Religious statues from Cyprus show evidence of astronomical writing
An analysis of five late Bronze Age Terracotta religious statues, dating back around 3,300 years and found at various sites in Cyprus, has revealed the presence of astronomical ‘writing’, which has also been found on a number of other much older artefacts distributed across several continents.
The study of the items was conducted by Dr Derek Cunningham, author of The Long Journey: 400,000 years of Stone Age Science, who has hypothesised that our ancient ancestors developed writing from a very archaic geometrical form that is based on the study of the motion of the moon and the sun.
Dr Cunningham found that all five Cyprus Bronze Age statues share virtually identical features and that the angles of the lines correspond exactly to archaeological phenomena, such as the prediction of eclipses, and the measurement of time.
The most important of these astronomical values is the sidereal month, which is drawn in early astronomical texts as an angular value at either 13.66 or 27.32 degrees to represent the half and full month values. After the sidereal month value is known it is then a simple matter for astronomers to calculate that the earth is moving approximately 1 degree per day around the sun, and through more careful observations to deduce there is an eclipse season every 6.511 draconic months, this being a time period a time period equivalent to 6 synodic months. Other parameters important for predicting eclipses are the 5.1 degree angle of inclination of the moon’s orbit, and the 9.3/18.6 year lunar nutation cycle. Finally a value of 11 degrees is found on many early Stone Age artefacts, which corresponds to the 11 day difference between the lunar and solar year.
Dr Cunningham found that these values could be found in the form of an angular array carved into statues and figurines, offset to either above or below the horizon, or to the right or left of vertical. In order to test the theory, the figurines or statues are rotated until the prominent lower line on the left leg of each figure aligns to 27.3 degrees – this is the angular value representing the sidereal month value. The remaining lines are then analysed to determine their orientation. It was found that all of the figures showed alignments towards astronomical phenomena, such as the sidereal month, the moon’s orbital plane to the ecliptic, the half lunar nutation cycle, and the difference between the solar and lunar year.
The values found on the figurines and statues have been found to explain data from a wide range of archaeological samples dating from as old as circa 400,000 years before present, all the way through to the development of Celtic Ogham writing. The findings reveal there is still much about our ancient ancestors that is not yet understood.
The below diagrams depict the astronomical values found on the figures.
Images: Midnight Science Journal
