The 40,000-year-old rock carvings display intricate astronomy. Recently, experts found that ancient artworks were really star charts rather than representations of extinct creatures.

Early cave art demonstrates that people during the previous ice age had considerable understanding of the night sky.

Scientists have shown that humans had sophisticated understanding of stars and constellations more than 40,000 years ago. Scientists have found evidence that prehistoric humans could keep track of time by observing the movement of the stars in the sky.

It was often believed that ancient artifacts discovered all throughout Europe depicted wild animals. The animals represented by the symbols are really star constellations in the night sky. According to a University of Edinburgh research, people record dates for catastrophes like asteroid collisions.

Scientists believe that ancient humans had a complete understanding of the impact of the Earth’s axis of rotation gradually shifting. The precession or equinoxes are two names for this phenomena. The early Greeks made the first discovery.

“These discoveries potentially alter the study of ancient populations and support the hypothesis of countless cometary impacts throughout human history.”

Cave art from Turkey, Spain, and France has been investigated by experts from Kent and Edinburgh.

To determine the age of cave art, scientists chemically analyzed the pigments employed in antiquity.

To forecast where the stars would be when the paintings were created, the scientists employed computer algorithms. This demonstrated that what was previously believed to be abstract representations may really be understood as constellations.

These cave drawings, in the opinion of scientists, are evidence that prehistoric humans used complex timekeeping methods based on astronomical calculations. This is true even when there are tens to thousands of years between cave paintings.

In a statement from the University of Edinburgh, specialists explain that the world’s oldest sculpture, the Hochlenstein-Stadel Cave Lion Man, which dates from 38,000 BC, has also been determined to suit this ancient timekeeping method.

The enigmatic sculpture is said to honor the disastrous asteroid collision that took place some 11,000 years ago and signaled the start of the so-called Younger Dryad event, a time of abrupt climatic cooling.

According to the experts’ assessment, “the date etched on the figurine is interpreted as 10,950 BC, with an accuracy of 250 years.”

The equinoxes of this year’s four solstices and equinoxes are represented by the animal symbols on this day, which is written using their precession.

Intellectually, Dr. Martin Sweetman of the University of Edinburgh claims that these ancient individuals were similar to modern ones.

How did these people in the past learn so much about the universe, the sky, and other things?