Maya Calendar Newly Found in Xultun, Guatemala is the Oldest Mayan Astronomical Calendar

Jeffrey Kluger has the story at TIME Magazine in Oldest Known Mayan Astronomical Calendar Stuns Scientists.

Ancient sea travellers had heads in the clouds - Telegraph

Ancient sea travellers had heads in the clouds - Telegraph

"A stone tool found on a remote Pacific island has provided evidence that early Polynesians travelled 2,500 miles by canoe using only the stars, clouds and seabirds as navigational aids."

Astronomy, Cosmology, and Rock Art : California Tree Carvings - Arborglyphs of the Chumash - Could Respresent the Stars - TIME

TIME reads:
California Tree Carving Hints at Early Chumash Astronomy.


graphic by Rick Bury linked from the TIME article
Matt Kettman in his TIME report titled A Tree Carving in California: Ancient Astronomers? writes inter alia about an article published by paleontologist Rex Saint Onge in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology:

"It became increasingly obvious to Saint Onge that the arborglyph and related cave paintings weren't just the work of wild-eyed, drug-induced shamans — which has been a leading theory for decades — but that the ancient images were deliberate studies of the stars and served as integral components of the Chumash people's annual calendar."

See in this regard:

Hudson and Underhay: Crystals in the Sky: An Intellectual Odyssey Involving Chumash Astronomy, Cosmology, and Rock Art, review by Albert B. Elsasser.

For a sceptical view of the astronomical interpretation, see: Philosophy of Science Portal - Saint Lucia Mountains yields an arborglyph with astronomical graphics

There is little doubt in our mind that Saint Onge is correct, but an arborglyph of this nature - standing alone - is most certainly not as conclusive a proof as the figures found carved into stone systematically over larger territorial areas. See my book Stars Stones and Scholars.

Co-author of the Chumash arborglyph article with Saint Onge was anthropologist John Johnson of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, who was quoted as saying:

" "Whether we're right or not, I don't know, but we keep finding things that strengthen the idea," says Johnson. "And if we keep finding ethnographic support for it, I feel we're on safer ground.

Not just ethnographic support, but much other evidence is also available. People publishing in this field of archaeoastronomy should first read my book, consult my many related websites, including Megaliths.net, and also look at the decipherment FILES (left column menu there) at the LexiLine group on the History of Civilization (slowly being moved to the LexiLine Journal, or its mirror here).

Sirius Rising: To questions that dogged astronomers, a Sirius solution - The Boston Globe

To questions that dogged astronomers, a Sirius solution - via The Boston Globe, February 6, 2010, by Alan M. MacRobert, Globe correspondent and senior editor of Sky & Telescope magazine in Cambridge (SkyandTelescope.com). His Star Watch column appears the first Saturday of every month.

One astronomical problem from the ancient world is that Claudius Ptolemy in Alexandria listed Sirius as one of six bright stars in the heavens having a "sub-red" or fiery character. Whereas that description fits the other five stars listed by Ptolemy, Sirius is not reddish at all, but a bright white or blue-white star. Indeed, it is the brightest star in the heavens - as seen from Earth. So why did Ptolemy list it as a fiery reddish star?

What is a likely answer? Read the article to find out. Sorry about the misleading ad that pops up at that website - we generally avoid websites that permit this kind of advertising.

LexiLine : Message: 4 LexiLine 2010 The Star of Bethlehem 32 B.C.

LexiLine : Message: 4 LexiLine 2010 The Star of Bethlehem 32 B.C.

Google Earth Images Confirm Mythological Meteor Impact | Popular Science

Google Earth Images Confirm Mythological Meteor Impact | Popular Science

"Australian Aborigine mythology begins in a period known as the 'dream time', before the emergence of humanity. Many stories about the dream time include legends about stars, gods, or rocks falling from the sky. And new research utilizing Google Earth surveys of the outback show that many of those myths may actually be historically accurate.

Writing in the journals Archaeoastronomy and Meteoritics and Planetary Science, Duane Hamacher, an astrophysicist Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, describes how examination of Aborigine myths led him to discover previously unidentified blast crater about 81 miles south of the town of Alice Springs."

APOD: 2010 January 15 - Scenes from Two Hemispheres

APOD: 2010 January 15 - Scenes from Two Hemispheres

The sky above my town - Prehistorical Astronomy

The sky above my town - Prehistorical Astronomy

Themester's 'Footprints in the Stars' blends astronomy, American Indian sky lore: IU News Room: Indiana University

Themester's 'Footprints in the Stars' blends astronomy, American Indian sky lore: IU News Room: Indiana University

Celestia 1.3.1 - a 3D real-time simulation of the galaxy and beyond

Celestia 1.3.1 - a 3D real-time simulation of the galaxy and beyond

Paul Rowlingson at vnunet.com writes about Celestia 1.3.1

that

"Celestia offers a 3D simulation of the galaxy and beyond. Everything is simulated in real time, meaning that what you see is actually happening right now. Time can be speeded up, slowed down or even reversed, giving you a glimpse into the past or the future...."

...

A Tour facility lets you jump directly to any element - star, planet, asteroid or comet - and displays brief related data on-screen."

This is a "must have" for astronomy, physics and cosmology fans and space freaks including Star Trek "Trekkies".

The newest Computer Bild in Germany (15/2004, July 12, 2004) has a German-language package (deutsch) for the English version of Celestia 1.3.1 plus a German-language handbook.

See also the Celestia Motherlode for Celestia users.

Hamlet's Mill, Orion, Cursa and Horvandillus

Hamlet's Mill, Orion, Cursa, and Horvandillus

One of the major books in the field of archaeoastronomy, broadly viewed, is the ca. 500-page book by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend entitled

HAMLET'S MILL:
An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Time,
published by David R. Godine, Boston, 5th printing, 1999,
ISBN 0-87923-215-3, LOC Catalog Card Number 69-13267.

Hamlet's Mill is a book everyone interested in the history of civilization and the history of astronomy should have in his or her library - and they should be familiar with its contents to be able to discuss these matters knowledgeably.

At Appendix 2, page 354 of that book, Santillana and Hertha von Dechend write:

[start of quote from Hamlet's Mill, p. 354]
"The father of Saxo's Amlethus was Horvandillus, written also Oren-del, Erentel, Earendel, Oervandill, Aurvandil, whom the appendix to the Heldenbuch pronounces the first of all heroes that were ever born. The few data known about him are summarized by Jacob Grimm:(1)
[LexiLine note: this is the linguist Grimm who with his brother published Grimm's Fairy Tales and discovered Grimm's Law, a widely accepted proto-Indo-European sound shift, which in my view is erroneous in presupposing aspirated forms to be primordial]

'He [Hor-Vandillus] suffers shipwreck on a voyage, takes shelter with a master fisherman Eisen,(2) earns the seamless coat of his master, and afterwards wins frau Breide, the fairest of women: king Eigel of Trier was his father's name. The whole tissue of the fable puts one in mind of the Odyssey: the shipwrecked man clings to a plank, digs himself a hole, holds a bough before him; even the seamless coat may be compared to Ino's veil, and the fisher to the swineheard, dame Breide's templars would be Penelope's suitors, and angels are sent often, like Zeus's messengers. Yet many things take a different turn, more in German fashion, and incidents are added, such as the laying of a naked sword between the newly married couple, which the Greek story knows nothing of. The hero's name is found even in OHG. [LexiLine note: OHG = Old High German] documents: Orendil . . , Orentil ... a village Orendelsal, now Orendensall, in Hohenlohe . . . But the Edda has another myth, which was alluded to in speaking of the stone in Thor's head. Groa is busy conning her magic spell, when Thorr, to requite her for the approaching cure, imparts the welcome news, that in coming from Jötunheim in the North [LexiLine note: Jotenheim is in today's Norway] he has carried her husband the bold Örvandill in a basket on his back, and he is sure to be home soon; he adds by way of token, that as Örvandil's toe had stuck out of the basket and got frozen, he broke it off and flung it at the sky, and made a star of it, which is called Örvandils-tâ. But Groa in her joy at the tidings forgot her spell, so the stone in the god's head never got loose (Snorri's Skaldskap. 17).'

Powell,(3) in his turn, compares the hero to Orion in his keen interpretation:

'The story of Orwandel (the analogue of Orion the Hunter) must be gathered chiefly from the prose Edda. He was a huntsman, big enough and brave enough to cope with giants. He was the friend of Thor, the husband of Groa, the father of Swipdag, the enemy of the giant Coller and the monster Sela. The story of his birth, and of his being blinded, are lost apparently in the Teutonic stories, unless we may suppose that the bleeding of Robin Hood till he could not see, by the traitorous prioress, is the last remains of the story of the great archer's death. Dr. Rydberg regards him and his kinsfolk as doublets of those three men of feats, Egil the archer, Weyland the smith, and Finn the harper, and these again doublets of the three primeval artists, the sons of Iwaldi, whose story is told in the prose Edda.'

It is not known which star, or constellation, Örvandils-tâ [LexiLine note: this means Horvandillus's Toe] was supposed to be. Apart from such wild notions as that the whole of Orion represented his toe (4) — to identify it with Rigel, i.e., beta Orionis, would be worth discussing ... [LexiLine note - as Andis Kaulins has discovered, the toe of Hor-Vandillus is the star Cursa, next to Rigel, as proven by the predynastic Pharaonic wall painting at Naqada (Hierakonpolis) where the leg and foot of the Giant can still be seen, with Cursa marking the Toe.]

It is not his toe alone, however, which grants to Hamlet's father his cosmic background: some lines of Cynewulf's Christ dedicate to the hero the following words:

Hail, Earendel, brightest of angels thou, [Lexiline note: this refers to the bright stars of Orion]
sent unto men upon this middle-earth!
Thou art the true refulgence of the sun,
radiant above the stars, and from thyself
illuminest for ever all the tides of time. (6)

The experts disagree ... since ancient glosses render Earendel with "Jubar," (7) and Jubar is generally accepted for Venus..."
[end of quote from Hamlet's Mill]

That last sentence is an error in sources cited to by Hamlet's Mill in assigning "Jubar" to Venus, since as Richard Hinckley Allen in his Star Names writes at page 306,
Arabic Jabbar, viz. Syrian Gabbara meant
the giant "Orion".
____________

1 TM, pp. 374f. See also K. Simrock, Der ungenähte Rock oder Konig Orendel (1845), p. ix.
2 Also written Ise or Eise, and derived from Isis, by Simrock; considering that the fisherman's modest home has seven towers, with 800 fishermen as his servants, Ise/ Eisen looks more like the Fisher King of Arthurian Romances. [LexiLine note: see the seven layers of heaven in the ancient Hebrew astronomy]
3 In his introduction to Elton's translation of Saxo, p. cxxiii.
4 R. H. Allen, Star Names (1963), p. 310.
...
6 See TM, p. 375; I. Gollancz, Hamlet in Iceland (1898), p. xxxvii; Reuter, p. 256.
7 O jubar, angelorum splendidissime ... See R. Heinzel, Über das Gedicht von König Orendel (1892), p. 15.

Ancient Egypt, the Sun, the Stars and the Calendar

Ancient Egypt, the Sun, the Stars and the Calendar

A New Inscribed Slab Found in Egypt Validates the Kaulins Chronology of Egypt and the Ancient World

One of the most significant finds of ALL TIME for the chronology of the ancient world has recently been found.

As you can read at the April 19, 2004 article "Ancient inscribed slab brought to light" at
http://snipurl.com/60la
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=qw1082380500222B221&set_id=1&click_id=588&sf=

[start of quote]
"... A team of German and Egyptian archaeologists working in the Nile Delta has unearthed "quite a remarkable" stele dating back 2 200 years to Ptolemaic Egypt which bears an identical inscription in three written languages - like the famed Rosetta Stone.

Announcing the find on Monday, University of Potsdam chief Egyptologist Christian Tietze said the stone fragment was "quite remarkable and the most significant of its kind to be found in Egypt in 120 years".

The grey granite stone, 99cm high and 84cm wide, was found "purely by accident" at the German excavation site of the ruined city of Bubastis, a once important religious and political centre 90km north-east of modern-day Cairo.

It shows a royal decree, written in ancient Greek, Demotic and Hieroglyphs, that mentions King Ptolemy III Euergetes I along with the date 238 BC.

"The decree is significant because it specifically mentions a reform of the ancient Egyptian calendar which was not in fact actually implemented until some 250 years later under Julius Caesar," Tietze said.

The inscription consists of 67 lines of Greek text and 24 lines of Demotic along with traces of Hieroglyphs outlining the calendar reform and praising Ptolemy.

The king is lauded for importing grain from Syria, Phoenicia and Cyprus to alleviate famine in ancient Egypt, among other deeds.

"It documents the might and beneficence of Ptolemy III," Tietze said."
[end of quote]

Of course, it is absolute nonsense by the mainstream archaeologists to claim that this inscribed slab documents an Egyptian calendar reform which was then only implemented 250 years later by Julius Caesar. How absolutely provincial!

Of course, the "inscribed slab" just found documents a calendar reform actually made - IN EGYPT - at the time of the writing of this slab, as one would expect.

See my chronology of the world page at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi760.htm
where I write: "236 BC Restoration of the Etruscan 'Secular (calendric) Games' in Rome".

What calendric reform is being made? - it is the "great leap year" adjustment for the passage of 1440 years (4 x 360 viz. 3 x 480) years.

The calendar of Pharaonic Egypt, as I have discovered and always alleged, began in 3117 BC, and 1440 years later was 1677 BC, which was the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period in Egypt.

Another 1440 years later (4 x 360 viz. 3 x 480) gives us 237 BC, continuing a tradition established by Khasekhemwy in 2637 BC (2638 BC) of adjusting the calendar every 480 years, which I have long had posted at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi760.htm
(years are here all adjusted to reflect exact 480-year divisions, whereas exact calendric reform will result in uneven yearly divisions)

3117 BC start of the calendar
2637 BC reform of the Calendar by Khasekhemwy for the tropical year
2157 BC First Intermediate Period
1677 BC Second Intermediate Period
1197 BC Rule of King David (Sethos) begins - whence Hall of Records
717 BC Start of the reign of Numa Pompilius,
the 1st calendric king of Rome, begins
237 BC Restoration of the Etruscan
"Secular (calendric) Games" in Rome - whence the building of Edfu

It was in fact at the time referred to in the newly found inscribed calendric slab that Ptolemy III Euergetes I began the building of the Horus Temple of Edfu (see Dieter Kurth, Edfu, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1994 where he gives the date as 237 BC).

In fact, as the mainstream Egyptologists have not recognized, but as we now know here to certainty for the first time, Edfu is a calendric temple marking this calendric reform and the celebration of the passage of 1440 years (4 x 360 years). Note that Ed-fu = Latvian Dievu "belonging to God" which is the same meaning given to "Ed-fu" by the Egyptologists.

Traditionally, it has been thought that the Sothic period of 4 x 365 years - based on the star Sirius - was determinative for adjusting the solar to the tropical year, but as Eduard Meyer wrote, no Egyptian source ties the Sothic Year to Sirius nor to the period of 1460 rather than 1440 years.
See http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi20.htm

We now know that the Pharaonic Egyptian "great leap year" was tied to the Sun and extended for 1440 years.

Sothic Period and Sothic Year

Although people all tend to talk about the "Sothic Year", including yours truly, there is a subtle difference between the "Sothic Period" and the "Sothic Year".

Here is what Duncan Steel writes in his book "Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar", John Wiley & Sons, 2000, p. 40:

"...the Egyptian civil calendar followed a grand cycle with duration equal to what is know as the Sothic period or cycle, this being 1,461 Egyptian years (of 365 days) long, or 1,460 Julian years (of 365.25 days)."

That is usually what is meant when people talk about the long Sothic year, the essential point being that 1461 "solar" years of 365 days = 1460 "star" years of 365.25 days, so that a gigantic "leap" year is required to conform the two calendric systems.

But as Steel writes, p. 41:

"... the period between heliacal rising of Sirius (the Sothic year, as opposed to Sothic period) is not equal to the Julian year of 365.25 days... A handful of millennia back the sidereal year was about 365.2564 days long, but this is determined for a star on the ecliptic. For a star some distance from the ecliptic, as is Sirius, the annual round will be slightly different. The center of Egyptian astronomy was at Memphis... and at that latitude ... in that epoch the average interval between heliacal rising of Sirius was 365.2507 days."

This made for a difference of 2 days in 3000 years.

Plus, you have the fact that the tropical year is 365.2424 days, which adds another variable.

I recommend Steel's book for in-depth reading on stars and calendric matters.

Mars - Spirit Rover - Comet Wild 2 - Stardust Spacecraft

The Feed Room has a live feed from NASA containing interviews and some great video coverage of the Spirit Rover on Mars. It also includes great video material on the Stardust Spacecraft built to examine the particles in the tail of Comet Wild 2.

This is a superb example of the wonderful things we humans are able to achieve when we work together for a noble objective. It stands in stark contrast to many of the negative things produced by humanity which fill our evening news reports. Let us choose the former, not the latter.

See the Night Sky from Mars

In a Yahoo science article by Pedro Braganca of SPACE.com entitledYahoo! News - The Night Sky from Mars!, Bragance points out that Starry Night Pro is software which can be used to take a virtual journey to Mars - the planet that is currently in the forefront of attention due to NASA probes arriving in January at that planet.

Braganca's article also has a lot of general info on the Martian planet.