It is a Sunday and I have been spending time with the granddaughter she just got braces and her self-esteem is a bit low….so we are spending time on other stuff to keep her mind off the changes…..

I love history and have always thought about the vast knowledge that the ancients have had about the heavens…..and since the telescope is only about 400 years old what can explain their large amount of knowledge?

Well it seems there may be an answer to that question…….

Telescopes as we think of them date back 400 years to the Enlightenment. But astronomers studying huge tombs in Portugal believe ancient humans were making their own stargazing instruments 6,000 years ago, the Atlantic reports. Researchers, who presented their findings Wednesday at the National Astronomy Meeting in Britain, believe the tombs themselves were a type of massive lensless telescope, according to Live Science. The Guardian reports the long, narrow entrances to the tombs—which were the only source of light—would focus the eye on a single piece of sky, block out the sun’s rays at dawn, and make the eye more sensitive to low light. “This would allow enhanced observing, especially in the twilight hours of dusk and dawn,” astronomer Daniel Brown tells Live Science.

The tombs may “have been the first astronomical tools to support the watching of the skies, millennia before telescopes were invented,” the Royal Astronomical Society says in a statement. Ancient humans admitted inside the tombs may have been seen as having “secret knowledge or foresight” due to being able to see the rise of seasonal stars days before those outside the tombs could see them. They might use that information to declare when it was time to move herds to new grazing areas, for example. Researchers are now experimenting to see what stars might align with the entrances to the tombs.

The ancients were smarter than we thought they were….or I am sure the the wackos with the “Ancient Aliens” will have another wild theory on how they accomplished this feat.

There are so many holes in our knowledge of the “ancients”…..so any info achieved is a big step forward…..