Archaeologists working in the Dee Valley, Aberdeenshire, Scotland have identified what may be the world’s oldest calendar. They also believe the calendar, created as a series of 12 specially shaped pits arranged in a semi-circle and nearly 10,000 years old, may have been maintained and updated until around 4,000 years ago.
Until now the oldest calendars were the Bronze Age monuments found in Mesopotamia. The Scottish calendar predates them by thousands of years, pushing back calendar-making to roughly the end of the last Ice Age. The pits aligned perfectly on the midwinter solstice, adding credibility to the claim that this is an actual lunar calendar.
The pits are even shaped to reflect the various phases of the moon. Waxing, waning, crescents and gibbous phases are all present in their proper positions and arranged in a 164-foot (50 meter) long arc. The center pit, representing the full moon, is circular, roughly 7 feet (2 meters) across.
The pits were first discovered in 2004 on aerial photographs but only recently studied using remote-sensing technology. Specially developed software was used to work out the positions of sunrises and sunsets experienced 10,000 years ago.
It seems obvious that the early people who created this calendar so long ago needed to know about the changes of seasons. It would have helped them to know when game might be available, when crops could be harvested, and even to predict when salmon and other migrating fish could be harvested.
Once again, our ancient ancestors have left evidence of their astronomical knowledge and their ability to take advantage of that knowledge.
There is more detailed information about this intriguing discovery here
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