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tiompan

5758 posts

Re: Lost Festivals at Megalithic Sites

Dec 16, 2009, 15:21

scubi63 wrote:

tiompan wrote:

If the pleiades were markers then precession would be a problem , but as both can be calculated from the more reliable solar /lunar cycles why should anyone bother ,with a the pleiades and how do we know they did ?

I was following this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disk
during my Archy studies and found it interesting.

Something in me says there is a chance it could be fake as its provenance looks a little dodgy as it was taken out of its context by the dreaded MD's, however, Wiki says it is now accepted as real so thats good enough for me ;o)

However, taking at face value the disc does show a group of stars assumed to be the Pleiades. I can't think of any other group of stars in the Northern Hemisphere skies that look remotely like those on the disc (but I am no astronomer).

An interesting object nonetheless and maybe a pointer towards the significance of the Pleiades in prehistoric Europe.

:o)

Scubi

Yep Scubi , it's a odd one Nebra I can never decide . The Pleiades like Orion would surely figure in cosmologies all over the world and may even have been used to commemorrate the the start of work or alignment of a passage in a passage grave .The builders would have realised that it would only do the job for a while though . A lot of chambered cairns are roughly facing east which suggests a possible equinox orienation but in the third millenium bc the Pleiades would also have been seen to rise on the horizon so could arguably have been the "marker " but it is quite a bit further north today .

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Re: Lost Festivals at Megalithic Sites (scubi63)

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