Archaeoastronomy: Do any structures align with meteor showers? This one does.

[gdaniels99]

Does anyone know of any structures anywhere in the world that have alignments with the peak night of any meteor shower? I think I've found one such structure in Georgia known as the Ocmulgee Earth Lodge. It was aligned with the peak of the Taurid Meteor Shower 1,000 years ago. Coincidentally, astronomers have noted the 11th century was the most active period of the Taurids of the past 2,000 years so it makes sense that they aligned this structure to this shower. Also, this structure burned down in 1015 AD....curiously there appears to have been an impact event in 1014 AD which caused a tsunami in the Atlantic. Anglo Saxon chronicles records a tsunami and a geologist has noted that the outer banks of North Carolina were completely wiped away at this time. The Aztecs said their Fourth Sun ended in 1011 AD due to a flood and the sky falling. Could be same event.

Here's my research: http://lostworlds.org/archaeoastrono...e-earth-lodge/

Any feedback will be welcomed and please reply if you know of any other structures aligned with this or other meteor showers. Thanks.

[grapes]

Was the Ocmulgee earth lodge an astronomical observatory and sophisticated scientific apparatus designed to forewarn its designers of impending catastrophe coming from the heavens?

I'd have to say, no.

You have some very interesting articles referenced there, fascinating stuff. But, the Taurids are a very diffuse meteor shower, their peak is not that prominent that ancient peoples would have known it so precisely.

I notice that you don't seem to have a reference for the meteor shower information itself, this one may be appropriate:
http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/taurids.html
Towards the end of the article it says:

Estimates of the hourly rates of the Taurids reveal fairly weak activity which hardly allows the shower to stand out among the other active showers and the usual numbers of sporadic meteors.

ETA: I'd also doubt the utility of a smoke hole over a firepit for the observing of stars--not only does astronomical observation usualy require darkness, but the seating arrangement in the lodge would not afford consistent views of the skies.

[gdaniels99]

ETA: I'd also doubt the utility of a smoke hole over a firepit for the observing of stars--not only does astronomical observation usualy require darkness, but the seating arrangement in the lodge would not afford consistent views of the skies.

The fire would have been extinguished. In Mexico, on the night of their New Fire Ceremony they extinguished ALL fires in the city. Once the Pleiades reached zenith and then continued moving past zenith they knew the world wasn't going to end and they sacrificed a person, opened his chest cavity, and using a fire drill they created new fire in this cavity. They then had torch runners take this fire back to all the temples and then all the commoners went to the temple to relight their hearth fires. So I suspect the same ritual took place at Ocmulgee and the fire would have been extinguished not only in the earth lodge but throughout the entire town.

Regarding the seating arrangement....only the chief astronomer priest would have needed to make the observation. Not all of the participants. So certainly one astronomer standing in the center of the earth lodge looking up could have seen the Pleiades reach zenith...and would have also watched one heckuva meteor storm.

In regards to your reference: "Estimates of the hourly rates of the Taurids reveal fairly weak activity which hardly allows the shower to stand out among the other active showers and the usual numbers of sporadic meteors."

I refer you back to the reference in which the 11th century was shown to have the highest activity level of the past 2000 years. The astronomers making this observation was able to do so by going back through all the records and noting a significant increase during this century. The fact that they were able to do this simply from the written record suggests that someone living at that time period would have certainly been able to do so simply by watching the sky and noticing the increase in activity on this night. Even in our time, which you note the Taurids' "peak is not that prominent that ancient peoples would have known it so precisely" people have created religious holidays around the time period of the peak (i.e. Halloween, Day of the Dead, etc.). Astronomers Bill Napier & Victor Clube have argued that these holidays were to commemorate the Taurid meteor shower. So clearly people WERE able to know the peak precisely because in the past the activity level was much higher than it is today.

just a few thoughts. i'd love to hear any other thoughts anyone has even if it ultimately invalidates my hypothesis.

[grapes]

Regarding the seating arrangement....only the chief astronomer priest would have needed to make the observation. Not all of the participants. So certainly one astronomer standing in the center of the earth lodge looking up could have seen the Pleiades reach zenith...and would have also watched one heckuva meteor storm.

The Taurids are so named because of their radiant, in Taurus. If you trace back a Taurid meteor's track in your imagination, it crosses Taurus, but the meteor "show" itself is not in Taurus. The meteors themselves occur all over the sky--except there's not that much in Taurus itself--in order for it to appear to stay in Taurus, it'd pretty much be coming right at you.

I haven't seen any documentation for a Taurids Leonids-type meteor storm, like you have in that illustration of the 1833 Leonids on the website.

ETA: OK, I'm looking up the Bill Napier and Victor Clube info.

EETA: Abstract: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994VA.....38....1A

[gdaniels99]

The meteors themselves occur all over the sky--except there's not that much in Taurus itself--in order for it to appear to stay in Taurus, it'd pretty much be coming right at you.

That's kinda what I think happened....they came straight in and possibly exploded over the site because the earth lodge was burned ~1015 AD...basically the at the same time that this impact event happened in the Fall of 1014 AD...so I suspect there might have been an airburst over the site. Maybe.

I haven't seen any documentation for a Taurids Leonids-type meteor storm, like you have in that illustration of the 1833 Leonids on the website.

Check out this paper: "The case for significant numbers of extraterrestrial impacts through the late Holocene" by Mike Baille in the Journal of Quaternary Science. There have been several periods throughout the past 5000 years which have seen a large uptick in the amount of debris in the Taurid stream.

ETA: OK, I'm looking up the Bill Napier and Victor Clube info.

EETA: Abstract: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994VA.....38....1A[/QUOTE]

[grapes]

That's kinda what I think happened

I meant that the lodge wouldn't have been built to observe the Taurids.

And even the immense storms that can be associated with the Leonids don't produce impacts really. Some of the Leonids are slower-moving fireballs though. The Taurids seem to tend to produce more fireballs/impacts, but they're fewer and far between--nothing that would have been tied to a radiant in Taurus, probably.

[gdaniels99]

The Taurids seem to tend to produce more fireballs/impacts, but they're fewer and far between--nothing that would have been tied to a radiant in Taurus, probably.

They may be fewer and far between now but the astronomical research shows that was not the case in the 11th century when the earth lodge was constructed. The literature shows that this was the highest activity level of the Taurids over the past 2000 years thus constructing a building aligned with the morning of the peak of this meteor shower would make sense during that time period.

More importantly, an impact is known to have taken place in 1014 AD and astronomers connect this to the Taurids due to its timing. So again, the Taurids may produce fireballs/impacts "few and far between" now, but this was not the case at the time that the earth lodge was constructed. And the fact the earth lodge just-so-happened to have burned down ~1015 AD (according to radiocarbon dating...which could just as easily be the fall of 1014 ad considering the margin of error) seems a little more than coincidence considering the alignments.

Also, the hole in the roof was not a pinpoint hole only allowing observation of the Pleiades. It was large enough that it would have allowed observation of a good portion of the sky above the earth lodge. Yes, the Pleiades would have reached zenith above the earth lodge and been visible through the hole....but it was not the only thing visible. Thus they could have witnessed this meteor storm from the safety of their earth-covered bunker.

just some thoughts.