Aboriginal Sundial Pre-Dates Stonehenge 145
brindafella writes "Look out, Stonehenge, here come the Wurdi Youang rocks in the Australian state of Victoria. The semi-circle of stones has been examined by an astrophysicist from Australia's premier research group, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), who says this arrangement of rocks is a carefully aligned solar observatory that may be 10,000 years old. It would have been created by local Aborigines, the Wathaurong people, who have occupied the area for some 25,000 years."
Sloppy Half-circle (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't look like much from the picture. The only supporting statement in the article is:
its two points set in perfect alignment with the setting sun on a midsummer's day.
I'd like a little more supporting documentation before getting all excited about this.
How do you put a date on something like that? (Score:2, Insightful)
Is there an archeologist in the house? Couldn't I just dig up some old rocks, and arrange them in any shape that I liked? I'm just wondering if this is the equivalent of "crop circles" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circles [wikipedia.org] in England?
Yikes! From the Wikipedia article:
In 2009, BBC News reported that Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, stated that Australian wallabies had been found creating crop circles in fields of poppies after consuming some of the opiate-laden crop and running in circles.
So, maybe Australian junkie wallabies constructed the stone structure?
What also puzzles me, is why cultures that create such structures, just kinda sorta die out? Like the Egyptians who built pyramids, whoever built Stonehenge, and the like?
Re:How do you put a date on something like that? (Score:5, Insightful)
What also puzzles me, is why cultures that create such structures, just kinda sorta die out? Like the Egyptians who built pyramids, whoever built Stonehenge, and the like?
Answer: All cultures die out over this kind of time span. But for some reason, we just don't pay any attention to the ones that leave no evidence of ever having existed...
Coincidence? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Coincidence? (Score:4, Insightful)
> Could I be on to something?
Rozwell.. Rothwell..
By golly, yes!
It seems that aliens are naming the places where they land -- and some of them lisp!
Re:Sloppy Half-circle (Score:4, Insightful)
Because it's far less of a leap than "Other animals? Aliens?".
To date, we haven't seen any evidence that 'other animals' have ever put together time-keeping measures ... and, well, the alien theory is more extraordinary than the notion that a people who have been there for at least 40,000 years did something like this 10,000 years ago.
The most likely conclusion is that "not natural" means "Humans did this".