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It is well known that Ptolemy, in his attempt to establish Greek astronomy on
a sound scientific foundation, drew upon ancient observations made by
Babylonian sky watchers in order to develop his models for predicting the
motions of the Sun, Moon and planets. What was true in Ptolemy’s time remains
true today. In order to fine-tune their theories on such fundamental matters as
the length of the day, or changes in the Earth's rate of rotation, astronomers
analyzed ancient observations of the moon made by ancient Babylonian, Chinese and Arabic astronomers.
In a recent book on the role of ancient observations in modern astronomy, John
Steele underscored the point. Quote, ”Astronomy always has been and still is a
science that relies on the use of past observations. Unlike most sciences, astronomy can never
be truly experimental: astronomers can only observe the astronomical phenomena that present themselves...
Perhaps uniquely in the sciences, astronomers therefore, are forced to rely
upon empirical data collected by their predecessors.” End of quote. Yet, while modern astronomers regularly
employ ancient astronomical observations recorded in Babylonian diary texts and
Chinese annals to test their measurements and formulate their theories, they typically pay little heed
to the innumerable ancient artworks depicting the respective celestial
bodies. This decision represents a significant oversight. Consider the example provided by the
so-called ‘Lamat’ sign, one of the most familiar glyphs in the Mayan codices long believed to denote
the planet Venus. In the Dresden codices elsewhere, the Lamat glyph is often coupled with the prefix
‘chak’, signifying red or great, and given the fact various Maya cultures denoted the
Morningstar by the name red, or great, star, the phrase ‘chak ek’ is typically translated as Great Star
Venus. The Lamat sign is archaic in nature, early exemplars appearing already
in pre-classic times circa 1,000 to 400 BCE. Martha Macri emphasized the remarkable
continuity of these images and their attendant symbolism over the millennia.
Quote, “The Venus star logograph is depicted on portable objects from the Preclassic,
Classic and Postclassic periods into the 16th century. This continuity of an image that is
graphically complex and semantically consistent is evidence not of the
borrowing of a word or concept, but of the transmission of a specific image
over an extensive geographic and temporal range.” End of quote.
A number of recent studies have questioned the glyphs direct link to
Venus with various scholars arguing that Lamat sign serves as a generic term for
star, rather than signifying any particular planetary body. That said, the general consensus among
Mayanists appears to be that the Lamat sign ’Red ek’ is a logogram denoting quote, ‘star’, ‘planet’
’Venus’. End of quote. How then are we to understand the great star of Mayan cosmology?
The first point to be made is that the Great Red Star was almost certainly not
the planet Venus. Rather, it was the planet Mars, or Mars and Venus in conjunction.
This identification is explicit among the Skidi Pawnee, renowned for their astronomy-based
religious beliefs, who described the mythical Morning Star as a powerful warrior and red in color.
According to the Skidi creation myth, a grand conjunction between Mars and Venus
marked the origin of all living beings. Quote, ”The second god placed in the heavens was Evening star,
known to the white people as Venus...She was a beautiful woman. By speaking and waving her hands she
could perform wonders. Through this star and Morning Star all things were created.”
Analogous reports will be found among other Amerindian tribes, although it
must be admitted that the evidence is often disjointed in nature and open to alternative interpretations.
Among the Puget Indians of the northwest coast, the Morning Star is not only
described as red, it is carefully distinguished from the Evening star
which is described as white. So too, the Osage remember the Morning Star
as a red god; quote, “Great Star or Red Star, a male being, is the Morning Star. "
The very same idea is common to the Delaware Indians. Quote,
”The Delaware call Morning Star the Great Star or Red Star.” End of quote.
The recurring emphasis among Amerindian cultures upon the red color of the Great
Star must command our attention. As the most prominent red star in the sky, it
stands to reason that ancient sky watchers would have described Mars as red or ruddy in color.
Venus on the other hand, typically presents a whitish color and is rarely,
if ever, denoted by a name signifying red. Equally telling is the fact that in all
of the tribes referenced above, the mythical Morning Star is always
described as a male warrior, exactly as in Mesoamerican lore. Here too it is difficult, if not
impossible, to find an ethnographic report describing the planet Venus as a
masculine warrior anywhere in the continent apart from disputed examples from Mesoamerica.
Given the antiquity of these Amerindian mythological traditions, not to mention
the likely common ancestry and historical relation between the vast
majority of the indigenous tribes on the North American continent, it stands to reason that the traditions
attached to the Morningstar and Mesoamerican narratives and codices
belong to the same general belief system. In short, whether it is the red color
ascribed to the Great Star, or its masculine nature or intimate connection
to war, the preponderance of evidence favors an identification with the planet
Mars, the Red Planet par excellence. To return to the unique constellation
depicted in the Lamat glyph, if Mayanists are in agreement, the
Lamat glyph has something to do with stars and/ or Venus, exactly what the image represents
remains a matter of much conjecture. If the four-rayed star represents a star
or Venus, what are we to make of the four circular dots? Susan Milbrath, an anthropologist
specializing in ancient Mesoamerican astronomy, suggested that the glyph has
reference to the four phases of Venus's appearance and disappearance. Quote, “The
fact that there are four circles in a cross-shaped frame, naturally suggests the four phases of
Venus associated with four different directions.” End of quote. Although a great deal of ink has been
employed in discussing the possible astronomical significance of the
Lamat's role in Mesoamerican symbolism, precious little thought has been devoted
to the natural historical roots of the glyph itself. Most scholars, with Milbrath, have
concluded that the glyph is abstract in nature and encodes some arcane
astronomical knowledge about Venus. The possibility that the Lamat glyph
faithfully depicted an actual star constellation of prehistoric sky has
never been entertained, to the best of my knowledge. Yet, there is much reason to believe
that this is exactly what the icon represents, namely an accurate depiction of the Great
Star during a prehistoric period. The fact that analogous pictographs we
found around the globe, offers compelling evidence in support of this proposition.
A NUZ cylinder seal, purportedly dating to the mid-second millennium BCE, depicts
a star surrounded by four dots. The resemblance between the Mesopotamian
and Mesoamerican glyphs is undeniable. Not only is there a central four-rayed
star, but four circles or orbs are set in the corners, exactly as in the Lamat
sign. Not unlike the longevity of the Lamat glyph in Mesoamerican
iconography, the quadripartite star symbol persisted for millennia in Mesopotamia.
The symbolic importance of the stellar image is indicated by the fact that
Assyrian kings had it depicted on their royal garments. Other Mesopotamian cylinder seals
substitute a flower-like form or cruciform structure for the central star.
One early cylinder seal represents a four- petaled flower star with four circles or dots at its corners.
In another cylinder seal, a cruciform structure is represented together with circular dots.
While the most common form of the Lamat in Mesoamerica shows a central
four-rayed star, other early examples of the glyph show a flower-like object or cross instead.
As we will discover, these variant forms, all familiar symbols of stars among Ameindian
cultures, offer a valuable clue as to the celestial origins of the Lamat glyph.
What are we to make of this iconographic evidence? If nothing else, the presence of
analogous stellar images on opposite sides of the Atlantic in very early
times, suggest the probability that such artworks encode some readily observable
astronomical reality, be it a prominent star or constellation. Yet the fact
remains that it is impossible to point to an object in the present sky that
depicts a four-rayed star surrounded by four dots. Hence the mystery presented by
these widespread anomalous stellar images. I discussed the Lamat glyph and the
many faces of Venus and other works noting its possible relationship to the planet Venus.
At the time I was operating under the assumption that the image depicted a
conjunction of Mars and Venus in which the red planet appeared in front of the
larger orb, but I had no idea how to explain the four smaller dots surrounding the central star.
Upon discussing the matter with Anthony Peratt in 2002, he pointed out that the dots are
indicative of intense synchrotron radiation produced by four parallel Birkeland
currents resulting from a high-current Z-pinch event. According to Peratt, quote “...the only known
mechanism that produces synchrotron radiation are electrons spiraling about
a magnetic field at nearly the speed of light.” Indeed, in high-energy/density plasma
experiments conducted at the Los Alamos Labs in the 1990s, Peratt himself had
generated very similar images. In the image on the left one finds a
close analog to the classic Lamat sign depicted in the first figure here, in
which a central star is surrounded by four small circles. In the figure on the right, the central
star takes on a rosette-shaped image, not unlike that depicted in other figures here.
I returned to the Lamat symbolism in the Great Star published in 2002 and
once again reached out to Dr. Peratt for instruction in clarifying the various structures in question.
In 2009 he wrote me as follows, quote, “Of course this symbol is found all over the
place...It is indeed Venus and Mars in front but the quincunx is yet in front of Mars.
See my Physica Scripta article that purposely does not show everything yet.
Too early and I’ll have to find an alias to publish under.” End of quote.
Alas, in the intervening years, Tony has yet to elaborate on his groundbreaking experimental findings.
Findings which help elucidate the testimony provided by the ancient
pictographs and glyphs associated with the celestial bodies. Yet one thing is certain, in the case of
the Lamat sign, a pictograph is indeed worth a thousand words. In summary, the Lamat sign will never be
explained by reference to the present sky or to the familiar periodicities of the planet Venus.
Indeed it is our position that the stellar image in question represents a
veritable smoking gun pointing to an extraordinary planetary conjunction in
relatively recent prehistory, likely during the neolithic period.
If so, and if in fact the Lamat sign depicts a grand conjunction between Mars
and Venus during the brief period when the two planets were lined along a
shared polar axis, it follows that high-energy discharge events characterize this conjunction, and
it must have been a memorable and likely very dangerous period in Earth history.
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