Revisiting the 5000-Year-Old Tally at Mnajdra, Malta
- 21 September 2021
- journal article
- Published by Equinox Publishing in Journal of Skyscape Archaeology
- Vol. 7 (1), 38–56
- https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.19438
Abstract
The pillars at the entrance of the inner apse of one of the cluster of Neolithic temples at Mnajdra, Malta display rows of drilled holes which have been interpreted as a tally of days. Furthermore, it has been proposed that the number of holes in the rows on the east pillar coincides well with a sequence of intervals between the heliacal rising of bright stars or star groups. Is this remarkable correspondence simply a chance occurrence, or do the drilled holes represent material evidence of deliberate time reckoning by means of heliacal star risings in the Neolithic age? This question has led to the statistical investigation described in this paper, which takes into account the heliacal risings of all stars of magnitude 2.0 or brighter visible from Malta 5000 years ago as well as the Pleiades and the Hyades star clusters, which attracted the attention of other ancient cultures. The paper presents and discusses the method used and the challenges involved in the investigation. The results show that with a tolerance of ±1 day for uncertainty in the calculated heliacal rise days, the probability of achieving an exact correspondence between a random ordering of the tally and a series of star rises is 0.0014. With a wider tolerance of ±2 days the probability is 0.011. The final section discusses the significance and implications of these results.Keywords
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- Tore Lomsdalen, 'Sky and Purpose in Prehistoric Malta: Sun, Moon and Stars at the Temples of Mnajdra'Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, 2015
- Best Practice for Evaluating the Astronomical Significance of Archaeological SitesPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,2014
- Nature and Analysis of Material Evidence Relevant to ArchaeoastronomyPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,2014
- New precession expressions, valid for long time intervals (Corrigendum)Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2012
- New precession expressions, valid for long time intervalsAstronomy & Astrophysics, 2011
- Possible Tally Stones at Mnajdra, MaltaJournal for the History of Astronomy, 1993
- The Orientations of the Temples of MaltaJournal for the History of Astronomy, 1992
- Heliacal Rise PhenomenaJournal for the History of Astronomy, 1987
- Atmospheric Extinction Effects on Stellar AlignmentsJournal for the History of Astronomy, 1986
- CarbohydratesScientific American, 1980