The Greek myth of Pleiades in the archaeology of natural disasters : Decoding, dating and environmental interpretation

Part of : Mediterranean archaeology & archaeometry : international journal ; Vol.6, No.1, 2006, pages 33-41

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Pages:
33-41
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Articles
Author:
Abstract:
The strong multi-symbolic archetype of the Pleiades functions as a worldwideastromythological system going back to Upper Palaeolithic Era. The Greek version of the mythseems to embody a wide range of environmental symbolism, as it incorporates variousinformation and very archaic elements about: a) the periodicity of the solstices and theequinoxes, b) the fluctuations on the biochemical structure of Earth's atmosphere related tothe global hydro -climatic phenomenon of ENSO, c) probable past observations of brighteningof a star (nova) in the cluster of Pleiades, d) the primordial elements of the mythologicalnucleus of Atlantis' legend and e) the remnants of Palaeolithic 'proto-European' moon culture.
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Keywords:
Pleiades, El Ni»o, Archaeomythology, Astromythology, Archaeoastronomy, Ethnoastronomy