Buzz
Despite the influence of astrology, the ancient civilizations amassed an astonishingly vast collection of astronomical knowledge. This timeless fascination with the stars unites humanity across eras, reminding us of our place in the vast universe.
10. Babylonian Jupiter Tablet
Long before the birth of Christ, the ancient Babylonians, located in modern-day Iraq, were captivated by the stars. Ancient tablets dating back to the early BC centuries revealed planetary calculations once thought to be the work of 14th-century Europeans.
The Babylonians tracked heavenly bodies across the sky, assigning them the role of foretelling Earthly events, giving rise to what we now recognize as “modern” astrology and the 12 zodiac signs.
The Babylonians also tracked Jupiter with remarkable accuracy, although it took considerable detective work to uncover the mystery. For a long time, lead researcher Mathieu Ossendrijver carefully examined four enigmatic cuneiform tablets that never directly referenced the great Jupiter.
Instead, the tablets rambled about a cryptic form of trapezoidal mathematics. Ossendrijver suspected the data could be astronomical, yet he couldn't make sense of it at the time—it had a cosmic feel, but left him puzzled.
In 2014, a colleague sent him a photo of a fifth tablet. Upon translating the image, Ossendrijver discovered it contained a geometric formula describing Jovian motion.
The tablets meticulously recorded Jupiter’s movements over time to calculate the distance traveled by the colossal gas giant. This was essentially an ancient position-time graph, used for the crucial task of predicting successful harvests and other agricultural events.
9. Buena Vista
Tucked away in the Peruvian Andes, several miles from Lima, lies Buena Vista, the oldest observatory in the western hemisphere. At 4,200 years old, it predates the Incan civilization by an astonishing 3,000 years and even predates fire-hardened pottery. Its age is so immense that archaeologists can't pinpoint its Andean creators, only that they were 800 years ahead of their time.
Fortunately, the observatory’s temples and carvings have emerged from the earth largely intact and undisturbed by tomb raiders—though just by a hair. Looters did try to break into the site but gave up a few inches too soon.
The original builders, eager to preserve their monumental work, buried the site 6 meters (20 feet) deep while it was still pristine. The region’s near-total lack of rainfall helped create the perfect conditions for its remarkable preservation.
Spread across 20 barren acres on a hilltop, Buena Vista is dominated by a pyramid standing 10 meters (33 feet) tall. It’s believed that the observatory functioned as a celestial agricultural calendar, marking important events like the summer solstice planting and the winter solstice harvest.
In addition to a towering, frowning face, animal carvings adorn the complex, featuring culturally significant llamas as well as foxes. According to legend, these animals imparted the wisdom of farming to indigenous peoples.
8. Astronomical Wine Cup
Astronomical markings have been discovered in the most unexpected places, including ancient drinking vessels. A 2,600-year-old skyphos (a double-handled cup) was uncovered from a ditch at the Halai acropolis near Thebes, seemingly blending the two traditional Greek pastimes of stargazing and drinking.
The wine cup features a curious zoological mashup. Depicted are a bull, a snake, a large wild cat (possibly a lion or panther), a scorpion, a hare-dog hybrid, and most surprisingly, a dolphin. While the cup initially appears to depict a typical hunting scene, the presence of the dolphin challenges that interpretation.
Instead, researchers from the University of Missouri suggest that the animals on the cup represent constellations. The relative positions of the animals are inaccurate, but that’s because the ancient artisans arranged the constellations by season, not by their actual location in the night sky.
This discovery presents an exciting possibility: other astronomical depictions may have gone unnoticed in plain sight—just like the cup itself, which remained hidden in obscurity at the Lamia Archaeological Museum in Greece.
7. Valle dei Templi Alignments
The Valle dei Templi (“Valley of the Temples”) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Italian national monument in Agrigento, Sicily. It houses the remnants of 10 impressive Doric shrines and temples, all dedicated to legendary Greek heroes and gods. One of them is a monument to Zeus, damaged by earthquakes and battles, and it holds the title of the largest Doric temple ever built.
Previously, archaeologists believed the ancient sites were constructed based on cosmic alignments, such as sunrises and moonrises on specific dates. However, a collaboration between Italian and New Zealand scientists has partially disproved this theory. While some temples do align with celestial bodies, not all of them do.
Some of the temples do face the eastern horizon, following tradition. However, this alignment is not due to celestial factors but rather urban planning and adherence to cardinal directions. For example, the grand temple of Zeus was aligned with the street grid rather than the cosmos.
Yet, some shrines are oriented toward the sky. The temple dedicated to Demeter and Persephone is aligned with the full Moon during the winter solstice. Likewise, the temple of Juno faces the constellation Delphinus.
Was this intentional? Surprisingly, the ancient builders were remarkably silent about their design choices, and archaeologists have been unable to find any written records explaining their decisions.
6. Cheomseongdae
Cheomseongdae is a star-gazing tower located in South Korea. Built during the Silla dynasty by Queen Seondeok, this milk bottle-shaped structure dates back to 647 AD, shortly after the queen’s death. It holds the title of Asia’s oldest astronomical observatory.
The outpost stands 9 meters (30 feet) tall and is constructed from 365 meticulously cut granite slabs, seemingly one for each day of the solar year. However, some sources argue that there are only 362 stones.
The tower is divided into 27 levels, symbolizing the fact that Queen Seondeok was the 27th ruler of the Silla dynasty. Of these levels, 12 are positioned below a central window and 12 above it. This layout mirrors the months of the year as well as the 12 major and 12 minor solar terms, which are thought to reflect natural phenomena.
Cheomseongdae blends scientific and pseudoscientific knowledge. Royal astronomers and astrologers studied the movement of celestial bodies and documented cosmic events.
Nevertheless, they used this arcane wisdom not only to predict the weather and foretell social events but also to influence political, agricultural, and even military decisions.
It was also believed that a child’s fate could be written in the stars, prompting astrologers to create complex astrological formulas to predict future success. To their credit, Korean stargazers were also skilled at predicting eclipses and tracking the paths of comets.
5. Desert Glass
Around 29 million years ago, a meteorite either struck or exploded along the Egyptian-Libyan border. Temperatures at the impact site surged to 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,900 °F). The intense heat sent vast amounts of molten sand into the air, where it solidified and fell back to Earth as glass.
This Libyan desert glass varies in color from white to a murky yellow-green and has a gem-like luster. The most prized pieces are smoothly translucent, featuring pseudo regmaglypts (thumbprint-like impressions). The ancient Egyptians held the material in such high regard that they called it “the rock of God,” with King Tut’s funerary pendant showcasing a desert glass scarab at its center.
The amulet-necklace, intricately detailed, was discovered in the early 1920s during an excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Adorned with Egyptian symbols, including the protective Eye of Horus and a scarab to ensure a prosperous afterlife, the necklace’s extraterrestrial origin was only revealed after chemical analysis in 1999.
4. The Shadow Serpent
Part of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza was designed to welcome celestial visitors. Its most famous feature is a step pyramid dedicated to Kukulkan (also known as Quetzalcoatl), the feathered serpent god who descends upon the site twice a year from his cosmic realm.
Every year, thousands of tourists gather at the pyramid, known as El Castillo, to witness a biannual light spectacle during the autumnal and vernal equinoxes. At these moments, the setting Sun casts a moving shadow down the steps, resembling a giant snake—Kukulkan’s symbolic visit. Over seven hours, the shadow gradually slides down the pyramid before merging with the snakehead carvings at the base.
The shadow play is almost certainly intentional, and El Castillo may have also served as an observatory. Its four grand staircases represent the seasons, each containing 91 steps. An additional step at the top completes the cycle of 365 solar days, suggesting the structure was used to track the Sun’s movements.
Chichen Itza is home to another structure that resembles modern observatories. El Caracol, or “The Snail,” named for its spiral staircase, rises above the surrounding jungle, offering an unobstructed view of the stars.
Although much of El Caracol has deteriorated, three narrow slits remain, providing clues about its function. It seems that El Caracol tracked Venus across the sky, with these slits offering a view of the planet’s rise at both its northern and southern extremes.
3. Egyptian Algol Papyrus
The ambitious Egyptians have another remarkable achievement to their name. A worn piece of papyrus, known as Cairo 86637, has now been recognized as the earliest known record of a variable star, surpassing the previous record by several millennia.
Dating from between 1244 BC and 1163 BC, it tracks the fluctuations in brightness of Algol, the Arabic-named demon star symbolizing Medusa’s slithering gaze. Algol is part of a binary system, sharing its cosmic space with its brighter companion, Mirfak.
The two stars are part of the constellation Perseus, named after the famed Greek hero who decapitated the Gorgon Medusa and cleverly used her severed head to turn the boasting sea monster Cetus to stone.
Algol must have stood out to Egyptian astronomers like a glaring anomaly. It's a binary system with frequent eclipses, positioned just right so that we on Earth can view it almost edge-on.
As a result, Algol’s brightness can fluctuate up to three times. This cycle spans two days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes. The ancient papyrus, dated 3,000 years ago, notes a similar duration of 2.85 days.
The current observed period is 2.87 days, hinting at a slight increase due to mass transfer between the two stars. This marks the first discovery of a changing period for Algol. By studying this increase, astronomers can also estimate the amount of mass exchanged. It's even possible that the Persei system could be reclassified as a triple star system.
This papyrus is also known as the Cairo Calendar, as it used the cycles of both Algol and the Moon (29.6 days) to predict an individual’s fate. Each day was divided into three sections, with celestial alignments supposedly indicating whether good or bad events were to occur.
2. Iron Man Meteorite Statue
The Tibetan “Iron Man” statue is a masterfully carved piece made from a meteorite. Discovered in 1938 during a Nazi survey, this 10-kilogram (22 lb) statue features a Buddhist bent-arm cross on its upper abdomen, a symbol later appropriated by the SS as the Nazi swastika.
Iron Man contained high levels of nickel and cobalt, and chemical analysis confirmed the extraterrestrial origins of these elements. The statue was crafted from ataxites, a rare type of meteorite making up only 0.1 percent of space rocks.
This specific ataxite crashed somewhere in the Siberia-Mongolia region around 15,000 years ago, and was transformed into the only known human figure ever made from a cosmic source, making the artifact even rarer. One archaeologist has estimated its value at approximately $20,000, though this is a conservative appraisal.
Its age, however, remains uncertain. Some scholars suggest that it is over 1,000 years old, while others argue that its features don’t align with those of Buddhist statues from the 11th century.
Critics propose a 20th-century origin, pointing to its Western-style footwear, anachronistic trousers, and unusually thick beard. Even if it were created between 1910 and 1970, as some suggest, its extraordinary cosmic origin still makes it incredibly captivating.
1. Hevelius’s Magnificent Illustrated Star Charts
Johannes Hevelius, a self-taught Polish astronomer, used handmade astronomical instruments to map the stars. He compiled this data into the Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia, an atlas featuring 56 intricately illustrated star maps, published in 1690.
In this groundbreaking atlas, Hevelius introduced 11 new constellations, seven of which are still recognized today, while the remaining four were later merged with other star groupings.
Hevelius's celestial atlas was also the first to accurately chart the southern stars. He integrated observations made by Edmond Halley when the famed comet astronomer visited St. Helena in 1676 to document the southern skies.
In the early stages of astronomy, art and mythology were closely intertwined, as illustrated on the front cover of Hevelius’s groundbreaking sidereal document. Hevelius is depicted holding a sextant and an engraved shield, symbolizing the newly identified constellation Scutum.
In a gesture of humility, Hevelius bows as he presents his knowledge to a panel of cosmic judges, including the greats Hipparchus, Tycho, Ptolemy, and Urania, the muse of astronomy. Surrounding him is a collection of animals, embodying his constellations.
