Human beings have forever experienced a sense of wonder looking up. The night sky was not only stunning but also breathtaking. It was mysterious, powerful, and, to ancient civilizations, full of divine messages. Within the last 3,000 years of history, humankind has built clever devices to help decipher messages from the heavens. These devices have not only shaped science, but faith, and potentially our human psyche. The impact of these devices can still be felt today.
1. Stone Circles: Maps of the Sky on the Earth
First, let’s talk about Stone Circles. These large rock structures were not there by themselves, but were there purposefully. A famous example is Stonehenge in England. Archaeologists discovered that the stones of Stonehenge not only mark the solstices, but the equinoxes too. We can then make some assumptions that these ancient peoples were tracking the sun’s yearly journey through space.
Interestingly, there is scientific evidence comparing these structures to giant calendars. Giant calendars for farmers. Additionally, these structures would affect or influence belief systems. Some believe people may have considered some alignments as ‘windows’ between earthly and divine realms.
Did you know that many stone circles also align with lunar cycles? This is evidence that ancient people understood more complex astronomical phenomena than we give them credit for – without the benefit of telescopes and modern astronomy. The marriage between science/library and spirituality is something humans did, and did often.
Read more: Astronomy and Psychology: 5 Insights
2. Ancient Observatories: Towers of the Heavens
In the second place, we have ancient observatories. Civilizations such as the Maya and the Babylonians built distinctive structures that were essentially towers. They were not temples in the modern sense as we understand temples. They were hallmark scientific instruments made of stone that allowed priests and scholars to view carefully the paths of the stars.
Take, for example, the El Caracol – (the Snail or ‘conch shell’) in ChichénItzá, Mexico, which was a Mayan observatory that was aligned with the windows facing the movement of Venus. The Maya believed Venus carried good or bad fortunes and tracked its movements closely to time wars, periods of ritual ceremony that involved sacrifice.
Modern scholarship confirms that the practice of such structures demonstrates that the astronomers were quite precise. In 2019, a piece of research indicated that the Maya could accurately predict solar eclipses using projections over centuries. This required advanced mathematics, no doubt, but their practice of “science” could never be divorced from “belief”.
Did you know that the Babylonians recorded patterns of stars in clay tablets? These were the very first star catalogs in the history of the world, and without records such as these, we would have little success in astronomy today.
The Qur’an states: “And He is the One who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Each one is traveling in an orbit.” (Al-Anbiya 21:33). These hyperbolic rings so profoundly resonate with observatories demonstrating the celestial order of things.
Real World Case Study: Lastly, the Chankillo observatory (built around 300 BC) in contemporary Peru still adheres to the projected sunrise points it administered.
3. Star Maps: Early Celestial Maps
Thirdly, civilizations created star maps. These were usually made of clay, papyrus, and animal skins. They illustrated the constellations and noted the motions of the planets.
The Babylonians take center stage again. Babylonian astronomers crafted the celebrated ancient texts, the Mul-Apin tablets. The tablets documented the times when stars became visible, or rose, and noted how stars changed with the seasons. On the other hand, ancient Chinese astronomers painted star maps on silk and cataloged over 1,400 stars long before telescopes arrived on the scene.
Real Life Case Study: The ancient Arabs used star maps to guide them through the deserts. Bedouin tribes navigated using their star maps to find water in the desert using constellations like Orion or the Pleiades, probably saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Even today, desert navigators can use the star maps to find water.
4. Astrolabes: The Portable Universe
Next, we come to the astrolabe, an instrument that effectively changed the course of human history. You could think of it as a pocket scratchpad for the sky. Greek intellectuals designed it, while Muslim scientists perfected it.
Astrolabes helped sailors, travelers, and scholars. Someone understood the astrolabe could help to estimate prayer times, determine the Qiblah direction, track the position of a star, and, with only a few adjustments, the user could read the heavens.
The oldest surviving astrolabe in the world, dated back to the 9th century and made by a Muslim scholar, was found in Morocco. These instruments quickly found their way throughout much of Europe and lactated the foundations of the Renaissance scientific tradition.
Today, historians classify the astrolabe as a “smartphone of the medieval world.” It housed a giant amount of information inside a small and portable design.
Real Life Case Study: In 2016, a diver found a rare Islamic astrolabe from a Portuguese shipwreck by Oman. The astrolabe confirmed that sailors were uniting faith and science while crossing oceans. Without an astrolabe, exploration around the world would never have been possible.
5. Zodiac Systems: Cosmic Storytelling
Now we reach the zodiac systems. Ancient societies divided the sky into regions. Each region had symbolic meanings. The Babylonians created the zodiac wheel, which was later adopted by the Greeks and Romans. For them, zodiac signs explained personality, destiny, and fate. Therefore, kings used astrologers to determine the best actions or next moves politically. Armies would delay their battles on which stars were visible.
Modern psychology has shown me something interesting. Even though astrological meanings have never been scientifically verified, people still feel some affinity toward zodiac symbols. This is indicative of the mind’s wanting cosmic significance. Psychologists describe this as “pattern-seeking behavior.”
Did you know that the oldest zodiac ceiling is painted inside the Temple of Dendera in Egypt? It depicts the twelve signs, which they considered divine guardians of time.
Real Life Case Study: Today, in rural Pakistan, farmers still look to the zodiac constellations to predict torrential rains. Although modern-day rainfall forecasts are available, the community chooses to impose a level of trust in ancient methods from generations of practice.
Read more: Einstein’s Relativity and Your Reality
Conclusion: Stars as Timeless Guides
In conclusion, early civilizations constructed phenomenal instruments in order to read the sky. Stone circles helped them to indicate seasonal reference points, observatories tracked planets and planetary movement, star maps organized the sky, astrolabes brought the universe into the hands of the humans constructing them, and the zodiacal references encoded stars as stories.
But in the end, the account of these instruments is much more than science, too. Humans’ infinite quest to connect earth to heaven is always going to be present. The stars speak to something bigger than ourselves, and they still guide our sight and our hearts.
Leave a Reply