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A roughly 3,000 - year - older stone phonograph record covered with puzzling marking is actually an ancient celestial mathematical function marking the brightest principal in the dark sky , researchers claim .
The tyre - sizing stone , which was discovered near an ancient mound garrison in northeasterly Italy a few geezerhood ago , features 29 carved markings on its front and back that may represent the brightest headliner in the night sky , investigator postulate in a newfangled study , published on Nov. 22 in the journalAstronomical Notes .
Archaeologist Federico Bernardini (left) and astronomer Paolo Molaro at the Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo near Trieste in northeastern Italy, with what may be one of the oldest star maps ever discovered.
However , astronomerEd Krupp , the director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles , who was not necessitate in the stone ’s discovery , told Live Science he thinks any human relationship between the carve markings on the rock and the brightest star may be accidental .
" Could these marker represent asterisms ? They could , " he say . But " does the newspaper debate a persuasive case ? No , it does n’t . "
Krupp is the author of a work examining premature efforts to identify asterisms in rock art , which will be release in a few months . He is also the author of " Echoes of the Ancient Skies : The Astronomy of Lost Civilizations " ( Dover , 2003 ) .
The authors of the study say 28 carved marks on the stone disk are accurate depictions of bright stars prominent in the night sky at the time the disk was made, at least 2,400 years ago.
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Ancient stones
The stone disk is one of two line up near the entrance of a mound fort at Rupinpiccolo near Trieste — possibly in a cemetery , according to a2022 studythat announce its discovery . A similar pair has been found near Gradina in the Brijuni Islands off the Croatian coast , about 60 miles ( 100 kilometre ) further to the south .
The forts are dated to the region ’s " protohistoric " period — the transition between the prehistoric and the historic menstruum — between 1800 and 400 B.C. But the authors of the late study take down the possibility that the stone disks may have been made later .
One of the Rupinpiccolo stones is blank , and the research worker suggest it may have represented the Sunday .
The authors say statistical analysis shows that most of the marks on the disc accurately correspond to the positions of bright stars. But one corresponds to no star, and the authors suggest it may have been a supernova that is no longer visible.
They also suggest that 28 of the marks carved on the front and back surface of the other stone disk correspond to striking bright star , peculiarly those in the constellation Scorpius and Orion , which would have been rising in the easterly sky just before the sun at that time — an occurrence known as " heliac rising . "
AstronomerPaolo Molaroof the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste , the lead author of the tardy study , tell Live Science that thestatistical precision , exfoliation and orientationof the carved marks were evidence that they represented real star in the sky .
He notice that theGreek poet Hesiod , writing in the eighth one C B.C. , had draw using theheliacal risings of star patternslike Orion and the Pleiades to determine the fourth dimension for planting harvest .
" It is probable that this exercise spread out among the protohistoric community much before that , " he pronounce . " This suggests that the rock may have been some sort of calendar . "
Mystery star
The study does not explicate the mysterious 29th mark carve on the surface of the stone disk near the supposed theatrical of the constellation Orion , and it gibe to no sleep with whiz . However there are some possibility as to what it could represent .
Among the most intriguing is the idea that the 29th mark may limn a supernova that was visible when the disc was made but after evanesce from view ; and it may be that a black muddle or supernova remnant is still at that location today , Molaro say .
Little is known about the culture of the Castellieri , the Bronze Age people who build more than 100 hill forts in the ancient Istria region of the northeast Adriatic ; and the precision of the star map is surprising , he said .
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" In this vitrine , the Reconstruction Period is astronomically faithful , " he said . " The equivalence must therefore be made with the [ star ] catalog of [ Grecian astronomer ] Hipparchus in the second century B.C. "
Wishful thinking
Krupp , however , disaccord that the stone is a celestial calendar . " For me , the paper is over - argued , and the supplication of an fanciful supernova is indicative , " he said . " The statistical literary argument suggests something is there that does n’t really seem to be there , and that can take place with such analyses . "
While many such object might be endeavor at star maps , such claim require clear evidence , he order .
" We necessitate more than similar pattern , " he enounce . " We are pattern - seeking creatures , but we are not always strict in our efforts to ascertain whether the form we see are meaningful . "
Krupp note that he was nonetheless affect by the professional discipline and analysis in the premature field of study .
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" I do n’t have any quarrel with the authors ' serious aim , " he tell . " I think , however , the hypothesis of heavenly representations in the chisel mark was just too tempting for them . "
He also said that there needs to be a clearer link between these ancient marks and the nighttime sky to be fully convincing . " I do n’t fence that prehistorical internal representation of asterism have to be perfect ; many bed representation of star patterns are not , " he aver .
" But most of the time , when there is no persuasive independent convergency seam of grounds , you have only wishful thought process , " Krupp said . " This is wishful intellection . "
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