The Taş Tepeler (‘stone hills’) project launched under that name in 2019 and has since excavated regional variations on themes that link Göbekli Tepe to other sites within a 50km radius. The enhanced effort, no doubt pushed by the Ministry of Tourism, has already witnessed some remarkable discoveries. A bedrock carved bench discovered at the bottom of […]
Amazon rock art discovery
An important rock art discovery was made last year in the Colombian Amazon which has been dubbed ‘the Sistine Chapel of the Ancients’. Its recent announcement mentions thousands of paintings, stretched over eight-miles of cliff, of fish, lizards, turtles, birds and abstract symbols and forms. Also included are depictions of now extinct megafauna, such as […]
Plato Prehistorian
RIP Mary Settegast (1934-2020). Mary Settegast passed on a little under two months ago. I was communicating with Mary for the past few years and encouraged her to release an updated version of Plato Prehistorian (originally published 1986). She asked if I’d provide a new foreword and appendix focusing on recent discoveries that complement her […]
Lascaux in Physics Today
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 […]
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
Totem poles are often seen as quintessential items of the Northwest Coast of America. The Simon Frazer University lists ten types of totem pole which displays their diversity and use. Three common types from the list are memorial poles, welcome/potlatch figures, and house posts. Memorial poles are raised after the death of a chief or […]
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/