some Ancient sky and star maps
I am not interested in even attempting to turn this site into anything other that something organic, something that emanates from me. I thought that it would be nice to give some basic information about these star and sky maps, but, as a casual pursuit, it turned out to be more tricky than I thought. I am not researching a thesis here. I defaulted to placing links to information on the world wide web---but I forgot that more than half (more than that?) of the info on the internet is....speculative?......insupportable?....nuts?.....and I don't really have time to sort through it. Then, I thought I could just link everything to a wikipedia entry, at least then people knew what they were getting into--but that turned out to be even more spotty and inconsistent than I hoped. So, I will simply post these pictures for the reason I love them MOST:
1. That they even exist! One of my foundational "arguments" for going to Mars is the shear amount of time I have wanted to do so! I feel like I have been starring at the sky for millennia, yearning to go up and out and through. It feels like forever and finally--for the first time that I can recall--I have an opportunity to go. How could I pass it up? How can I even begin to imagine that staying on Earth another, what?--(calculating generously)50 years?--even registers in the timelessness of existence? I'll probably end up back here sooner or later anyway, right? So--let's go go go!!!!! The existence of these star maps just supports my thinking that if the time for staring and recording can be supplemented by actual travel to the stars---then let's do it. (And can I go, too, please?)
2. That they are beautiful. I am very aesthetically driven and I love beautiful things. For me, beauty (and what beauty is can be discussed later) is a necessary element of a healthy spiritual, emotional, mental and physical life. It impacts all things. In both Art school and Grad school we studied some of this stuff; the whys and whats and hows. But, when I was doing undergraduate work I was kind of a jerk-face. I was young, I thought I knew everything (ah, the good old days....) and, most importantly, thought you knew nothing. So, discussing aesthetics and beauty, etc. in an academic environment was helpful for me in terms of confirming what I thought I already knew or suspected. Information that challenged me on a world-view level (something I wasn't even aware of) I dismissed as "boring" or "wrong". That isn't to say I wasn't in awe of new information and knowledge, or that I wasn't thriving in a house of new ideas--it's just with some distance and perspective, I can see that my "openness" at the time was pretty limited. When I got to Grad school I was 30 and had been humbled a bit by life. Therefore, my ability to assimilate new knowledge was different. I almost approached it with a desire to be wrong--or at the very least, a desire to be knocked down. And I was knocked down.
The whole point of sharing this was to once again, hopefully, strengthen my case for Martian citizenship. Thus: we are all necessary--as people, we all have something to offer every circle of our mundane existence--(family, clan, community, nation, world) and our not-so-material existence (mental, emotional, spiritual). There was a time when I could not see that what other people had was as valid as what I had (who wants lawyers and politicians and police in the world when we can all NOT be lawyers and politicians and police!?*) I feel like I am asking for permission to go somewhere that typically a person such as myself would prefer not to go. Maybe that's why I haven't run into anyone yet that wants to go to Mars---maybe my communities are more Earthbound? But I feel pretty strongly that once we get to Mars, we are going to want to have all our bases thoroughly covered. And I can cover one of them--I swear!
*For the record, those were just the first 3 professions that came to mind and, interestingly enough, all professions with which I have had extensive and ongoing relationships.
1. That they even exist! One of my foundational "arguments" for going to Mars is the shear amount of time I have wanted to do so! I feel like I have been starring at the sky for millennia, yearning to go up and out and through. It feels like forever and finally--for the first time that I can recall--I have an opportunity to go. How could I pass it up? How can I even begin to imagine that staying on Earth another, what?--(calculating generously)50 years?--even registers in the timelessness of existence? I'll probably end up back here sooner or later anyway, right? So--let's go go go!!!!! The existence of these star maps just supports my thinking that if the time for staring and recording can be supplemented by actual travel to the stars---then let's do it. (And can I go, too, please?)
2. That they are beautiful. I am very aesthetically driven and I love beautiful things. For me, beauty (and what beauty is can be discussed later) is a necessary element of a healthy spiritual, emotional, mental and physical life. It impacts all things. In both Art school and Grad school we studied some of this stuff; the whys and whats and hows. But, when I was doing undergraduate work I was kind of a jerk-face. I was young, I thought I knew everything (ah, the good old days....) and, most importantly, thought you knew nothing. So, discussing aesthetics and beauty, etc. in an academic environment was helpful for me in terms of confirming what I thought I already knew or suspected. Information that challenged me on a world-view level (something I wasn't even aware of) I dismissed as "boring" or "wrong". That isn't to say I wasn't in awe of new information and knowledge, or that I wasn't thriving in a house of new ideas--it's just with some distance and perspective, I can see that my "openness" at the time was pretty limited. When I got to Grad school I was 30 and had been humbled a bit by life. Therefore, my ability to assimilate new knowledge was different. I almost approached it with a desire to be wrong--or at the very least, a desire to be knocked down. And I was knocked down.
The whole point of sharing this was to once again, hopefully, strengthen my case for Martian citizenship. Thus: we are all necessary--as people, we all have something to offer every circle of our mundane existence--(family, clan, community, nation, world) and our not-so-material existence (mental, emotional, spiritual). There was a time when I could not see that what other people had was as valid as what I had (who wants lawyers and politicians and police in the world when we can all NOT be lawyers and politicians and police!?*) I feel like I am asking for permission to go somewhere that typically a person such as myself would prefer not to go. Maybe that's why I haven't run into anyone yet that wants to go to Mars---maybe my communities are more Earthbound? But I feel pretty strongly that once we get to Mars, we are going to want to have all our bases thoroughly covered. And I can cover one of them--I swear!
*For the record, those were just the first 3 professions that came to mind and, interestingly enough, all professions with which I have had extensive and ongoing relationships.
The Maps:
Assyrian/Sumerian
stone
stone
Persian (Iranian)
stone
stone
Egyptian
bronze
bronze
Aboriginal
a boulder on the ground
a boulder on the ground
Incan
wood
wood
Hebrew
ink and paper
ink and paper
Nebra (Nebran?) (German)
bronze
bronze
Mesopotamian (Iraqi)
stone
stone
Pawnee (Native American)
elk leather
elk leather
Caves of Lascaux
(French) How amazing is this?! Right?
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Outline of constellations
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