As now reported on March 12, 2005, at the Xinhua news website, Chinese archaeologists have found and correctly identified an axehead from Lamao Village, Qinghai, China, as being astronomical and have dated it to ca. 3000 BC.
According to the news report:
"Liu Baoshan, head of the Qinghai Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, said seven holes on the stone knife clearly form the Big Dipper and another three holes form [stars at] Altair."
Congratulations, men of China, on the identification of Ursa Major.
However, we think that the identification of Altair in Aquila is wrong. Our corrected decipherment of the axe is found below, adding some newly identified astronomical features of the axe:
We have made the above appropriate corrections based upon our long experience with these matters.
We have newly identified Ursa Minor for the cupmarks in the center, between the Ecliptic and Celestial Poles (the holes in the axe), as the ancients regarded the three bright stars of Ursa Minor (Kochab, Pherkad and Polaris) as well as the star HIP47193 (to the left of Polaris) to be important. Polaris is marked as the alpha-star in Ursa Minor above.
To the right of Ursa Minor we find Cygnus, where only the front four stars are used, together with Lyra and the star Vega. This corresponds to ancient Chinese practice, for as noted by Richard Hinckley Allen in Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (Dover, New York, 1963), Tien Tsin was the name of a heavenly city, a name "generally ... given to the group of four stars alpha, beta [epsilon ?], gamma and delta". We might add that these cupmarks could just represent the stars of Cygnus alone, but for that they would have to be turned quite a bit and the angles look not quite right then.
The two large holes in the axe mark from left to right the North Ecliptic Pole (immovable center of heaven) and the North Celestial Pole (Pole Star position, movable by precession, which rotates around the Ecliptic Pole).
The double headed-axe is similar to the Roman double-faced Janus or the Minoan double axe, both marking the solstice.
By the position of the holes with respect to Ursa Major the axe can be dated to ca. 3000 BC.
Hat Tip to Stone Pages
and to
Coast to Coast with Goerge Noory
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Ancient, History of Astronomy, Archaeoastronomy, China, Ancient China, Megalithic, Planispheres.
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