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A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

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Re: A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

#31

Post by praveen9920 »

dylan604 wrote: post #12
vedmakk wrote: post #6

This is the kind of stuff I love about ancient architecture. It seems they were full of such clever things (or maybe only the few constructions which survived until today). Its nice to see that some people still care about creating such thoughtful art for modern constructions. It seems that most building of our time are just optimized for fast and efficient construction. I hope there are many more out there, so that…

When you had no electricity to produce light pollution, when you have no TV, printing press, or any other thing to distract your attention, you had plenty of time to look at the night sky. When that also means you didn't have a way to have a shared calendar, you paid more attention to the sky to know when the seasons were changing. When the changing of seasons were key into surviving, you gave it a lot of importance.…

Having something built IRL would at least inspire a few to actually be interested in astronomy or star gazing.

Re: A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

#33

Post by rburhum »

joezydeco wrote: post #29
krisoft wrote: post #24

But is the star map there? This article seems to imply that it got demolished in 2022: https://www.oskarjwhansen.org/news/save-the-star-map If so that is somewhat ironic. A message intended to communicate a date to thousands of years into the future got demolished a mere 86 years after its creation due to a drainage issue and a contract dispute.

It's in pieces, evidenced here: https://www.oskarjwhansen.org/news/save-the-star-map-decembe...

That is a crime of humanity. Terrible!

Re: A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

#35

Post by ofalkaed »

krisoft wrote: post #24

But is the star map there? This article seems to imply that it got demolished in 2022: https://www.oskarjwhansen.org/news/save-the-star-map If so that is somewhat ironic. A message intended to communicate a date to thousands of years into the future got demolished a mere 86 years after its creation due to a drainage issue and a contract dispute.

It is currently under reconstruction, it sounds like much of it was beyond salvage and has to be remade but it is difficult to find much info on this, bits and pieces strewn about the web. The project was resumed in 2023 and the BOR stated they were still committed to reconstructing the star map. In 2024 they completed the new underlayment and I have yet to find anything from 2025 other than that Monument plaza is still closed to the public.

Re: A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

#36

Post by Aloisius »

testaccount28 wrote: post #23
tzs wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are confusing the thing with the category of the thing. Religion the category is only a few hundred years old. The things that fall under that category go back at least as far as Neanderthal times.

it's an interesting point, and i don't think it can be resolved quite so neatly. to the people building such monuments, or writing such texts, the activity may have been closer to what we now refer to as "history" or "natural philosophy" (or even "civic infrastructure"). the fact that _now_, we have independent traditions referred to by those terms, and so categorize the ancient practices under "religion" is quite co…

> i would be quite offended if, some thousand years from now, the aesthetic decision is dismissed as primitive superstition.

Why? I can't imagine being offended if people today, ignorant of the true motivations, dismissed it as primitive superstition, let alone a thousand years from now when I'm long dead.

Re: A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

#37

Post by sneak »

vedmakk wrote: post #6

This is the kind of stuff I love about ancient architecture. It seems they were full of such clever things (or maybe only the few constructions which survived until today). Its nice to see that some people still care about creating such thoughtful art for modern constructions. It seems that most building of our time are just optimized for fast and efficient construction. I hope there are many more out there, so that…

The buildings then were also optimized for fast and efficient construction.

Those buildings are, of course, gone now.

Re: A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

#38

Post by toasterlovin »

tzs wrote: post #15
MarcelOlsz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What?

Wikipedia says similar [1]: > The concept of "religion" was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Sacred texts like the Bible, the Quran, and others did not have a word or even a concept of religion in the original languages and neither did the people or the cultures in which these sacred texts were written That said, GrowingSideways is mistaken. He is confusing the thing with the category of the thing. [1] https://…

> or even a concept of religion in the original languages

IMO this and the sources it cites are wrong. A huge chunk of the Old Testament is about how God had to keep sending prophets to tell the Israelites to stop worshipping other deities. So while they may not have had a single word that was equivalent to 'religion,' they clearly possessed the same concept. They would just use the phrase "worshipping other gods."

Re: A 26,000-year astronomical monument hidden in plain sight (2019)

#40

Post by BrandonY »

krisoft wrote: post #27

I have once created a pendant to my friends’ wedding following a similar idea. A silver disk engraved one one side with the position of the planets and major moons at the moment of the ceremony. Fun thing is that the Galilean moons orbit fast enough that you can even read the intended minute. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIpFTPOIP60/

That's so cool! Is there a calculator somewhere that can convert to/from dates and solar system position charts?
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