World's earliest observatory discovered in China

[norml]

World's earliest observatory discovered in China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-30 11:31

Chinese archaeologists said they have found the world earliest observatory, dated back to some 4,100 years ago, in north China's Shanxi Province.

The ancient observatory in the Taosi relics site in Shanxi Province is at least 2,000 years older than the 1,000-year-old observatory built by the Maya in central America, said He Nu, a research follow with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He told Xinhua on Sunday that the observatory, built at the endof the primitive society, "was not only used for observing astronomical phenomena but also for sacrificial rites."

The remains of the observatory, in the shape of a semicircle 40meters in diameter in the main observation platform and 60 meters in diameter in the outer circle, were made by rammed earth in three circles.

Archaeologists inferred that 13 stone pillars, at least four meters tall, stood on the foundation of the first circle originally, forming 12 gaps between them.


snip


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/30/content_488831.htm

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Very interesting

I would love to see what it looks like when they restore it. We have come a long way in 4000 years with instruments like the Hubble space telescope.

[benburch]

2. Isn't Stonehenge older?

I know Gerald S. Hawking's stonehenge speculations are controversial, but the astronomical alignment of parts of that site cannot be denied.

[norml]

3. Stonehenge

Stonehenge



Early building. There was a henge at the Stonehenge site before the Bronze Age, built sometime around 2800 B.C. It was really nothing more than a ditch and bank enclosing a open space. The stone now called the Heel Stone lay outside the ditch. There may at some point have been a circle of wood or a hut inside the enclosure; there certainly was a tradition of wooden henges in the area. Inside the henge a ring of 56 holes were dug, called today "Aubrey Holes" after a 17th century "discoverer" of the site. These holes were filled with cremation materials.

The Bluestones. About 2200 B.C. the Beaker People swung into action. Perhaps to impress their superiority on the local population, they began the process of building a double ring of stones inside the henge. These "bluestones" were transported all the way from southern Wales, a distance of several hundred miles. Why go to Wales when there were stones as close as twenty miles to the north on the Marlborough Downs?

Well for one thing, it seems that the Beaker People had an established trade route from Wessex to Ireland in their search for copper and gold, so southern Wales was on their way home. Also, it is possible that there may have been friction between the Beaker People and the natives of the Marlborough Downs which prevented them from accessing the nearer stones.

Transporting the stones was an enormously impressive achievement. Over 80 of these bluestones, most weighing over four tons, were painstakingly carried to Salisbury Plain by boat and sledge, a process that took over a hundred years to complete. This was not a weekend project by a team of do-it-yourselfers. In later years the transport of these stones was attributed to magic, even the wizard Merlin was supposed to have taken part.


snip


http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Stonehenge.htm

[tmooses]

4. I forget, now how long ago do the creationists claim man was put on

the planet?

[benburch]

5. About 6000 year ago. nt

[Ravenseye]

6. I take all chinese archaeological evidence with a grain of salt

They've published highly questionable findings before. Their science is often bad as well, pushed by the government to always prove how their nation and people are better, earlier, stronger, wiser, etc, than other cultures.

It colors everything I've ever read that's come out of china, so I'm now just suspect of everything.