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World's oldest calendar dating back more than 10,000 years discovered in Scotland. (Daily Mail)
The monument is made up of 12 pits that appear to mimic moon phases
This would have made it possible for residents to track lunar months
It was discovered in Warren Field near Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire
The discovery predates the earliest known calendar by 5,000 years
The monument is made up of 12 pits that appear to mimic moon phases
This would have made it possible for residents to track lunar months
It was discovered in Warren Field near Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire
The discovery predates the earliest known calendar by 5,000 years
much more at the link aboveArchaeologists believe they have discovered the world's oldest 'calendar' in a field in Scotland.
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Researchers found that the monument pits align during the Midwinter sunrise, which researchers say would provide an annual 'astronomic correction' to maintain the link between the passage of time indicated by the moon, the solar year and the seasons.
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The project was led by Vince Gaffney, professor of landscape archaeology at the University of Birmingham.
He said: 'The evidence suggests that hunter-gatherer societies in Scotland had both the need and sophistication to track time across the years, to correct for seasonal drift of the lunar year and that this occurred nearly 5,000 years before the first formal calendars known in the near east.
'In doing so, this illustrates one important step towards the formal construction of time and therefore history itself.'
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