A short note on the archaeoastronomical interpretation of the ancient stone carving discovered at the Burzahom Neolithic site located in the Kashmir Valley
The stone carving (shown in Figure 1) is apparently a depiction of a hunting scene in which two bright objects (Suns/Moons) are carved in the top portion of the slate. However, researchers [3,4] postulate that the items carved do not represent a terrestrial hunting scene, but actually a sky map with the prominent constellations and the Moon on the night when a supernova was observed (see Figure 2). In this scenario, one of the hunters in the left side of the carving with a bow represents the Orion constellation; the central animal represents the constellation of Taurus; the hunter on the right may have been formed from stars in the constellation of Cetus; and the other animal on the right may be the constellations of Andromeda and Pegasus. The spear of the hunter on the right is assumed to be an arc of bright stars. Since the slate had been reused in a rock wall, it is conjectured that the rock carving predates 1800 BCE, hence more likely to be HB9. It is interesting to observe that a reasonable fit is obtained upon comparing the relative distances between the pictorial representation of the constellations of the Orion (hunter with the bow), the Taurus (the deer in the middle), and the constellation of Cetus (hunter on the right) with the actual angular separations of various constellations and stars in the sky. On the basis of this evidence, it is conjectured that the stone carving represents a major astronomical event which took place more than 5000 years ago.
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a very close friend of mine about the origins of Kashmiri art and culture, predating the foreign political and religious influences of the medieval era. He shared his experience of visiting one of the oldest neolithic sites in Asia, which happens to be not very far from our capital Srinagar, how the administration has abandoned it and how one of our richest historical heritage sites has been neglected and turned into a playground. The archaeological site I am talking about is the Burzahom Neolithic site which is a prehistoric settlement in the village Burzahom, about 10 miles to the northwest of the capital. Carbon dating has established that the Neolithic culture of this site is traceable to around 5000-1500 BCE. The excavation of this site dates back to 1936 when a Yale-Cambridge Expedition started to explore the site for the first time. Detailed investigations of the site were carried out by Archaeological Survey of India between 1960 and 1971. In this essay, I will expound on one of the most peculiar discoveries made at this site -- a stone carving that depicts a hunting scene with two glowing orbs in the sky.
Before I dive into the details of the stone carving, let me build up some suspense! Imagine you are out on your daily evening walk or may be you are enjoying some tea in your backyard, and as the sun sets, not just one but two moons appear over the horizon! In this age of social media, our first impulse would be to fumble out our phones from our back-pockets and capture this bizarre phenomenon in the sky. In an instant, the whole internet would be abuzz with the pictures, posts and memes related to this night sky anomaly. Meanwhile, our favorite podcasters like Joe Rogan and Lex Fridmann and other TV show hosts would invite scientists to their shows to shed some light on this oddity. In today's age of scientific and technological sophistication, it would not be too long before our engineers and astronomers would have detected the exact reason of this bright object aka "the second moon" that adorns our night sky. May be a star exploded somewhere in deep space and the glow that appears to us as the second moon is just us witnessing the light that has come to visit us from a nearby supernova explosion. It would undoubtedly be a great sight for days or even weeks to follow.
Now imagine witnessing "the second moon" about 5000 years ago. For our ancestors, there were no experts, no astronomers to consult, no astronomical tables to look up the predictions from, no scientific podcasts to tune into, and no phones or cameras to take quick pictures of this mysterious bright glow in the night sky. All they had were their curious minds, chisels, and stones! While some may have thought of this oddity as ominous or the sign of end times, or simply God revealing himself, the curious ones would have grabbed hold of their chisel and went about the village in search of a smooth slate -- to etch the event in stone and record it for future generations. That is exactly what one of our Kashmiri ancestors did. It gives me goosebumps and sends me into a state of rapture and euphoria every time I look at what they have created. See Figure 1. Through this stone carving, I can feel our ancestors travelling thousands of years into the future to tell us about that evening when it all happened.
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| Figure 1: Photograph of the rock carving discovered at Burzahom Neolithic site, Kashmir. The carving is likely the oldest-known sky chart, depicting a supernova. Source: Joglekar et al. [3]. |
This stone carving was found in a rock wall dated 2100 BCE, suggesting that its importance had been lost to people by that time, as it had been reused in building a structure, particularly a wall or a partition. Researchers [3] have carefully analysed the records of young supernova remnants with estimated ages between 2000 to 10000 years. Supernovas with their apparent magnitudes less than that of the Sun or the Moon, and the ones with improper declination have been ignored, leaving only two possible candidates as described below:
1. Supernova G182.4+4.3, age = 1800 BCE, Peak apparent magnitude in Earth sky = -7.1
2. Supernova HB9, age = 4600 BCE, peak apparent magnitude in Earth sky = -9.6
For comparison, the mean apparent magnitudes of the Sun and the Moon as observed from the Earth are -26.74 (brighter) and -12.74 (dimmer) respectively.
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| Figure 2: Sky map of the region of supernova HB9 in the sky chart for 5700 BCE. For comparison, the stone carving has been superimposed on the sky map. The big glowing circle in the center is the Moon (August 4500 BCE), and the smooth little circle just above the half drawn glowing object is the exact location of HB9. Source: Joglekar et al. [3]. |
The stone carving (shown in Figure 1) is apparently a depiction of a hunting scene in which two bright objects (Suns/Moons) are carved in the top portion of the slate. However, researchers [3,4] postulate that the items carved do not represent a terrestrial hunting scene, but actually a sky map with the prominent constellations and the Moon on the night when a supernova was observed (see Figure 2). In this scenario, one of the hunters in the left side of the carving with a bow represents the Orion constellation; the central animal represents the constellation of Taurus; the hunter on the right may have been formed from stars in the constellation of Cetus; and the other animal on the right may be the constellations of Andromeda and Pegasus. The spear of the hunter on the right is assumed to be an arc of bright stars. Since the slate had been reused in a rock wall, it is conjectured that the rock carving predates 1800 BCE, hence more likely to be HB9. It is interesting to observe that a reasonable fit is obtained upon comparing the relative distances between the pictorial representation of the constellations of the Orion (hunter with the bow), the Taurus (the deer in the middle), and the constellation of Cetus (hunter on the right) with the actual angular separations of various constellations and stars in the sky. On the basis of this evidence, it is conjectured that the stone carving represents a major astronomical event which took place more than 5000 years ago.
There are still many questions to be asked. Researchers are working on studying more pieces of rock art from the same time to find the depiction of any sky charts, or pictorial representations of the constellations. Though the Burzahom stone carving fits perfectly with what the sky map would have looked like back then (see Fig. 2), it could just be a coincidence. Another sky chart from the same time and/or the same region may answer these questions. Until then, let us marvel at and appreciate the craftsmanship, the knowledge of the night sky, and the curiosity of our neolithic Kashmiri ancestors!
Cite as
Bader, Shujaut H., “Supernovas, sky charts, and stones: A short note on the archaeoastronomical interpretation of the ancient stone carving discovered at the Burzahom Neolithic site located in the Kashmir Valley." Backscatter, September 20, 2021. https://backscatterblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/supernovas-sky-charts-and-stones.html
References
- Excavations by Archaeological Survey of India. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
- Pande, B. M. (13 October 1969). "Neolithic Hunting Scene on a Stone Slab from Burzahom, Kashmir" (pdf). University of Hawaii.
- Hrishikesh Joglekar, M N Vahia, Aniket Sule, "Oldest sky-chart with Supernova record", Journal of Indian Archaeological Society (2006).
- Naseer Iqbal, M.N. Vahia, Tabasum Masood and Aijaz Ahmad, "Some early astronomical sites in the Kashmir region", Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (ISSN 1440-2807), Vol. 12, No. 1, p. 61 - 65 (2009).
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