Ancient Aust'n Aboriginal site could be "oldest observatory in the world": experts
Ancient Aust'n Aboriginal site could be "oldest observatory in the world": experts
Source: Xinhua 2016-10-13 10:11:23
MELBOURNE, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Experts believe an ancient Aboriginal site in the Australian bush could be the oldest astronomical observatory in the world.
Scientists studying the Wurdi Yuang stone arrangement, at an undisclosed location in Victorian bushland, could be up to 11,000 years old, which would make it older than Stonehenge, a prehistoric rock arrangement in England, and the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Duane Hamacher, an expert in Indigenous astronomy from Monash University, said that the first Australians had complex knowledge of the solar system and the site could dispel the notion that all Aboriginal people were nomadic hunter-gatherers.
"They understood very well the motions of the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars throughout the year and over longer periods of time," Hamacher told the ABC on Thursday.
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