Adaryn
The Living Force
Came upon this by chance today:
_http://www.calibratezodiac108.com/chantal.html
_http://www.pciampi-astrology.com/articles/Lascaux_1.htm
Website of Chantal Jègues-Wolkiewiez: http://www.archeociel.com/Accueil_eng.htm
See also: "Palaeolithic European Constellations 1: Ice-age star maps?"
Chantal Jègues-Wolkiewiez is an independent researcher, astronomer and ethnologist with a PhD in Humanities. According to her studies, hunter gatherers spent long nights observing the sky, calculating, and recording their discoveries either on the walls of caves or on animal bones. Thanks to their analyses they could measure time and adapt to weather change. She has concluded that prehistoric men chose their caves according to the orientation of the sun, created measuring tools such as a lunar calendar, and their wall paintings were the first maps of the sky and stars.
Chantal's research and the theories presented by April Vihilidal clearly cross support and corroborate each other. Please visit Chantal Jègues-Wolkiewiez's web site and also read some of the corespondence between these two ground breaking researchers.
_http://www.calibratezodiac108.com/chantal.html
translation of LASCAUX PLANETARIUM PREHISTORIQUE? by Pedro Lima
The incredible discoveryof a paleo-astrononomer
SCIENCE & VIE,
December 2000
Translators note: The subject matter of this article was taken from a research study that was conducted in 1999-2000 by an independent paleo-astronomer (a scientist who studies the stars of the ancient sky) by the name of Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez.
The FALLING HORSE in the Axial Gallery was found to align with the Winter Solstice
The painters of Lascaux were astronomers! Cro-Magnon men painted a zodiac on the walls of the cave, which showed the formation of the sky in the Magdalenian era, 17,000 years ago. This discovery of ancient astronomy, if confirmed, could change our understanding of pre-historic art and also of the people who painted the pictures. Research conducted and revealed in this article by independent prehistoric-astronomer, Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez could revolutionize presently held concepts of prehistoric man's knowledge of astronomy.
At the center of the controversy is Lascaux cave. A natural rock formation in the Dordogne region of southwest France that existed for 17,000 years before four teenage boys accidentally discovered it in l940. Since that time the paintings found in the majestic Hall of Bulls in the cave are considered to be one of the highest achievements of humanity and have astounded and mystified both art historians and prehistoric archeologists.
THE FIRST ZODIAC?
In November 2000 Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez presented a paper at the International Symposium of Prehistoric Art in Italy. The paper was entitled, Lascaux, the Magdalenians View of the Sky. In it, paleo-astronomer, Jegues-Wolkiewiez, states that the cave paintings were records of the zodiac constellations, fixed stars and the solstice points. She confirmed her thesis by showing that all the constellations of the zodiac except Aquarius and part of Pisces are represented by the animals in their natural state of that time. The precision of the respective orientations as well as the presence of the figure of the setting Sun demonstrates that Cro-Magnon men were remarkable observers of the sky.
This announcement that Paleolithic men were great astronomers as well as extraordinary artists was revolutionary. The idea that they marked the zodiac belt as a band of sky that holds twelve constellations dancing in an eternal circle following the path of the Sun and that they painted these calculations on rock puts our understanding of the history of astronomy in a radically new light. In effect this says that in far-off time men represented the actual constellations by drawing/tracing them on the pictures of certain animals particularly the bull. If this is true then they preceded the Babylonian astronomers by 10,000 years. These were surprising statements...
HOW DID THEY DO IT?
In order to represent the constellations in the cave, the ancient painters/astronomers had to find a way to mark the lines between the stars, similar to amateur astronomers today who know how to make angles by using their fingers to measure distances between the different stars. Perhaps these Cro-Magnon men used sticks as rulers to mark and measure the height of certain stars in the sky. When they returned to the cave the painters traced the drawing of the sky from their observation. According to Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez, these first astronomer/painters were already capable of using the stars as heavenly guides to find the position of the stars that were not visible above the horizon.
But how did Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez arrive at this conclusion?
In 1999 she joined with Jean-Michel Geneste, a member of the team who studied the Grotto at Chauvert in Ardeche. The idea that certain paintings at Lascaux represent stars or constellations was not new. But it was never verified by serious scientific studies based on astronomical measurements. This is exactly what Jean-Michel Geneste proposed that he and Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez should do.
From the first contact with the cave and the immense and poignant Hall of Bulls the two scientists followed scientific procedures, which was different from past research. A constant humidity and temperature was maintained in the interior of the cave and Jegues-Wolkiewiez scientifically demonstrated that the Lascaux paintings were 17,000 years old by using the Carbon l4 dating technique.
The paleo-astronomers made constructions of the sky in the Magdalenian period, which was different from our sky today, using astronomical software (unfonunately not named). They made models of the western map of each constellation. Then they made measurements of the orientation of all the paintings according to an astronomical compass, which is precise to half of azimuth (an arc of the heavens extending from the zenith to the horizon, which it cuts at right angles). Finally through further measurement they compared the outlines of the paintings in the Hall of Bulls with the sky in Magdalenian times.
Then from measurements taken on site the scientists established that the entrance to Lascaux cave faces west and slopes downward at a 12 degree angle. This was the plan that the paleo-astronomers presented: to prove that the NW entrance to the cave was identical to the one perceived by the prehistoric artists and that the l2 degree angle of the entrance led to the paintings in the Hall of the Bulls. From this Jegues-Wolkiewiez conjectured that the rays of the setting Sun at the Summer Solstice penetrated into the cave and touched certain paintings.
JUNE 19 AT 21 HOURS GMT
There was only one way to confirm this: to observe the direction of the light of the setting Sun on the following Summer Solstice on June 19, 1999. The point on the horizon where the Sun sets on the Solstice is a point which does not vary significantly from year to year and century to century. (see horoscope)
Jegues-Wolkiewiez then verified her hypothesis that the rays of the setting sun at the Summer Solstice 17,000 years ago could have penetrated into the cave at Lascaux. She concluded that it was possible that these rays lit up the painting of the Red Bull on the back wall in the Hall of Bulls with an experiment. On the Summer Solstice June 21, 1999 Jegues-Wolkiewiez went to the Lascaux cave. At 21h GMT she observed the last rays of the setting Sun hitting the entrance to the cave for 15 minutes.
“On June 19 at 21 h we saw the solar rays lighting, little by little, for l5 minutes, the large opening which marked the entrance of the cave” said Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez. She also stated that 17,000 years ago the last rays of the Sun during other Summer solstices lit the paintings of Lascaux! The discovery constitutes a revolution of all previous knowledge on the subject of prehistoric caves and on the art of the times.
Cro-Magnon Man's dominating theme of bulls is explained by the constellation Taurus being dominant in the ancient sky during that period. These FACING BULLS are said to align with the constellations of Taurus and Scorpio. FACING BULLS also correspond to the rising and setting opposition of the Fixed Stars of Alderbaran, the eye of the bull in Taurus, and to Antares in Scorpio.
THE HALL OF BULLS
In order to explain the predominance of bulls in the prehistoric zodiac, Chantal Jegues-Wolkiewiez says that it was precisely the constellation Taurus that culminated in the Summer Solstice sky and was of primary importance to prehistoric painters. The entire Hall of Bulls is proposed to correspond to the constellation Taurus. The eye of the Bull is in alignment with the supergiant Alderbaran in the center of the constellation. While there are also stars configured that make up the Hyades which encircle the eye of Alderbaran. The Pleiades are above his shoulder.
Further examples are found in the Facing Bulls who stand opposite each other. According to Jegues-Wolkiewiez these bulls align with the constellations of Taurus and Scorpio. That these constellations are not visible in- the same sky at the time of the opposition strengthens her theory that Cro-Magnons possessed a direct knowledge of astronomy. Parts of these same bulls also correspond to the rising and setting opposition of the fixed stars of Alderbaran (the eye) in Taurus and to Antares in the Scorpio Bull.
THE FALLING HORSE
At the end of the Axial Gallery is an animal unique to Lascaux- the upside down or Falling Horse. The legs and the head of this horse are visible in the passageway and raised towards the sky while the lower half of the body is hidden behind a fold of the wall. “I have measured the direction indicated by this horse and found it to be the point where the Sun rises on the first day of winter”, explains the scientist.
This hypothesis is strengthened by the presence above the Falling Horse of another horse that is identical to the one in the main Hall of Bulls. This second horse is placed above the bulls and corresponds to the constellations of Leo and Scorpio. The rnane of this horse points to the brilliant star Arcturus and is exactly visible at the end of winter at the point above the horizon where the Sun rises. As the horse above in profile corresponds to the Sun at Spring Equinox, so below, the Falling Horse relates to the Sun at Winter Solstice.
Art historians have long been delighted that the cave paintings are accurate to a minute degree in their knowledge of animal anatomy and seasonal habits of each species. But that is not what is important. What is implied is that each painting in the Hall is aligned with a corresponding zodiac constellation. “This is what we hold to be true”, said Chantal Jegues-wolkiewiez. It is the positions and relationships of the animals that indicate astronomical knowledge of the solstice positions, the constellations and the fixed stars.
Her computer simulations, her measurements and the experiment at the cave itself, all led her to conclude that Cro-Magnon man did indeed possess the mathematical abilities to calculate and project the positions of the stars regardless of their visibility. In other words, she puts forth the theory that Cro-Magnon man was not only an artist but also an astronomer and a mathematician.
CONCLUSION:
In the interests of objectivity, author Pedro Lima ends the article with the comments from several French scientists who say that Jegues-Wolkiewiez's discoveries at the cave at Lascaux should be viewed as one isolated incident and that they must be verified by other studies and measurements in other caves of the same period. The scientists also argued that with the millions of stars in the sky there would always be some that could be found to be in correspondence to the paintings or to anything.
Lima's final statement is that perhaps other researchers will confirm the conclusion for themselves, by statistical studies on many caves using a multi-dimensional approach. Perhaps further research will prove that prehistoric men were also astronomers and that, in the Magdalenian Period, ancient men held religious beliefs that were contained and revealed in the sky, and were of primary importance to them. Perhaps Cro-Magnon man did look to the stars for answers to the deepest human questions.
_http://www.pciampi-astrology.com/articles/Lascaux_1.htm
Website of Chantal Jègues-Wolkiewiez: http://www.archeociel.com/Accueil_eng.htm
See also: "Palaeolithic European Constellations 1: Ice-age star maps?"