New paper featured in international news


My new paper, with Alistair Coombs, on Palaeolithic cave art, including Chauvet, the Lascaux Shaft Scene and the Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, featured on the science pages of international newspapers and websites today, such The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Express and India Today. Read all about it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gobekli Tepe's Pillars

Image
Significance: Gobekli Tepe (GT) probably played an important role in the origin of civilisation. Most of us are connected to it in some way, through language and religion (proto-Nostratic?), or genetics at least. The Pillars: GT is famous for its anomalous megalithic pillars, and especially the symbols carved on them. Most people think these symbols are telling an important story - they are not just random pictures of animals. Klauss Schmidt, who discovered GT and led its excavation, until his death in 2014, certainly thought so. It follows that the only way we will ever be able to properly understand Gobekli Tepe, and therefore the origin of civilisation, is through reading its pillars. Deutsche Archaeological Institute : the DAI operates the Gobekli Tepe dig. Despite the immense significance of the site, only around 20 are documented by the DAI. Although many have no symbols, even 25 years after the site's discovery there is no single resource available that describes all its pi...
Read more

The meaning of H-symbols at Gobekli Tepe (updated 7th June)

Image
The H and I-symbols at Gobekli Tepe are some of the hardest to decipher, and their precise meaning remains obscure. But there are some good clues, which allow a preliminary interpretation. Let's have a look at all the instances where H and I-symbols occur. Pillar 33: A pair of H-symbols bracket some snakes (meteors) on the inner face. The upper H-symbol is quite faint. An I-symbol appears at ground level below the snake heads, but it is hardly visible here. Also, there are more I-symbols on the side with the tall bending birds. Of course, Pillar 43 has H and I-symbols near the bird with fish/snake. But Pillar 18 has the most H and I-symbols. First, at the top, forming a kind of necklace, together with likely sun and moon symbols. Then on the belt of Pillar 18 surrounded by loops... And then also on the belt buckle surrounding what might be the head of a comet. Pillar 30 has a single H-symbol, ... while Pillar 28 has an H-symbol over another loop, with an I-symbol at the bottom. The...
Read more

New paper submitted: Origin of some of the ancient Greek constellations via analysis of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe

Image
Origin of some of the ancient Greek constellations via analysis of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe  Martin B. Sweatman and Dimitrios Gerogiorgis School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, Sanderson Building, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, United Kingdom. email: martin.sweatman@ed.ac.uk   key words: Greek constellations, Göbekli Tepe, Pillar 43   ABSTRACT We re-evaluate an astronomical interpretation of Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey. Our analysis supports earlier conclusions that at least some of the animal symbols on this pillar almost certainly represent constellations related to those of the ancient Greeks. Presumably, the Greeks, Mesopotamians and other Neolithic, Bronze and Iron-age cultures towards the eastern end of the Mediterranean region were influenced in their choice of constellations and symbols by this pre-existing knowledge.   1.       Introduction This work investig...
Read more