A mysterious stone was found in Velletri: it is the oldest lunar calendar in the world

The oldest lunar calendar in the world was discovered in the woods of Velletri: it looked like a simple stone but hid something else.

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Apparently it is a stone like many others, but the truth is that it hides an unprecedented mystery. To find it by chance in 2007 was the archaeologist Flavio Altamura, during a walk with his dog in the woods of Velletri, in the heart of the Castelli Romani.

That rounded pebble, with three series of linear incisions, called notches, along the three sides seemed strange to him, and he decided to collect it showing it to Margherita Mussi, a teacher of prehistory at Sapienza, who identified it on the fly as Paleolithic artifact.

The researchers were intrigued by the 3 series comprising respectively 7,9 / 10 and 11 notches, spaced regularly and symmetrically along each side in order to fill all the available space from one end to the other. For a total of 27 or 28 engravings with a spatial distribution that suggests the lunar cycle.

The studies carried out over the years by Altamura have actually come to this conclusion, as reported in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Over time Altamura has in fact realized that the artifact resembled in all respects the prototypes of lunar calendars described in archaeological literature.

And today the confirmation, the stone is the oldest lunar calendar in the world, dating back even to more than 10 thousand years ago. It was the man, indeed probably a woman, who made it for measure time using the phases of the moon. A demonstration that already at that time the human being was interested in going further, consulting the universe.

A truly incredible archaeological discovery of which we are very proud. At the moment the find is kept in the deposits of the Superintendency.