2,500 years ago, someone carved a star map into stone. And it has a star that we do not know

They may not have had advanced instruments like Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, or the Greenwich Mean Time Magellan Telescope, but thousands of years ago our ancestors were already looking up at the starry sky with curiosity and looking for ways to capture what they observed in the tiniest of ways. maybe. Even when the only resources available to them to write down their thoughts were rocks, primitive hammers and chisels. We have just confirmed this thanks to two Italian researchers, Federico Bernardini and Paolo Molaro, who located in Trieste what may be the oldest celestial map known to date.

Better yet, this primitive drawing, carved on a huge wheel-shaped rock, still holds some surprises for us about our world.

Two “star” stones.. At first glance they are two circular rocks, large, irregular and rough. That's at first glance, of course. Some time ago archaeologists discovered in Karst plateau From Trieste, northern Italy, two wheel-shaped stones of a certain size. The discs are 50 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep and are located near the entrance to Castellere D. robinpicolo, a defensive structure that was used as a fortress from 1800 or 1650 BC to 400 BC. By examining the rocks in detail, scientists came to two conclusions: one of the stones appears to represent the sun; The other may be the oldest celestial map known to date.

Reading rocks…and history. The disks are impressive enough that Paolo Molaro, an astronomer National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), and archaeologist Federico Bernardini carefully examined its details. Their conclusions have just been expressed in article Published in the specialized magazine Astronomische Nachrichten And they are great. On one of the rocks, which does not represent the sun, the researchers identified 29 marks, 24 of which were distributed on the same face and the remaining five on the back.

The tokens are distributed in a seemingly irregular manner, but –As they remember from INAF– They share an orientation and appear to have been engraved by the same person, a person who took pains to mark each on the rock using a hammer and a metal chisel with a tip of between six and seven millimeters. The pattern was completely unknown to them. Just a few kilometers away, in Castelleri dei Illyre, a bronze object containing 29 corresponding signs has already been identified and is preserved today in the Muggia Archaeological Museum.

What do the signs tell us? This is the big question that Molaro and Bernardini had to answer. Their first conclusion is that the marks are man-made, not natural, and were deliberately recorded at least 2,400 years ago, when the Rubinpiculu fortification was still functioning in this way.

The second is that of the 29 signs identified, 28 can be identified as the stars Scorpio, Orion, the Pleiades, and, taking into account the five signs on the reverse side, Cassiopeia. The brands are so identical that INAF recognizes that such an arrangement is “unlikely” to be the result of chance. “Not only that. The deviations from the real positions are within the magnitude of the marks, which indicates a great deal of care in implementation.” Write.

Molaro himself admits that when Bernardini approached him with his hunch that he had identified marks corresponding to the constellation Scorpius on a rock on the karst plateau, he listened to his fellow archaeologist's theories with skepticism. “My first reaction was disbelief, given that the southern part of Scorpio is above the horizon in our latitudes,” he recalls. “But when I discovered that the precession of the equinoxes raised it by about 10-12 degrees, it was an amazing coincidence with the constellation,” he recalls. “It's more…that's how I got to know Orion, the Pleiades, and Cassiopeia on her back.”

Mark 29 The big surprise. An unknown person remained at the table. Bernardini and Molaro had an explanation for all the signs, except one, which seemed out of place on that primitive map of the sky. How was that possible? Was this due to an error on the part of the astronomer who recorded the disc? Have the rest of his theories been invalidated? Was it the result of an accident on the author's part? The Italian researchers' interpretation is different and more surprising.

In his opinion, Mark 29, which appears to be “squeaking” on the star map, represents a “supernova.” “Failure,” a transient object that appeared and then disappeared. This hypothesis is fascinating because, if true, the ancient map could help us better understand our universe today, in the age of James Webb. “If that were the case, today there could be a black hole at that point in the sky. So it might be worth trying to determine its effects.” INAF indicates.

The oldest map of the sky. If this discovery wasn't exciting enough in itself, another startling possibility is added: INAF chipset The Castelier tablet could be the oldest of its kind. Now that honor is usually given to the Nebra Disc, a piece from Germany, dating from about 1600 BC, constructed of bronze and with gold parts representing the sun, moon and Pleiades. But for INAF “it is not a real map.”

The organization adds: “It is rather a symbolic representation. To find 'true' maps we have to wait until the first century BC, and the times of the maps are likely derived from the Hipparchus catalog, which dates back to 135 BC,” and concluded: “Accepting “The rudimentary dating of the artefact, the relatively precise tracking of the stars on the Rubinpiculu stone would be at least a few centuries ago.” In his opinion, the discovery of Trieste demonstrates something else, even more valuable: that the inhabitants of Europe at that time already showed an “amazing curiosity” for observing the sky.

the pictures: Inf, Bernardini et al., Documenta Praehistorica, 2022 And Paolo Molaro et al. Astronomical notes

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