Is Humanity’s “Oldest Myth” Really 100,000 Years Old?

If you live in the northern hemisphere in an area with relatively little light pollution, and you look up at the sky on a clear night sometime between November and February, you will see three prominent constellations overhead. The easiest to find is Orion (traditionally imagined as a hunter wielding a bow), a large constellation which contains two of the brightest stars in the sky, Rigel and Betelgeuse, as well as the line of three bright stars known as “Orion’s belt.” If you follow the line of Orion’s belt, you’ll find Taurus (traditionally imagined as a bull’s head), which includes a cluster of stars shaped like the letter V; these are the Hyades, and at the tip of the left side of this cluster is the very bright red star Aldebaran. If you follow the path of Orion’s belt even further, past Taurus, you’ll find the Pleiades, a very tight cluster of stars, which form the shape of a tiny dipper. In many cultures around the world, the Pleiades are said to be seven in number and are…