Historical Importance of the Precession of the Equinoxes
Discussion
Jennifer Gidley:
A 'physical/astronomical explanation of the 'golden age myths' and why some religious traditions dated the age of the world to 4,000 BC :
"The precession of the equinoxes is one of several astronomical cycles that are believed to influence the100,000-year cycle of ice ages (this being approximately four complete Platonic years of 25-26,000years). “There are three astronomical variables used in paleoclimatology: the obliquity, the eccentricity multiplied by the sine of the longitude of perihelion, measured from the vernal equinox, [i.e. the precession of the equinoxes] and eccentricity itself.” (Varadi, Runnegar, & Ghil, 2003) These three cycles are referred to as the Milankovitch cycles.
Bocchi and Ceruti (2002) explain how the particular nature of this astronomical event between 4,000and 3,000 BCE was so dramatic as to mark the end of the Golden Age in human myths .For people who lived in 4,000 [BCE] the Milky Way traced the path of the Sun, a visible indication of the annual transit of the Sun above the Heavenly equator. This configuration was very symmetrical. The way to the heavens was opened to human beings if they crossed the two mighty gates of Gemini and Sagittarius. . .The precession of the equinoxes broke this symmetry. The Heavenly gates collapsed. The Sun was exiled in strange . . . regions, a part of the Milky Way sank in the abyss below the heavenly equator. . . . This was the end of the Golden Age. (pp. 5-6)They explain how this astronomical event was at the basis of the belief that was held as recently as the17th century by philosophers, theologians and even scientists that the world was created in approximately4,000 BCE. Some creationists still believe that to this day (p. 3)."