Friday, March 1, 2024

Manifesto Study of Time Department at a University

A SCIENCE MANIFESTO:
Why Is There No
University Department for
The Study of Time?
By Rick Doble


THE PURPOSE OF THIS MANIFESTO

The point of this manifesto is very simple. We evolved from animals who lived in the moment, yet today we work with time, manage time, schedule time, and coordinate time in a linear fashion. Time for us is the past, the present, and the future plus duration. Our civilizations could not exist or function without this sense of time.

Since this is so critical, why is there no department at a university that deals with the nature of time as it relates to humans and civilization?

Therefore the first question is how did we develop a totally different sense of time? My guess is that this took millions of years and happened in stages.

"It must have required enormous effort
for man to overcome his natural tendency
to live like the animals in a continual present."
Whitrow, Gerald James. Time in History:
Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day.
Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 1988, page 22.

Why is this important? We could not have created civilizations and technologies without understanding linear time. We have become the dominant species on the planet because we can manage time, plan with time, build with time, and coordinate with time. Time is crucial to our power.

If we are to understand how we developed and came to be who we are, we must study and investigate many different aspects of time.

Then the next question is how should we deal with the future because our understanding of time will be a major factor?

This is not an academic exercise. An understanding of time and how things will occur in the future will be crucial in our efforts to deal with climate change and global warming. To put it bluntly, our survival may depend on it.

A Department for 'The Study of Time' or 'Time-Studoes' at a university could delve into these subjects and shed light on these important questions.


WHY IS THE STUDY OF TIME IMPORTANT?

Nothing in life exists or has existed or will exist that is independent of time. (We'll leave the black hole questions to physicists but anyway, we are talking about life.) We live our lives according to the passage of time. 

Our civilizations could not function without our synchronized clocks, time zones, and time stamps. The world we live in could not operate without a shared understanding of time.

"Is 'time' the most commonly used noun in the English language?
"...an Oxford dictionary...announc[ed] that the word is the most often used noun in the English language." 
Study: 'Time' Is Most Often Used Noun - CBS News. Jun 22, 2006.

When you die, the date you were born and the date you died will be on your gravestone. 

Time is fundamental and vital to each of us individually, to our families, to our communities, our nations, and our planet. 


WHAT HAS PREVENTED
THE STUDY OF TIME?

The answer is simple: Most people believe that time is, well, just time and there is very little that can be said about it or done about it. Furthermore, they don't believe that cultures shape and mold our understanding of time. Time is so much a part of what we do every day, every year, every lifetime, that it is like asking a fish to describe water.

"A deep-sea fish has probably no means of apprehending the existence of water; it is too uniformly immersed in it..."
Lodge, Sir Oliver. Ether and Reality: A Series of Discourses on the Many Functions of the Ether of Space, (1925), 28.

 

I believe the complexity of time is, in a sense, hiding in plain sight. Time is here all around us and always a part of us, but thinking about it is difficult.


EXAMPLES OF HIDDEN TIME

I searched the Internet for articles about what is unique about human beings, i.e., what separates us from animals. It is clear that our ability to conceive and work with linear time is one of our unique characteristics. We are the only animal that has a sophisticated concept of linear time and as a result, we can design and build and cooperate.

However, I read numerous articles from prestigious universities about what is uniquely human, and not one mentioned our concept of time. Here is an example.

The following statement from Harvard University involves time and does not make sense without an understanding of time, but time itself is never mentioned. Time is embedded but not obvious.

"The unique brain mechanisms underlying human language also enhance human cognitive ability, allowing us to derive abstract concepts and to plan complex activities."
Uniquely Human - Harvard University Press. Jacket description of the book.  Lieberman, Philip. Uniquely Human: The Evolution of Speech, Thought, and Selfless Behavior. Harvard University Press. 1993.

Planning requires an understanding of time. And planning complex activities requires an advanced and sophisticated understanding of time.

Here is another example from Oxford University.
"We tend to think that being able to plan into the future, be flexible in our approach and learn from others are things that are particularly impressive about humans," says senior researcher Professor Matthew Rushworth of Oxford University's Department of Experimental Psychology.
---------------------------
"Brain area unique to humans linked to cognitive powers." Published: 28 Jan 2014.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-01-28-brain-area-unique-humans-linked-cognitive-powers

While this article mentions planning into the future, it does not deal with how time, itself, is understood. Yet planning and many other activities are based on an understanding of time which is fundamental.


TIME IS A FACT OF LIFE
BUT CULTURES SHAPE
OUR UNDERSTANDING

It is important to say from the outset that time is an objective fact of life.

"Time and tide wait for no man."
Geoffrey Chaucer (born 1343 - died 1400),
Prologue to The Clerk's Tale, Canterbury Tales. 1395.

But the way we conceive of time and coordinate time is very human. Time is not only an objective reality but also a human concept. How we understand time today and how we may have understood it in the past are probably quite different. I believe that the ways it was understood by hunter-gatherers in the 3 Paleolithic eras and people in the Neolithic era, in the Ancient, Classical, and Medieval eras were all very different.

I think a culture shapes and indoctrinates a shared concept of time. For example, a contemporary hunter-gatherer tribe, the Piraha tribe in the Amazon, thinks of time in immediate terms. Dr. Daniel Everett, the acknowledged expert on this culture, calls it the Immediacy of Experience Principle. Their window of time conception is about two days in the past and two days in the future. Beyond those points, they don't imagine, plan, or conceptualize. But don't think of them as being primitive. They have a complex language that identifies time and reality, such as who saw something and when did they see it. There are over 65,000 possible ways to express such things in this language.

This is just one example of how a culture can shape an understanding of time. There are others. For example, some cultures today see the past as ahead of us instead of behind us.

Now, you might disagree that cultures can shape our understanding of time. But this is a perfect example of why there needs to be a Department of Time-Studies. This hypothesis needs to be explored and researched and this should be done by knowledgeable academic professionals.


10 AREAS THAT NEED TO BE RESEARCHED
AT A UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT FOR
'THE STUDY OF TIME'

Time, like any subject, has a history, a history of time concepts by humans, a history of time-keeping methods and devices, a history of time coordination, and also a history of how time has been thought of. Plus there are many other areas that need to be studied such as how the brain processes time considerations. 

These different areas need to be studied from a time point of view. This means that researchers, scientists, and scholars must walk a fine line. They need to look at subjects from a time POV but not be biased and 'read in' facts and results that are not warranted.


#1. THE BRAIN:
Our human brain is unique both in size and its cognitive abilities. I maintain that both our perception of time, our memories, and our ability to manage time are only possible because of the way our brains are put together. With cutting-edge brain research that is now possible all of these areas need to be explored. 

For example, how does the brain handle a simple sentence like this "When I complete this job that I am working on, I will be done for the day." It sounds simple but it involves imagining a future in which the present and the associated future activity, i.e., the job, is past.


#2. CONSCIOUSNESS:
I think it is clear that an understanding of time is a major part of consciousness. But furthermore (and this is just a guess) an understanding of time is/was integral to the development of consciousness. I believe that our sense of time developed in tandem with the development of consciousness. In my study of time during the last eleven years, this was one idea that jumped out at me. 

I found one example that pointed in this direction. When blind/deaf Helen Keller suddenly understood words for the first time, she went from an unconscious state to a conscious state and also became aware of time.


#3. PROCESSES AND TECHNOLOGIES:
A sense of time and an understanding of time may have taken several million years to develop. During this time the size of the brain grew larger as memory and imagination abilities increased along with manual and cognitive skills. At the same time, basic technologies emerged and evolved such as stone tools. 

My research led me to believe that basket-making or woven-fiber technology was also one of the early technologies. Creating woven-fiber tools (a basket is a tool!) became increasingly complex which required greater cognitive skills. Making a basket (just one example of a woven-fiber tool) required imagining the basket, finding the materials for the design, processing those materials, and then making the basket. The design of a basket needed to be such that it worked for the purpose for which it was designed, Step by step processes were early examples of the use and understanding of linear time since a process is linear. 
 
"Man must have been conscious of memories and purposes long before he made any explicit distinction between past, present, and future."
Whitrow, Gerald. Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 1988, pages 21-22.

The key to working with processes was to understand and plan the necessary steps in linear terms. This was, I believe, the beginning of thinking about time with a past, present, future, and duration. This does not mean that all time had to be thought of this way, but processes and planning needed to be thought of like this.

Processes invariably became more advanced as additional steps were added which required more complex cognitive skills and a more nuanced understanding of time. Archaeologists have found millions of stone tools from the earliest ones in the Paleolithic era to the most recent in the Neolithic era. Each stage indicated a more advanced and complex process to make the tools. 


#4. LANGUAGE:
Words are the main tools we humans use to imagine and manage time. Most languages have a full set of verb tenses although some do not. Yet all can covey a full and complex picture of time.

When language emerged and developed, it added another set of tools to the ability to communicate and teach about time plus it added tools for planning, managing, and working with time.

"For words are to thought what tools are to work; 
the product depends largely on the growth of the tools."
Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization: Vol. 1, p. 71, 1935.

"Time reference is a universal property of language..."
Lecarme, Jacqueline, Ph.D. Linguistics. "Nominal Tense and Tense Theory." Academia.edu, 1998.  https://www.academia.edu/2486019/Nominal_Tense_and_Tense_Theory

 

As I quoted earlier:
"The unique brain mechanisms underlying human language also enhance human cognitive ability, allowing us to derive abstract concepts and to plan complex activities."
Uniquely Human - Harvard University Press . Jacket description of the book.
Lieberman, Philip. Uniquely Human: The Evolution of Speech, Thought, and Selfless Behavior. Harvard University Press. 1993.

A study of languages with the POV of how time is conceptualized, worked with, and shared along with how children learn language and time concepts (next) might yield important insights. This is a key area for research.


#5. CULTURE:
While time is real and relentless in its march forward, our cultures shape how we understand time, communicate about time, coordinate time, plan time, etc. Our understanding of time is, in many ways, learned. 
For example, time management is one of the main skills that is taught in schools, i.e., how to meet deadlines, show up to class on time, pace yourself to complete a complex job, plan how to manage a project, etc.


#6. CHILDHOOD:
How do children acquire a sense of linear time? How much is cultural? For example, most children speak in the present tense until they are about 8-10 years old. What happens when they begin to use the past tense? What are they taught about time, and what do they learn and when? 

Studying the way children learn time concepts, along with the way they work with time, might shed light on our modern sense of time along with ideas about how prehistoric cultures might have developed and used their sense of time.

"Unfortunately, we are not very well informed in the psychology of primitive man, but there are children all around us, and it is in studying children that we have the best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth."
Piaget, Jean. "Genetic Epistemology." Columbia Forum, (1969), 12, 4. 

$7. THE DIMENSIONS OF TIME
We can think of time as having three dimensions. Immediate time is one-dimensional and without it, nothing would exist. Cyclical time is two dimensional with repeating cycles such as sunrise and sunset, spring and autumn, birth and death. And finally, there is linear time with the past, present, and future always moving forward. 

While the modern world has adopted linear time, we still have a deep need to experience time in the moment. We can do this and become excited in the moment with live sports events and live music. These have the immediacy that we crave. We also need to experience cyclical time. And we do this every year, for example, with annual repeating points in time such as Christmas and New Year's Day or Halloween.

This could be another area of research for a time-studies curriculum at a university.


#8. TIME IN PREHISTORY AND ANCIENT TIMES:
-- Animal existence and the Lower & Middle Paleolithic:
Since we began as animals who lived in the present, how did we acquire a linear sense of time? How is the human brain different? How did our memory develop? How did planning develop? How long did this take?
Scientists have reenacted tool-making at their different stages and then measured brain activity. These experiments have given these researchers a general idea of early hominin cognitive abilities and how they developed over millions of years.
-- The Upper Paleolithic
By the Upper Paleolithic, when the human brain was fully developed and as advanced as our brains today, a conscious understanding of linear time may have evolved that was almost immediate. This was possibly a window of time that was only a day or two. This later may have developed into a sense of time that we have evidence for. The contemporary nomadic hunter-gatherer Piraha tribe in the Amazon has an immediate sense of time with a window of about five days: the present and two days before and two days in the future. Their way of thinking suggests that Upper Paleolithic nomadic hunter-gatherers may have functioned this way as well.
-- The Neolithic:
The change from a momentary sense of time, that probably occurred during the Paleolithic era, to a linear year-long sense of time in the Neolithic era, was as revolutionary as the change to a sedentary agricultural lifestyle that occurred in the Neolithic. What can we understand from the Neolithic evidence that has been left? There are, for example, many structures that were built to determine the time of the winter solstice such as Newgrange in Ireland and more than a hundred 'circular enclosures' in Germany and Central Europe. It appears that knowing a precise point in time during the year's cycle was important.
In the Neolithic era when yearly planting was essential, long-term linear time probably developed, i.e., it was time based on the seasons but probably within a cosmic view that was cyclical, since the seasons repeated every year.
-- Ancient and Classical Civilizations:
To govern a large civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt, there had to be a way to gauge time, to track time, to standardize time, to schedule and coordinate time, to plan, and to keep a record of time. How did this start, develop, and work after thousands of years? Researchers can study many records that are available for this time period.
-- Medieval Clocks and the Industrial Age:
While not often appreciated, many large complex clocks were built in the Middle Ages using the gearing geometry of Ptolemy who had created the most accurate Geocentric (earth-centered) astronomy. While his astronomy was superseded by Heliocentric (sun-centered) Copernican astronomy, his gearing worked extremely well and was used to build these clocks. These clocks became the basis for industrial machinery and so led directly to the Industrial Revolution.

"The clock, not the steam engine, is the key machine of the modern industrial age."
Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilization. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934, Ch. 1, sct. 2.

#9. THE MODERN UNDERSTANDING OF TIME:
Our modern sense of time is, in a sense, the reverse of the Neolithic cosmic view of time that was primarily cyclical. Now cyclical time (New Year's Day, Halloween) exists within linear time, i.e., year 2023, year 2024, year 2025. Round cyclical clocks that emphasize the repeating nature of time are being replaced by linear digital clocks whose numbers only go forward.

In the mechanized consumer world of today, time is a commodity. Time is sliced into exact sections of seconds, minutes and hours. We think of time as a resource. We can save time, spend time, or waste time, for example. Time is money, as the saying goes.

Time today is a product of the Industrial Revolution and is machine-based. At the heart of all computers is a clock. Our lives are run by the clock: from the alarm ringing in the morning to that extra drink Friday night because the workweek has finally ended. The time we live with now is mechanical.

How can we learn to be comfortable with time instead of feeling trapped by time? Today there are many different time styles.


#10. TIME, THE FUTURE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT: 
To survive as a species, we need to develop a new understanding of time. While we have enjoyed the immediate benefits of our advanced technology, we have ignored the long-term consequences. Furthermore, this new way of thinking needs to be a shared global effort. 

Our first job in developing this new understanding is to study how the environment will change based on what we have done so far. If our assessment is accurate, it would allow planning for things such as sea level rise or the possible change in worldwide ocean currents that could radically alter the climate in some countries. Understanding how quickly or slowly changes will occur will be critical. 

Next, we need to design technologies that have no impact on the environment. We need to take the time to design, plan, and manufacture so that the consequences, by-products, and side effects do not affect the environment. And this needs to be done on a global scale.

Finally, we need to build for the future even though we may not see the benefits in our lifetime. Called cathedral thinking, we may need to design and start building for the long term future. We need to do this so that we can reverse some of the damage we have done and prevent further damage to the environment.

For these ideas to be persuasive, research needs to determine the best ways to communicate this need, how to convince people of its importance, and then how to get people and industries to adopt a long-term point of view.


_____________________________________________
For In-Depth Articles
About These Topics 
Go To
The DeconstructingTime Blog

The DeconstructingTime Blog Web Address
Most articles are available as PDF files you can view or download.
You can download PDF's at:

The following is a sample 
of the over 125 in-depth articles 
about the Human Understanding of Time (HUT)

Key Ideas About the Evolution of the Human Understanding of Time (HUT)

Should "The Stone Age" Be Called "The Stone and Basket Age?"

Time & Consciousness and Helen Keller

Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time

How the Discredited Geocentric Cosmos Was a Critical Component of the Scientific Revolution
OR 
How Ptolemy's Geocentric Astronomy Helped Build the Modern World

How Language Began And the Human Understanding of Time:
Daniel Everett's New Theories About the Evolution of Language 

The Neolithic Cognitive Leap:
More Than a Revolution the New Stone Age
Involved a New Understanding of Time

Evidence for a Basket Weaving
and Woven-Fiber Technology
in the Paleolithic Era

The Importance of Processes in the Paleolithic Era

Rick Doble's Theory About 
The Human Understanding of Time (HUT)
AN OVERVIEW




Thursday, February 1, 2024

The Big Picture About Time & Humanity

KEY IDEAS
ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF
THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING OF TIME (HUT)

An overview of Rick Doble's theory
about the development of time concepts by humans
with specific points highlighted.

"Father Time: Time personified especially as a bearded old man
holding a scythe and an hourglass" (and often with wings because 'time flies').
This mythical character probably evolved from
the Greek god of time, Cronus, and the Roman god, Saturn.
(Quotation from: Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary)

Let's "cut to the chase" as they say in filmmaking. Here are some big ideas which taken together map out how our sense of time may have evolved according to my ideas and why it is important. I have written in-depth about most of these but I will go into much more detail in future blogs. For now, these will give you an overview. 

Later you might want to read some of my many (over 100) articles about the Human Understanding of Time (HUT).
Download PDF's at:

Why is this important?

I believe that we became the dominant species on the planet because we learned to manage time and to work with time. We are the only animal that does this in a pervasive way. Our understanding of past, present, future, and duration allowed us to take control of our environment. Our shared cultural sense of time is critical when it comes to creating, planning, building, and being civilized. 

But a different sense of time may be important in the future. Climate change requires that we consider the future consequences of our technology and also that we plan and respond to changes with both long-term and short-term technology and behavior.



GENERAL OVERVIEW

Studies agree that all animals, except us, live with an immediate sense of time. But our species slowly evolved a linear sense of time with a past, present, future, and duration. This may have taken a million or millions of years to evolve and probably went through several stages.

"It must have required enormous effort
for man to overcome his natural tendency
to live like the animals in a continual present. "
Whitrow, Gerald James. Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 1988, page 22.


SPECIFIC POINTS 

#1. Our sense of time developed due to our increasingly larger brains and our early cognitive thinking that included an ability to consider different future moves (i.e., the part of our brain that allowed this is the pre-frontal cortex; our particular kind is unique to Homo sapiens).
My most popular article:

MRI head side.

#2. Our large brains had the ability to remember past experiences in detail and recall those memories at will.

"Man must have been conscious of memories and purposes long before he made any explicit distinction between past, present, and future."
Whitrow, Gerald. Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 1988, pages 21-22.

#3. Being able to remember in detail, recalling something that no longer exists, is also related to thinking about the future and imagination in which a time that does not yet exist is imagined.

Our ability to remember and have memories is due to our large brain.
Our understanding of time past, present, and future is closely tied to this ability.

#4. Our sense of time is related to language which always includes a time reference.
-------------------
"Time reference is a universal property of language..."
Lecarme, Jacqueline, Ph.D. Linguistics. "Nominal Tense and Tense Theory." Academia.edu, 1998.

#5. Language and shared words, concepts, and images are the tools for working with and managing time. The concepts must be shared so that a group can plan, coordinate, and work together.


#6. There could be quite different ways to conceive of time and to deal with and work with time in a culture even when the Homo sapiens brain had fully developed.

#7. Our sense of time, our concepts and our understanding of time are shaped by our cultures.

#8. I have suggested that at one stage a sense of time was almost immediate. Thinking about time is limited to about 3-5 days in a contemporary hunter-gatherer Amazon tribe, the Piraha, for example. There may have been an even earlier stage when time was more immediate. It is likely that this immediacy was the sense of time that early humans, who lived as hunter-gatherers, adhered to throughout the Paleolithic era. This idea is supported by studies of contemporary hunter-gatherers. It appears that their sense of time is primarily immediate. For example, they eat food when they find it and do not save food for later, even though they could. 

TOP: The passageway (bottom) and roof-box (top) at Newgrange, the Neolithic passage tomb in Ireland. The roof-box was built to indicate when the winter solstice occurred by only allowing light through the roof-box during the period of the solstice.
BOTTOM: A diagram showing how the winter solstice shaft of light illuminated the passageway and confirmed that the time period was that of the winter solstice.

#9. When the switch to agriculture occurred in the Neolithic era, the sense of time became linear meaning that past, present, future and duration were the way they thought about time. Planting required long-term planning from season to season and year to year. Numerous Neolithic structures were built that could indicate the time of year with some precision. These structures provide clear evidence for the importance of linear time to these cultures.

#10. For young children time is immediate. Then they go through various stages in their understanding of time as they grow but they are also constantly shaped and molded to understand time according to the concepts of their culture.
-------------------
"Unfortunately, we are not very well informed in the psychology of primitive man, but there are children all around us, and it is in studying children that we have the best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth."
Piaget, Jean. "Genetic Epistemology." Columbia Forum, (1969), 12, 4.

An intricate carefully woven Weaverbird nest. Early hominins and Weaverbirds often lived in close proximity to each other in Baobab trees, so early humans would have been aware of their nests and how the nests were built.

#11. I have suggested that an important technology, woven-fiber technology (basket weaving), may have begun early in our evolution, as early as a million or so years ago. Weaverbird nests and other bird nests may have provided an early model. This is related to time because imagining a basket design, gathering materials and planning, then making the basket with strands and spokes may have been an important component to our developing sense of time.
Based on insights from ethnoarchaeology, it appears that everyone in a tribe, men, women, and children, knew how to weave baskets and many other items as well. And, as I have written, baskets are tools.
-------------------
"Relatively few tribes of American Indians understood pottery, except in the crudest form. As for basketry, it may be said that every Indian from the land of the Esquimaux down through Mexico was a basket weaver."
Huckel, John Frederick & Harvey, Fred. American Indians : first families of the Southwest. Fred Harvey publisher, 1920.

#12. A finished basket could have been a model for time and time duration as it is clear from the strands and the spokes how it was made and how much time it took to make it. 

Reed construction (woven-fiber technology) of a wide variety of boats, houses, and industrial and everyday items reached a high point in Mesopotamia. This picture of a reed boat, that can carry 20 people, is from the contemporary culture of Uros in South America showing what was possible with reeds.

#13. During the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Ancient eras woven-fiber technology continued to be developed and became a sophisticated industry. In Mesopotamia most cities were served by fleets of reed boats, large and small, some even sea-going. Small houses and large community buildings were made entirely out of reeds. The Babylonian model of the night sky, as it rotated and was divided into minutes and seconds, may have been derived from a reed basket design, as baskets were a key product in that culture. Today we still use their concepts of minutes and seconds along with their mathematics.

#14. Familiar with Babylonian star charts and planet data, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy devised a geocentric (Earth-centered) geometry of the universe. This system was so accurate its calendar was off by only one day every one hundred years.

"Astronomical clock (dating from 1520)
at the town hall of Ulm/Germany" (Wikimedia)

#15. Although Ptolemy's geocentric view of the universe was dismissed when Copernicus's heliocentric system (sun-centered) was eventually accepted, many complex Medieval clocks were built in Europe, based on the gearing of Ptolemy's system, hundreds of years before the heliocentric system was accepted.


LEFT: A simplified drawing showing how Ptolemy used perfect circles within perfect circles (called epicycles) to achieve a high level of accuracy. 
RIGHT: A modern clock showing the circular gearing. Ptolemy's geometry of circles within circles became central to clocks and the Industrial Revolution, even though his astronomy was no longer accepted.

#16. The sophisticated gearing of these clocks based on Ptolemy's geometry led directly to the invention of machines and the modern industrial age.
-------------------
"The clock, not the steam engine, is the key machine of the modern industrial age."
Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilization. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934, Ch. 1, sct. 2. 

#17. Today, the immediate benefits of our technology are creating far-reaching problems in the future. This has caused the crisis with climate change. We need a new sense of time that includes the consequences of our actions and our technology if we want to avoid damaging the environment. 




___________________________________
PICTURE CREDITS:

Quotation. Father Time: Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster,

EARTH: The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17

MRI: MRI_head_side.jpg

SYMBOLICAL HEAD WITH MEMORIES: Symbolical_head,_After_O_S_Fowler,_c.1845_Wellcome_V0009493

LANGUAGE: Fear_in_the_Night_1

NEWGRANGE PASSAGE TOMB:
BOTTOM DIAGRAM: Diagram of Newgrange passage and solstice light from the side.
(Irish Art History Section, Professional Development Service for Teachers, P.D.S.T., Ireland)


LARGE REED BOAT: Reed_Islands_of_Lake_Titicaca_-b

MEDIEVAL CLOCK: Ulm-Rathaus-AstronomischeUhr-061104.jpg

PTOLEMAIC EPICYCLES: Ptolemaic_epicycles

BACK OF A WATCH: BwcOmega911a

FUTURE: Future_plate_blue.svg



Monday, January 22, 2024

Scientific test: Newgrange solstice indicator

A PROPOSAL:

HOW TO SCIENTIFICALLY TEST 
THE PRECISION AND ACCURACY
OF THE NEOLITHIC WINTER SOLSTICE DETECTOR 
AT NEWGRANGE, IRELAND
By Rick Doble

Diagram of Newgrange passage and solstice light from the side.
(Irish Art History Section, Professional Development Service for Teachers, P.D.S.T., Ireland)

INTRODUCTION

It is my belief that the passageway and specially designed baffled 'roof-box' at Newgrange Ireland could determine the specific day of the Winter Solstice in real time. And if this is true, it means that this Neolithic science was thousands of years ahead of its time and more advanced, in this regard, than Greek or Roman astronomy. Today we now have the tools to test this hypothesis scientifically. Later in this article, I spell out ways that it could be tested.

When the Winter Solstice sunrise lit the passageway at Newgrange Ireland around the time of the solstice, it probably had religious and ritual significance. However, it is important to understand that the Newgrange structure was also a scientific instrument. It accurately 'captured' the Winter Solstice light using the well-crafted baffled roof-box that lit the carefully made passageway inside the structure and only did so when the sunrise was close to the day of the solstice. And when it did capture this sunlight, it magnified it. 

It is not well understood today but determining the day of the Winter Solstice in real time was virtually impossible until recently. For almost a week there is only a slight difference in the sunrise position on the horizon, the length of the days only vary by seconds and atmospheric refraction can distort observation. So, at the time of the winter solstice, the sun barely moves (i.e., the sun's declination). In fact the word solstice comes from the Latin 'solstitium' meaning "point at which the sun seems to stand still" (dictionary.com). Please see the Afterword for more detail. 

The Greeks and Romans could and did determine the day of the solstice after the fact by observing the position of the sun many days before and after the time of the solstice and then interpolating the actual day. However, they could not determine the actual day in real time. 

Nevertheless, I believe the clever baffled roof-box and magnification of the light at Newgrange may have been enough to allow Neolithic experts to determine the exact day of the solstice in real time. 

NOTE: Since the roof-box could capture sunrise light from about two days before the day of the solstice and two days after, some have interpreted this to mean that these Neolithic people were only interested in an approximate identification of the time of the solstice and not the exact day (see the following quote). I feel this is a mistake. It is my contention that each day before, during, and after the solstice could be identified individually. But cloudy days would have caused a problem. Yet with five days to work with, there was almost always at least one clear day that could be identified and used to calculate the actual day.

CURRENT OPINION DOES NOT AGREE
THAT THE DAY OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE 
COULD BE DETERMINED IN REAL TIME

As I write this article there is agreement by experts that the time *around* the Winter Solstice could be indicated by Newgrange, but that's as much as they are willing to say.

The current opinion about the accuracy of Newgrange is expressed by T. P. Ray in his article about Newgrange. "Megalithic man was interested in marking the southern limits in declination of the sun and moon, albeit approximately. Such low accuracies suggest that ancient man's interest in these bodies may have been ritualistic rather than for the purpose of calendar construction."
Ray, T. P. The winter solstice phenomenon at Newgrange, Ireland: accident or design?  School of Cosmic Physics, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

But, as I have said, I believe that careful testing will show that Newgrange was quite accurate and could determine the day of the Winter Solstice in real time. I think that my hypothesis can be scientifically tested. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FROM THE MEDIA ABOUT THE PRECISION OF NEWGRANGE

Ireland, 3200 B.C.
On roughly four days every year, the Winter Solstice sun pokes through the top of this Stone Age monument and onto the floor of the interior chamber, filling the ancient temple with light for about 17 minutes. Built before Stonehenge, Newgrange was likely used to track the passing of the years with a precision ahead of its time. With an earthen mound and stone forming passageways and chambers inside Newgrange, the site likely also served as a passage tomb and ceremonial location as well as being a highly engineered clock.
Newcombup, Tim. Popular Mechanics, September 30, 2022.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a35867403/ancient-architecture/

The Winter Solstice Light December 2013.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2013_Solstice_Newgrange.jpg


GENERAL IDEAS AND CONCERNS
FOR A STUDY OF THE ACCURACY
OF THE SOLSTICE INDICATORS AT NEWGRANGE:


Nine years ago I wrote an article stating that it was possible that the passage tomb at Newgrange could determine the day of the Winter Solstice in real time. This article was reprinted in Newgrange.com. Now I believe new technology could, in fact, provide hard proof.

I think a university archaeological program or other such research group should write a proposal and get funding for a project that will prove or disprove the precision of the Newgrange passageway and roof-box.  

NEW TECHNOLOGY & ARCHEOLOGY 2.0: 
Today, using the tools of Archeology 2.0 such as photogrammetry and computer simulations, this could be studied with extreme precision. Photogrammetry is now capable of making a precise 3D computer representation, accurate to millimeters. Then simulations of the sunrise light on the day of the Winter Solstice plus simulations of the days before and after the time of the solstice could show how each particular sunrise was being displayed in the passageway.

It is my guess that for two days before the Winter Solstice and two days after the light was distinctly different from the exact day of the solstice light. Furthermore, thee days surrounding the day of the solstice were distinctly different from each other. I also believe there was a reason for knowing the characteristics of the light in the days before and after. If the sky was cloudy on the day of the solstice, the day itself could still be determined by knowing the characteristics of the other days around the time of the solstice, and knowing which day was which.

Detailed drawing of Newgrange passage showing the precise placement of stones and the shaft of solstice light. Used with permission:
http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/irelandnewgrange.htm 

As I point out in my article, the setup at Newgrange with the roof-box and passageway yielded a lot of information such as the width of the light, the intensity of the light, the speed of the light as it moved down the passageway and retreated, the furthest reach of the light, the way that the stone walls and spiral engravings were lit, etc. The design magnifies the light and its movement -- and magnifications yield much more information. I believe that this amount of information would be enough to distinguish one day from another.

Another important point is the time of each sunrise before, during, and after the solstice. The times would be different and could possibly be detected based on the position of the stars.

While making a computer model of the passageway is, today, not all that difficult, simulating the solstice light could be quite difficult. Because, for this kind of simulation, the most important element will be the precision of the light coming through the roof-box and the way this simulated sunlight lights up the passageway. This must be as accurate as possible otherwise the project is pointless. 

Passage leading towards chamber of Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland.
Passage leading out from chamber of Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland.

The angle of the light is especially important as there is a very slight change in that angle with each sunrise. When the light is magnified and enters the passageway at a low angle in relation to the stone walls that make up the passageway, there could be a marked difference from day to day. I am a professional photographer who has written three books on photography. I know that the angle of light in relation to the surface of an object can reveal subtle details that can be quite different with just a small change in the angle of light.

State-of-the-art composite videos, made from dozens of cameras placed along the passageway during the time of the solstice, could be used as a reference both in the timing and the accuracy of the shaft of light. This might be the best way to ensure that the simulated light matches the actual light around the time of the solstice.

Also when building a model, it is also important to take into account the change in the sun's position about 5000 years ago. See NASA's assessment next:

Today the first light enters about four minutes after sunrise, but calculations based on the precession of the Earth show that 5,000 years ago, first light would have entered exactly at sunrise.
Document of the US space agency NASA. 
https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/SED11/P8Newgrange.pdf

All solar simulations should match the earlier times of sunrise, when Newgrange was functioning, based on NASA's calculations.


Triple spiral carved in a stone in the chamber at the end of the passage. According to legend, the light from the sun illuminated these triple spirals on the day of the solstice. 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Celtic_spiral.jpg

SPECIFIC WAYS TO TEST MY HYPOTHESES


HOW TO TEST:
Once the photogrammetric and computer simulation of the solstice light are created, it may be possible to objectively test the ability of the Newgrange passageway and roof-box to indicate the day of the Winter Solstice.

While I am hardly an expert when it comes to designing experiments, here are suggestions about how this could be tested.

PLAN A:
A number of professional people (I would suggest photographers or people who work with lighting) could view a simulated computer sequence of light coming into the passageway and then retreating with each day clearly labeled. I suggest using professionals because we can assume that the Neolithic viewers of these sequences were also professionals. After today's viewers have become familiar with these sequences, they could then be tested by viewing each sequence at random without a label and stating which sequence it was. 

PLAN B:
Another way to test this could be to make a large light that would accurately simulate the angle, the movement and the brightness of the Winter Solstice sunrise, along with the sunrise light from the two days before and after. This light would shine through the roof-box and down the actual passageway. As with Plan A, experts could, at first, view the light in a clearly labeled sequence. Then experts could be positioned in the passageway as the light was shown at random to see if they could tell the difference. 

THE FINAL RESULT:
Based on the correctness of the experts' ability to distinguish between these random showings, a scorecard could be created that would tell us whether they were able to identify the day of the solstice and if they were able to distinguish between the days before and after the solstice.

PLAN C:
A stand-alone computer model could be created. Then a computer rating system could be devised that would rate each one of the lighting effects every 15 seconds such as the width of the light, the speed of the light's movement up the passageway, the length of the shadows, the depth or darkness of the shadows, the illumination on the walls, etc. Then the furthest reach of the light would be logged and followed by a rating of these same characteristics as the light retreated. The final task would be to put this data altogether to determine if there was a significant difference from day to day.

PLAN D:
A combination of the above or another approach I have not thought of.

MY ARTICLE:
As I said, in 2015 I wrote an article which has been reprinted in the Newgrange.com website, about the accuracy of the Newgrange passageway in determining the Winter Solstice.

Computing the Winter Solstice at Newgrange:
Was Neolithic Science Equal To or Better Than Ancient Greek or Roman Science?

THE DISCOVERY PROGRAMME "3D MODEL OF SOLSTICE AT NEWGRANGE":
The Discovery Programme in Ireland has already made a "3d Model Of Solstice At Newgrange". 


Overhead diagram of Newgrange passage and solstice light.
(Irish Art History Section, Professional Development Service for Teachers, P.D.S.T., Ireland)

PUTTING A PROPOSAL AND STUDY TOGETHER


HERE IS WHAT I SUGGEST: 
An archaeological or research program should write a specific proposal and acquire funding. I have written a number of proposals in the past and would be glad to write a suggested draft of the proposal. Or I could work together with members of an academic team. I can also write the finished draft. After that I would be glad to work on the project if it is funded in any manner that would be helpful.

HOW I SHOULD BE CREDITED:
I would need to be credited for the idea if it is put together and also for writing the proposal if I do some or all of the writing. If the proposal is accepted, I would be glad to work with people in the project.

MY INTEREST:
I have a Master's Degree in Communication with a minor in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, plus a B.A. in English with Honors in Creative Writing, also from UNC-CH.
I am an independent researcher who is interested in this subject because I have been writing a blog for over eleven years about the human experience of time. I have always felt that ancient people were much smarter than they have been given credit for and also that a concept of time was very important to them. So, when I studied Newgrange, I felt that I had found an important example of these ideas.

PLEASE NOTE:
While other people have suggested that the Newgrange design could determine the day of the Winter Solstice in real time, I do not believe they have gone into detail nearly as much as I have to make the case. For example, I have covered the difficulty of measuring the day of the solstice, the design and construction of the roof-box and passageway as a scientific instrument, its ability to magnify the sunlight's angle and movement and the wealth of information that resulted.

As I have said the Greeks and Romans could not determine the day of the Winter Solstice in real time. In my 2015 article, I believe I am the first person to make this point. They could determine it after the fact but not in real time. The Roman Saturnalia Festival, for example, occurred during the week of the solstice but it did not celebrate a particular solstice day. 
 
So this means that in this particular case at least, in Ireland and during the Winter Solstice, Neolithic science and technology might have been more advanced that of the Greeks and Roman's 3000 years later. And if this is true, it signals a major change in our perception of Neolithic culture and its level of technology.

"Sketch of a cross section of the Newgrange passage grave
made by William Frederick Wakeman."
Quote from commons.wikimedia.org
Wakeman's Handbook of Irish Antiquities (1903). p. 85.
 http://www.archive.org/details/wakemanshandbook00wake


_______________________________
AFTERWORD

PLEASE SEE MY FULL DETAILED ARTICLE IN THIS BLOG

ABOUT THE WINTER SOLSTICE IN GREECE AND ROME

I have made the point in many other articles that prehistoric people were smarter than previously thought and they did remarkable things when they were necessary. The very short winter days in Ireland meant that knowing the day of the Winter Solstice was important as it signaled the beginning of the new year and so allowed accurate yearly planning for agriculture. 

In Greece and Rome the days were much longer in the winter and the weather less severe, so they did not feel the same urgency.

SCIENCE IN THE NEOLITHIC ERA

“In the case of Neolithic astronomy, we are dealing
not with the prehistory of science,
but with science in prehistory.”
McClellan, James E. III, Dorn, Harold. Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction, Edition 2. JHU Press, June 2006, page 23. 

I believe the specially designed baffled roof-box and passageway at Newgrange created a well developed scientific instrument. Furthermore, the alignment of the entire structure with the Winter Solstice sunrise was precise. Plus the well constructed structure provided a reliable environment that was stable and consistent year after year. 

“Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be.”
Galileo Galilei

The creation of the solid passageway, walls, floor and ceiling meant that there were clear consistent points that allowed a comparison of the light from one day to the next and one year to the next. And comparison is one way to measure.

One of the standard requirements of experimental science is to eliminate all variables other than the phenomena that is bing studied so that the outcome is due to the experiment and nothing more. The Newgrange baffled roof-box and passageway provided an unmovable stable environment so that the manipulation of the light by the Newgrange instrument on consecutive days could be reliably compared.

[Left} The special roof-box is on top above the passageway. During the winter solstice, it is light through the roof-box that illuminates the passageway NOT light from the passageway entrance.
[Right] Close-up of the roof-box. It is set back so that the walls act like a baffle and only allow light through the roof-box during the solstice.


PERSONAL NOTE
As I was studying pictures of Newgrange and the solstice light, it struck me that several very modern devices have used/use a beam of light in a similar was. A beam of light shown down a long pathway was used in Newgrange but also in the famous Michelson-Morley experiment that proved Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity plus the very modern Gravity Wave detectors that have just proved Einsteins ideas about gravity in his General Theory of Relativity.