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Showing posts from January, 2023

Recent work on the origin of the Greek constellations

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Rock carvings at Yazilikaya, Hattusa, thought to represent a lunisolar calendar, ~ 1230 BCE Following further research into the origin of the Greek constellations, I quote below from the introduction to a very recent (2022) article by Kechagias and Hoffmann "Intercultural Misunderstandings as a possible Source of Ancient Constellations" . Constellations are a very popular topic with which we deal in any planetarium  show and astronomy textbook -- unfortunately in most cases only by summaris ing ancient fairy tales. The real origins of the constellations are hardly known.  Undoubtedly, today's constellations are rooted in the ancient Greek tradition of  Ptolemy's Almagest (Delporte 1930). However, the origin of the 48 ancient constellations  of the Almagest remain largely enigmatic in contrast to the modern  southern constellations, where the exact place, date and way of their invention  is known (Ridpath 1988, Hoffmann 2021d, Frank 2015, 148-149). There  has been much