Astro-Archæology & Archæoastronomy
News Archive 1999

Bookmark this page

 Today is  

"Prehistoric Moon map unearthed"

April 22, 1999, BBC Science News, UK: "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. It has been identified by Dr Philip Stooke, of the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Copyright © 1999 BBC Science News

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.'

So he began looking in old manuscripts and history books as well as in the records of excavations of the Neolithic sites on the British Isles.

'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." [Full Story]

"5,000-year old map of the Moon unearthed"

The oldest map of the Moon has been found in an Irish cave, and scientists think that humans began their lunar mapping at least 5,000 years ago. Discovered by Dr. Philip Stooke of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, the stone carving is " ... complete with arcs that fit the real markings of the Moon ... "

The Daily Telegraph reported on April 23rd 1999 that it had been discovered in the neolithic Knowth stone chamber in County Meath, north of Dublin, that archæologists still refer to as a tomb. Dr Stooke told that newspaper:

"I was amazed when I saw it. It is without doubt a map of the Moon, the most ancient ever found."

Previous to this the oldest known map of the Moon had been the one drawn by Leonardo da Vinci in about 1505. Dr. Stooke told the newspaper that he had been puzzled for years as to why there was no map of the Moon older than 500 years.

"His search of manuscripts and records of Neolithic excavations led him to Knowth and a stone he found there contained a series of arcs on its right hand side. He placed a map of the Moon over the markings and they lined up."

The complex around Knowth and New Grange in the Boyne valley has been radiocarbon dated to around 3000-3100 BC, at the time of major Taurid meteor storms. Could the carver have seen an asteroid hit the Moon during that period of Taurid bombardment, and did it cause a noticeably new crater or craters visible from Earth? Something prompted the 5,000-year-old carver to record the map of the Moon, and it may well have been a temporary celestial event such as a collision with an asteroid that was witnessed by the map-maker.

"Ancient tomb captured both Sun and Moon"

April 08, 1999, BBC Science News, UK: "An ancient Irish tomb may have been built with a light chamber aligned not only to the Sun, but to the Moon as well.

Copyright © 1999 BBC Science News

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. 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." [Full Story]

"Ancient tomb captured the winter sun"

March 18, 1999, BBC Science News, UK: "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.

Copyright © 1999 BBC Science News

This has only been seen once before and it may literally cast new light on the lives and beliefs of primitive Neolithic man. 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.

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." [Full Story]