Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)

(Google forgot my name Franz Gnaedinger)

Hill of Creation (Göbekli Tepe) part 60

Asherah

On the earth mound of the Göbekli Tepe - five
meters of earth deposited on the limestone hill
some 12,000 years ago - may have stood the
first Asherah sanctuary, both an astronomical
observatory and a calendar: in the center a tree
of life, around it a dozen poles, arranged like the
hours on a dial, four of them marking the cardinal
directions. Assuming a flat horizon, the circle of
dozen poles provided sighting lines for the rising
and setting sun on the solstices and equinoxes
(owing to the geographical latitude of the place).
Moreover, each pole stood for a month of 30 days,
together 360 days (origin of the division of the circle
into 360 degrees), while the tree of life in the center,
or the space between the tree and an altar, added
5 days, accounting for a regular solar year of 365
days. The five additional days may have been
partitioned into two days of midwinter, turn of year,
and three days of midsummer. An occasional leap
day was inserted every couple of years, keeping
the calendar in sync with the four seasons. 63
continuous periods of 30 days, or 270 weeks of 7
days, are 1,890 days and correspond to 63 lunations
(mistake per lunation less than one minute, half a day
in a lifetime).

ShA means ruler. Inverse ASh may have been
the word for the tree of life, surviving in English ash,
world tree of Norse mythology. Trees were inhabited
and personified by goddesses, for example the
sycamore by the Egyptian sky goddess Nut.
The four branches of the stylized tree in the Asherah
sanctuary depicted on the oval clay pendant from
Teleilat Ghassoul, culture of Beersheba, Chalcolithic,
around 3 500 BC (kept in the Archaeological Museum
of the Papal Bible-Institute Jerusalem) are pointing
skyward. A double formula may have invoked the
goddess of the Asherah sanctuary:

ASh AAR RAA, AS AAR RAA

Tree of life ASh personified,
consort of the one composed
of air AAR and light RAA

Branches and raised arms
pointing upward AS
toward the one composed
of air AAR and light RAA

The mulberry tree on the highest of the four
hilltops of the Göbekli Tepe, used as a wishing
tree by the local farmers, may grow at the very
place of the former tree of life and Asherah
sanctuary. The later stone pillar temples use
the same calendar model. Also cult building III
at nearby Nevali Cori, 12 pillars along the walls
for 30 days each, plus the space between the
pair of central pillars for 5 additional days. Cult
building III would refer to the solar year of the
Lebombo calendar and the calendar in the
middle of the axial gallery of the Lascaux cave:
13 pillars for 28 days each, the space between
the pair of central pillars for 1 more day.

Next time: Israel revisited

-

Hill of Creation (Göbekli Tepe) part 59

Lascaux

The axial gallery of the Lascaux cave
represents a solar year, the glorious rotunda
midsummer morning, and a niche at the rear
end of the gallery midwinter, symbolized by
the pair of opposing ibices (Marie E.P. König).
The bulls represent the moon, the horses the
sun (Marie König). In the middle of the axial
gallery, opposing the running horses and the
flow of time, stands a magnificient roaring
megaceros, in my opinion the arch-shaman
of Lascaux, before him is a line of thirteen dots,
a standing rectangle, and a big dot. I read the
rectangle as the calendar of one solar year,
13 days wide, (28 lines high), equalling 364
days, while the additional dot on the left side
of the rectangle would contribute one more day,
accounting for a regular solar year of 365 days.

A second calendar is encoded in the niche
at the rear end of the axial gallery: a lunisolar
calendar. A diagram shows two time three
fields, one of them being halved:

/ ---- / ---- / ---- /
/ - / - / ---- / ---- /

I read this diagram as encoding of eleven lunations
to be counted in the 30 29 30 29 30 ... mode, starting
from the left upper corner, proceeding clockwise:

/ 30 29 / 30 29 / 30 29 /
/ -- / 30 / 29 30 / 29 30 /

Eleven lunations, counted that way, are 325 days,
a key number of this calendar.

Now a square with an indication of a grid of three
times three small squares is shown between the
pair of opposing ibices. I read this diagram as
a solar calendar. Start in the middle, proceed to
the right upper corner, then clockwise:

h i b
g a c
f e d

41 40 41
40 41 40
41 40 41

The field of 40 days can be laid out as a pattern
of syncopic lines of alternately 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4
pebbles, the field of 41 days by 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5
pebbles, and the diagram of 365 days by 5+4+5
/ 4+5+4 / 5+4+5 ... or 14 13 14 13 14 13 14 13
14 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14 13 14
13 14 13 14 pebbles. The result is a pleasing
optical square of syncopic lines of pebbles of
two different colors (marking the fields of 40
and 41 days respectively).

The periods a b c d e f g h i mark one solar year.

If a year begins with a full moon at the start of
period 'a', it will again be full moon at the begin
of period 'i', and again at the begin of period 'h'
next year, and again at the begin of period 'g'
in the third year, and so on. If you count out the
numbers this way:

a b c d e f g h
i a b c d e f g
h i a b c d e f
g h i a b c d e
f g h i a b c d
e f g h i a b c
d e f g h i a b
c d e f g h i a
b c d e f g h i

you will get 325 days for each sequence but
the last one. This means the lunisolar calendar
works for eight years, whereupon leap days
must be added, and the relation of sun and
moon adjusted by the arch-shaman of Lascaux.

Numerical basis of this amazing lunisolar calendar:
8 years are practially 99 lunations. This 'equation'
must laready have been known 18'000 years ago.

Next time: Göbekli Tepe and Nevali Cori

-

Hill of Creation (Göbekli Tepe) part 58

Lebombo calendar

An African genius living 30,000 years ago
in the region of Lebombo in Central Equatorial
Africa handed out bones, Pavian femurs, each
one decorated with a row of notches, and told
people: These bones hold magic power, the
notches command the eyes of heaven, they
rule the lunar year and solar year:

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

How do they achieve that? I'll show you. Gather
plenty of small pebbles, then lay out a line of
as many pebbles as there are notches on your
bone:

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Find out the central pebble and replace it by a pebble
of another color:

oooooooooooooo+oooooooooooooo

Now lay another line on top of your line, so that each
rounding of one line fills a valley of the other line,
and make the new line a little longer, like this:

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooo+oooooooooooooo

These lines rule the moon. Each pebble represents
one day. The lunar years follow the pattern: longer
line, shorter line, longer line, shorter line, longer line,
shorter line, longer line ...

Now for the solar year we need many more pebbles.
I will convey the idea of the new pattern starting from
a short initial line:

o o o o o + o o o o o

Turn the parts of the line next to the central pebble
of a different color into squares, and connect the
bottom lines of the squares with one more pebble
opposite the central one in the top line, like this:

o o o o o + o o o o o
o o o o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o o o o
o o o o o + o o o o o

Now go for this pattern using the long line. If you
make it right, the pebbles below the top line will
represent a solar year.

(Numbers: initial line 29 or 14+1+14, top line 30,
lunar pattern 30 29 30 29 30 29 30 ..., solar pattern
13 x 14 plus 1 plus 13 x 14 = 182 + 1 + 182 = 365)

Next time: Lascaux

-

Hill of Creation (Göbekli Tepe) part 57

Calculating lunations

The Paleolithic way of calculating lunations
was to lay out pebbles in a syncopic way:

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

In numbers: 30 29 30 29 30 ... Have a look
at the following table listing up the results
of this method for seventeen lunations,
first row, then giving the actual values,
then the rounded actual values. If you want
to check my numbers, here is the actual
lunation, average modern value from 1989:
29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.9 seconds.

30 29.530... rounded 30
59 59.061... rounded 59
89 89.591... rounded 89
118 118.122... rounded 118
148 147.652... rounded 148
177 177.183... rounded 177
207 206.714... rounded 207
236 236.244... rounded 236
266 265.775... rounded 266
295 295.305... rounded 295
325 324.836... rounded 325
354 354.367... rounded 354
384 383.897... rounded 384
413 413.428... rounded 413
443 442.958... rounded 443
472 472.489... rounded 472
502 502.020... rounded 502

By adding up strings of odd numbers
of lunations you can calculate longer
strings of even numbers of lunations:

17 lunations 502 days
15 lunations 443 days
17 lunations 502 days
15 lunations 443 days

32 lunations 945 days
64 lunations 1,890 days

The latter is the value of the Göbekli Tepe
calendar, 63 continuous periods of 30 days
or 270 weeks of 7 days are 1,890 days
and correspond to 64 lunations of 29 days
12 hours 45 minutes, mistake less than one
minute per lunation, or half a day in a lifetime.

Next time: the lunisolar calendar from the
Lebombo cave, Central Equatorial Africa,
30,000 years old

-
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... represents a solar year, the glorious rotunda ... A second calendar is encoded in the niche ... I read this diagram as encoding of eleven lunations ... pebbles, and the diagram of 365 days by 5+4+5 ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)
    ... Here again the basic Azilian lunisolar calendar from Goebekli ... periods of 30 days yield 1,890 days and equal 64 lunations. ... moon NUL, 3 days for the young moon, 6 days for the waxing ... But consider that the empty moon is close to the sun, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)
    ... evidence for this calendar is provided by the oval temples ... on the circumference of the circle with poles, ... of 12 poles on a circle around a Tree of Life ... ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)
    ... Ovals BCD of Goebekli Tepe as lunisolar calendars ... a simple algorithm of calculating lunations ... Meanwhile I have reasons to assume that this calendar ... 15 plus 17 white pebbles equal 32 pebbles, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... as many pebbles as there are notches on your ... The Paleolithic way of calculating lunations ... calendar, 63 continuous periods of 30 days ... PIR GID 2 30 days ...
    (sci.lang)
Quantcast