.Happy New Year !
One of our members, ihfrank26
[thank you ! - your e-mail led to a major new discovery presented
at the end of this e-mail]
sent me an e-mail challenging my conclusion that the original
calendric "new year" began with the Winter Solstice. He thought that
the original ancient new year would have begun with Spring, when
everything is renewed. I disagree, and here is the logic of my
thinking - leading to a new discovery:
The determination that the Sun has reached its most southerly point -
where it sort of "sits" for three days - and then starts to return
northward, is a simple matter of observation and was surely known to
ancient man thousands of years before any specific solar
calendration began.
In contrast, the determination of the Equinoxes requires some
sophisticated astronomy and clocks to determine exactly WHEN the day
and the night are equally long - and this equality of day and night
twice a year is not a good logical starting point for the year.
What about the argument of renewal? Fine, so when does Spring begin
if we do not use astronomy? When the first daffodils and crocuses
appear? the first tulips? the first buds on the vine? or the tree?
which tree? when the groundhog sees his shadow?
All of these things of renewal do not begin all at once. Worse,
nature can be fooled. We had a very mild winter here in December in
Germany the past year and even had a few roses blooming in our
garden right up to the new year and various plants budding out of
season. But this would hardly suffice to start Spring.
Hence, as logical as might initially appear, the idea of "renewal"
as marking the start of the new year is simply too inexact and
subject to the vagaries of weather in any given year.
As I have already noted in previous letters and as you can see from
the drawing in our files, I discovered that the so-called Cave of
the Dead Man (the year by-gone) at Lascaux marks the WINTER
SOLSTICE, marking the Pleiades at this point in ca. the year 9000 BC
as the start of the New Year. Indeed, if we presume that my
discovered date of December 25, 3117 BC is the start of all modern
calendars (Hebrew, Maya, Chinese, Hindu) and that the major cycle of
calendration was 684 years (2 x 18 (Saros) x 19 (Metonic) cycles)
then the major calendric points back in pre-historical time would be
as follows (going back by 684-year periods):
0. December 25, 3117 BC. Jupiter at Algiedi in Capricorn. Start of
modern calendration.
(all of the dates below are also December 25)
1. 3801 BC or -3800 by astronomy. I have long alleged that the Maya
calendar is based on a cycle of 7600 years. See
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi75.htm
2. 4485 or -4484 by astronomy - It is at this time that the North
Ecliptic Pole, the North Celestial Pole and the North Galactic Pole
(as also the South Ecliptic Pole, South Celestial Pole, and South
Galactic Pole) are all in a straight line on the line of the
solstices (according to Starry Night Pro - see StarryNight.com about
this astronomy program). This line-up occurs only every 12960 years,
i.e. at one-half of the round of precession which is 25920 years.
Hence the previous such occurrence was 17445 BC viz. -17444 by
astronomy. It is impossible in my view that this rare confluence of
a straight line marking the major parameters of heaven occurs by
chance at this 684-year interval, so that the ancients must have
been aware of this long before modern calendars came into existence.
3. 5169 BC or -5168 by astronomy. Jupiter at Algiedi in Capricorn.
4. 5853 BC or -5852 by astronomy.
5. 6537 BC or -6536 by astronomy.
6. 7221 BC or -7220 by astronomy. Jupiter at Algiedi in Capricorn.
7. 7905 BC or -7904 by astronomy.
8. 8589 BC or -8588 by astronomy.
9. 9273 BC or -9272 by astronomy. Jupiter at Algiedi in Capricorn.
This is also then the exact date marked by the bird on a pole at
Lascaux as signifying the Pleiades at the Winter Solstice. The
reason for this symbol at Lascaux is clear when we examine the
picture formed by the stars - THIS is the new discovery - and I am
uploading this discovery to our Files - Ancient Planispheres -
Lascaux at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/France/Lascaux/
as the file
lascaux2.gif
In that graphic, we can see WHY the ancients at Lascaux symbolized
this part of the sky as a bird on a pole (leg) - for this is exactly
the picture formed by the brightest stars in the sky at the Winter
Solstice in ca. 9273 BC.
And so, that is why I think the original ancient New Year began with
the Winter Solstice. There may be calendric records older than
Lascaux - but we have not yet discovered them yet.
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