27 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

A 2,500-year-old celestial map carved on the surface of a circular stone found in Italy

Two circular stones measuring 50 centimeters in diameter have been discovered in Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo, an ancient hilltop fortress in the Italian province of Trieste, and one of them may be one of the oldest celestial map found in Italy.

The discovery was announced in a press release by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).

Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo is a defensive structure. Used as a fortification from an era between 1800 and 1650 BC. until 400 BC, that of Rupinpiccolo is one of the most important castles, as well as the first brought to light.

Among the many castles in the Karst area, that of Rupinpiccolo is one of the best preserved. It stands immediately outside the town, on a limestone hill, the top of which is enclosed by a wall 3-4 meters thick, but which in some places reaches up to 7 meters. The height has been preserved for a maximum of 3 meters, but originally it must have reached 7-8 meters.

Two large circular stones – two thick discs about 50 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep – were found near the entrance to the Castelliere and attracted the attention of archaeologists.

Aerial view of Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo. Photo: Carta Archaeologia Online

One of the stones, according to Paolo Molaro of INAF and researchers from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and ICTP, is a representation of the sun, while the other is a carved celestial map dating from the 4th century BC.

The German astronomy journal Astronomische Nachrichten published a study about the stones, in which the study’s authors said the celestial map shows the sky above Rupinpiccolo some 2,500 years ago, making the discovery the oldest known One of the celestial maps laid out in Italy.

“I was contacted by Federico Bernardini, whom I didn’t know, telling me that he needed an astronomer”, Molaro said to Media Inaf, “because he seemed to have identified the constellation of Scorpio in a stone from the Carso. My first reaction was incredulity, given that the southern part of Scorpio is just above the horizon in our latitudes. But then, discovering that the precession of the equinoxes raised it by about 10-12 degrees and the impressive coincidence with the constellation, I began to delve deeper into the question… So I identified Orion, the Pleiades, and, in the back, Cassiopeia. All points present except one.”

29 engravings on the stone have been identified by the team, and they perfectly match the constellations of Cassiopeia, Orion, Scorpius, and the Pleiades. The researchers hypothesize that the carvings were probably created by the same person using a hammer and a crude metal chisel with a 6-7 mm tip based on the angle of the cut marks in the stone.

Image Credit: INAF

The researchers also used the program Stellarium to simulate the night sky because a star called Theta Scorpii was so low on the horizon in the 1800s BCE that it cannot be seen today.

But let’s get to the 29 signs. All but one are superimposable on the stars of Scorpius, Orion, the Pleiades and probably – also considering the 5 signs on the back of the stone – Cassiopeia. And it is an overlap with very high statistical significance, the authors specify: the p-value is much lower than 0.001. In other words, it is highly unlikely that the arrangement of those signs was purely the result of chance. Not only that: the deviations from the true positions are of the order of the size of the signs, demonstrating considerable care in the execution.

All except one, we said. But the 29th sign could also be there on purpose. The intruder could represent a supernova, the authors propose. Or a so-called “failed supernova”. So one of those objects that astronomers call transients: at a certain point they make their appearance, and then disappear again. If this were the case, researchers suggest, there could be a black hole there in that point of the sky today.

The Nebra disk, a bronze artifact from Germany that dates to approximately 1600 BC and has gold applications to represent the Sun, Moon, and Pleiades, is likely the oldest known representation of the night sky. However, it’s more of a symbolic representation than a true map. We have to go back to the first century BC for “faithful” maps, during which time maps were most likely derived from the 135 BC Hypparcos catalog.

INAF

Cover Photo: INAF

https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.20220108

Related Articles

Zeus Temple’s entrance was found in western Turkey’s Aizanoi Ancient City

31 July 2021

31 July 2021

During recent digs, the monumental entrance gate of the Zeus Temple sanctuary in the ancient city of Aizanoi, located in...

New Study Exposes Origins of Welsh Dragons

7 June 2024

7 June 2024

In a new study conducted by a team from the University of Bristol and published in the Proceedings of the...

Incredible Mayan Inventions and Achievements

31 July 2022

31 July 2022

The Mayans excelled at agriculture, pottery, writing, calendars, and arithmetic, leaving an incredible quantity of spectacular architecture and symbolic artwork...

Unusual construction material may be linked to the Tower of Babel

5 November 2021

5 November 2021

Archaeologists have recently discovered bitumen and mortar plastered onto a brick dating back to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II. This...

Unusual Potter’s Signature or Graffito found during excavation of a Roman tile kiln in England

2 August 2023

2 August 2023

Cotswold Archeology and a team of volunteers have found an unusual potter’s signature or graffito in Minety, a village in...

A stone statue (Balbal) with height up to 3 meters found in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan

18 October 2022

18 October 2022

A balbal (stone statue) with a height of up to 3 meters was found during agricultural work in the Ak-Bulun...

Peru finds perfectly preserved a wooden figure in the Americas’ largest mud-brick city

29 June 2022

29 June 2022

A perfectly preserved wooden figure has been discovered at the Chan Chan archaeological site, in northern Peru, the Ministry of...

5,000-Year-Old public eating space with food still inside discovered in ancient Lagash

2 February 2023

2 February 2023

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a public eating space that’s nearly 5,000 years old in southern Iraq, the University...

Japan’s possibly oldest stone molds for bronze casting discovered at Yoshinogari ruins

4 December 2023

4 December 2023

At the Yoshinogari Ruins in the western prefecture of Saga, relics including stone casting molds for bronze artifacts have been...

A 1,000-year-old burial chariot dating back to the Liao Dynasty, founded by the nomadic Khitan discovered in Inner Mongolia

8 August 2024

8 August 2024

Archaeologists from the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have discovered a hearse from...

A coin of Queen Fastrada and Charlemagne found – First of its kind

8 May 2023

8 May 2023

A coin purchased by the Charlemagne Center in Aachen, Germany, bears the name of Queen Fastrada. This is the first...

Syria uncovered a large intact mosaic that dates back to the Roman era

12 October 2022

12 October 2022

Syria uncovered a large intact mosaic that dates back to the Roman era, in the central town of Rastan, describing...

Archaeologists find the earliest evidence Maya sacred calendar in the Guatemalan pyramid

14 April 2022

14 April 2022

Archaeologists identified two plaster fragments depicting a date that the Maya civilization called ‘7 deer’ and was part of the...

The first Iberian lead plate inscribed with an archaic script was found at Pico de Los Ajos in Yátova

13 June 2021

13 June 2021

At the Pico de Los Ajos site in Valencia, Spain, a rare lead sheet engraved in ancient Iberian was unearthed....

The researchers unearthed the earliest evidence of warfare and organized arming in the Southern Levant

28 November 2023

28 November 2023

Israel Antiquities Authority researchers have unearthed the earliest evidence of warfare and organized arming in the Southern Levant, dating back...