-Caveat Lector- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_325000/325290.stm Thursday, April 22, 1999 Published at 04:07 GMT 05:07 UK Sci/Tech Prehistoric Moon map unearthed A map of the moon with the rock carvings superimposed on it By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse A map of the Moon 10 times older than anything known before has been found carved into stone at one of Ireland's most ancient and mysterious Neolithic sites. Dr Phil Stooke: I am confident it is the moon It has been identified by Dr Philip Stooke of the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He spends most of his time preparing maps of asteroids based on spacecraft observations, but he has also prepared detailed maps of the Moon. What puzzled him greatly was that there was no recorded map of the moon older than about 500 years. "I simply could not believe this," he told BBC News Online. "I felt there just had to be an older map somewhere." Prehistoric tombs So he began looking in old manuscripts and history books as well as the records of excavations of the Neolithic sites of the British Isles. The world's oldest map of the moon? Then he found one. It took the eye of an expert to see it for what it was. It was carved into a rock in one of Ireland's most remarkable prehistoric tombs at Knowth, County Meath. "I was amazed when I saw it. Place the markings over a picture of the full Moon and you will see that they line up. It is without doubt a map of the Moon, the most ancient one ever found," said Dr Stooke. "It's all there in the carving. You can see the overall pattern of the lunar features from features such as Mare Humorun through to Mare Crisium." Before this discovery, the oldest map of the Moon was by Leonardo da Vinci, drawn about 1505. The Knowth map is 10 times older. Knowth is already a major focus of research into understanding prehistoric man. Now it will become one of the most important scientific sites in the world. "The people who carved this moon map were the first scientists," says Dr Stooke. "They knew a great deal about the motion of the moon. They were not primitive at all." The passage tomb at Knowth is estimated to be about 5,000 years old. It was obviously built by men who had a sophisticated understanding of the motions of the Sun, Moon and stars. It is known that many stone circles and ancient tombs are aligned with the Sun but less attention has been paid to possible lunar alignments. This is despite the fact that at certain times the Moon can rise or set at any location on the horizon that the Sun can. Series of arcs Investigations at Knowth almost 20 years ago showed that at certain times moonlight could shine down the eastern passage of the tomb. Remarkably, the moonlight would also fall on the Neolithic lunar map. During excavations, the stone in question was named Orthostat 47. Its right-hand section contains a series of arcs. The circular limb of the moon is not included in the carving. Dr Stooke believes that it may have been drawn on the rock with chalk or with coloured paint. =========================================== http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_313000/313720.stm Thursday, April 8, 1999 Published at 11:15 GMT 12:15 UK Sci/Tech Ancient tomb captured both Sun and Moon The midsummer Sun shines through the lightbox.. By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse An ancient Irish tomb may have been built with a light chamber aligned not only to the Sun, but to the Moon as well. Building it would have required many years of observations of the motions of the Moon by the tomb's architects. The tomb could also explain the Moon-inspired names of local landmarks. ..and strikes the far walls The tomb's "lightbox" is only the third ever discovered and is by far the most complex. It reveals the astonishingly-detailed astronomical knowledge of the ancient people. BBC News Online recently reported that a team of archaeologists from Glasgow University had discovered a lightbox in the roof of a prehistoric tomb in Orkney, Scotland. It allowed the rays of the sun to reach the innermost part of the tomb at the start and end of the winter. At that time, only one other lightbox was known, at the Newgrange Neolithic complex in Ireland. Martin Byrne believes capturing the Moonlight could have been the main aim The latest, and most remarkable yet, was revealed by Martin Byrne, a researcher and artist in County Sligo, Ireland. His work on the Neolithic tombs at Carrowkeel suggests they were positioned so that the light from the Moon could peep into the inner chamber at midwinter. Carrowkeel is in the Bricklieve mountains. Given the number of Neolithic tombs in the area this was one of the most sacred regions of ancient Ireland. Over a dozen mountain-top cairns can be seen looking across the misty hills of Sligo. Carefully set into the entrance of Cairn G is a hole that is positioned to let the Sun's rays into the inner chamber for a month either side of midsummer. But according to Martin Byrne, it would also let in the light of the setting full moon on either side of the winter solstice. The entrance to the lightbox Indeed, capturing the Moon may have been the main purpose of the tomb - it is pointing at a hill called Knocknarea, which means "Hill of the Moon". Knocknarea is said to be the burial place of the wild Queen Maeve, one of the major figures in the Irish saga, the Tain Bo Cualnge. The tomb points to the most northerly point the setting Moon reaches on the horizon, an event that only happens every 18.6 years. Positioning the Carrowkeel tomb would have required a sophisticated understanding of the cycles of the Moon, as well as patient and careful observations over many years. Sunset over the "Hill of the Moon" Further evidence that the Moon was important is that Knocknarea is on a peninsula called Cuil Irra, "the Remote Angle of the Moon". This part of Ireland also hosts the largest prehistoric stone village in the country and many ring forts, earthworks and standing stones. Since they were built the ancient tombs of county Sligo have lost none of their magic. As we find out more about them, we can only marvel and wonder at the people who moved stones to line up with the mountains and the Moon over six thousand years ago. ======================================== http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_298000/298999.stm Thursday, March 18, 1999 Published at 15:40 GMT Sci/Tech Ancient tomb captured the winter sun Five thousand years old By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse A mysterious prehistoric tomb on the island of Orkney has a special "light box" cut into its roof, archaeologists have discovered. It allowed a shaft of light to herald the start and end of winter. This has only been seen once before and it may literally cast new light on the lives and beliefs of primitive Neolithic man. Hidden since the stone age The Crantit tomb was discovered last year when a tractor disturbed a series of flat stones just below the surface. These turned out to be the roof slabs of an underground tomb, hidden below a hillside for over 5,000 years. The Glasgow University archaeological field unit directed by Dr Beverley Ballin Smith and Dr Colin Richards were called in and soon realised the importance of the important find. The small tomb consists of three chambers in a "clover-leaf" formation and was almost invisible from above ground. It is highly unusual as most chambered cairns in Orkney and elsewhere were built on the surface as prominent mounds. "It was a totally unexpected find," Dr Ballin Smith told BBC News Online. Looking toward the entrance During the excavation one of the archaeologists, a skilled stonemason, noticed something unusual about the slabs of stone that formed the roof. "What we found was truly remarkable," said Dr Ballin Smith. A notch had been cut in the roof to allow a ray of sunlight to penetrate the tomb, but only at certain times of the year. In October and again in February, at the beginning and the end of what was no doubt a harsh winter, the Sun would have thrown a shaft of light along the length of the tomb. It is the first tomb found in the UK that has a light shaft. The only other one known is at Newgrange in Ireland. Mysterious patterns Strange carvings were found on the upright stone pillar that holds up the roof. "If you look closely you can see geometric patterns and symbols carved into the rock," Dr Ballin Smith said. "We think that they may even have been coloured with primitive paints and pigments." No human remains were found in the tomb's central chamber but bones from four individuals were found in side chambers: a mature woman, a girl, a child and one too degraded to identify. Fragments of pottery were also found but no ornaments. Neolithic tombs were frequently used over and over again, but entrance to the Crantit tomb was heavily blocked up, both inside and out, suggesting reuse was not wanted. "Perhaps it tells us something about a cultural change in the treatment of death and burial five thousand years ago," speculated Dr Ballin Smith. "It may be significant that the tomb took the human remains back to the Earth," she added. "But perhaps we will never know the real meaning of Crantit." ========================================== http://news1.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_72000/72494.stm Wednesday, April 1, 1998 Published at 15:11 GMT 16:11 UK Sci/Tech The sound of the Neolithic Were ancient stone circles giant loudspeakers? New research suggests that the ancient stone circles and burial mounds of north west Europe may have been designed to act as giant loudspeakers to amplify drums being played during rituals. Our science correspondent David Whitehouse reports: Scattered across the landscape of north west Europe are prehistoric monuments from the Neolithic era. Stone circles like Stonehenge as well as covered burial chambers can be over 5,000 years old. The stones stand silent in the landscape but a new study of these ancient structures has found that they possess some remarkable acoustical properties. When Aaron Watson of Reading University visited a Neolithic stone circle in Scotland he noticed a curious echo which changed as he moved around inside the circle. Tests with audio recording equipment showed that the large, flat-sided stones were positioned in such a way to reflect sound towards the centre of the stone circle. The cramped entrance to a Neolithic burial mound But it is the Neolithic burial mounds that have the strangest properties. They usually consist of a long chamber which is reached by crawling through a small tunnel. 'I was amazed by these caverns,' said University of Reading physicist Dr David Keating. 'The caverns vary in size but their resonant frequencies are very similar. They would amplify a fast drumbeat producing enhanced sounds and echoes during rituals, he added. Dr Keating suggests that the caverns are designed to generate an acoustic phenomenon called Helmholtz resonance - the hollow type of sound created by blowing a stream of air across the top of an empty bottle. Calculations suggest that drumming at two beats a second would have caused resonance. Inside the dark chamber with its stale air and presence of the dead, the enhanced sound would have produced an unforgettable experience for Neolithic man. ================================= Robert F. 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