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Modern scholars have long struggled to understand the sophisticated workings of Babylonian astronomy and, in particular, how the scribe derived from observation the numerical parameters of their planetary theory in this book, N. M. Swerdlow offers a solution to that problem.
He examines here the collection and observation of ominous celestial phenomena and of how intervals of time, locations by zodiacal sign, and cycles in which the phenomena recur were used to develop a purely arithmetical planetary theory by which the same ominous phenomena that were regularly observed were reduced to computation, thereby surmounting the single greatest obstacle to observation: bad weather.
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Previews available in: English
Showing 5 featured editions. View all 5 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Babylonian Theory of the Planets
2016, Princeton University Press
in English
0691634475 9780691634470
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2
Babylonian Theory of the Planets
2014, Princeton University Press
in English
1306983797 9781306983792
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3
Babylonian Theory of the Planets
2014, Princeton University Press
in English
1400864860 9781400864867
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4
The Babylonian Theory of the Planets
1998, Princeton University Press
in English
0691011966 9780691011967
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5
Babylonian Theory of the Planets
1998, Princeton University Press
in English
0691605505 9780691605500
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-242) and indexes.
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Work Description
In the second millennium b.c., Babylonian scribes assembled a vast collection of astrological omens, believed to be signs from the gods concerning the kingdom's political, military, and agricultural fortunes. The importance of these omens was such that from the eighth or seventh until the first century, the scribes observed the heavens nightly and recorded the dates and locations of ominous phenomena of the moon and planets in relation to stars and constellations. The observations were arranged in monthly reports along with notable events and prices of agricultural commodities, the object being to find correlations between phenomena in the heavens and conditions on earth. These collections of omens and observations form the first empirical science of antiquity and were the basis of the first mathematical science, astronomy. For it was discovered that planetary phenomena, although irregular and sometimes concealed by bad weather, recur in limited periods within cycles in which they are repeated on nearly the same dates and in nearly the same locations.
N. M. Swerdlow's book is a study of the collection and observation of ominous celestial phenomena and of how intervals of time, locations by zodiacal sign, and cycles in which the phenomena recur were used to reduce them to purely arithmetical computation, thereby surmounting the greatest obstacle to observation, bad weather. The work marks a striking advance in our understanding of both the origin of scientific astronomy and the astrological divination through which the kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia were governed.
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