Abstract
AMONG the many constellations and star clusters which attracted the attention of our early ancestors, few, indeed, were so constantly observed as that small bunch of twinkling brilliants known as the “Pleiades.” From a very early date, when our forefathers were not so well acquainted with the divisions of the year as we are today, they needed some means by which they could tell when to sow their corn, and make arrangements for other agricultural pursuits which could only be done properly in their right seasons. That they could, at any rate, get a rough approximation of such divisions of the year by means of the positions of the heavenly bodies, they soon found out, and they were thus led to observe sometimes stars, sometimes groups of stars, near the rising or setting of the sun, and even certain stars, or groups of stars, at their times of rising and setting.
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References
See Globus, Bd. lxiv. No. 22, "Die Plejaden im Mythus und in ihrer Beziehung zum Jahresbeginn und Landbau."
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The Pleiades. Nature 49, 366–367 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049366d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049366d0