According to anthropologists from Edinburgh, the cave paintings painted on the walls of the caves by primitive people were portraits of the constellations.
Photo © vokrugsveta.ua
They believe that even 40,000 years ago, the concept of a starry sky map was developed. They were even aware of the phenomenon of anticipation of the equinoxes, which was previously considered the discovery of the Greeks.
“Early rock art shows that people had a great view of the starry sky map in the late ice age,” says Martin Sweetman of the University of Edinburgh. “Intellectually, they were not much different from us.”
Scientists have studied rock carvings of the Paleolithic and Neolithic period in Turkey, Spain, France and Germany. Using the method of radioisotopes and computer programming, they restored the position of the constellations in that period.
Photo © vokrugsveta.ua
The experts concluded that the symbolic image of animals can be interpreted as constellations, as they were seen by primitive people.