{29}
As a prelude to the study of the very ancient civilisation here described it will be well to consider the prime conceptions which probably led prehistoric man to express in his unique language of geometry and measures his ideas regarding the universe. The mysteries of the heavenly vault must have inspired wonder and awe amongst countless generations even before the dawn of learning. As primitive man became endowed with an advanced measure of reasoning power, he became aware of himself and of things around him. Consciousness of his environment, of the earth, and of the sky, would slowly increase, and with this mental {30} condition would arise the ability to rationalise nature; and eventually came the notion that some unseen Power was guiding his destinies and those of the universe. With this conception came a desire to understand the celestial secrets.
A definite stage in the mental and spiritual development of man was reached when he began to be inquisitive, to look upon the landscape, to note the seasonal changes, the play of winds, the rush of rivers, and the movement of tides. He looked upwards and pondered the celestial orbs, farther away and more mysterious than the terrestrial objects of his regard and worship. Except that the sun warmed him by day, and that the moon and the more noticeable groups of stars guided him by night and regulated his hunting and his search for food, the heavenly bodies scarcely entered into the economy of his life. But at length he began to consider them in relation to the idea that an unseen Power was behind them, and behind himself and his shadow.
A growing intimacy with the celestial world brought to his mind some knowledge of regularity and system. He watched the daily round of the sun, the nightly round of the moon, and the nocturnal trooping of the hosts of stars.
Ultimately he saw that certain stars moved hither and thither amongst as well as with the others. One by one he picked out the five planets—the wandering sheep or “Ba” of the Babylonians—known in our times as Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. He grasped the fact that these five planets, with the sun and moon, were an assemblage of entities, each moving on its own account, yet adjusted into a rational and regular whole. He attributed these movements, in which he imagined he saw a chain of mutual dependencies, to a methodical Supreme Deity—a great Hidden Power—and to His celestial servants.
Knowledge of the celestial world would grow gradually. It is conceivable that at an early stage men deemed it their duty to get to understand the method and mind of the Supreme Power.
In time the recurrent periods of the circuitings of the star-sphere {31} and the seven main celestial bodies became understood. After a certain number of years, the sun and moon, for instance, come back to a common starting point and begin anew their pilgrimage in the sky. After certain intervals eclipses begin to recur in the same sequences as before. The mystery of eclipses and their periodic recurrences must have engaged the thought of countless generations. To advance from the simple counting of days and moons to a calendar recognising not only cycles such as the Saros and the Metonic Cycle, but cycles comprising thousands of years, must have required the classification of observations carried on over a period to be measured out only by millennia. The present inquiry has proved that the early student’s knowledge of time-cycles extended even to that of the great precessional cycle of about 26,000 years, after which the poles of the heavens return to the same point in the sky. Of evolutionary stages in the history of the ancient studies, which culminated in a perfected astronomy, no traces have so far been discerned. Palæolithic Man presents us with the finished product.
The prehistoric philosopher’s conception of the universe, as disclosed by the geometry and other features of his carvings, however, was not that of Copernicus, who recognised that the sun was the centre of our system; but rather allied to that of Eudoxus and Ptolemy, who conceived an assemblage of spheres, the centre of the earth being regarded as the centre of all things.
The traveller who, in crossing a stretch of moorland in the darkness, sees in the distance a moving light, naturally concludes that the light is being carried by some vehicle, although the vehicle is invisible. Early man saw the heavenly lamps moving in curved lines across the firmament, and reasoned that they were being carried round in circular fashion by some unseen vehicle.
The curvature of the trackway of each moving light, so carefully watched, suggested to him the most notable feature of his conception of the universe. He conceived that the heavens above were formed of a concave region of invisible matter, which carried {32} round the fixed stars. At a later time his imagination led him to believe that, unseen, beneath him and his encompassing horizon line, was the other half of the shell.
These conceptions eventually forced him to imagine that the centre of the earth was the centre of immense transparent crystalline globes which were in slow motion, equably and uniformly, around him, the general direction being from east to west. Thus did he account for the daily swinging round of the sun, moon, planets, and stars in the firmament.
His ideas doubtless gradually developed as he watched the more complex movement of the sun, moon, and planets. An assemblage of variously rotating spheres became the basis of his ideas of the universe or cosmos generally, and of astronomy, time-measurement, geometry, mathematics, metrology, religion, and philosophy. The evidence suggests that the ancient philosophers believed time to be cyclical and the universe spherical. He seems to have believed in a universe comprised of five elements—earth, water, air, fire, and something akin to ether; and he conceived certain ideal measurements of the universe.
It was a logico-mathematical concept; the vital natural phenomena being subjected to extremely skilful treatment and analysis, and submitted to measurement and enunciation, resulting in an exact science—and this probably over ioo,000 years ago.
The evidence—archæological, astronomical, mythological, and literary—indicates that prehistoric man believed that the movements of the heavenly bodies were guided in a certain ordered way by a Supreme Being, and that it was incumbent upon human beings to copy the celestial plan in the mundane sphere. Monuments, carvings—indeed all well-constructed products of human handiwork—were made conform to the mathematical laws observed in the celestial mechanism. Thus, it seems to have been assumed, man was doing on earth as it is done in heaven. It was felt that in the quest of scientific truth he was drawing near to and propitiating the Supreme Being, because he was exhibiting his {33} appreciation of what he conceived to be the Divine Purpose. Apart from the traditional and literary evidence, nothing but a profound religious motive could account for the universal sway and unaltering principles of the cult represented by the monuments and rock-markings.
From his system of geometry and measurement (to be described more fully in later booklets) it is possible to deduce with reasonable certainty that the prehistoric philosopher imagined the terrestrial world to consist of two main elements, earth and water. The idea seems to be expressed in the well known Chinese design.
Next after earth and water came air—the region between earth and heaven. The prehistoric scholar was unable to measure the region of the air or the distance of the heavens. Failing actual knowledge, he seems to have adopted a simple geometrical idea.
He drew a circle to represent the earth, which he knew to be globular. He then placed a square exactly enclosing the circle. Next he drew a second circle so as to enclose the square exactly. He thus obtained the figure of an annular zone or ring which he accepted apparently as a portrayal of the air and the heavens.
By this means he secured an invariable and definite geometrical relationship between his ideal configurations of earth and heaven. There falls to be explained the ancient attempt at a portrayal of the region, beyond that of air, in which the stars were placed. The old astronomer was aware that there was depth or distance amongst the stars; and in this he seems to have been in advance of later thinkers.
He thought that the celestial orbs revolved round the earth within a belt or zone which had a depth measured radially from the earth’s centre, some stars possibly being more distant than others owing to degrees of brightness. {34}
To measure the thickness or depth of this zone was beyond his powers. He accordingly thought out a second geometric scheme to meet the requirements.
He drew a figure of two equal squares fitted exactly side by side. He then drew two circles, one within, and the other outside of, this rectangle composed of the two squares. The smaller circle was made so as to fit tangentially inside the rectangle. The larger circle just passed through the corners of the rectangle.
The resultant annular ring was his conception of the configuration of the region of the stars.