Christopher J. Corbally

When Hominins First Looked Up and Saw Constellations

Abstract

Enrico Calzolari presented on constellations dating back to 5500 BC, at INSAP III, Palermo, 2001, in his paper, ‘Paleo e Archeoastronomia’. Others have found astronomical images in archaeological sites dating around 30,000 to 31,000 years ago in Europe. Since 2001, scholars have begun to integrate archaeology with cognitive science and psychoneurology. We (co-authors Corbally and Rappaport) review the cognitive capacities needed for hominins in the genus Homo to interpret the skies as constellations. Until they could project their religious beliefs on the ‘flat surface’ of the sky dome, as on the walls of a cave, they could not interpret collections of attached stars as animals or mythological beings. We point to cognitive analogues in the archaeological literature that might suggest a capacity to interpret stars as constellations. While incorporating the critique of archaeologist Wynn and psychologist Coolidge (2009, 2010), we consider whether the making and stringing of beads is such an analogue. Beads are found widely in sites from Africa's Middle Stone Age. We ask: what are the cognitive capacities that beads imply? We borrow from the cognitive and psychoneurological literatures on modern use of beads in mental testing, and ask if bead-stringing could be transferred to constellation-making by the early human mind, much as we transpose writing on paper to writing on a blackboard. When did bead-making and stringing evolve, and for what purposes? Finally, are the images of constellations in the Caves at Lascaux probably the very earliest we can expect to find, or are other findings of archaeological depictions of constellations likely?

Biography

Christopher J. Corbally, SJ, PhD, is a Jesuit priest and an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory Research Group, for which he has served as Vice Director, and liaison to its headquarters at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. He is an Adjunct Associate Astronomer at the Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, and ministers to a wide variety of Catholics, including Native Americans, in Tucson, Arizona. He earned his doctorate in Astronomy at the University of Toronto in 1983. His dissertation was on, ‘Close Visual Binaries: MK Spectral Classification and Evolutionary Status’ Dr. Corbally is an active member and past-president of the Tucson Masterworks Chorale.