The oldest known story is thought to be the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is 4,000 years old.
However, there is a new contender that could be much, much older.
By a lot. And I mean, a lot.
To some, the story of the Seven Sisters is said to be the oldest story in existence.
How old are we talking?
Try 100,000 years old.
Yeah, you read that right. 100,000 years old.
It’s the story of the Pleiades. A story told by cultures all around the world.
Sure, there will be some variation of the story based on where in the world you are, but there’s one thing that is consistent:
When they talk about the Pleiades, they talk about the seven sisters.
Pretty cool, right?
Well, it gets a bit weirder the more you dig into this.
But before we do, let’s establish some baseline information, so we can all be on the same page.
The name Pleiades comes from Greek Mythology (we’ll get to that in a bit).
Scientifically speaking, the Pleiades is an open stellar cluster of hot, blue, young stars, which were formed about 120 million years ago, and is surrounded by blue reflection nebula.
Visually, they are an awesome star cluster that can be seen high in the night sky during December and January (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere like I am).
If you look carefully at the star cluster, you’ll probably notice there are 6 bright stars.
6 stars.
If we can only see 6 stars, why do we call them the Seven Sisters?
It’s an interesting question, isn’t it?
The story of the Seven Sisters is one that is told by cultures all around the globe.
All. Around. The. Globe.
How could cultures from different parts of the globe all have a similar story? Why do they all talk about seven sisters, when it’s clear that you can only see 6 (with amazing eyesight in a dark sky place)?
This is the key to understanding how the story of the Pleiades may date back to 100,000 years ago.
Yep, you read that right.
The story of the Pleiades may very well be 100,000 years old.
Let’s dive into it, shall we?
In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven beautiful daughters of Atlas (the guy who was holding up the world).
The lustful hunter Orion pursued the sisters relentlessly, and Atlas could not help (he was busy, you know, holding up the entire world).
In order to protect the daughters, the mighty Zeus transformed them into stars.
Over time, one of the sisters fell in love with a mortal, and fell out of the sky, which is why we only see six stars.
That’s a neat story. But what about the story told in a different part of the world?
A part of the world that is considered isolated from contact with other cultures?
Aboriginal groups across Australia tell the story of the Pleiades as a group of seven young girls being lustfully pursued by a hunter (their version of Orion).
One of the sisters was able to hide from the hunter. This is why only six stars are visible in the sky.
Many cultures around the world, including European, African, Asian, Indonesian, Native American, and Aboriginal Australian, have a similar story about a group of stars called "the seven sisters."
In this story, there are supposed to be seven stars, but usually only six can be seen. Each culture has its own explanation for why the seventh star is missing.
Let’s focus on the Greek and Aboriginal Australian versions.
There's a mystery about why the story told by the Aboriginal Australians is so similar to the one from Greece.
Some people thought that Europeans might have brought the Greek story to Australia, and the Aboriginal people changed it a bit to fit their culture.
But it turns out that the Aboriginal version is probably way older than when Europeans first came to Australia. Plus, the Aboriginal Australians didn't really have much contact with other parts of the world for about 50,000 years.
So, it's puzzling how they have a story that's so similar to one from far away.
Current data shows all humans today are descended from people who lived in Africa a long time ago, around 100,000 years back.
They eventually moved to different parts of the world, including Australia, Europe, and Asia.
This means Europeans and Australians share a common ancestor.
And this is where the big question comes into play.
Is it possible the stories of the Seven Sisters and Orion are so old our ancestors were telling these stories to each other around campfires in Africa, 100,000+ years ago?
Could this be the oldest story in the world?
The Gaia space telescope was launched about 10 years ago, and has been mapping the motion of all the stars in our galaxy.
Using the data from Gaia shows the stars of the Pleiades cluster are slowly changing positions in the sky.
Right now, two of these stars, Pleione and Atlas, are so close to each other that when we look up, they seem like just one star, not two.
However, if we use what we know about how these stars move and imagine going back in time 100,000 years, the view is different.
Back then, Pleione was farther away from Atlas, which means people looking at the sky could clearly see both stars separately.
So, a long time ago, anyone looking at the Pleiades cluster would have actually seen seven stars, not six like we do today.
The idea that the movement of the stars can help explain the main question we’ve been discussing:
Why do so many cultures call the cluster the “seven sisters” when we can only see six stars?
With the help of the data from Gaia, and other simulation tools, we can see that there were indeed 7 visible stars in the Pleiades 100,000 years ago.
Over tens of thousands of years, the star Pleione moved closer and closer to Atlas.
So close that eventually, to the human eye, it appeared to be a single star.
Could it be that our ancestors from 100,000 years ago told the story of the Pleiades when there were still seven stars visible?
And, as we migrated and spread throughout the continents of the world, did we witness one of the sisters “disappear” from the sky?
I’m a firm believer that information in these ancient stories carries some truth in them.
Hidden in the stories are information that was important knowledge for people during those time periods.
Before we knew how to read and write, the best way information was passed on was by storytelling and oral traditions.
It may seem crazy that info can survive for so many generations, but is it really?
What about when humans learned to plant, cook, and grow food?
Navigated great distances using only the stars?
What about the stories you were told as a child that you still remember today?
This hypothesis about the Pleiades story being 100,000 years old comes from a paper written by Ray Norris & Barnaby Norris, which you can find here.
It’s a fascinating read and, while extremely difficult to prove, is a great example for why we need to keep these stories from different cultures.
We have no written information about prehistory.
No stories of deep human history like we do of Napoleon, or Isaac Newton, or the ancient Greeks, or the Egyptians.
When it comes to the far, distant past of the human timeline, the information embedded within these old tales is all we have.
“And even if it is not true, you have to believe in ancient history.”
Leo Ferre
Hope you enjoyed that one. Here's a quick photo I took of the Pleiades using my Redcat 51 telescope, Fujifilm XT4 camera, and Star Adventurer tracker:
If you're interested in learning astrophotography, or want to get under the stars, check out my upcoming workshops.
Until next time!
Ian
]]>Let’s change that.
]]>99% of people in the United States can no longer see the Milky Way.
That means 99% of people in the US live in an area that has a lot of lights on at night, so many that you can’t see the stars.
Think about that for a second - if you had 100 people, 99 of them can’t see the night sky because they are drowning in an immense overabundance of artificial light.
For all of human existence, we’ve been able to see the stars every night.
But we are now the first generations in a long lineage of humans that can no longer see them.
Let’s change that. Take a trip out to a dark sky location so you can experience the night the right way.
Whether it’s to stargaze, photograph the stars, watch a meteor shower, or to just reconnect with nature - this info will help you find a great spot for viewing the natural beauty of the night sky.
Light PollutionThe reason people are unable to see the stars anymore is because of the overuse of artificial light at night. This is a common situation in major cities and suburbs.
We call this light pollution.
I grew up in one of these light polluted places. I lived in the suburbs in California, and I could only see a few stars in the sky from where I lived.
I went 19 years of my life before I ever saw the stars from a truly dark place.
That moment of seeing the stars in their natural form transformed my life forever (this is something I’ll touch on in another video).
That place was Death Valley National Park in eastern California.
So what made Death Valley so different from where I was? Why could I see the stars vividly there, and not where I lived?
It wasn’t just a lack of artificial lights around.
It was the fact that these artificial lights were very, very far away.
How far are we talking?
The closest major city to Death Valley is Las Vegas. It sits 120 miles from the park.
And even though it’s 120 miles from the park, you can still see the city lights when you look towards Las Vegas.
Luckily, it’s far enough where it has almost no effect on your view of the night sky.
Believe it or not, we can actually determine how dark the night sky is from a specific location on Earth.
There is a scientific way to do this, but we’re not going to go into that here (though if you’re interested, it’s by measuring how much light is in a tiny piece of sky known as magnitude per arcsecond squared).
We’re going to use the simple way, which is something called the Bortle Scale.
The Bortle Scale is like a special ruler for measuring how dark the night sky is.
Imagine you're looking up at the sky at night. If you're in a big city with lots of lights, like where I grew up, you can only see a few stars.
But if you're in a place like Death Valley, far from city lights, the sky is so dark you can see almost every star a human can possibly see.
The Bortle Scale has numbers from 1 to 9 to describe how dark the sky is. 1 being the darkest, and 9 being the brightest.
Bortle 9 sky vs what a Bortle 1 sky looks like to the naked eye
This will be very important in the next section, where you will use the Bortle rating system to find a dark sky location to stargaze at.
The Bortle Scale helps us understand how many stars we can see at night, depending on how dark or bright the sky is where we are.
Now that we know the Bortle Scale, and the effects of light pollution, we can use a light pollution map to help you find a dark sky location.
There are several light pollution maps online. The one I use is the website lightpollutionmap.info.
When you visit the website, you’re greeted with a strange arrangement of colors laid on top of a world map.
NOTE: When using this map, make sure you have the Overlay set to World Atlas 2015. This is the simplest way to help you navigate.
This is a map of the light pollution around the world.
This is going to be the tool to help you find the darkest skies near you.
The darker the color on the map, the better.
The darkest locations, which we call Bortle 1, are the dark gray areas. The most light polluted, Bortle 9, are white.
In-between the best (darkest) and worst (lightest) are the other colors. In order of better to worse, it goes blue, green, yellow then red.
It’s also an interactive map, so you can click a location on the map, and it will tell you the Bortle rating of that spot.
Now let’s use the map to find a dark sky location.
To find a good spot near you, find your location on the map.
From there, find the nearest spot where the nearest dark site is located.
Remember, you want Bortle 1 or 2 for truly dark skies.
You want Bortle 1 or 2 to experience the night like how it was seen every single night for all of human existence.
You want those dark skies so you can experience something 99% of people in the US don’t get to experience.
Death Valley (Bortle 1 and 2) in relation to Las Veagas (Bortle 9)
Now, most of you will discover that these dark skies (Bortle 1 and 2 spots) are far from where you live (relatively speaking).
And if you live on the East Coast of the United States, you’re going to have a tough time finding a spot unless you travel very far.
I know what you’re thinking.
I have to travel THAT far to experience a truly dark sky?
Remember when we said 99%?
Hopefully now you are starting to realize why we’re so disconnected from the night sky.
Hopefully now you are realizing how bad light pollution has become. But back to the topic at hand: finding a dark sky site.
Bortle 1 or 2 is a must visit.
If you need to travel, go ahead and make travel plans. If you need to take time off, take time off.
It’s absolutely worth it, trust me. Seeing the night sky from one of these spots changed my life forever.
And all of the people I’ve taken to see these dark skies have marveled at the sea of stars above their heads - something that’s always there, but we never get to see.
Now, if you are unable to make it to a true dark sky destination, do not worry. Not all is lost.
A Bortle 3 sky will do just fine. You will still see the Milky Way, and a sky full of beautiful stars.
A site with this level of darkness is still worthy of visiting to stargaze, take photos, watch a meteor shower, or view a bright comet from.
And as a last resort, you can always try to get to a Bortle 4 site.
This may not be the best choice, but if there’s a can’t miss celestial event (like an epic meteor shower), and you are unable to get to a dark sky site, a Bortle 4 will do.
I consider any location brighter than a Bortle 4 not worth visiting for the sole purpose of stargazing.
Now that you’ve found a great dark sky location to visit, there’s a few things to keep in mind before you go.
First, make sure you plan around the Moon phase.
A big, bright, full Moon is a wonderful sight, but it’s a huge ball of light that will wash out the darkness of the night.
The best time to visit your new found dark site is around the New Moon, or when the Moon is a waning or waxing crescent.
When it comes to the best time of year to stargaze, the summer and early fall months make for great views of the Milky Way.
Late fall and winter give beautiful views of recognizable constellations like Orion and Cassiopeia.
But honestly, anytime is great to go stargazing.
The stars are waiting for you.
Now get out there and experience the night for yourself.