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A strange stone disc unearthed in Italy nearly 3,000 years ago may be an ancient map of the brightest stars in the night sky, a new study suggests.
The tire-sized stone disk was unearthed several years ago near a hill fortress in northeastern Italy, and researchers observed it contained 29 mysterious chisel marks.
Twenty-four of the chisel marks are on one side of the stone and five on the other side.
Scientists who used software to analyze the stone carvings found that the markings likely corresponded to groups of stars in the constellations Orion, Scorpio, Cassiopeia, and the Pleiades.
Researchers also found another uncarved stone next to it, about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and 30 centimeters (12 inches) thick, which they said may represent the sun. thinking.
One of the 29 marks has yet to be identified, according to a study published in the journal Astronomical Notes.
Scientists suspect that the unidentified flea tracks probably represent a star in the Orion cluster that subsequently exploded as a supernova, or that it could be a failed supernova that left behind a black hole.
Numerical elevation model of the main face (24 incised faces) of the stone analyzed in the study
(Bernardini et al., Documenta Praehistorya, 2022)
“The unidentified mark casts doubt on the overall picture; it suggests it may have been a precursor to a failed supernova,” they write.
Researchers say searching for black holes in this part of the sky could test this interpretation.
“The case of a failed supernova is very interesting because one of the techniques for searching for supernovae is to use images taken in the past to precisely look for missing stars in the present sky. “The possibility provides a way to test the proposed interpretation,” they added.
Research suggests the disks may have been used by people living in hillforts about 3,000 years ago to track seasonal changes as part of an agricultural calendar.
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Pottery sherds excavated near the site indicate that the fort hill was in use from around 1800/1650 BC to around 400 BC, and it is only during this long period that the stone disc can be safely referred to. This suggests that
However, little is known about the ancient inhabitants of the area of Castelliere di Lupanpiccolo, where the stones were discovered.
The oldest map of the night sky known to date is the palimpsest by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, dated around 135 BC.
The Nebula Sky Disk is an even older, but more rudimentary, representation of a bronze relic with gold appliqués depicting the Sun, Moon, and Pleiades star cluster, dating from around 1600 BC.
If it is proven that the stone disc contains a celestial map, it would predate Hipparchus’ work and demonstrate “evidence of an unexpected astronomical curiosity in protohistoric Europe.” There is a possibility that