17,000 years ago our human ancestors gazed upon the same earthbound sky we now enjoy. Armed with growing brains and wild imagination, they created rich paintings upon cave walls. They depicted the most important events and spectacles of their age. Animals and rituals of the hunt, lush and beautiful vegetation, and of course the greatest wonder in nature: the human form. But among the images another sort are found --thousands of years later our contemporary eyes recognize this illustrations as common nightly visions. Sketched in brilliant pigments, these ancient murals detail the position of the stars. Vega, Denebe and Altair- the three stars of the summer triangle, take a prominent position in the cave art. Seven tiny dots form the Seven Sister of The Pleiades. Above a curve figure seems to represent the extrordinary sight of the Northern Crown. Were the caves a quiet refuge in which our early brothers educated their kind with maps and stories of wonder? It would appear so. Dr. Rappenglueck, a German scientist, tells BBC News Online, "It is a map of the prehistoric cosmos. It was their sky, full of animals and spirit guides."
From tiny paint dots on a cave wall, to elaborate digital machines capable of projecting thousands of tiny starlike lights on domed screen, man is obsessed with capturing the wonders of nature with tools of his hands. So the next time you are sitting in the quiet, cool refuge of your local planetarium, close your eyes and imagine sitting in the quiet, cool refuge of a natural cave, listening to your elders relay the wisdom and wonder unique to our human minds. Tat Tvam Asi. We are One.
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Prehistoric Planetarium of 16,500 B.C. |
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| Modern Planetarium of 2011 A.D. |
I feel a kinship, instead of charcoal I use the tools of my age. Megapixel arrays, silicon chips and code, but in the end we are the same.
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