Just saw this story on the Auntie site.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...16/3013139.htm
Study shines light on Indigenous star-gazing
Ancient Aboriginal people may have been the world's first astronomers, a CSIRO study says.
Professor Ray Norris, who will deliver his findings at an astronomy, space and science lecture in
Townsville in north Queensland
today, says Indigenous Australians used the rising and setting of particular stars to read tides and harvest food.
He says they may also have been the first to explain solar eclipses.
"The interesting thing is somebody actually looked up in the sky and thought 'What's going on there? Why is the sun going out? What's causing that?'," he said.
"Of course they've interpreted that perfectly correctly of course about the sun and the moon coming together perfectly in the sky."
Professor Norris says his research found the sun, moon, planets and stars featured strongly in Aboriginal culture before they appeared in ancient Egypt and Greece.
"One of the most interesting sites I found down in Victoria is a big stone circle of about 50 metres across and this seems to indicate the places along the horizon where the sun sets on mid-winter's day, mid-summer's day and equinox," he said.
"People were actually interested in how the things in the sky moved and they were marking out, trying to understand what was going on."
Lecture in FNQ today!
