We do not know the names of the Pleiads then, of course, so we use here the familiar names handed down to us by recorded classical antiquity, since their stars are well represented at Chogha Bonut. The parents were Atlas and Pleione. The seven sisters were Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celaeno, Maia, Taygete, and Asterope (Sterope). Look at the map below. All are there.
In the map below,
the circular formations at Chogha Bonut
are based on a figure in an article by
Abbas Alizadeh,
ČOḠĀ BONUT: archeological site in lowland Susiana, in the present-day province of Ḵuzestān in southwestern Iran.
The star positions are from Starry Night Pro.
See http://astronomy.starrynight.com.
The decipherment is by Andis Kaulins, July, 2013.
DECIPHERMENT OF CHOGHA BONUT
as Marking the Stars of the Pleiades
The Blue Circles are circular formations
at Chogha Bonut,
while the black marks are stars
superimposed from Starry Night Pro,
and the Red Circles and middle red line
were added by Andis Kaulins
to show the correspondence of circular formations
at Chogha Bonut
to stars of the Pleiades.
The Blue Circles are circular formations
at Chogha Bonut,
while the black marks are stars
superimposed from Starry Night Pro,
and the Red Circles and middle red line
were added by Andis Kaulins
to show the correspondence of circular formations
at Chogha Bonut
to stars of the Pleiades.
ČOḠĀ BONUT (Chogha Bonut) 32°13′20″ N, 48°30′18″ E is deciphered in the map above as marking the stars of the Pleiades. The result is clear, even though there may be detail work to be done in the future since there are several levels of archaeological survey at Chogha Bonu, though most of the circular formations seem to be of the oldest provenance.
The above figure as I have drawn it consists of two halves, each separate from one another to the left and to the right of the middle red line.
These halves were moved somewhat apart from each other to adjust for scale differences between the superimposed star maps from Starry Night Pro and the circular formations as found at Chogha Bonut.
This was necessary because Chogha Bonut puts Pleione and Atlas closer together to Alcyone than is the actual case in the sky. Once Chogha locations are spread outward at the red line, one can easily see how Chogha Bonut marks the stars of the Pleiades.
Indeed, all we have done here is to paste the stars on both sides of the red line in transparent modus from Starry Night Pro, the parents on one side of the red line, and the daughters on the other si
We have made NO changes in either star positions or Chogha positions in the segments to the left of the red line and similarly we have made NO changes to the separate segments to the right of the red line, except to position those segments to better show how the major stars of the Pleiades were clearly marked at Chogha Bonut.
The basis for our map drawing of Chogha Bonut circular formations is a figure at Iranica Online found in an article by Abbas Alizadeh about ČOḠĀ BONUT: archeological site in lowland Susiana, in the present-day province of Ḵuzestān in southwestern Iran. See http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coga-bonut-archaeological-site.
The star positions are taken from Starry Night Pro.
See http://astronomy.starrynight.com.
The decipherment is by Andis Kaulins, July, 2013.
Chogha Bonut is located only about 20 kilometers north of the Elamite Chogha Zanbil, viz. Tchogha Zanbil, a world heritage site of later provenance, whose Elamite name has been transcribed for better or worse by the mainstream scholars as Dur Untash.
I include Old Elamite symbols in my book on the origins of writing:
Ancient Signs. The mainstream scholars might want to look at that.
An ancient name for the Pleiades was in fact the similar term Turanya (Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names) and that in our opinion is the origin of the name Dur Untash i.e. durun-tash=Tur-an-ya, "the Pleiades".
Duruntash is a name up to now ascribed by mainstream scholars solely to the Elamite ruler who allegedly built it. Chogha Zanbil was thus not only possibly a temple to a king but almost surely a ziggurat erected to the Pleiades.
We might add that our previous research suggests that the king may not have built or completed the temple himself, but that his surviving wife may have built viz. completed it for him after his passage.
