The Meridian Star
[Disclaimer: The contents of this post are merely the reflections of the author’s opinions an beliefs, the subject matter holds no scientific weight. The aim is to explore alternative views on history.]
It is hard to imagine a day without keeping time by using a clock. We have adapted to synchronized timely events, when the clock strikes 12 it is either noon or midnight, knowing this has become instinctive. In ancient times people did not have the technology for mechanical time keeping, they needed to resort to observing the Sun and the stars. It is understood how to estimate noon using the Sun, but what defines the midnight hour?
A solar day has 24 hours which could be divided into 4 equal parts of 6 hours each. During the equinoctial days the length of day is about the same as the length of night, and so, during the equinoxes a day is divided into 4 equal parts. On the solstices, during the noon and midnight hour, the orbital pole aligns with the celestial pole due north, this creates the same upper sky as during the rising or setting sun on the day of the equinoxes. Therefore the upper sky during the setting sun on the vernal equinox is the same as the upper sky during the midnight hour on the winter solstice.
Because both the orbital and celestial poles align at the maximum tilt we can approximate the midnight hour by referring to the star that lies closest to the meridian that holds the zenith point on the ecliptic plane. This star should not be confused with a pole star which is defined by its proximity to the axis of rotation. For the ‘meridian star’, for lack of a better term, any latitude will do. Because of precession the star will shift in and out of alignment with a particular meridian at a rate of about 71.45 years per degree.
As the Earth rotates the ecliptic reaches its zenith point twice a day, once during the day, and once during the night; the focus would have been on the night for obvious reasons. For the ancients the process would have been as simple as observing the ecliptic’s maximum tilt compared to the celestial equator as the night progresses. Any star that is in close proximity to the meridian that runs through this zenith point could potentially be a guiding star.
I will be looking for precise years that align a designated star with the orbital pole, the celestial pole and the midnight hour for the period related to the constellation Leo (c. 3900–1600 BCE), knowing that there is a great overlap with biblical history. This will be done under the assumption that humanity has always been looking into the stars, no exception.
The idea of using meridian stars could have been much older than Dynastic Egypt or even Predynastic Egypt (c. 6000 BCE). In Turkey there is an archaeological site called Göbekli Tepe that is dated back to the 10th-8th millennium BCE.[1] At this site stones have been excavated with reliefs of animals that at first glance carry some similarity to those of Protodynastic Egypt (c. 3200–3000 BCE).
On a similar site which is presumable older, namely Körtik Tepe, similar animal symbols have been found including mountain goats, scorpions, birds and other animals.[2]
Interestingly the meridian constellations during the 10th millennium BCE look the same as the graffito markings at Gebel Sheikh Suleiman (c. 3200–3000 BCE), the constellations are Sagittarius, Scorpius, Lupus and Centaurus.[3] Perhaps a long lasting connections exists between Egypt and Göbekli Tepe, who knows?
The period for the constellation Scorpius to pass this meridian lasted from about c. 11,000 BCE to about 9,000 BCE, this fits the dated period for Göbleki Tepe. N.B. compared to other constellations these seem to have a greater presence by number of significantly large stars.
Above is an image of the actual upper sky during the night of the winter solstice of 9665 BC, at this time Antares (Alpha Scorpii) aligns quite perfectly with the midnight meridian.
Time behaves linearly, the same holds true for axial rotations and planetary trajectories. The speed of movement can be understood as a continuous movement. As we compute the exact years of the meridian alignments we run into problems because a solar days is not exactly 24 hours in length, instead we lose about 59 seconds each day. This is the reason why we calibrate our calendar with leap years.
As we calibrate every four years we create oscillations in our reckoning. As we track a star at the exact same time of the exact same day each year, we need to correct for the time lost. Figure 2 shows how a star swings back and forth while moving across the sky.
When tabulated for the century of an alignment, using the Gregorian calendar system, we can see a 4-year swing pattern emerge:
Additionally what this shows is that whenever you observe precession in relation to a chosen meridian, using a 4-year intercalating system like the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, it will seemingly take 90 years for a point to cross the meridian completely, with the pattern having a period of 98 years. Why is this? Because by creating oscillations in our observations we virtually extend the period of 71.45 years on both sides, and while it does this it will give 7 ‘swings’ of about 4 to 5 years where it presents a clears signal, from center to center is about 14 years.
Ancient astronomers would not have had this complexity as their observations came directly from the sky. It is easy to mistakenly assume an alignment when we investigate precession of certain stars using public tools like astro.com. Fortunately by knowing the pattern of distortion it is possible to obtain useful data with significant precision. To be continued… Update: Using Stellarium it is possible to increase precision substantially.
By Orestes_3113
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References
[1] Göbleki Tepe — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobekli_Tepe
[2] Körtik Tepe — https://gercekler.net/index.php/materyalist-tarih-gorusune-bir-darbe-daha-kortik-tepe/
[3] Graffito at Gebel Sheikh Suleiman — https://medium.com/@Orestes_3113/birth-of-the-scorpion-king-da6cc4e6bec2
