Mysterious ancient star chart shows foreign skies

Mysterious ancient star chart shows foreign skies

A star chart carved into the ceiling of an ancient tomb in Japan is believed to be the world's oldest, and may show the sky as it was seen from China.

The Kitora Tomb, located near the village of Asuka in Japan's Nara Prefecture, is known for gorgeous, colourful paintings at the four cardinal points of the compass. A black tortoise guards the north of the ancient tumulus, which has been standing since the seventh or eighth century. A red phoenix stands at the south, a white tiger at the west and a blue dragon at the east.

The ceiling of the tomb is decorated differently, with a map of the night sky, charting 68 constellations, with the stars picked out in gold leaf. Three concentric circles are drawn with vermilion, showing the movement of celestial objects, one of which is the sun.

According to Kazuhiko Miyajima, a professor at Doshisha University who studied the chart after the tomb was discovered in 1998, this makes it possibly the oldest astronomical chart of its kind in the world. It has designations for the horizon, equator and ecliptic circles, as well as recognisable patterns of stars.

Here is a short but rather interesting little read. I thought some here would appreciate the find. I know I'm always looking for the latest finds and discoveries of what our ancestors knew. Ancient man was not as primitive as we are led to believe.


Here's a little bit more info on the location.

Kitora Tomb

A small stone chamber, the Kitora Tomb is a little over 1 metre in height and width and about 2.4 metres long, just large enough to bury a single person. The four walls are aligned with the cardinal points of the compass, and respectively feature the Black Tortoise of the North, the Azure Dragon of the East, the Red Bird of the South, and the White Tiger of the West. On the ceiling of the chamber there is also a star chart that has been the focus of much research and debate by scholars in the field of archaeoastronomy. In addition, the zodiac animals-headed figures with human body are painted on the wall, which may be one of the oldest remaining zodiac murals in East Asia.

a reply to: SLAYER69

It has designations for the horizon, equator and ecliptic circles, as well as recognisable patterns of stars.

So given they knew there was an equator one might assume they thought the world was round . Yet today we still have flat earthers . Also i wonder if the chart depicted the moon , wait holograms hadn't been invented then . Cool find though .

Here's a link with more pics.
www.ancient-origins.net...

Interesting they are dating the star chart from 65bc?
Very nice find!

It's also worth noting the colors used at the cardinal points are similar to Native Nations here in North America.

a reply to: SLAYER69

Their coming up with somewhat differing dates and locations suggests maybe they don't quite understand it or it isn't given to accuracy, the offset circle is the galactic equator/milky way and that intersects with the ecliptic plane in what corresponds to the South West at Gemini, which they label chart spring equinox, and the opposite intersection point at Scorpio they label chart Autumn equinox.

They've somehow managed to label the Galactic plane the ecliptic despite it having the zodiac constellations around it and visa versa which doesn't inspire confidence.



Here's a modern reconstruction of what they're concerned with;




If the interest then was in the intersection of the galactic and ecliptic plane on the local horizon in Gemini at the Spring equinox that dates back to more like 6,500 years ago rather than 65 Bc...for some reason they also label Pisces as more probable spring equinox 65 BC, which i'm sure it was but that's not what the charts concerned with.

It may be the case that they simply commemorate when the Spring equinox took place in Gemini as a foundation point because the actual chart for such would see it placed due East at that rising point.

originally posted by: Kantzveldt
If the interest then was in the intersection of the galactic and ecliptic plane on the local horizon in Gemini at the Spring equinox that dates back to more like 6,500 years ago rather than 65 Bc...

That is rather interesting isn't it.

a reply to: SLAYER69

My argument will always be that at some point or points beings came down to conduct astronomy lessons with humans and have them get straight the order of the heavens. It was a universal truth that they were promoting, the first step toward knowledge beyond the dirt of the Earth. The original Head Start Program.

Those early teachings were made relevant such as to became the basis for astrology, and eventually refined into our manner of science-based astronomy. Given little technological equipment of a precise nature, even that of a clock or calendar, no shortcuts with higher math scientific notations, few abilities to record observations and communicate with like-minded individuals, how could any precision of the heavens be determined without stored, precise data which came first? Or was it brilliant minds that created the concepts first, carried them around for hundreds of years all the while religiously collected meager lists for hundreds of years that later were used to flesh out the fields of astronomy and astrology? The answer is intervention from those that knew every aspect of the heavens. And they left their telltale mark.

a reply to: SLAYER69

Absolutely fascinating. Lot of effort to put that on a dark cave ceiling… in a tomb…

I'd more expect it to be somewhere people could view it (their version of a Planetrarium). Why a tomb? Weird.

Some more link within the link with pics…

Kitora tomb itself is approximately 1 meter in width, 1.3 meters in height, and about 2.2 meters in length. The painting on the ceiling is remarkably small yet detailed. Professor Miyajima developed a chart based on his plotting of stars, connecting lines, and circles found on the ceiling painting (see below). The outer or horizon circle is about 63 centimeters in diameter. The celestial equator and ecliptic circles are both from 41 to 43 centimeters in diameter, and the inner circle (denoting stars which were seen to not set in the North) is about 18 centimeters in diameter.

Link

Further on star charts

a reply to: SLAYER69

perhaps the artist who rendered the 'heavens' inside the tomb? took 'artistic' liberties with the composition...
being that the person to be interred in the stone chamber was not in any way going to complain...

I don't think the point was to 'date' the sky/heavens from an Earth viewpoint ... the point of the project was to poetically send the occupant of the chamber to an eternal resting place, forever drifting among the Stars & in the Cosmos



**from my St Udio archive

if not a tomb, could this have been an occult, initiation chamber/a portal reserved for Royalty...
there are mystical sects/cults in every culture...

the concept is not as screwy as it seems... we presently have a Dr Who which transports himself via a telephone booth...

why not transport ones' self to higher realms or distant places/times in a 'Chamber-of-the-heavens',
the Zodiac inside the chamber magically changes positions to reveal the general 'date' of the last traveler's destination on a 'precession' timescale...(ergo, the last astral traveler @ around 700AD went back to someplace in time which was some 5,150 years in the travelers past

edit on th31143739749920042015 by St Udio because: added royalty

a reply to: SLAYER69

Fantastic! I lived in Japan a few times and visited Nara a few times as well. Nara, was/is protected as a royal hunting ground. It is beautiful and full of foliage. The deer there are entirely tame and will eat out of your hand, as they have never been allowed to be hunted...at least for a number of centuries.

I think the location for this find and the use of gold leaf (a treasured commodity), may bring an even longer association with the area to "Royalty". Great find thanks Slayer.

a reply to: SLAYER69

It's interesting but i don't know why they have associated Gemini and the ecliptic/celestial intersection point with the spring equinox there, even though it once was, unless the sign for Gemini has associations with the equinox which is possible.

The constellation seen at due East on the ecliptic plane is Libra which would be the sign in which the sun rose at the Autumn equinox when the spring equinox had moved on to Aires, if any fix is possible from the information of the diagram i would have thought it would be that, they do note this on the diagram that if you take the East West alignment through centre the point of sunrise is in Libra, so that would date between 2150 BC to ca. 1 AD or thereabouts as Autumn equinox.

It does appear then to me to indicate a full step back from the Age of Pisces which is well off the central alignment into the beginning of the Age of Aires at spring equinox.

I'm fairly familiar with the skies from that era because in Egypt at similar dates when Libra was rising due East at the Autumn equinox she was personified as Ma'at the Celestial balance.

a reply to: SLAYER69

Good to hear from you, Slayer. Great post. Top notch as always.

The end of Gemini, June 21st-22nd,
is the summer solstice. So maybe it is an accurate
depiction ? Also the Asian people, as a whole,
are usually conservative and detailed in their
work on these type of things, so maybe it's precession,
which moves the ecliptic plane from Earths vantage
1 degree every 72 years, that plays a part ?
I don't know , but cool none the less Slayer.

When I read "foreign sky" in the title, I was thinking of a view from another star system.

originally posted by: 3n19m470
When I read "foreign sky" in the title, I was thinking of a view from another star system.

That's exactly what I had in mind.
How awesome would that be to find an ancient accurate depiction of the galaxy, or more, from a different perspective?
Not trying to take away from Slayer's post though. Interesting nonetheless.