id beat
Baity pioneered study of man and the stars
CORVALLIS (AF) — About 5,000
years ago, on the walls of caves
throughout Europe and central Asia,
priests drew bulls with fire in their horns
and circular designs like geometric
flowers.
The designs represent comets and the
fire bulls reflect meteor showers that oc
curred about 3,000 B.C., when the con
stellation Taurus — the bull — was in
the early morning sky, archaeologist
Elizabeth Chesley Baity says.
Baity studies why these caves in vast
geographical areas share similar drawr
ings: She made her first visit to Oregon*
State University recently to discuss.the
field in which she's a pioneer — ar
chaeoastronomy, the study of the effects
of. astronomical events on human
cultures.
"What all else did those people have
to see? They didn't have movies, or TV
— and there was the sky with all those
things going on over their heads,” she
said.
Baity and some colleagues believe that
so much was going in the sky during*
those years that it caused ice ages, killed
dinosaurs,, destroyed-cities and prb
mpted construction of “megalithic”
works such as Stonehenge and the
pyramids.
Baity began her working life as a
foreign correspondent for a North
Carolina newspaper. While in Africa and
Asia, she saw so much she didn’t
understand that she got another degree
— one in anthropology.
In Spain to research a master’s thesis
on people who walk on coals, she heard
of another ritual in which bulls run at
midnight with torches tied to their
horns.
When she discovered cave drawings of
the ritual that dated back to the Bronze
Age (3,500 to 1,000 B.C.), she was hook
ed. She found fire bull drawings in wide
ly separated caves, along with other
designs she suspected were based on
astronomical phenomena.
She couldn’t prove her theory, she
said, until she was.introduced in 1980 to.
research on a comet which crossed the
Earth’s orbit about 20,000 B.C.
‘ “This giant- comet was probably the
principle agent of catastrophic events on
Earth since that time,” Baity said.
Apparently, the comet began to
disintegrate about 3,150 B.C., giving rise
to the Taurid Meteor streams. The
streams went into orbit around the sun
and are still visible from Earth at Hallo
ween and in late June. Also about this
time, she said, cultures as geographical
ly distant as those of the Mayans and
‘They didn’t have movies,
or TV — and there was
the sky with all those
things going on over their
heads’
— Elizabeth Chesley Baity
Egyptians began to use the symbols she
interprets as meteors and bulls.
Stonehenge and other massive struc
tures were built in orientation to the
stars. Baity said, partly so that times of
meteor showers could be predicted.
Religious rituals were scheduled to coin
cide with the showers.
“Early man knew more about
astronomy than about many other
things. Why? Because he was fearful of
the drama going on up there,” Baity
said.
About 3,000 B.C., she said, Taurus
was the last constellation to rise before
the sun rose and must often have been
the backdrop for meteor showers —
hence the flaming bull. Also significant
to the fire-bull theory is the fact that
Taurus was included in the first zodiac
charts in Western Asia about that time.
Baity believes the fire bull ritual was
an imitation of the meteor showers. At
midnight, bulls were allowed to run
with flames streaming from their horns
like comets’ tails. The cave drawings il
lustrate this religious ritual.
Baity spends the winter in California
and the rest of the year in North
Carolina. She has stopped teaching and
is working full time on a book about the
fire bulls and other symbols.
Judge allows clergyman
to continue prison visits
SALEM (AP) — Oregon State Penitentiary officials have been
ordered by a federal magistrate to allow a Pentacostai minister who
had been barred from the prison to resume visiting inmates.
Albert Dillon of the United Pentacostai Church in Salem was
ousted from his volunteer role at the prison because corrections of
ficials said he was trying to convert people to the Pentacostai
religion.
In a complaint filed in 1983, inmates Joseph Griffith and Robert
Reimers claimed they had been denied their right to religious
freedom when Dillon was barred.
In a recent order signed by U.S. Magistrate Michael Hogan of
Eugene, the plaintiffs were ordered to allow Dillon “to again con
duct Bible study classes . . .to conduct non-demoninational protes
tant services” and “to baptize converts.” .
The corrections officials also were fined $2,400 and ordered to
make changes in institution rules governing the exercise of
religious beliefs.
Prison superintendent J.C. Keeney said lawyers advised correc
tions officials that they could not monitor a minister’s volunteer ac
tivities in the prison, and that “as long as he’s not a security threat
we were advised to let him back in as he was before.”
Computer manufacturers,
customers at odds over price
By Larry Blasko
Of The Associated Press
Every ordinary home computer bug who
thought he needed his $1,000 bill more than
IBM or Apple is entitled to take a bow — the
Mighty Caseys of the industry have struck out.
When IBM announced it would stop pro
ducing the PCjr, Big Blue joined the ranks of
those who had spent a lot of monev to find out
most home consumers won’t part with $1,000
to buy what amounts to an entertainment
machine.
Before the IBM announcement, Apple had
announced it was closing its factories for a
week, Coleco said it was abandoning its
Adam, and Texas Industries pulled out of the
home market.
After the IBM announcement, many
analysts expressed “surprise” that IBM was
abandoning the home market. However, it’s
possible that the opposite occurred — the
home market abandoned IBM, mostly on the
issue of price.
It should be said there’s nothing wrong
with the IBM PCjr as a computer, especially
after IBM discovered that almost no one likes
to type on “chiclet” keys. Nor, for that matter,
is there anything wrong with the Apple II
series as a computer. Both machines work just
fine. Both have lots and lots of software
available.
But maybe both just cost too much money.
For those who have to go to their com
puter table and break the news that Junior is
now an orphan, bear in mind that the PCjr is
mostly compatible with the original PC — in
deed, it was said that IBM had the notion that
managers would bring “homework” from
their office PCs and run it on Junior.
For those who haven’t purchased a com
puter and are looking for some serious dis
counting, the machine would be an excellent
buy if the with-monitor price gets to around
$700.