Telescopes to View Stars in Ancient Tombs

Nearly 6,000 years ago, stone constructions built as tombs may have served the purpose to watch the skies, millennia before telescopes were invented as per a new research. Astronomers propose that these ancient structures may have been used to track the movements of the stars.

Researchers are in the process of investigating whether these so-called “megalithic” tombs provided visual opportunities for humans and acted as ‘telescopes’ without lenses. Scientists are having a look at the passage graves, a type of tomb with a large hall accessed through a long and narrow entry tunnel. This type of formation could have significantly improved views of dim stars as they rose on the dawn horizon.

The Royal Astronomical Society met in the United Kingdom in June’2016 and presented a special session addressing how cultures and societies have been evolved by studying the sky, and vice-versa. As per the study, the direction of some passage is known to align with the positions of certain stars.

In a statement form the society it is stated that the Seven-Stone Antas, a 6,000 year old monolithic cluster in central Portugal, was constructed so that the entrance might align with the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus.

According to the ancient societies these passage graves are believed to be sacred spaces. Besides housing the dead, the tombs’ inner chamber would for a while host living persons, who would spend the night inside the structures’ wall as part of a rite of passage.

Astronomers are investigating the ways that how early cultures used cosmology and offers insights into how they understood the world around them. Astronomy was a part of a holistic experience of life and environment and sky.

Scientists targets how the human eye, without the aid of any telescope device, can see stars given sky brightness and color.