The Great Thunderbird Challenge for the World's Archaeologists, Astronomers and Archaeoastronomers is now underway.
If you are a student, teacher, researcher, or administrator at a college or university, but are not professionally active in those professions, ask your local archaeologist, astronomer or archaeoastronomer if they know the answers to either of the two questions below. Give them a chance to show their stuff.
What are the Questions for the Challenge?
My friends tell us that in our work we should give the alleged and so-called mainstream "experts" in the archaeological, astronomical and archaeoastronomical communities more of an opportunity to show their stuff.
Accordingly, before publishing our next bundle of postings on "The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America",
we have decided to give the mainstream experts a chance... before our next bundle of postings hits the press....
First, Question 1, we would like to know from the archaeologists where the petroglyph redrawn below is located geographically. We know, of course, where it is, and if you are in none of these professions, don't waste your time looking online. You won't find it there. This petroglyph thus far languishes in obscurity, but, to the credit of the archaeological profession, it IS published. Where is it?
Second, Question 2, to illustrate the essence of "The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America", which has appeared in 18 postings, with many more to come, but has similarly languished in undeserved obscurity, which we intend to remedy here, we now ask of the astronomers:
We are not interested in chance similarities. Rather, at a star magnitude limit of 6.0, the default setting at e.g. the top astronomy software program Starry Night Pro (http://astronomy.starrynight.com/), we expect that this group of stars -- if it exists, as we know it does -- should have EXACTLY the number of stars noted above in the image for the corresponding section of that image -- and note that those numbers reflect EXACTLY the number of cupules (cupmarks) on that petroglyph, a petroglyph probably 5000 years old. 60 stars! Is that astronomy?!! In any case, you can be sure that WE know the answer.
This challenge should be a piece of cake for the world's astronomers, who spend much of their lives observing the stars. Could they have missed something this obvious?
We will proceed shortly to our next bundle of postings on "The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America" and when you know our next destination, you will be close to solution of the "Challenge" in terms of a location for that petroglyph.
We repeat. The Great Thunderbird Challenge for the World's Archaeologists, Astronomers and Archaeoastronomers is now underway. If you are at a college or university, but are not professionally active in those professions, ask your local teaching archaeologist, astronomer or archaeoastronomer if they know the answers to our questions. Give them a chance to show their stuff.
Or, if you do not get the right answers, you can look at our coming postings.
Hat tip to Gert Meier for pointing out to me recently that your average human being on this planet, academic or otherwise, sees absolutely no connection between rock cupmarks (viz. cupules) and stars. We aim to change that quick!
If you are a student, teacher, researcher, or administrator at a college or university, but are not professionally active in those professions, ask your local archaeologist, astronomer or archaeoastronomer if they know the answers to either of the two questions below. Give them a chance to show their stuff.
What are the Questions for the Challenge?
My friends tell us that in our work we should give the alleged and so-called mainstream "experts" in the archaeological, astronomical and archaeoastronomical communities more of an opportunity to show their stuff.
Accordingly, before publishing our next bundle of postings on "The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America",
we have decided to give the mainstream experts a chance... before our next bundle of postings hits the press....
First, Question 1, we would like to know from the archaeologists where the petroglyph redrawn below is located geographically. We know, of course, where it is, and if you are in none of these professions, don't waste your time looking online. You won't find it there. This petroglyph thus far languishes in obscurity, but, to the credit of the archaeological profession, it IS published. Where is it?
Second, Question 2, to illustrate the essence of "The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America", which has appeared in 18 postings, with many more to come, but has similarly languished in undeserved obscurity, which we intend to remedy here, we now ask of the astronomers:
"Is there a group of visible stars (star magnitude limit 6.0 or brighter) out there that looks EXACTLY like that petroglyph?Gee, astronomers, nothing familiar? Here is some assistance. 60 stars!
We are not interested in chance similarities. Rather, at a star magnitude limit of 6.0, the default setting at e.g. the top astronomy software program Starry Night Pro (http://astronomy.starrynight.com/), we expect that this group of stars -- if it exists, as we know it does -- should have EXACTLY the number of stars noted above in the image for the corresponding section of that image -- and note that those numbers reflect EXACTLY the number of cupules (cupmarks) on that petroglyph, a petroglyph probably 5000 years old. 60 stars! Is that astronomy?!! In any case, you can be sure that WE know the answer.
This challenge should be a piece of cake for the world's astronomers, who spend much of their lives observing the stars. Could they have missed something this obvious?
We will proceed shortly to our next bundle of postings on "The Great Mound, Petroglyph and Painted Rock Art Journey of Native America" and when you know our next destination, you will be close to solution of the "Challenge" in terms of a location for that petroglyph.
We repeat. The Great Thunderbird Challenge for the World's Archaeologists, Astronomers and Archaeoastronomers is now underway. If you are at a college or university, but are not professionally active in those professions, ask your local teaching archaeologist, astronomer or archaeoastronomer if they know the answers to our questions. Give them a chance to show their stuff.
Or, if you do not get the right answers, you can look at our coming postings.
Hat tip to Gert Meier for pointing out to me recently that your average human being on this planet, academic or otherwise, sees absolutely no connection between rock cupmarks (viz. cupules) and stars. We aim to change that quick!
