Major Astronomical Sites Discovered in Utah

Ohio Wesleyan art professor uncovers celestial connection in desert Southwest Sunday, November 1, 2009 3:40 AM By Doug Caruso THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Jim Krehbiel was up past midnight making a piece of art by layering maps and field notes onto photos he had taken of an ancient ritual site high on a cliff ledge in the desert Southwest. He looked at the image of the kiva and remembered how the ruins were nearly inaccessible. Krehbiel had to lower himself on a rope to reach them. Why, he wondered that night in the fall of 2007, would anyone build something so important in such a remote spot among the canyons and mesas? It was then that the chairman of Ohio Wesleyan University's art department found himself at the conjunction of archaeology and astronomy. Perhaps, he thought, the site was an observatory; a place to help religious leaders keep track of the solstices, time rituals and plantings. "Their world around them is absolute, total chaos," Krehbiel said. "They were really at the mercy of the elements. "So where do they go for something that's predictable, that remains the same, that you can count on: The sky and the relationship of those things on the horizon." A discussion with Barbara Andereck, a professor of astronomy and physics at Ohio Wesleyan, put Krehbiel on a path that would help him test his ideas about the remote kivas he visited each summer. Krehbiel was stepping into archeo-astronomy, the study of the ways ancient cultures tracked the sky's movements. The science has been gaining acceptance as a branch of archaeology since the 1970s. England's Stonehenge, for example, is well known for its alignments with astronomical phenomena. In Ohio, archaeologists agree that ancient mound builders lined up some works with the movements of the sun and the moon. In the Southwest, the most famous site is the Chaco Sun Dagger. The sun and moon shine through the spaces between slabs of rock to make slashes of light on a spiral carving in conjunction with the solstices and the movements of the moon. But no one had identified such alignments at hundreds of remote ruins that dot the canyons of southeastern Utah. Rest of article.

Canada's Stonehenge?

Story from the GlobeandMail.com BOB WEBER The Canadian Press January 29, 2009 at 3:54 PM EST EDMONTON — An academic maverick is challenging conventional wisdom on Canada's prehistory by claiming an archeological site in southern Alberta is really a vast, open-air sun temple with a precise 5,000-year-old calendar predating England's Stonehenge and Egypt's pyramids. Mainstream archeologists consider the rock-encircled cairn to be just another medicine wheel left behind by early aboriginals. But a new book by retired University of Alberta professor Gordon Freeman says it is in fact the centre of a 26-square-kilometre stone “lacework” that marks the changing seasons and the phases of the moon with greater accuracy than our current calendar. “Genius existed on the prairies 5,000 years ago,” says Mr. Freeman, the widely published former head of the university's physical and theoretical chemistry department. Mr. Freeman's fascination with prairie prehistory dates back to his Saskatchewan boyhood. He and his father would comb the short grasses of the plains in search of artifacts exposed by the scouring wind. That curiosity never left him and he returned to it as he prepared to retire from active teaching. Looking for a hobby, he asked a friend with an interest in history to suggest a few intriguing sites to visit. On a warm late-August day in 1980, that list drew him to what he has come to call Canada's Stonehenge, which is also the title of his book. A central cairn atop one of a series of low hills overlooking the Bow River, about 70 kilometres east of Calgary, had been partially excavated in 1971 and dated at about 5,000 years old. But as he approached it, Freeman strongly felt there was much more there than previously thought. “As we walked toward the hilltop, I saw all kinds of patterns in the rocks on the way up. As I walked around the hilltop, I could see patterns that I doubted very much were accidental.” Mr. Freeman photographed what he saw and showed the images to archeologists. They told him the rocks, some of which weigh up to a tonne, had been randomly distributed by melting glaciers. But those rocks and rock piles, Mr. Freeman said, had been “highly engineered,” shimmied and balanced and wedged in ways he couldn't believe were natural. And so began a magnificent obsession — 28 years of photographing the site in summer and winter, observing the alignment of rocks and how they coincided with the recurring patterns of sun, moon and stars. Mr. Freeman estimates he and his wife Phyllis have spent a total of seven months living at the site. Twelve thousand photographs with precise times and dates are neatly catalogued in his files. What he found: The central cairn is surrounded by 28 radiating stone lines, four of which align with the cardinal points of the compass. Those lines are encircled by another ring of stones. A few metres away lies a stone semicircle, with a large stone between it and the central cairn. The left edge of the semicircle lines up with both the central stone and the right edge of the cairn, and vice versa. To Mr. Freeman, those features represent the sun, the crescent moon and the morning star. As well, there are secondary cairns on nearby hills and rock assemblages that seem to correspond to constellations. And after years of rising before dawn, in all seasons and weather, to carefully photograph the positions of the sun, Mr. Freeman found the rocks once thought to be simply strewn across the prairie instead mark the progression of the year with uncanny accuracy. The rising and setting sun on both the longest and shortest days of the year lines up precisely with V-shaped sights in the temple's rocks. The spring and autumn equinoxes, when day and night are equal, are similarly marked. They are not the equinoxes of the Gregorian calendar currently used, however, but the true astronomical equinoxes. Mr. Freeman is convinced the temple contains a lunar calendar as well, because the 28 rays radiating from the central cairn correspond to the length of the lunar cycle. “I thought I would complete that study in a couple years,” says Mr. Freeman, a laughing, vigorous 78. “Twenty-eight years later we're still making discoveries.” Mainstream archeology hasn't been exactly welcoming. Despite being highly regarded in his own field, Mr. Freeman says journals have rejected his papers and conferences have denied him a platform. Professionals in any field resist interlopers from other disciplines and archeology is no exception, he says. But he suggests conventional wisdom can restrict insight. “If you have preconceptions, you're never going to discover anything.” Although he hasn't read Canada's Stonehenge, University of Alberta archeologist Jack Ives is familiar with Mr. Freeman's theories. He says recent research suggests some astronomical knowledge developed in Central and South America flowed north to the plains, where it was adapted by people for their own purposes. “There is some basis for thinking there was sophisticated astronomical knowledge,” says Mr. Ives. But what exactly is manifested in the medicine wheels? “They may certainly reflect solstices and equinoxes. How much more sophisticated beyond that has been a subject of debate.” But Mr. Ives points out the terrain in question is an ancient glacial moraine, full of naturally occurring rocks. “You have to be very careful about what you line up.” Mr. Freeman, however, is convinced. He looks forward to the academic debate to come. “I know my song well before I sing it,” he says, quoting Bob Dylan. Meanwhile, Mr. Freeman hopes to use any publicity generated by his book to push for preservation of the site. Part of it is privately owned, but most is Crown land and open to both the energy industry and casual, possibly destructive, visitors. “The place is so far away from anything that it's not adequately protected.” Mr. Freeman is a man of science, trained to trust hard data and believe evidence over sensation. But after 28 years unravelling a message in mute stones, the wind in his hair and the sun on his face, absorbed in ancient mysteries, the site has come to evoke in him something akin to reverence. “I can go down there with a headache and within a day everything is gone. It's just like a cure. There is something down there. I just don't know how to describe it. “I just feel very comfortable there. I just feel comfortable.”

Ancient Chinese Astronomers Earn New Respect

This article demonstrates how important - and how seriously - the ancient Chinese took their astronomical observations. According to Joseph Needham, it is quite possible that the precursor of Xiang Qi (Chinese chess) was Xiangi Xi - the "astronomical" game, invented possibly 50-100 years before Xiangi Qi appeared. Ancient Chinese Astronomy: New insights from old information 26 Nov 2007 By Nigel Henbest China has the world’s longest-running observations of the sky: though based in astrology, they are of unique importance to astronomy today. In 210 BC, the great First Emperor of China was buried near Xi’an with his famous Terracotta Army of full-sized clay warriors. According a contemporary account, his own tomb – yet to be excavated – was even more lavish, containing a fabulous double map: “Below was a map of the Earth. The hundred rivers of the Empire were modeled in mercury: cleverly designed machines made the rivers flow. Above everything was the starry vault.” This map reflected the crucial role that the sky played in ancient Chinese thought. The heavens weren’t remote from everyday life. The sky was a mirror of the Earth. Every time that something unexpected occurred in the sky, it showed a disruption on the Earth – which, in effect, meant somewhere in China. To pinpoint exactly where, the Chinese split the stars into 283 small constellations, representing different parts of the Empire. On 7 December, AD 185, for instance, Chinese astronomers spotted a brilliant new star and reported: “A guest star appeared within the Southern Gate. It was as large as half a mat; it showed the five colours and it scintillated.” The Astronomer Royal alerted the Emperor, and decisive action was taken against the region corresponding to the Southern Gate. “The governor of the metropolitan region Yuan Shao punished and eliminated the middle officials… and several thousand people were killed.” The Chinese astronomers kept watch from a raised platform, where four observers faced north, south, east and west; while a fifth lay on his back and looked straight upwards – surely the best job! The next morning they reported to the Astronomical Bureau, which kept records from 206 BC to AD 1912 – the longest-lived bureaucracy the world has ever seen. Today, astronomers can mine this ancient archive for unique information on astronomical events. New insights from old information British astronomer Richard Stephenson, who taught himself ancient Chinese and is now a leading expert on the astronomy of the Far East, has looked into the “guest star” of AD 185. He identifies the Southern Gate as the two bright stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri. And he concludes that the guest star was so brilliant that it had to be a nearby supernova – the most violent kind of stellar explosion. Led by the Chinese results, Stephenson has pinpointed where the explosion occurred. And here astronomers studying X-rays from the Cosmos with the orbiting Chandra Observatory have located the incandescent fireball still expanding from the 2000-year-old explosion. “One of the key things is that you have a definite date,” Stephenson explains, “so you know precisely how long the remnant has been evolving.” The Chinese observations can also indicate how bright the supernova was. “In the case of a supernova seen in AD 1006,” Stephenson continues, “the Chinese said it was so bright that you could see things on the ground by its light.” These ancient observations really come into their own with the supernova spotted in July AD 1054. A star exploded in the constellation we know as Taurus, shining so brilliantly it was visible in daylight for 23 days. Today, in this location we find the twisted wreck of the long-dead star: the Crab Nebula. It’s powered by a collapsed core of the old star, which lurks at the centre of the nebula as a pulsar – a super-dense ball of neutrons only 25 km across, spinning around 30 times a second. Astronomers and physicists are short in understanding how neutron stars change as they grow older. With the Crab Pulsar, the Chinese observations provide a unique piece of information: the pulsar’s age. We know that it was born exactly 953 years ago. The Chandra Observatory has also pinpointed pulsars within supernova remnants that - according to Stephenson - are the fireballs from stars the Chinese saw explode in AD 386 and 1181. Sometimes, the imperial astronomers were treated not to a guest star, but to a “broom star” – a fuzzy object that crawled across the sky, sweeping the sky with its tail. In 240 BC, they set down the world’s first record of the celestial visitor we now know as Halley’s Comet. In AD 530, the Chinese recorded Halley’s Comet with more precision: “On 1 September, it was one degree to the northwest of Xiatai [a star in Ursa Major].” These early fixes on the comet’s orbit meant that European mission controllers could predict its 1986 apparition with greater accuracy, enabling them to send the Giotto spacecraft through the comet’s heart with unerring precision. Ancient Chinese Eclipse Predictions The Chinese were also careful to record eclipses of the Sun – a portent of doom that would directly affect the Emperor or his family. “There was a total eclipse in 181 BC,” says Stephenson, “and the Emperor’s dowager was really alarmed by it: she died two years later.” An eclipse features in the earliest astronomical record in the world, from the Chinese city of Anyang. Around 3000 years ago, a diviner inscribed a question on an oracle bone – a polished shard of animal bone: “Diviner Ge asks if the following day will be sunny or not.” He pushed in a red-hot needle, and interpreted the ensuing cracks. Twenty-four hours later, the diviner inscribed the actual answer to the question. In this case, something rudely interrupted the sunshine: “Three flames ate the Sun, and big stars were seen.” This is clearly an account of a total solar eclipse. The “flames” were the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, with the brighter stars and planets becoming visible during the darkness of totality. To astronomers’ eternal gratitude, Diviner Ge recorded that the eclipse fell on the 52nd day of the 60-day lunar month. In 1989, NASA researchers calculated when a total solar eclipse would have been seen in China on the 52nd day of any month. The only date that fits is 5 June 1302 BC – making this eclipse the most ancient exactly dated astronomical event. This eclipse isn’t important only as a record-breaker. It reveals new information about the Earth’s rotation. Astronomers know that our day is gradually getting longer, due to the influence of the Moon’s gravity – that’s why we have to occasionally insert “leap seconds” to our clocks. But the rate of slowing isn’t constant. By studying exactly where eclipses have been seen over the past millennia, Stephenson has tracked the variation in the Earth’s rotation rate. As well as the Moon’s influence, he has to invoke minute changes in the Earth’s shape as the surface bounces back from the weight of ice sheets that burdened northern lands during the last Ice Age: “especially in the area around the Gulf of Bothnia, the land’s still rising at quite a rate.” These results are showing – in a way the ancient Chinese could never have predicted – that their scrutiny of the heavens has indeed been mirrored in the planet under their feet!