New Study of Cave Paintings Say Ancient Man Understood Astronomy
A reinterpretation of one of the world’s most famous primitive cave paintings seems to show our ancient ancestors had a much stronger grasp on astronomy than we’ve given them credit. According to a recent study, cave paintings in France depict animals that represent the constellations, showing the artists who drew them were aware of the precession of the equinoxes — a discovery not thought to have been made before Hipparchus of Ancient Greece.
Of the paintings in question, researchers Martin Sweatman, Ph.D., and Alistar Coombs studied an image titled, “The Shaft,” which portrays a collapsing bird-headed man, a bison eviscerated by a spear, a horse, and a rhinoceros in the Lascaux caves of southern France’s Dordogne region.
In the past, this scene was interpreted as a shamanic ceremony or the scene of a hunt, however the exact meaning has been widely disputed as depictions of men were incredibly uncommon in this era. But according to Sweatman and Coombs’ latest study, the paintings show not only a more primordial understanding of astronomy, but also religion, science, and mathematics.
By comparing radiocarbon dating of paint samples to the position of constellations in the sky when the art was created, the researchers were able to match specific animals with correlating constellations of the solstice and equinox. They used this same method at similar archeological sites, including the ruins of Göbekli Tepe and Catalhöyük, as well as the famous cave art of Chauvet and Altamira.
The two also said they believe the Lascaux paintings commemorate a comet striking Earth, correlating with what they believe to be the cataclysmic impact event that marked the beginning of the Younger Dryas period – evidence of which was recently found in the form of a 19-mile wide crater beneath a Greenland ice sheet.
In addition to these sites, the researchers incorporated the Lion-man figurine from the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany, which dates back 38 thousand BCE and is considered to be the world’s oldest sculpture – they believe it too, may be evidence of zodiacal awareness. Their study was published in the Athens Journal of History.
Like any bold claim made of early humans which challenges long-held archeological timelines, this latest theory has unsurprisingly sparked controversy with some of Sweatman and Coombs’ colleagues who have labeled their method flawed.
According to their model, prehistoric men from the Stone Age discovered the precession of the equinoxes some 36 thousand years before Hipparchus – a bold claim to say the least!
But findings such as this seem to continually piece together disparate pieces of a puzzle that modern archeology has glossed over or ignored entirely. And as Graham Hancock likes to say upon the discovery of new paradigms like this may be, “things just keep getting older.”
For more on the anomalous archeological finds cluing us into our forgotten past, check out this episode of Disclosure with Graham Hancock:
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Ancient Initiation Practices for Transcending Reality
People around the world are waking up to a realization that there is more to life than meets the senses. There is a growing desire to know who we are, where we come from, and what we are capable of. While these aren’t new questions, advancing technologies and exploration of what constitutes consciousness may require us to ask these essential questions in a new way.
Are the Pyramids Doorways to Other Realities?
We’re now beginning to put the pieces back together that paint a clearer picture of our own history, and where some of our most mysterious discoveries come from. For instance, we’re finding answers to who built the pyramids and other advanced stone structures that are strategically built in very specific places of power around the world and aligned with extraordinary precision to constellations in the sky.
These ancient structures may hold the key to our evolving consciousness, access to other dimensions of space and time, and our ability to transform our reality. Matias De Stefano, host of Gaia’s original series, Initiation recalls details of the Atlantean civilization from his own memories and describes the technology they would have used to build the pyramids.
He remembers there being a single pyramid on the plateau during his lifetime in Khem, a colony of Atlantis around 12,000 years ago. It was the Sirian people, he says, who passed on their knowledge of how to construct and use the pyramids for connecting with the source of creation.
Matias says these ancient yet very advanced people knew how to use the pyramids to open portals to other times and transcend the third dimension. They practiced powerful initiation ceremonies to become keys that would connect with the consciousness of the planet and have access to all of the information stored throughout the universe.
