Welcome!

Benvenuti in queste pagine dedicate a scienza, storia ed arte. Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, Torino

Showing posts with label satellite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label satellite. Show all posts

Saturday, February 1, 2014

stone circle - 2 - Jordan

Stone circles in Jordan.
Syrian desert.


Stone circle and desert kite

Stone circle and desert kite in Jordan

Stone circle - Jordan - 1


A stone circle in Jordan

About Jordan and the Syrian Desert, see also:

Desert kites - 1


The Syrian Desert is an arid land of south-western Asia, extending from the northern Arabian Peninsula to the eastern Jordan, southern Syria, and western Iraq, largely covered by lava fields. Considered in the past as a barrier between Levant and Mesopotamia, it is now crossed by several routes and pipelines. This desert possesses two volcanic regions. One is the Jabal al-Druze, in the As-Suwayda Governorate. The other field is that of the Harrat Ash Shaam.

When we observe this desert from space, we discover that this harsh environment was probably quite populated in ancient times. We can conclude this fact from some huge stone structures, the "desert kites", that can be easily seen in the images recorded by satellites. These structures were firstly observed by pilots of the Royal Air Force in the 1920s, flying over the desert. These pilots named them "kites", because these lines reminded of kites used by children to play, but in fact they are huge hunting traps.

We usually imagine our ancestors, before they settle down, as people simply hunting and gathering for food, but this is not true. The "desert kites" are the remains of an ancient hunting technique based on stone-walled traps, the construction of which surely involved several people for long times. The desert kites were used to push large herds of animals into some enclosures, or, in the worse case, to fall off from steep cliff edges. The simplest structure of a desert kite has a triangular shape, consisting of two long, low walls built of stones and arranged in a V-shape, like a  funnel, ending as a corral. Hunters pushed the game between the walls, trapping then the animals into the end of the structure. It is usually considered that animals were slaughtered “en masse”.

Typically, a desert kite possesses two, three or more small circular enclosures on the edge of its corral. Some ancient rock art images show these hunting traps, depicting the role of the 'walls' of the kites. Let us note that these walls are low and then not able to stop any game. In fact, the walls are not walls at all: they are the basements, in the rocky harraat, where stick some poles and build a fence with branches. These structures create a visual effect as a barrier for the animals.



"Kite" rock-drawing from Jordan,  G.L. Harding: The Cairn of Hani, Antiquity 28,1954:pp 165-7
(2007-02-22) In 1951, Harding discovered a burial cairn with Safaitic inscriptions. On one of the stones was scratched a hunting scane.The cairn is located in the heart of the 'Kite' area,there is no doubt that the drawing depicts a scane of the gazelles being hunted in such a' Kite'.

References
23 June 2011,  http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.4665 , http://arxiv.org/pdf/1106.4665v1.pdf
February 2009, Khaybar Desert Kites, Vanja Janežic
alsahra.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/khaybar-desert-kites.pdf
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146412866

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Moving sand dunes on Mars

Moving Sand Dunes on Mars, by Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy

Abstract: It was recently announced that the sand dunes on Mars can move. This important result was obtained by means of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), the camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The images, recorded three years apart, of the dunes in the Nili Patera caldera show that they move. Here we compare an image HiRISE of 2007 with an image of 1999 recorded by the Mars Global Surveyor. Therefore, with the help of Gimp, the GNU image processing software to enhance the images, we can see and measure the motion of the dunes during a longer period of time.

A dune on Mars which is moving. In the Nili Patera caldera.
199 on the left, 2007 on the right


More details and article at:


Sunday, August 11, 2013

From Google Earth to Tatooine

Today (11 August 2013)  I found this article entitled "Star Wars home of Anakin Skywalker threatened by dune" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23375344
It is told that "Sand dunes migrating over the Tunisian desert are poised to bury a famous Star Wars film set. The buildings of the fictional city Mos Espa featured in The Phantom Menace, "Episode I" of the Jedi saga. Sited on the planet Tatooine, this was the home of the young Anakin Skywalker ... Scientists have used the dwellings as a fixed geographic reference to measure the migration of giant wind-blown crescent-shaped dunes, or barchans. They have published details in the journal Geomorphology." The paper is in press, and you can see it at  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169555X13003486
BBC continues "Ralph Lorenz, from Johns Hopkins University, ...  visited the Mos Espa site in 2009, and noted that part of a nearby set used in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope had already been overrun. Using satellite images of the site, they were able to determine the speed of dune movement, which is approaching the buildings once inhabited by such luminaries as Anakin, his slave owner Watto, and rival podracer Sebulba".
Before these "Dunes on the planet Tatooine",  on 4 January 2013 it was published  my "Moving Dunes on the Google Earth", as you can find at http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1290, where I showed how to use the time series of the Google Earth to estimate the motion of the barchans. I used the barchans in Peru. I have also  discussed how to use reference points and adjust the Google images to have a "movie".
It seems that the authors of "Dunes on planet Tatooine: Observation of barchan migration at the Star Wars film set in Tunisia" do not know my "Moving dunes on the Google Earth" because my paper is not cited.
Therefore I cite myself!

And show you a "movie" of the barchan which is threatening Luke Skywalker's home.








Moving sand dunes on the Google Earth

"Moving dunes on the Google Earth" is my paper on arXiv, published 4 January 2013. It shows how using GH time series you can see the motion of dunes. Here an example.


To see a movie, please visit Moving sand dunes ... post

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Solar orientation of Ales Stenar

Ales Stenar and the direction of the sun during the day as given by sollumis.com, on the Winter and Summer solstices. The image shows a good agreement with the solar orientation suggested in
Andrew M. Kobos, January/February, 2001. Ales Stenar: When? Who? What for?,
http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/as/aleseng.html

More 
On the solar orientation of Ales Stenar site, A.C. Sparavigna


UPDATE AND UPGRADE (2016)
To see Ales Stenar and its orientaton to the MOON see this:


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Stone ship at Blomsholm



The stone ship at Blomsholm near Strömstad in Bohuslän measures more than 40 metres in length and consists of 49 large menhirs. The bow and stern are about 4 metres high. There are several other large megaliths in the area. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_ship


Lindholm Høje



"Lindholm Høje (Lindholm Hills, from the word for hill or mound) is a major Viking burial site and former settlement situated to the north of and overlooking the city of Aalborg in Denmark. The southern (lower) part of Lindholm Høje dates to 1000 – 1050 AD, the Viking Age, while the northern (higher) part is significantly earlier, dating back to the 5th century AD.[1] An unknown number of rocks were removed from the site over the centuries, many, for example, being broken up in the 19th century for use in building roads..." 

Monday, May 20, 2013

Anundshög




Anundshög is a tumulus in Sweden. It has a diameter of 60 metres (200 ft) and is about 9 metres (30 ft) high, dated between the Bronze Age and the late Iron Age. A fireplace under it has been dated by radiocarbon dating to sometime between AD 210 and 540. Some historians have associated the mound with the legendary King Anundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anundsh%C3%B6g
At the foot of the mound are 2 large stone ships placed end to end, 51 metres (167 ft) and 54 metres (177 ft) long. Two other stone ships are visible. The site was a thing-place and the ship settings may be associated with this function, according to Wikipedia.

On the Ales Stenar and its solar orientation, please visit http://porto.polito.it/2507517/

Friday, September 28, 2012

Mombracco e Leonardo da Vinci

"Monbracho sopra saluzo sopra la certosa un miglio a piè di Monviso, a una miniera di petra faldata la quale e biancha come marmo di carrara, senza machule che è della durezza del porfido o più, delle quali il compare mio Maestro Benedetto scultore a impromesso donarmene una tabuletta per li colori.
 Adì 5 di genaro 1511", Leonardo da Vinci, manoscritto “B” Archive National Paris

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Bracco


Here in the satellite map, the quartzite quarry on the top of Mombracco, a mountain near Saluzzo.
Leonardo da Vinci, as we can read from his words,
knew the white marble-like stone coming from this quarry.
Mombracco is a  is over Rifreddo, Sanfront and Barge.


Amianto

« C'era amianto dappertutto, come una neve cenerina: se si lasciava per qualche ora un libro su di un tavolo, e poi lo si toglieva, se ne trovava il profilo in negativo; i tetti erano coperti da uno spesso strato di polverino, che nei giorni di pioggia si imbeveva come una spugna, e ad un tratto franava violentemente a terra. »
(Primo Levi, Il sistema periodico)


L'Amiantifera di Balangero è una cava di amianto situata in provincia di Torino, non più attiva. Fu la più grande cava di amianto in Europa e una tra le prime nel mondo; copriva una buona parte dei territori comunali di Balangero e di Corio.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiantifera_di_Balangero

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Friday, September 21, 2012

Ancient solar observatories: Stonehenge





This is Stonehenge. The image shows directions of sun during the day. “The lines on the drawing show the direction and height (altitude) of the sun throughout the day. Thicker and shorter lines mean the sun is higher in the sky. Longer and thinner lines mean the sun is closer to the horizon”, according to Sollumis.com http://www.sollumis.com/. The site is located in the Google Maps. The direction of the sun is given on the summer solstice, choosing an altar at the circle for observation. We see that, at sunrise, the sun is passing near the stone outside the circle.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The qocha of Chuquiña

Chuquiña is a small town in Bolivia.
Near Chuquiña satellite maps show a huge "qocha".
A "qocha" (small lake, lagoon)  is an artificial pond used to gain water for cultivation.
Waru-warus, camellones, qochas were old pre-incaic cultivation techniques.





On Andean qochas you can find more info here
http://www.archaeogate.org/sperimentale/article/1396/1/qochas-on-andean-highlands-by-amelia-carolina-sparavign.html
http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.it/2011/04/qocha.html
http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.it/2011/04/raised-fields.html
http://stretchingtheboundaries.blogspot.it/2011/05/le-qochas-dellaltopiano-andino.html

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Ancient solar observatories: Syrian desert

The Syrian desert is covered by ancient stone structures created during Neolithic times, as I discussed in the paper, Stone circles on the harraat of Syrian desert, published at http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.4665
Some of these stone structures are circular, with radial lines of stones. These circles have been also compared with Stonehenge. Therefore, we can ask ourselves, are these solar observatories too, as Stonehenge is.
The answer is probably so, see my paper at http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.2591
I used a software for the solar energy applications to see the direction of sun on sunrise and sunset of solstice. It seems that there is a good agreement. Therefore, the Syrian stone circles are probably the Stonehenges of Middle East.

This is one of the stone structure of Syrian Desert. The image shows directions of sun during the day. “The lines on the drawing show the direction and height (altitude) of the sun throughout the day. Thicker and shorter lines mean the sun is higher in the sky. Longer and thinner lines mean the sun is closer to the horizon”, according to Sollumis.com http://www.sollumis.com/. On the left, the site as it appears in the Google Maps. In the middle, the direction of the sun on the summer solstice, choosing the center of the circle for observation. We see that, at sunrise, the sun is passing near the dot. At the sunset the direction is that of a line. In the image on the right, we see the direction of the sun on winter solstice. At sunrise, the lines is passing between dots. The sunset has the direction of a radius (images have been obtained from original provided by Google Maps and sollumis.com).

Circles and lines!
Alignemnt at the sunrise on the winter solstice


At the site http://www.dp-news.com/en/detail.aspx?articleid=97188
it is told that "He (David Kennedy) explains that they come in a huge variety of forms, some being ‘kites’, structures that funnelled animals, some being seemingly random meandering lines of stone and others being rectangular. None are believed to be aligned with the stars, which has added to the mystery surrounding their purpose." Well, in my opinion it is not so.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Ale's stone boat

Ale's Stones (or Ales stenar) is a megalithic monument in Kaseberga,  southern Sweden. It is a boat of stones,  67 meters long formed. There are 59  boulders of sandstone,  up to 1.8 tonnes each. According to the local  lores,  King Ale lies buried there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ale's_Stones





Monday, February 27, 2012

Uturuncu

"Uturuncu, or Uturunku, the highest summit in southwestern Bolivia, is a stratovolcano. ...Researchers have determined that a large, roughly circular "disc" of land surrounding the volcano, approximately 70 km across, has been rising at a rate of 1 to 2 cm per year since at least the early 1990s, making it "one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on the Earth"." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uturuncu
and also: Temen que supervolcán Uturuncu se prepare para explotar en Bolivia
http://www.connuestroperu.com/mundo/32/24804-temen-que-supervolcan-uturuncu-se-prepare-para-explotar-en-bolivia


Friday, January 6, 2012