Me and Martin’s cave art paper of late 2018 featured in Physics Today 73, 6, 53 (2020): https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/PT.3.4502 It is mentioned in the review of a book: From Cave Art to Hubble: A History of Astronomical Record Keeping (2019) by Johnathan Powell and I look forward to reading that. It appears to illustrate other examples […]
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Prehistory Decoded by Martin Sweatman – Review
‘Absolutely brilliant’ – Paul Ross, Talk Radio ‘the most important book since the Bible’- George Howard @cosmictusk ‘groundbreaking study that offers a new way of conceptualising prehistoric art’ – Graham Hancock Prehistory Decoded (2019) introduces new ways of thinking about archaeology and the environment with emphasis on the causes and mechanisms of the climate catastrophe […]
The Gundestrup Cauldron
The Gundestrup Cauldron is a large vessel of intricate silverware that was found in a peat bog in northwestern Denmark in 1891, but is thought by many to have been manufactured in Thrace, near the Black Sea. It is dated to the first-century BCE, or slightly after. The incomplete item, which was found in pieces, is […]
The Vulture’s Tale: Hero Twins at the End of the World
Another item in our Stone Age astronomy paper was the Vulture Stone (Pillar 43) of Gӧbekli Tepe. There have been numerous other reports on our prehistoric zodiac (effectively, a recording system), a few more below: https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/cave-paintings-reveal-ancient-europeans-knowledge-of-the-stars/ https://www.futura-sciences.com/sciences/actualites/archeologie-peintures-rupestres-representeraient-constellations-74240/?fbclid=IwAR1q9IFfHP8wuvw5UVOypJ9XUIOeKfEOI49pSgLgd1da_r5AGqAyTOxE4yI https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6434059/Ice-Age-cave-art-reveals-early-humans-used-stars-primitive-calendar-40-000-years-ago.html There has, to date, been no critique and rebuttal of our paper. What the Vulture Stone may […]
The Shigir Idol & Co
Totem poles are often seen as quintessential features of the Northwest Coast of America. The Simon Frazer University lists ten types of American totem pole which indicate their diversity and how the term “totem” can be misleading when applied to them. Three common types the list includes are Memorial Poles, Welcome/Potlatch Figures, and House Posts. […]
An Astral Bowl
A colleague recently informed me of what she thought was a very early zodiac. The object it is on, an Aramaic ritual bowl, is ancient but not prehistoric. It is not a zodiac or any type of accurate star map but a symbolic scheme of recognisable constellation shapes and figures. This undeniably exquisite item has […]
Taurid Tracker
My co-authored cave art paper has been receiving coverage for about two weeks: BBC World Service: Voice of America: Science Alert: https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-art-pieces-show-how-humans-kept-time-40-000-years-ago Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bridaineparnell/2018/11/28/cave-paintings-may-actually-be-sophisticated-star-maps/#3cc93f421751 The Australian: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/ancient-cave-drawings-may-represent-stars/news-story/46649690212636ecba4e93f755eb8690 India Today: Science Daily: The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/11/27/cave-paintings-ancient-zodiac-mapping-skies-say-experts/?fbclid=IwAR3 sONpjauNIehvmUpJWufFM9fN87LoubJvTtqdpfTcD9VxT0RSFjWZW2I MSN: The Times: A good one, here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/early-human-cave-art There’s probably others. Most reports focus on cave art as constellations, which isn’t […]
Event
I was invited to speak at the Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science (CAPS) in Kent later this month. The topic is “Palaeolithic Astronomy and Concepts of Time” and will include discussion on more adventitious astronomical phenomena around the Epipalaeolithic: https://astro.kent.ac.uk/
Feasts and Star Beasts: The Cultic Calendar of Ҫatalhöyük
Ҫatalhöyük stands on a boundary between the wild and the domestic and all the archaeological categories these invoke – we’re not going to go there here! The following remarks concern spiritual worlds and the cosmological content of art forms found there. Reconstruction of the east and west mounds at Çatalhöyük (Çatalhöyük Research Project, 2018) In […]
Denisova Cave (Аю-Таш – Bear’s Rock)
Denisova Cave is indigenously named ‘Bear’s Rock’ after a local bear spirit. Other caves in the region, and elsewhere in Siberia, are similarly named. Given that hunting and shamanism have remained relatively unchanged in Siberia since the Palaeolithic, this nomenclature could be older than it might otherwise appear. I visited Denisova Cave in early May […]