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E.P. Grondine
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« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2007, 11:16:23 AM » |
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Of course, the earliest (ca 25,000 BCE) "possible" physical evidence of human astronomy was (is) the lunar counts on bones which Alexander Marshack documented in his book "The Roots of Civilization", which met with widespread scepticism when it was published in 1971. I bought my copy of his book remaindered, and later mentioned that fact to him when I coincidentally met him at a conference - looking back now, that was probably not the right thing to mention to him.
The earliest surviving (because it is stone) henge structure is from the Egyptian western desert, from the cattle hunters, ca. 8,000 BCE, if memory serves - sadly I can't remember the site's name off the top of my head now. Most likely this henge had wooden European antecedents preceding the Sahara River cultures. But then these would have been of wood, thus leaving little physical evidence, none of which has been discovered (yet).
Certainly, after the 10,900 BCE cometary impact(s) human interest in astronomy must have grown. Incidentally, the dragon first appears in Chinese iconography about 8,000 BCE, most likely timed with -possible- North American end-paleo smaller ocean cometary impact(s) ca. 8,350 BCE.
Culturally, nearly every northern society had food sharing celebrations at the winter food minimum, just to make sure everyone would get through. In some of the Eastern Woodlands cultures the sharing of preserved food may have taken place about November, after the autumn hunts but preceding the bad weather.
In any case, happy solistice celebration - the sun will return soon
E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas
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