Stars Look Down on Archaeologists in Ancient Ivory Find

It was a fortuitous time for the research team, as they announced the discovery of a 2,000-year-old astrologer's board in a Croatian cave. One might even say it was meant to be. It was also a bit of Indiana Jones-like spelunking that found the board in the first place.

Among the thousands of pieces of Hellenistic pottery that the team involving researchers from Croatia and the U.S. found in a cave along the Adriatic coast were 30 ivory fragments of a board that shows Cancer, Gemini, and Pisces. So the Crab, the Twins, and the Fish survive, but the others didn't quite make it. Surely there's no significance in that (he thought auspiciously).

After painstakingly putting the bits back together, the archaeologists had a working model of what they think they found, which is a board that has all the signs of the zodiac on it. Such things would have been used in Greco-Roman times, along the order of 2,200 years ago, which is the date pointed to by radiocarbon testing the team did on the fragments. But how did it get there? More importantly, how did the ivory get into the hands of the person who made the board? Ivory wasn't exactly a cheap commodity in those times.

Such things are still unknown, which might not be an augur of any future developments. (One never knows with these things.) What the archaeologists do know, however, is that the board was found among a veritable ton of shards of drinking cups, which were in the general vicinity of a giant stalagmite — suggesting a place of worship.

The team made the discoveries in 1999, which is really a blink of an eye in archaeology terms. They were digging in familiar territory, near the entrance to a well-known cave. One of the team discovered a low passageway that had been sealed off for ages.  Throwing caution to the wind (and not suspecting any ancient traps to spring forth to thwart them), the team walked right through into an inner cavern and made the discovery of the stalagmite and fragments, including the ivory bits that became the astrologer's board. (Sometimes archaeological excitement is all about the discovery.)

Later investigation led the team to conclude that the passageway had been sealed off since the 1st Century B.C., in response to a violent sortie perpetuated on the local Illyrians by some well-armed tribes from nearby Roman territory.

A little inspired research into the subject has convinced the archaeologists that their discovery could well be the oldest astrological device yet discovered. The Greeks, of course, took a keen interest in the heavens, as evidenced by the achievements of Aristarchus and all the rest of the keen Greek minds whose names and deeds have been passed down to us through the ages.

What's next for this intrepid team? The answer is in the stars.