We knew from our analysis and decipherment of the Shelton Stone Mound Complex near Jacksonville, Alabama that a mound group in southern Alabama was likely to mark the stars of the Pleiades, and so it is.
The Bottle Creek Indian Mounds were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994, and, according to the Wikipedia entry, comprise "the largest site of the Mississippian culture on the central Gulf Coast". The site is currently somewhat remote to reach, but perhaps in the ancient period access was easier.
According to our analysis, the Bottle Creek Mounds in southern Alabama, north of Mobile, mark the stars of the Pleiades, as one can see from our following decipherment image.
The mound positions are based on an online map of Bottle Creek from the Center for Archaeological Studies, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama http://www.southalabama.edu/archaeology/bottle-creek-map.html. Star positions are based on the astronomy software program, Starry Night Pro.
We have set the star magnitude limit at 7.25 so that the stars shown in our decipherment image are the only stars visible in that clipped section of the starry sky when limited to that magnitude. The presentation of the Pleiades is not exact to scale at Bottle Creek, but the overlap of mounds and stars is of course fantastic, nevertheless. Some of the smaller stars are not "mounded" in part because they are so close to bright stars that they are probably blotted out to the naked eye. That leaves only one star at star magnitude 7.25 or brighter within the Pleiades cluster not accounted for by a mound, probably because of the nearby water, which already forced Mounds F and G to be constructed a bit nearer to the mounds of the brightest stars than those lesser stars actually are.
Looking at the stars at that magnitude also explains the inclusion of the stars HIP18508 and HIP18559 as the Mounds O and R, somewhat distant from the central Pleiades cluster, since they marked the line of the Ecliptic Meridian in 2500 B.C., a date to which we assign the initial layout of the site, even if it were occupied much later by the Pensacola culture, for whom Bottle Creek was the center of the culture. At a star limit magnitude limit of 7.25, there are no stars between those two stars and the main Pleiades cluster.
Please note that our dating of the mound layout is not critical for the actual identification of the stars represented by the mounds. We could err on the date, but in this case, never on the stars represented, which is a lock.
There is very little likelihood that this kind of a match of mounds and stars of the Pleiades could occur by chance, especially since it also involves nearly all the brightest stars of the Pleiades being marked by the larger mounds and the lesser stars being marked by lesser mounds, as one would expect, although that match is not always perfect, perhaps because star brightness can be variable.
Lastly, based upon all of our previous decipherments, the Pleiades properly occupy this location in the ancient continental Native America land survey by astronomy.
THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 48 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America
The Bottle Creek Mounds north of Mobile, Alabama Mark the Stars of the Pleiades
The Bottle Creek Indian Mounds were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994, and, according to the Wikipedia entry, comprise "the largest site of the Mississippian culture on the central Gulf Coast". The site is currently somewhat remote to reach, but perhaps in the ancient period access was easier.
According to our analysis, the Bottle Creek Mounds in southern Alabama, north of Mobile, mark the stars of the Pleiades, as one can see from our following decipherment image.
The mound positions are based on an online map of Bottle Creek from the Center for Archaeological Studies, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama http://www.southalabama.edu/archaeology/bottle-creek-map.html. Star positions are based on the astronomy software program, Starry Night Pro.
We have set the star magnitude limit at 7.25 so that the stars shown in our decipherment image are the only stars visible in that clipped section of the starry sky when limited to that magnitude. The presentation of the Pleiades is not exact to scale at Bottle Creek, but the overlap of mounds and stars is of course fantastic, nevertheless. Some of the smaller stars are not "mounded" in part because they are so close to bright stars that they are probably blotted out to the naked eye. That leaves only one star at star magnitude 7.25 or brighter within the Pleiades cluster not accounted for by a mound, probably because of the nearby water, which already forced Mounds F and G to be constructed a bit nearer to the mounds of the brightest stars than those lesser stars actually are.
Looking at the stars at that magnitude also explains the inclusion of the stars HIP18508 and HIP18559 as the Mounds O and R, somewhat distant from the central Pleiades cluster, since they marked the line of the Ecliptic Meridian in 2500 B.C., a date to which we assign the initial layout of the site, even if it were occupied much later by the Pensacola culture, for whom Bottle Creek was the center of the culture. At a star limit magnitude limit of 7.25, there are no stars between those two stars and the main Pleiades cluster.
Please note that our dating of the mound layout is not critical for the actual identification of the stars represented by the mounds. We could err on the date, but in this case, never on the stars represented, which is a lock.
There is very little likelihood that this kind of a match of mounds and stars of the Pleiades could occur by chance, especially since it also involves nearly all the brightest stars of the Pleiades being marked by the larger mounds and the lesser stars being marked by lesser mounds, as one would expect, although that match is not always perfect, perhaps because star brightness can be variable.
Lastly, based upon all of our previous decipherments, the Pleiades properly occupy this location in the ancient continental Native America land survey by astronomy.
THIS POSTING IS Posting Number 48 of
The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America
The Bottle Creek Mounds north of Mobile, Alabama Mark the Stars of the Pleiades
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