Oldest Lunar Calendar Found In Scotland 51
First time accepted submitter eionmac writes "The BBC reports that Archaeologists believe they have discovered the world's oldest lunar 'calendar' in an Aberdeenshire field. Excavations of a field at Crathes Castle found a series of 12 pits which appear to mimic the phases of the moon and track lunar months. A team led by the University of Birmingham suggests the ancient monument was created by hunter-gatherers about 10,000 years ago. The pit alignment, at Warren Field, was first excavated in 2004. The experts who analyzed the pits said they may have contained a wooden post. The Mesolithic calendar is thousands of years older than previous known formal time-measuring monuments created in Mesopotamia. The analysis has been published in the journal Internet Archaeology."
The more they study it ... (Score:5, Insightful)
The more they realize that there was a lot more known by pre-historic people than we've suspected.
Mankind had many thousands of years to try to do things before we had a written history, and everyone likes to believe those cultures were oblivious.
But it seems the more they look at this, the more things like agriculture, building, and some understanding of astronomy was a lot more widespread.
It didn't just suddenly start with the Egyptians.
Re:The more they study it ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Duh?
Most people are surprised by how intelligent ancient humans were because in their mind, they begin with the fallacy that people today (i.e. themselves) are more intelligent than people ten, twelve, fifteen thousand years ago. This in and of itself is an extrapolation from the certainty that they are smarter than their parents and grandparents.