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"On the floors of one cave I noticed a series of pits arranged in the shape of the Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) star cluster," he said.
Drawings of the Pleiades have been found by Dr Rappenglueck on the walls of many Neolithic caves in several parts of Europe, but until now no cosmic marks had been found on cave floors.
He speculates that the small holes could have been filled with animal fat and set alight mimicking the flickering stars in the sky.
"Perhaps this is the origin of the candlelit festivals of the Far East where lighted candles are held in the shape of the Pleiades. Perhaps it is a tradition that stretches back tens of thousands of years into our Stone Age past."
From BBC News
A good map is both a useful tool and a magic carpet to far away places.
--New York Times
There is no way to satirize a map. It keeps telling you where you are. And if you're not there, you're lost. Everything is reduced to meaning. A map may lie, but it never jokes.
-- Howard McCord, Listening to Maps
Just as nature abhors a vacuum, the mind abhors randomness. Automatically we see pictures in the stars above us; we hear voices in the white noise of a river, music in the wind. As naturally as beavers build dams and spiders spin webs, people draw maps, in the sky and in the sand.
-- George Johnson, Fire in the Mind
"What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?"
"About six inches to the mile."
"Only six inches!" exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country on the scale of a mile to the mile!"
"Have you used it much?" I enquired.
"It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers objected; they said it would cover the whole country and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."
-- Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
--New York Times
There is no way to satirize a map. It keeps telling you where you are. And if you're not there, you're lost. Everything is reduced to meaning. A map may lie, but it never jokes.
-- Howard McCord, Listening to Maps
Just as nature abhors a vacuum, the mind abhors randomness. Automatically we see pictures in the stars above us; we hear voices in the white noise of a river, music in the wind. As naturally as beavers build dams and spiders spin webs, people draw maps, in the sky and in the sand.
-- George Johnson, Fire in the Mind
"What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?"
"About six inches to the mile."
"Only six inches!" exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country on the scale of a mile to the mile!"
"Have you used it much?" I enquired.
"It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers objected; they said it would cover the whole country and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."
-- Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded
