Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/28/2007 - 15:13
Forums
Kuril Islands Biocomplexity

In the July 24th journal, you said something about a whale bone that was probably used as a calendar. How does that work, exactly?

 

Kelly

Wed, 08/29/2007 - 05:31

Misty Nikula

KellyHave you ever seen the Mayan calendar?  It's a circular calendar that shows the different times of the year or the Mayan months.  If you imagine writing the months of the year around the edge of a circle so that December ends up being right next to January, then you would be making a similar calendar with our year/months.
The whale bone that they found last year at Vodapadnaya had a circular pattern on it (see a picture of the disk below) and the archaeologists, not having anyone to ask what it might be, make hypotheses about its possible use.  It might have just been a pretty design, but it might have had a more significant purpose like a calendar.  Its really just educated guesses and they don't, unfortunately, have any way to test their hypotheses with certainty.

See you in about a week!
Ms Nikula