Orion's Belt Vucedol Pot calendar
Orion's Belt and Vucedol Pot
In the late 1970s during the construction of an atomic bomb shelter, a shattered pot was found amongst the rubble. Archeologists were baffled by the strange patterns on the vessel, which dates back to 2600 BC until Dr. Aleksandar Durman finally cracked the code: it was a calendar. Yet, unlike the contemporary Egyptian or Sumerian calendars, this European timetable was based not on the sun or the moon but rather on the stars. Central to the charting of the seasons was the constellation named after the noble Greek hunter, Orion.

The pot was unearthed on March 21, 1978, during construction of what is now the Hotel Slavonija in Vinkovci, Croatia. Archeologists quickly recognized it as an artifact of the ancient Vučedol culture, which flourished on the western banks of the Danube River between 3000 and 2200 BC. However, though researchers knew it to be of the Vučedol people, the pattern was not decoded for several decades.

Vučedol society was contemporary to the beginnings of Troy, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and the Sumerian empire of Mesopotamia. Unlike those civilizations, the Vučedol were of Indo-European ancestry and therefore, did not worship the moon. It was the sun that the Vučedol revered yet even that could not help them understand the seasons for these people lived on the 45th parallel. As many in the Northern Hempishere know, the sun does not rise and fall in the same place throughout the year, as it does at the Equator. Thus, the Vučedol looked to the orderly movements of the stars instead.
Map Vučedol culture Croatia
Map of the Vučedol culture.
Of the utmost importance was Orion, a constellation easily recognizable by the hunter's belt, which is formed of three bright stars in a straight line. In the region where the Vučedol lived, Orion would sink beneath the horizon and disappear throughout the summer.

"In the times of the Vučedol culture, Orion's belt, which is the dominant winter constellation, sank under the horizon exactly on March 21, thus marking the spring equinox," said Dr. Aleksandar Durman. The Vučedol realized that Orion marked the beginning of a new year. From this simple fact, they were able to construct an entire calendar of the year.


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