Astronomers of the Ice Age

By Sharif Sakr, August 2000

The Discovery

Two years ago in Heaven's Mirror [1], Graham Hancock cited the groundbreaking work of cosmologist Frank Edge. Edge claimed that the Lascaux cave paintings, believed to be around 16,500 years old, represent the efforts of sophisticated Ice Age humans to map the stars. [2]

Now, Edge's finding has been supported, extended and brought to worldwide attention by the independent work of Dr. Michael Rappenglück. Misinformed journalists and academics are crediting Rappenglück alone with the discovery of the earliest star maps [3], but Rappenglück cites Edge's findings in his work.

1. Graham Hancock, Heaven's Mirror, 1998, pp.28-29.
2. Frank Edge, Aurochs in the Sky, 1995.
3. See BBC Online News article by Dr David Whitehouse