Thursday, September 3, 2020

Rujm el-Hiri (Golan Heights) - Ancient Observatory

Rujm el-Hiri (Golan Heights) - Ancient Observatory Sixteen kilometers east of the Sea of Galilee in the western piece of the notable Bashan plain of the Golan Heights (a challenged territory guaranteed by both Syria and Israel) are the vestiges of a most surprising structure, which researchers accept was worked in any event to a limited extent for archaeoastronomical purposes. Situated at 515 meters above ocean level, Rujm el-Hiri comprises of a focal cairn with a lot of concentric rings enclosing it. Worked during the late Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age around 5000 years prior, Rujm el-Hiri (additionally called Rogem Hiri or Gilgal Rephaim) is made of an expected 40,000 tons of whole dark volcanic basalt field stones heaped and wedged into somewhere in the range of five and nine concentric rings (contingent upon how you check them), with statures coming to 1 to 2.5 meters (3-8 feet) high. Nine Rings at Rujm el-Hiri The furthest, biggest ring (Wall 1) measures 145 meters (475 feet) east-west and 155 m (500 ft) north-south. The divider gauges reliably between 3.2-3.3 m (10.5-10.8 ft) thick, and in places faces 2 m (6 ft) in stature. Two openings into the ring are as of now hindered by fallen rocks: the northeastern estimates around 29 m (95 ft) wide; the southeastern opening estimates 26 m (85 ft). Not the entirety of the inward rings are finished; some of them are more oval than Wall 1, and in especially, Wall 3 has an articulated lump toward the south. A portion of the rings are associated by a progression of 36 talked like dividers, which make up chambers, and appear to be haphazardly dispersed. At the focal point of the deepest ring is a cairn ensuring an internment; the cairn and entombment come after the underlying development of the rings by maybe up to 1500 years. The cairn is an unpredictable stone stack estimating some 20-25 m (65-80 ft) in distance across and 4.5-5 m (15-16 ft) in stature. Dating the Site Not many ancient rarities have been recuperated from Rujm el-Hiri, and no appropriate natural materials have been recouped for radiocarbon dating. In view of what little relics were recouped, the most punctual developments were the rings during the Early Bronze Age, of the third thousand years BC; the cairn was worked during the late Bronze Age of the late second thousand years. The colossal structure (and a progression of tombs close by) might be the beginning of the legends of the antiquated race of monsters, referenced in the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian book of scriptures as drove by Og, King of the Bashan. Archeologists Yonathan Mizrachi and Anthony Aveni, contemplating the structure since the late 1980s, have another conceivable understanding: a heavenly observatory. Summer Solstice at Rujm el Hiri Ongoing work by Aveni and Mizrachi has noticed that the entranceway to the middle opens on dawn of the late spring solstice. Different indents in the dividers demonstrate the spring and fall equinoxes. Unearthings into the walled chambers didn't recuperate ancient rarities demonstrating that the rooms were ever utilized either for capacity or living arrangement. Estimations of when the cosmic arrangements would have coordinated stars underpins the dating of the rings at having been worked at around 3000 BC/ - 250 years. The dividers at Rujm el-Hiri appear to have highlighted star-risings for the period, and may have been indicators of the stormy season, an essential piece of data for the sheep herders of the Bashan plain in 3000 BC. Sources This glossary passage is a piece of the About.com manual for Astronomical Observatories, and the Dictionary of Archeology. Aveni, Anthony and Yonathan Mizrachi 1998 The Geometry and Astronomy of Rujm el-Hiri, a Megalithic Site in the Southern Levant. Diary of Field Archeology 25(4):475-496. Polcaro An, and Polcaro VF. 2009. Man and sky: issues and techniques for Archaeoastronomy. Archeologia e Calcolatori 20:223-245. Neumann F, Schã ¶lzel C, Litt T, Hense An, and Stein M. 2007. Holocene vegetation and atmosphere history of the northern Golan statures (Near East). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 16(4):329-346.