The Dunhuang map or Dunhuang Star map is one of the first known graphical representation of star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

s from ancient Chinese astronomy

Chinese astronomy

Astronomy in China has a very long history, with historians considering that "they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs."...

, dated to the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

 (618–907). Prior to this map, many of the star information mentioned in historical Chinese texts had been questioned. The map provides a graphical verification of the star observations, and are part of a series of pictures on one of the Dunhuang manuscripts

Dunhuang manuscripts

The Dunhuang manuscripts is a cache of important religious and secular documents discovered in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China during the early 20th century. Dating from the 5th to early 11th centuries, the manuscripts include works ranging from history and mathematics to folk songs and dance...

. The astronomy behind the map is explained in an educational resource posted on the website of the International Dunhuang Project

International Dunhuang Project

The International Dunhuang Project is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from Dunhuang and various other archaeological sites at the eastern end of the Silk Road...

, where much of the research on the map has been done. The Dunhuang Star map is to date the world's oldest complete perserved star atlas.

History

The scroll was discovered among the many manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s in the Mogao Caves

Mogao Caves

The Mogao Caves or Mogao Grottoes , also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas , form a system of 492 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China...

 by Chinese Taoist Wang Yuan-lu in the 1900s. One of the first public mentionings of this script in Western studies was from Joseph Needham

Joseph Needham

Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA , also known as Li Yuese , was a British scientist, historian and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and as a fellow of the British...

's 1959 version of the book Science and Civilisation in China. Since that time only a few publications have been devoted to the map, nearly all being Chinese publications.

Colors

The symbols for the stars are divided into three different groups. They groups are presented in three colors presenting the "Three Schools of Astronomical tradition".

Color	Chinese Astronomer	Comments
Black	Gan De Gan De Gan De was a Chinese astronomer/astrologer born in the State of Qi also known as the Lord Gan . Along with Shi Shen, he is believed to be the first in history known by name to compile a star catalogue, preceded by the anonymous authors of the early Babylonian star catalogues and followed by the...  (甘德)
Red	Shi Shen Shi Shen Shi Shen was a Chinese astronomer and contemporary of Gan De born in the State of Wei, also known as the Master Shi Shen .-Observations:...  (石申)
White	Wu Xian Wu Xian (astronomer) Wu Xian was a Chinese astronomer who supposedly lived in the Shang Dynasty of China. He is considered as one of the main ancient Chinese astronomers alongside more historical figures such as Gan De and Shi Shen, the latter two of whom lived during the Warring States... (巫咸)	There have been inconsistencies in his works. He is generally known as the astronomer who lived before Gan and Shi.
Yellow	Others