Emily Chan
In Poland, archaeologists came across a 500-year-old compass that may have belonged to Nicolaus Copernicus, who is known for constructing a model of the universe that placed the sun at the center instead of the Earth.
The artifact was called a divider, a two-pronged metal device that was used for measurements in astronomy, cartography, and geometry.
It was uncovered within a network of tunnels beneath the gardens of Frombork, the town where Copernicus lived and died. According to the Warmian Exploration Group, this was the third time such a specimen was found in Poland.
The group used ground-penetrating radar to survey the area for the tunnels. Once they located the tunnels, they began excavating. Since their exploration permits only allowed them to conduct one test excavation, they had one shot to find the tunnels. Luckily, they made the discovery on the first try.
During the excavation, the copper-alloy instrument was unearthed. Experts from Detekt Archaeological Services confirmed that the compass was genuine and dated back roughly between the 15th and 16th centuries.
There is no way to prove Copernicus himself used the compass, but the circumstances strongly suggest it belonged to him.
“They said it was very likely that it was an object of Nicolaus Copernicus because we were conducting work in one of his gardens,” said Norbert Ogiński, president of the Warmian Exploration Group.
Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer, and he was the first to put forth the theory that the planets in the solar system revolve around the sun rather than Earth.
He also suggested that the Earth completes one rotation on its axis per day and hypothesized that equinoxes caused slow changes in the direction of the Earth’s axis.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
