 2023.

Naeye, Robert, 2012, Transits of Venus in History: 1631-1716, 1 June 2012, https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/transits-of-venus-in-history-1631-1716/. Accessed online 30 July  2023.

Prendergast, Frank, Dr., 2013, Tomb L, Carnbane West, Loughcrew Hills, County Meath – an archaeoastronomical assessment, 18 January 2013, Unpublished internal report available on www.academia.edu. Accessed online 12 May 2023.

Stooke, Philip J., Dr., 1994, Neolithic Lunar Maps at Knowth, https://knowth.com/lunar-maps.htm. Accessed online 13 November 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

THE WORLD'S OLDEST LUNAR MAP?

Image from usgs.gov.

From before the origin of the Hominin lineage the Earth’s sun was the arbiter of the passage of time and the pace of life for each day. “The sun’s rhythm may have set the pace of each day, but when early humans needed a way to keep time beyond a single day and night, they looked to a second light in the sky. The moon was one of humankind’s first timepieces long before the first written language, before the earliest organized cities and well before structured religions. The moon’s face changes nightly and with the regularity of the seasons, making it a reliable marker of time.” (Boyle 2019) The sun is pretty much invariable in the sky, it looks much the same today as it did yesterday, or last week. The moon, on the other hand, changes from day to day in a repeating cycle, a perfect conception for the passage of time.

“It’s an obvious timepiece,” Anthony Aveni says of the moon. Aveni is a professor emeritus of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and a founder of the field of archaeoastronomy. “There is good evidence that [lunar timekeeping] was around as early as 25,000, 30,000, 35,000 years before the present.” (Boyle 2019) By projection then, if they practiced lunar timekeeping did they represent that concept in pictographs or petroglyphs?

Cairns "S" and "T" at Loughcrew ("T" is in the background). Online image, public domain.

In 1980, Brennan and Roberts experienced a rising sun alignment at a County Meath, Ireland, mound called Cairn T. On March 17, 1980, Martin Brennan and Jack Roberts saw a beam of light from the rising sun illuminate a carved stone at the back end of the rock-lined passage in the great mound called Cairn T at Loughcrew, County Meath. Two weeks later, on the evening of the first of April, Brennan and his colleagues watched the rising moon from the same spot. As the moon appeared over the horizon a shaft of light was projected along the passage and onto the same carved stone.” (Stooke 1994)

Aerial view of Knowth, County Meath, Ireland. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Having experienced these alignments at Cairn T, Brennan looked to the great passage mound of Knowth to see if this phenomenon was general. “The great passage mound of Knowth, also in Meath, contains two rock-lined assages, one facing east, the other west. Brennan observed the setting sun shine into the western passage on September 13, 1980. Attempting to observe sunrise on the following day, he found that the view of the rising sun from the eastern passage would be blocked by trees and the current level of the ground. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the eastern passage was also originally intended to be penetrated by light from the rising sun and moon. Although solar alignments have been described at many neolithic sites in Western Europe, less attention has been paid to lunar alignments, despite the fact that at certain times the moon can rise or set at any location on the horizon which may be occupied by the sun.” (Stooke 1994)

“Artistically, Knowth contains a vast amount of megalithic artwork, ranging from the "typical" ancient Celtic symbols of spirals and lozenges (diamond or rhombus shapes), both usually believed to represent the cycle of the sun or seasons. Once more, due to these pre-Christian geometric patterns—ones that have been frequently uncovered in pagan Celtic spaces—a correlation between the movement of the sun and the use of the mound seems likely. The ogham writing of the early Irish people also abounds on the megaliths, though these writings are from about two thousand years after the geometric shapes were likely carved. Not only do these inscriptions reveal the site was returned to and once again valued, but it was between the period of spirals and lozenges and the ogham writings (the Neolithic period and early Iron Age, respectively) that Knowth went through its most significant transformation.” (Winters 2022) A large number of the stones at Knowth have carvings including the kerbstones and large stones in the passage and interior chamber.

In 1994 Stooke did a study of the astronomical implications of Knowth and found a lunar connection. “Brennan's experience, described in his 1983 book ‘The Stars and the Stones,’ suggested that these Irish neolithic sites might have had some connection with the moon as well as the sun. I have identified another connection, previously overlooked by Brennan and others working at Knowth. If moonlight were to shine on the back stone of the eastern passage at Knowth, it would illuminate a map of the moon itself, the world's oldest known depiction of the lunar maria.” (Stooke 1994) So, Brennan posited  astronomical references in the Knowth carvings. Indeed, in his study of a number of Neolithic Passage Tombs at locations in Ireland Brennan (1983) basically identified every arc and curved line as a lunar symbol. In 1994 Stooke added the concept that the stone at the end of the passage portrayed lunar maps. This concept was never brought up by Brennan.

Orthostat 47 with its markings highlighted. Image courtesy of carrowkeel.com.

Closeup of orthostat 47 with its markings highlighted. Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk.

“The carved stone which forms the end wall of the eastern passage was called Orthostat 47 by George Eogan, who excavated Knowth in the 1960s. The design has three sections, superficially similar but oriented differently. The right-hand section appears to be nothing less than a map of the lunar maria, as becomes clear when it is compared with a naked-eye map of the moon. At least a dozen points of correspondence are immediately obvious.”  (Stooke 1994) Now I would expect a map of the lunar maria to be blobs spaced inside a circle and roughly corresponding with their placement on the moon itself, not arcs. Stooke is suggesting that the original carver of the stone portrayed not the static lunar maria, but the arcs that they describe over the hours as the moon arcs across the sky. Would this artist have portrayed, not a bird but the arc of his path across the sky, or not a fish but the line of its path through the water. To me, this concept just doesn’t fit right.

Stooke's diagram illustrating his idea that the carvings represent a lunar map. Illustration from Stooke, 1994.

Stooke (1994) explained that in this way. “The remaining two sections of the carving are simpler but crudely similar to the first, sharing the overall arc shape of the maria surrounding the lunar central highlands as well as an isolated spot representing Mare Crisium. Why were they carved in different orientations? I believe they depict the apparent rotation of the maria on the disk of the full moon as it crosses the sky in the course of a night. Watch the full moon one night. The arc of maria opens to the right (like a letter C) as the moon rises, opens downwards (to a northern hemisphere observer) as the moon crosses the meridian, and opens to the left at moonset. The disk appears to rotate like a wheel, an illusion caused by our motion on a rotating Earth. We compare the moon with our apparently fixed horizon, but the plane of the horizon actually rotates with the Earth to trace out a cone in space.” (Stooke 1994)  So the question is, why would the carver wish to portray the arcs of the movement of the maria instead of just showing the maria themselves? And where are the circles representing the outline of the moon itself? Stooke argues that the outlines were done in paint or chalk although no traces of such remain. While his thesis is possibly true I am not convinced that it is accurate. As I said, it seems more likely to me that the Neolithic or Iron Age carvers would have portrayed the moon as a circle with blobs for the maria in their proper places when not portraying the moon as a crescent. I fear I have to be skeptical of this claim, but this still represents an example of the fascination rock art provides – the room for many theories.

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 these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Boyle, Rebecca, 2019, Ancient Humans Used the Moon as a Calendar in the Sky, 9 July 2019, https://www.sciencenews.org. Accessed online 13 November 2022.

Brennan, Martin, 1983, The Stars and the Stones, Ancient Art and Astronomy in Ireland, Thames and Hudson, Inc., New York.

Stooke, Philip J., Dr., 1994, Neolithic Lunar Maps at Knowth, https://knowth.com/lunar-maps.htm. Accessed online 13 November 2022.

Winters, Riley, 2017, Mystifying Megaliths: Knowth, Keeper of Ancient Tombs, 30 September 2017, https://ancient-origins.net. Accessed online 13 November 2022.