The central theme of his presentation is to establish the broad terms of reference between representation and
interpretation of the stars and the architectures of political power that prepared the emergence of state and urbanism.
The social complexity of human communities becomes evident across the archaeological record from 40,000 ya, with
the spatial organisation of campsites in the eastern European steppes and the great pictorial cycles in the Palaeolithic
caves of Southern France. It is remarkable how without any evidence of preparatory developments those very first
iconographic representations are equal for technique, magnitude and complexity to the Sistine Chapel.
The fact is that by that time the human brain was already fully developed since at least 2 million years. The late
emergence of artistic manifestations if probably due to a lack of evidence for poor preservation: it is very likely
that early works had made no use of stone or bone to leave durable traces. However, the real reason might one of
perspective. We ought to consider that art, as any other product of human complexity, does not depend from physical
conditions but from social relationships. The foundations of human power are built by the interactive tapestry
connecting individuals and groups. Although humans compared to the rest of the animal world are neither small nor
weak, no matter how strong and fit, no individual man could beat a lion, but a group of hunters working together
could and did. In itsels the human brain is primarily a machine to dream, since over two thirds of its volume and
neural notes are not used for the running of the body's functions. The key for arts and science to emerge and grow
are not in the brain capacity of the artist or the scholar, but in the web of political and social connections
that have made human life a reality over Nature. The archaeological remains of early man, Homo erectus,
indicate that the brain reached the critical mass almost two million ya, and it was identical to ours more than
one million ya. The organization of groups, territories, living spaces and label went alongside with that of ideological
architectures, and they were quite shaped before fire was controlled some 500,000 ya. With fire in their hands
humans became the masters of Nature. Still it took hundreds of thousand of years before houses, burials and art
were made.
The beginnings of the inspirations of the Astronomical Phenomena can only be established in relation to the evolution
of human society. For millions of years there was not day or night for every human he or she did not turn the side
to the sky. Whatever architecture they built in their fantasies, humans must have realized very soon that movements
through time and space could be measured on those of the Astronomical Phenomena. The earliest pictorial representations
of the Palaeolithic probably include also the registration of Lunar phases, the Solar cycle or the brightest Stars.
The hunters and foragers of the last Ice Age could already divide the year in months and weeks, and count the days
between solstices. Travelling with the Stars and Sea may also date back to the late Pleistocene. The developments
of farming with the integration of new crops and breeds, combined with long-distance marine navigation, required
a more sophisticated knowledge of the Sky during the course of the Early Holocene, before 5000 BC.
At this point the importance of the Sky is far more evident for the controversial construction of new political
systems incorporating larger and larger populations, breaking the earlier policies based on kinship and consanguinity
the new political structure are those of the early states and the larger tribal confederations emerging in the
Middle East around 3000 BC, in China about 2000 BC and in Mesoamerica about a millennium later. The Stars, the
Sun and the Moon will be mobilised to win kingship over kinship, proving that power descended from Heaven.
No matter how distant and mysterious the Astronomical Phenomena were, the Stars legitimised the appropriation of
labour and resources to build wealth and knowledge through the organization of humans and territories in countless
repartitions. As in the tale of the Emperor and the Chessboard, the Stars were there to make possible the endless
multiplication from taming of Nature. They stand still distant, but they will have inspired our conquest of the
Universe