The uncovering of a close 10,000 - year - old lunar calendar in Scotland has archaeologists jumble to rethink the commencement of account . The implications are vast , too . It turns out that the men of the Stone Age were n’t as primitive as we ’d previously think .
The calendar itself is rude to be certain . However , it ’s alsothe old calendar ever discoveredpredating the bronze calendar in Mesopotamia that had held that title until now by several millenia . The regalia is made up of 12 pits , one for each calendar month of the twelvemonth , coiffe in a 160 - foot - long arc and top with a serial publication of stones think to represent the phases of the moon . The full synodic month Lucy Stone , a round seven - foot - wide boulder , is prominently displayed in the middle , and on the far side is a notch to show where the sunshine would rise on the midwinter solstice 10,000 years ago .
While the basic uranology at work is telling , the simple existence of the calendar is arguably its most crucial trait . At this time the farming around the Dee River in Aberdeenshire where the calendar was found would have been populated by hunting watch - gatherer who would ’ve used the calendar to keep data track of the migrant patterns of the big biz that would pass through the area . But the arrangement of endocarp and stonesalso evidence man contemplating big question . As Vincent Gaffney , a prof of landscape archaeology at Birmingham University who direct the mining team , put it , “ It represent a clock time when people became implicated with counter and mensuration and fourth dimension and in some path represents the get-go of history . ”
More than anything , however , this calendar ’s existence is just proof that we still know shockingly piffling about sprightliness at this item in account . Or as Richard Bates , a geophysicist from University of St. Andrews who also helped with the dig , tell National Geographic , “ It register that Stone Age society was far more sophisticated than we have antecedently believe , particularly up north , which until lately has been kind of a blank page for us . ”
From here it will be interesting to step back and compare the method in Scotland with those witness in the Fertile Crescent and begin to see how these ideas might have spread . Until then , book your tickets now to go see Stone Henge ’s ancient , less epical but much sometime big brother . [ GizmagviaNational Geographic ]
ArchaeologyAstronomyCalendarsHistory
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