Kind: captions
Language: en
was there astronomy in Senegal before
Islam puram would like to know
Clues can be found along a vast stretch
of the river Gambia where more than a
thousand Stone circles have been
constructed
they were built over thousands of years
right up until the 16th century many
human remains and artifacts have been
excavated at the sites scientific
research has mainly focused on the
burial practices and rituals of the
builders
that is about to change malam is joined
by archaeologists M.A kantusan and
planetary scientist Mark Bowie who is
also curious about Humanity's ancient
connections to astronomy
they will look for evidence of
astronomical alignments at the sites
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they will begin their survey at syngayen
the largest stone circle site
neither the local people nor visiting
archaeologists know who built these
circles
there is no connection between the
people who build this kind of sites and
the people who are living here right now
it's just like they they build this kind
of site use them and they just disappear
foreign
there is a solitary stone that catches
my attention
I think it's important because there are
other Stones nearby that may align with
it
you were saying this has a special
orientation yeah and I'm measuring this
angle here to the second Stone yeah
which according to my calculations is
where the sun sets at the beginning of
the summer
at the solstice yeah so when I look this
direction
I confirm
the angle 124 degrees to that rock is
where the Sun would rise at the
beginning
of winter
so when I look this direction this angle
is
very very close to the Equinox for the
beginning of Spring and fall
the people who place these Stones would
have observed how the locations of
sunrise and sunset varied over the year
when the sun reached its northernmost
point it was the longest day the summer
solstice at its southernmost point the
shortest day the winter solstice and
when the sun rose directly east the days
and nights were equal in length the
equinoxes
by aligning stones to these points the
builders would have been able to track
the seasons
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