Ancient Cave Paintings Show Unexplained Knowledge Of Solar System

Ancient Cave Paintings – Innovative Awareness of Astronomy

Some old cave paintings have been discovered which reveals how the ancient people had innovative awareness of astronomy. A group of scientists have located a series of Ancient cave paintings and drawings strategically left in the open in the caves. This could be kept by the primeval team of Native American settlers which portray their solar understanding of their world in which they lived.

An archaeologist at the University of Tennessee, Jab Simek commented, `the subject matter of this artwork, what they were drawing pictures of, we knew all along was mythological, cosmological. They draw pictures of bird men that are important characters in their origin stories and in their hero legends, and so we knew it was a religious thing and because of that, we knew that it potentially referred to this multi-tiered universe that was the foundation of their cosmology’.

Initial Depiction – Ancient cave paintings are 6000 Years

Art from around 44 open areas together with 50 cave sites were examined by Simek and his researchers. The initial depiction of this type of solar stratification dates back to about 6000 years back though most of the art seems latest dating around the 11th to the 17th centuries.

It was also observed by the scientists that some types of depictions together with the Ancient cave paintings seemed to be in particular locations of the plateau. Open areas for instance, in high altitudes, which were touched by the sun, featured `upper world’ artistic version. This comprised of portrayals of heavenly bodies, weather forces and characters which tend to exert influence on humans.

Star Constellation in Sky

Drawings and Ancient cave paintings of `lower world’, were the dark areas such as caves which had been concealed from the sun. Generally this kind of layer is related to danger, darkness and death.

The `middle world’ on the other hand is characteristic of the realism surrounding prehistoric human on regular base. The Ancient cave paintings were discovered in open air setting as well as the caves, though they were traced in the midst of raised up areas of the plateau. Simek had mentioned in a statement that this layered universe had been a platform for various actors which comprised of heroes, creatures and monsters which could get across the levels.

As per the analysis, it submits that the artworks located at the site throughout Europe, the Ancient cave paintings are not just drawings of wild animals which were earlier presumed. On the contrary the animal character portrays star constellations in the sky at night. These are utilised to represent dates and mark events like the comet strikes.

Refined knowledge of Stars

They have arrived at an understanding that probably 40,000 years ago, the ancient people had refined knowledge of the stars and kept note of the time utilising knowledge based on the position of the stars and its gradual changes in the night sky, over thousands of years.

Simek mentioned that though the Ancient cave paintings of several of the actors had been located in low, high and middle elevations, the colour correlated the overall cosmological structure of the universe.

The character carved in red, were the colour of life. These were located in higher locations while black had been utilised to draw figures found in the lower world. Simek informed LiveScience that `the main thing noticed in all this is the images of human which is known as anthropomorphs.

 All of them are not humans and some of them are mythological people or those who tend to blend the characteristics of animal and humans’

Astronomical Calendars Monitoring Equinoxes

The Ancient cave paintings of the universe could also be helpful in getting some insight on the modern world.

Simek informed that `it is very common human conception that there are different levels of beings and different levels of cognition and different levels of connectivity with the human condition’. He was of the opinion that all people at one level or the other tend to do that.

One of the oldest obsessions of humans is astronomy which dates back to ancient times. Prior to the Scientific Revolution teaching that the Sun is the centre of the Solar System and the modern astronomy disclosed the fact of our galaxy and the Universe, the people of the ancient times observed the night sky and the patterns of the stars.

The scholars for some time were of the belief that comprehending the difficult astronomical phenomena such as the precession of the equinoxes did not precede the ancient Greeks.In their recent discovery, researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Kent portrayed how Ancient cave paintings which date back to 40,000 years could in fact be astronomical calendars monitoring the equinoxes and keeping track of main happenings.

Main Astronomical Occasions Detailed in the Ancient cave paintings

Decoding European Palaeolithic Art- Extremely Ancient knowledge of Precession of the Equinoxes, the study made by the team had appeared in the Athens Journal of History. The study team comprised of Martin B, Sweatman – an associate professor at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, together with Alistair Coombs, researcher and PhD at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kent.

Sweatman and Coombs had assessed the details of the Paleolithic and Neolithic artof animal symbols at sites in Turkey, France, Spain and Germany. The same system of date-keeping was discovered at these sites though it had been formed by the ancient people living thousands of kilometres and years apart.

As per the study of the team the Ancient cave paintings had not only depicted wild animals as presumed earlier but represented star constellation in the night sky. These carvings had probably been utilised to present dates and mark main astronomical occasions. It was eventually concluded that the ancient people kept track of time by observing the precession of the equinoxes.

This is related to the occurrences where the constellations seem to move in cycle in the sky spanning a period of around 25,920 years. This is the outcome of the axial precession, a slow though continuous change in the orientation of rotational axis of the astronomical body.

To an observer, the equinoxes would seem to shift westward towards the ecliptic comparatively to the background stars and in the reverse track of the Sun.

History mystery: Baffling Ancient Cave Paintings

Paintings on the walls and ceilings of caves have been discovered which are referred to the prehistoric origin, some of which are found in Spain and France and the earliest art in Europe which was found in Cantabria, northern Spain in El Castillo cave are the oldest known art found in this region. Around 340 caves have been discovered in Spain and France. The exact purpose of these paintings are unknown and evidence indicate that they were not just decorations for living area since there seemed to be no signs of ongoing habitation in these caves.

Moreover these were located in areas which were not easily accessible and some are of the opinion that these cave paintings may have been a way of communicating with the other folks, while still others presume that these were used for religious or other ceremonial purposes. The next oldest known cave is the Chauvet Cave in France where the painting dates earlier than 30,000 BCE as per the radiocarbon dating. The age of the painting was a controversial issue since the system of radiocarbon dating could produce misleading results if they were tampered with samples of new or old material and these cave paintings were littered with debris for a long period of time. With the help of technology, there was a possibility to date the painting by sampling the pigment and the torch marks on the walls to get some insight and indicate chronology as in the case of the Spanish cave of Cueva de las Monedas where the reindeer depicted, places the art in the last Ice Age. The Cueva de El Castillo also known as the Cave of the Castle is an archaeological site located in Puente Viesgo within the complex of the Caves of Monte Castillo in the province of Cantabria Spain, containing the oldest cave art and are presumed to be around 40,000 years old.

The discovery of this cave was made in 1903 by Hermilio Alcalde del Rio, a Spanish archaeologist and pioneer in the study of early cave paintings of Cantabria, indicating that the entrance of the cave was much smaller in the past which had been enlarged due to archeological excavations that were carried out. Through these entrances one could access the various rooms in which were extensive sequences of images together with other markings and paintings presumed to be from the Lower Paleolithic to the Bronze Age including the Middle Ages. It is believed that there are more than 150 figures including the engravings of deer which have been painted in charcoal and read ochre on the ceilings and walls in various chambers of the caves. Most of these paintings are of simple hand stencils, with red disks and club shapes though there are instances of outlines of animals. Paintings of many other animals were also found in these caves including the dog and the remains of cave art are found along its depth of 18 meters from the Acheulean period to the Bronze Age where most of the oldest paintings are of 45 hand prints.

Along with these, discoveries of around 50 symbols together with 180 depictions of animals especially goats are also found. Besides these, there are fine drawings of deer, bison horses, mammoths as well as dogs and while the black paintings belong to the middle period, red mammoth colored paintings seems to be the recent ones. Cave paintings found on the Arnhem Land plateau, in Australia, have megafauna, believed to have been extinct 40,000 years ago, thus making this art another among the oldest list of paintings. Nawarla Gabarnmang, another Australian site which has been radiocarbon dated 28,000 years, has charcoal drawings, making it the oldest site in Australia and in the world and evidence of reliable date has been obtained for it. In most of the cave art, no painting of complete human figure are found, though there seems to be one partial Venus figure attached to an incomplete pair of legs and above it, is a bison head in contact with it.

Few panel of red ochre hand prints together with hand stencils made from spitting pigment on hands pressed against the surface of the cave are found. Other abstract markings like dots and lines are also found all over the caves. It is believed that the artist who designed this unique art used techniques which were rarely found in any other cave art. Two unidentifiable images have also been found which have a vague avian or a butterfly shape where its combination has led some prehistoric art and culture students to presume that there seemed to be some ritual, or magical aspect to these paintings. Most of these paintings seemed to be done after the walls had been scraped and cleared of concretions and debris providing a smooth and lighter surface for the artist to work on.