by Philip C. Steffey, PhD
Abstract: A cave wall pictograph in
Preface. The following paper, written in late 1988, resulted
surprise discovery by me in the course of research on the Venus lore of
Dogon of Mali, wherein the sharp rays of the brightest "moving star"
are significant. Some years earlier I had made intensive observations
ray patterns of bright stars produced by my own eyes, finding them
similar to those in scores of pictographs by ancient and by living
peoples. In some cases I could estimate the visual magnitude of the
represented from the pattern diameter relative to the central spot and
number of rays, to the nearest half-magnitude or so. For example, the
Egyptian five-rayed star, though generally stylized, depicts the
appearance of the brightest ten or 12 known fixed stars. And the famous
I hardly expected to find such star pictures among the scanty
art of prehistoric peoples, considering for example that even the Moon
rarely represented and never very realistically. Thus I was astonished
to see a
reproduction, in a book by Gerald Hawkins, of two clearly related,
stars he discovered in a cave in southern
Archaeoastronomy has discovered little about remote prehistoric
knowledge, according to reviews by Hawkins(1) and Krupp(2): the Moon's
period, definition of geographic directions by sunrises and sunsets,
correlation of the noon Sun's altitude with season. Terminal
These assessments actually reveal intellectual stagnation of the interdiscipline from research biases and skill deficiencies, including monument alignment mania (Aveni(3)), insensitivity to archaic astronomical art due to inexperience with specimens elucidated by writing or oral tradition, and above all, unfamiliarity with important naked eye phenomena due to a lack of personal observing experience, forcing dependence on poor textbook descriptions. Substantially more Stone Age knowledge existed than is presently admitted. In particular, Venus was carefully observed by Neolithic Europeans, as ironically shown in Hawkins' conservative review.
The naked-eye observer with emmetropic (20/20 ft) vision sees very
stars well up in dark skies as brilliant points from which luminous
differing brightness emanate. The ray pattern is invariant but seems
in the dimmer than the brighter objects as easily visible rays decrease
10-12 in Venus (magnitude -4) to seven in Sirius (-1.5) and five at
(e.g. Procyon, Vega). Total ray illuminance is about ten percent of the
spot's, judging from individual ray invisibility in third mag. and
stars. The brightest stars exhibit rays even in twilight, though fewer
night. Venus shows 5-6 in bright-medium twilight. The richest dark-sky
reveal axisymmetry in the horizontal and vertical meridians and partial
symmetry in the diagonals. Contrary to published claims, e.g. by
nearly the same pattern is seen by all emmetropes in good physical
except possibly very young and very old people, though this important
obscured by differing observation and drawing ability. The evidence is
lengthy to discuss here. The ray tips define a rough circle of angular
approximately 12 arc-minutes for mag. 1.0 stars to 30 for-1.5 and one
-4.5 (20 degrees altitude), from comparisons with known star
separations and near-field
scales. There is a slight dependence on star color. The diameters are
sensitive to sky luminance and can fall to half the ideal values in
moderate moonlight. Venus' pattern in bright-medium twilight is 15-20
The rays are image aberrations due to anatomically normal, cylindrical micro-deformations of the corneas in the horizontal and vertical meridians, produced by the eyeball suspension and complicated by gravity. So-called "night myopia" (nearsightedness)(5) causes the resulting line images to appear sharply focused. Details are beyond the scope of this paper. Imperfect vision correction by eyeglasses and poor seating on the head can alter the natural ray pattern.
Rayed stars were common knowledge to ancient peoples, who evidently believed the rays were natural appendages, and inspired traditional symbols, some realistic (Figure 1a;(6)), others modified to accommodate numerology (Fig. 1b;(7)). The rays play an important role in the astronomical lore of some living "primitive" peoples (Figs. 1c,d;(8,9)).
An especially fine, realistic representation of an extremely bright
independently identified from Far Eastern written records, occurs in
Canyon, New Mexico pictograph of the Crab supernova in conjunction with
crescent Moon in the morning of July 5, 1054, reproduced from
Either ignorant of the ray phenomenon or believing the rays to be illusory or artists' fabrications, modern astronomers generally dismiss such pictures as scientifically worthless(11). In fact, without supporting documentation, the
While researching ancient knowledge of Venus for an article on the
calendar of the Dogon of Mali, I noticed a pictograph that Hawkins had
a cave wall near La Pileta in southern
Despite its distorted appearance, probably due in part to natural damage, the upper rayed symbol in Fig. 3a is so stylistically like the lower one that it must represent the same object. Also, its rays are longer, implying somewhat greater brightness. It is most likely a representation of Venus at a higher altitude--perhaps 25 deg--near dusk compared with about 10 deg for the lower symbol. That the two evidently depict objects not greatly different in brightness is a strong argument against the source having been a bright nova or supernova, for which we would expect to find a representation when dim as well as when bright.
Furthermore, the two adjacent "comb" or "rake" symbols, which are counts discussed at length by Hawkins(13), are aligned roughly with the star symbol pair. I believe they record the elapsed time between the two Venus stations (right "comb") and the duration of the upper one (upper left "comb"), in approximate lunar months, from successive first-visible evening or last morning crescents, or from successive Moon-Venus conjunctions. Thus the intervals shown are two and three months respectively. An additional month may have elapsed between abandonment of counting on the right-hand symbol and starting on the left-handed one (see below). So the total observation period was five or six months, an improbably long one for a nova or supernova to remain near maximum brightness.
At the latitude of La Pileta, 37 deg N, in all evening or morning apparitions of Venus with a three or four month-long high station corresponding to 36-48 deg solar elongation, the transition to or from inferior conjunction with the Sun is rapid, whereas that from or to superior conjunction lasts about four months, the planet appearing at low altitudes when most conspicuous for most of that period. Therefore the lower symbol in Fig. 3a most likely represents an early post or late pre-superior conjunction view. And its better condition suggests that it was drawn first, on a better patch of the cave wall than the upper symbol, favoring the post-conjunction or evening alternative. The overextended baseline of the 3-symbol is consistent: The 'flaw', the most extreme in any of Hawkins' count-symbols, appears deliberate, in anticipation of adding another month-mark. But by then Venus had reached an altitude standstill, so the observer-artist decided to begin a new count figure to record that phenomenon, probably losing a month in the total apparition timing. Figure 4 summarizes these interpretations, which best fit an evening apparition that began in mid-autumn and ended the following late spring, as in 1987-88.
Hawkins gives no age for the La Pileta pictograph, but the count
seem evolved from the groove rows carved on bony material by Europeans
ca. 15,000 years ago. The 15-10 millenia-old Gontzi, U.S.S.R., mammoth
carved pattern appears prototypical of the new style(14). The drawn
to 5,000 years earlier than any presently recognized, definite evidence for careful observation of Venus(15). Repetition of those inferred from Fig. 3a for a series of successive evening and morning apparitions would have revealed the 19-month synodic period, and the eight-year apparition recurrence period was discoverable in a Neolithic European's adult lifetime.
1. Hawkins, G.S. Mindsteps to the Cosmos (
2. Krupp, E.C. Echoes of the Ancient Skies (
3. Aveni, A.F. Sky and Telescope, vol. 72, pgs. 456-460 (1986).
4. Minnaert, M. The Nature of Light and Color in the Open Air (
5. Rubin, M.L. and Krill, A. The Assessment of Visual Function (
6. Krupp, E.C. ibid., pg. 20.
7. Warner, J. The
8. Griaule, M. Masques Dogons (
9. Griaule, M. and Dieterlen, G. Le Renard Pale (
10. Cornell, J. The First Stargazers (
11. Cornell, J. ibid., pg. 191.
12. Hawkins, G.S. ibid., pg. 8.
13. Hawkins, G.S. ibid., pgs. 8-10.
14. Hawkins, G.S. ibid., pgs. 10-11.
15. Huber, P. Scientists Confront Velikovsky (
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