Author Helen Headrick | Illustrator Philip Goudeau Solar eclipses have occurred for many millions of years and will continue to do so. Dinosaurs left no records of these events, but human have, and those records reflect their own cultural influences. The earliest eclipse in recorded history, dated 3340 BCE, may be represented by petroglyphs at the Loughcrew Megalithic Monument in County Meath, Ireland. Petroglyphs are rock carvings, and those at the Monument feature overlapping concentric circles. Other cultures have their own traditions. Loki was not always a Marvel Comic character. In Norse culture, he was a dangerous prankster, who was put into chains by the gods, but took revenge by making a wolf-like giant that swallowed the Sun, plunging the world into darkness. Ancient Chinese eclipse records reach back 4000 years and accurately predicted eclipses by 204 CE. The commonly held eclipse belief was that a dragon had swallowed the Sun. People beat on drums, shouted and raised a…