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Neolithic 'sun stones' sacrificed in Denmark revives sun after volcanic eruption

bryanrasmussen 1y ago
original title: Neolithic ‘sun stones’ sacrificed in Denmark to revive the sun after volcanic eruption didn't see a good way to shorten.
ggm 1y ago
"Sun Stones" refers to two things. 1) crystals with an interesting polarised effect which allow you to identify the vertical plane of the sun in cloudy skies, and therefore effect navigation at sea in overcast daylight, modulo some basic idea of the time. 2) quasi religious carved stones, "sacrificed" by burial, in attempts to placate the gods over the awful horrors of a post-eruption landscape and climate. The article is about the second kind.
- namaria 1y ago
  > effect navigation at sea in overcast daylight, modulo some basic idea of the time What do you mean with "modulo some basic idea of the time"?
  - ggm 1y ago
    The sun moves. You can't sail a constant linear course using a device which is sun seeking, unless you include some sense of time. It describes an arc in the sky, you'd be steering in a curve. Happy to be told otherwise.
    - rightbyte 1y ago
      At dawn and sun set you don't need to know the time. But then again that is only twice a day to adjust course. I wonder if you can track mid day with such a stone.
      - ggm 1y ago
        Without wishing to be over pedantic, that's modulo time at the granularity of a day, and with set points.
        rightbyte 1y ago
        With a wish to be overly pedantic, if you can keep a somewhat steady course during the day, or anchor, and pick the mid point between sun set and dawn you don't even have to know the day of the year, time of the day, or anything time related.
        namaria 1y ago
        I was mostly confused by the wording. I didn't know 'modulo' could be used like that, but apparently it has a colloquial meaning of "except for the variation accounted for by" and now the phrase makes sense to me.
ainiriand 1y ago
It is interesting to note that in a 4900 year period it not very significative if they were saved by this ritual or all of the died in a 20 year span. But I hope they managed to see the sun again.

original title: Neolithic ‘sun stones’ sacrificed in Denmark to revive the sun after volcanic eruption didn't see a good way to shorten.

ggm 1y ago

"Sun Stones" refers to two things. 1) crystals with an interesting polarised effect which allow you to identify the vertical plane of the sun in cloudy skies, and therefore effect navigation at sea in overcast daylight, modulo some basic idea of the time. 2) quasi religious carved stones, "sacrificed" by burial, in attempts to placate the gods over the awful horrors of a post-eruption landscape and climate. The article is about the second kind.

namaria 1y ago
> effect navigation at sea in overcast daylight, modulo some basic idea of the time What do you mean with "modulo some basic idea of the time"?
- ggm 1y ago
  The sun moves. You can't sail a constant linear course using a device which is sun seeking, unless you include some sense of time. It describes an arc in the sky, you'd be steering in a curve. Happy to be told otherwise.
  - rightbyte 1y ago
    At dawn and sun set you don't need to know the time. But then again that is only twice a day to adjust course. I wonder if you can track mid day with such a stone.
    - ggm 1y ago
      Without wishing to be over pedantic, that's modulo time at the granularity of a day, and with set points.
      - rightbyte 1y ago
        With a wish to be overly pedantic, if you can keep a somewhat steady course during the day, or anchor, and pick the mid point between sun set and dawn you don't even have to know the day of the year, time of the day, or anything time related.
        namaria 1y ago
        I was mostly confused by the wording. I didn't know 'modulo' could be used like that, but apparently it has a colloquial meaning of "except for the variation accounted for by" and now the phrase makes sense to me.

ainiriand 1y ago

It is interesting to note that in a 4900 year period it not very significative if they were saved by this ritual or all of the died in a 20 year span. But I hope they managed to see the sun again.