Ancient Astronomy being lost and discovered in Asia

I can’t remember what I was looking for a couple of days ago, but what I found is a report from the Chosun Ilbo that the Cheomseongdae is leaning, rather like the Tower of Pisa. The tilt is 7.2 cm to the north and 2.4 cm to the east. Some news sites are ephermeral and I don’t know how long this story will be up. The reason for the delay in positing this is that I’ve been trying to find out what the Cheomseongdae is.

The Cheomseongdae. Photo from the Chosun Ilbo.

The name translates as “star-gazing tower”. My first reaction is usually to be sceptical about claims based on names. Even if the modern name is that often the contemporary name is quite different. However, the write up on Absolute Astronomy is quite convincing. I think Japan was literate by the seventh century so I’d be surprised if there was a written record in Korea at this time, so it should be easy enough to confirm. I can’t though as we don’t have the material at Leicester, so all I know is what I’ve read on that web page and on the Asian Historical Architecture site. I think the lack of information highlights that the east/west division is not yet a thing of the past.

While searching around for more information on that I found that the Vietnamese have discovered another bronze age drum in Khanh Hoa. One of the things that Marie-Louise Sorenson said that I found interesting is that the Bronze Age wasn’t merely a technical innovation. With metallurgy new sounds became possible. Klang was a Bronze Age invention and I’d be interested to know how these drums (this is the fifth found) experiment with sound.

It would also suggest that the Nebra Star Disc does not have to be a star-map after all but rather could be an example of Bronze Age Symbalism.