Burzahom’s Carving and the Supernova Sky-Chart Theory

Above the animals and human figures on a small stone slab from Kashmir are two round shapes with rays around them. They seem to belong to the sky. But what kind of sky was the carver remembering?

One proposal turns the scene into an astronomical record: a bright Moon beside an exploding star, with the figures below standing for patterns of stars. If that reading is right, the Burzahom carving could preserve the memory of an extraordinary night long before written astronomical chronicles.

How do you connect an engraved stone with the remains of a star? The researchers worked backward from the carving, testing possible dates and positions in the sky.

A carved slab from Burzahom

Burzahom lies near Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley. The Archaeological Survey of India’s description on UNESCO’s Tentative List records a settlement with pit dwellings, stone and bone tools, pottery and burials. It also describes an engraved hunting scene with a human, a dog and a sun-path diagram.

A UNESCO–International Astronomical Union thematic study gives the slab’s dimensions as approximately 48 by 27 centimetres and associates its archaeological phase with a date around 2125 BCE. It notes earlier interpretations of the two bright objects as a stellar pair.

The slab was reused in a structure, according to the sky-chart study. That gives researchers a point by which the carving already existed. The proposed supernova would have appeared earlier, so the interpretation also depends on how long before that reuse the scene was made.

How the supernova interpretation was built

Hrishikesh Joglekar, M. N. Vahia and Aniket Sule explored the idea in Oldest Sky-Chart with Supernova Record, listed in Puratattva in 2011. In the accessible manuscript, they searched for a remnant whose estimated age, position and possible brightness could suit the scene.

They favoured HB9, in the region of Auriga. Their reconstruction paired it with the Moon, associated a hunter with Orion and linked the central animal with Taurus. Other figures were matched to nearby star patterns.

The researchers asked whether several elements could occupy corresponding positions within one reconstructed sky. The authors reported broadly consistent scaling, while allowing for the picture being a drawing of figures rather than plotted points.

When might the star have appeared?

The accessible manuscript contains differing dates: its discussion centres on roughly 4500 BCE, with substantial uncertainty, while a figure caption also mentions 5700 BCE. An earlier circulated version uses 5700 BCE more prominently. The proposed date is therefore best kept approximate, with the differences between the circulated texts made clear.

In a 2014 review of proposed supernova records, cultural astronomer Duane Hamacher discusses Burzahom and reports a broad estimated age range for the suggested remnant. He regards the association with the carving as uncertain.

For the identification to work, the explosion must fall within a plausible period for making the carving. A date for the star’s death cannot, by itself, date the marks on the slab.

Matching the figures to stars

Hamacher sets out useful questions for examining possible supernova records: where an event was seen, when it occurred, where it lay in the sky, whether a motif actually represents a star, and whether an appropriate remnant exists.

At Burzahom, the comparison depends on the orientation and scale assigned to the drawing, and on which marks are matched to stars. Testing the same choices against alternative arrangements would help show whether HB9’s part of the sky fits especially well.

There is also a question about the figures themselves. The researchers use names such as Orion and Taurus to describe the proposed matches. The stone has no written constellation names. Evidence of how people in Kashmir grouped these stars would help connect the modern reconstruction with the carver’s own understanding.

Remembering an unfamiliar star

Curiosmos has covered another attempt to connect an object with a stellar explosion: Byzantine coins linked to the supernova of 1054. That is a different case, involving a historically recorded event. The coins show how an image can invite an astronomical interpretation even when its makers left no explanation of the design.

Imagine a new light appearing beside stars that people had watched all their lives. An observer might have wanted to mark its arrival. The possibility gives the two radiant shapes at Burzahom their particular fascination.

If the figures below them follow the stars around HB9, the scene could preserve an observation as well as a hunt. Establishing that connection would require a closer match between the carving’s age, the stellar remnant and the positions assigned to the figures.