David Ross MacLeOn, age l0, of Tucson, Ariz., for his question:
How did the signs of the zodiac start?
Most young persons love the starry wonders of the sky. This is because man is a born stargazer. Our ancestors plotted the paths of the heavenly bodies before they invented writing. They figured out the signs of the zodiac before the dawn of history.
Let's go back 5,000 years and visit the people of ancient Mesopotamia. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers sweep through the wide plain as they do today. We find handsome cities with market places thronged with peOple from far and near. There are shepherds and farmers from the country and city folk from fine homes with tiled floors and artistic murals. All the busy people find time to respect their priestly wise men and the wise men of these ancient times are really scholars.
The rich and thriving civilization depends upon farming and the farmers must bow to the seasons. every year a calendar of the seasons passes overhead in the starry sky. Long ago, a few people took the special job of watching the starry parade, night by night. They plotted the paths of the sun and the moon and noted the constellations that rise and set with the sun each season of the year. From their careful sky charts they figured out and told the farmers when to expect the rains and floods of spring, when to sow their crops and when to harvest in time for winter.
The early star gazers are the wise men of ancient Mesopotamia. They study the sky from the tops of tall towers and use a system of math to chart the paths of the heavenly parade. They plot the yearly path of the sun and note the starry constellations that occupy the sun's highway in the sky. If we climb the steps to a tall tower, the wise men will tell us that the sun rises and sets with a certain constellation each month.
Later in history, wise men of China and India, Persia and Egypt learned more about the sun's pathway. It is like a great circle in the sky and as the earth spins around we face each part of it during every calendar day. In summer, the winter stars cross the sky with the daytime sun. In winter, the summer stars are overhead during the daytime.
Early astronomers figured that the year has l2 months and they divided the sun's pathway into l2 signs or sections. each sign held its own constellation. Most of these starry patterns were named for animals. About 2,000 years ago, the highway in the sky was named the zodiac an olden word that means the circle of animals.
The circle of starry constellations still parades Over the sky in the same order. Throughout the year the sun still rises and sets with first one and then the next sign of the zodiac. But through the ages, the earth's axis has changed somewhat and the stars are farther westward than they were in ancient days. The constellation Aries, the Ram, now fills the zodiac sign once occupied by the stars of Taurus, the Bull.