10/1/2022

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

(BEFORE THE INVENTION OF MODERN TELESCOPES)

SYLLABUS
1. Prehistory, Mesopotamia, and Egypt
2. Greek World – Philosophy Rules
3. Hellenistic World & Christianity’s Shadow
4. Islamic World Saves Sciences
5. Renaissance and the Heliocentric Universe
6. Scientific Revolution
7. Refining Newton’s Work

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

PREHISTORY
Göbeklitepe
Karahantepe
The Other Tepes (Hills or Mounds)
Nabta Playa
Stonehenge
Recent discoveries in Europe

German Archaeological Institute, photo E. Kücük. - Dietrich L, Meister J, Dietrich O,

Notroff J, Kiep J, Heeb J, et al. (2019)

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

Göbeklitepe,
Karahantepe

FERTILE CRESCENT
Mesopotamia
and the Nile Valley
Where we find the earliest
records of sky watching
(long before the known
ancient Greek history)

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

FIRST, WE HAVE THE SUMERIANS (4th MILL BCE)

THEN, PROTO-SEMITIC TRIBES ARRIVE
(3RD MILL. BCE)
• Akkadians
• Assyrians
• Babylonians
• Chaldeans
Adoption of Sumerian cuneiform, knowledge, and myths
help us decipher and understand Sumer

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
.

SUMERIAN ASTRONOMY

OBSERVED AND RECORDED PURPOSE OF OBSERVATIONS:

AGRICULTURAL AND ASTROLOGICAL
SUN & MOON + 4 PLANETS:
VENUS • LUNAR OBSERVATIONS TO SET CALENDAR

SATURN • LUNAR CALENDAR OF 12 MONTHS REPRESENTED

BY AGRICULTURAL SYMBOLS
MARS
MERCURY • SUN, MOON, AND PLANETS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH
PLANETARY DEITIES
(NO JUPITER)
• OBSERVED FOR SETTING AGRICULTURAL CALENDAR

WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

SUMERIAN COSMOLOGY

THE DIVINE TRIAD PLANETARY DEITIES

• AN (later Anu) - Supreme god, prime • Shamash (Sun)
mover of creation • Nanna (Moon)
• ENLIL (later Ellil) - Chief of all gods, god • Inanna (Venus)
of wind, air, earth, and storms • Ninurta (Saturn)
• ENKI (later Ea) - God of the • Nergal (Mars)
subterranean freshwater ocean • Nabu (Mercury)

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

• UNIVERSE FLOATS IN WATER (AN-KI)

• EARTH IS SURROUNDED BY AN OCEAN
• LAND IS A DISK IN THE MIDDLE
• AIR IS A MATTER (LIL – BREATH, SPIRIT)
• CELESTIAL OBJECTS ARE LUMINUOUS
MANIFESTATIONS OF THIS MATTER

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

OLD BABYLONIA
• Agricultural timekeeping by lunar months creates problems (Harvest festival
time before crops ripen!)
• Solar milestones (solstices) jive better with planting and harvest times
• The SEXAGESIMAL number system evolves and allows complex computations
• A smart sky watcher invents INTERCALATION: 354x33/32 ~= 365
• This solves the problem by adding a “repeat” lunar month every so few years
• Sumerian month names are replaced by Semitic names, year starts with
NISANNU (April)
• They also start tracking Venus, and “notice” Jupiter

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BABYLONIAN SEXAGESIMAL NOTATION

By Josell7 - File:Babylonian_numerals.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9862983

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

MODERN DAY USE OF SEXAGESIMALS

360 arc-degrees in a circle (one day per degree)
60 arc-minutes per degree, 60 arc-seconds per minute
Time: 60 minutes per hour
60 seconds per minute
Square Root of 2
1 24 51 10
(c.1800BCE)

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
OLD BABYLONIA
Venus Obsession – First as Astrology In the sixth day of Abu
Nindaranna appears in the
• As they watch for the new moon on the western sky, East, rains will be in the
they start tracking VENUS, brightest object in the sky heavens, devastation on
land…
• Inanna of the Sumer becomes ISHTAR (or Nin-dar-
She stays away for three
anna “mistress of the heavens” in some texts) months …..
• They start computing the period & get very close On the eleventh day of Duzu
Nindaranna flares up in the
• Some texts name sun, moon, and Venus together as a West, hostility will be in the
triad land, crops will prosper.

• They may have observed that Venus appears as a Tablet from Ashurbanipal’s library
crescent before and after lower conjunction British Museum

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

ASSYRIANS
• Overrun the old Babylonian territories (~1000BCE)
• Adopt their culture, customs, cosmology, gods (exc. place Ashur above Marduk)
• Continue Bab. calendar with intercalation (less guesswork, more observations)
• Astrology becomes stronger motive for moon, planet, and star observations
• Moon god Sin sends omens by showing variances in periodicity
• Planets send omens by their varying retrograde motion
• Variation in heliacal rising of some stars observed and “interpreted”
• Started predicting lunar eclipses with a limited degree of success

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

ASHURBANIPAL’S LIBRARY When Marduk’s star appears at the beginning

• Contained copies of texts from
Babylonian temples + new texts
• Divination, religious, historical,
medical, mathematical texts, myths
• Legal documents, lexical texts
• Just the collection in the British
Museum contains 13000+ tablets
• Stacked book style, titles on spines
and in “catalogs”
of the year, corn will be prosperous
When Venus disappears in Abu, there will be
slaughter in Elam
When a halo surrounds the moon .. Near
Jupiter the king will be besieged
When Mars becomes brilliant (..in Duzu?) the
king of Elam will die!
On the 14th an eclipse will take place.. It is
lucky for the king, it is evil for Elam
From R.C. Thompson

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
MUL.APIN
• It consists of two tablets (maybe a third one – not recovered)
• Dates from c.700 BCE but possibly copies of older tablets
• First one defines three paths (named for three major deities)
• Lists stars and assigns them to one of the three paths
• Lists heliacal rising dates, star groups along the ecliptic
• Two intercalation schemes, methods to regulate the calendar
• Length of day and night at solstices and equinoxes
• A method for calculating the rising and setting times of the moon

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

NEW BABYLONIAN “SCIENCE”

• At the end of 7th C BCE barbaric tribes from the West, then Babylonians
overcome Assyrians and destroy Nineveh
• A new Babylonian rule starts under Nebuchadnezzar, lasts 60 years, ends
when the Persian King Cyrus conquers Babylon
• Persian rulers worship Ahuramazda, omens from Marduk and Ishtar lose value
• Priestly astronomers continue their observations to prove the value of celestial
signs to new rulers
• They try to predict celestial events with greater precision leading to a more
“scientific” approach
• Use numerical values in mapping the path of planets relative to bright stars
and constellations

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

Anton Pannekoek – A History of Astronomy

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

NEW BABYLONIAN “SCIENCE”

• They start mapping and naming constellations – most still used today
• Lists from the 5th C BCE shows systematic survey of constellation positions
• Lists of 30 stars with their heliacal rising dates (error bc of intercalation <10d)
• Late 4th C BCE they introduce the ECLIPTIC and divide the sky into two halves
• Risings settings and stations of planets relative to fixed stars (ephemerides)
• More exhaustive lists of 13-month years (listed by years of rulers' reign)
• Elaborate tables of lunar eclipse return periods (w future projections)

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
CHALDAEAN TABLES
• Origin of the tables and methodology used in derivation
are not known (date ~ late Seleucid period? )
• Require some instruments (as a min. graduated circles)
• Difficult to interpret:
• Numbers without proper identification of celestial object
• Fragmented tablets, most seriously damaged
• Zodiac signs, letters
• Provide means of computing past and future projections
of planets’ stations and opposition
• Lunar eclipse tables (Eclipse Index)
Courtesy of The British Museum

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

COSMOLOGY
• Their cosmos model is similar to the Sumerian
• Their pantheon is somewhat different:
• Ea, Enlil (and many others) are created by APSU
and TIAMAT
• The creation of the current world takes place
after chaos ensues among the gods
• Marduk (Jupiter) appears on the scene and ends
chaos by slaying Tiamat
• Then splits her open, divides the waters, creates
the flat earth and put luminaries in the sky

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

BABYLONIAN COSMOS
• Similar to the Sumerian model
• Primeval oceans are below the earth disk
and above the sky dome
• Terra firme with Babylon in the center is
surrounded by ocean waters
• That in turn is surrounded by a ring of
mountains (triangles in the prev. tablet)
• Later semitic traditions add the underworld
where the dead reside

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

EGYPT - CALENDAR
• Started measuring time by lunar cycles in prehistoric times, but …
• The yearly recurring Nile floods quickly dominated their calendar
• The year was defined as 12x30+5 days, no adjustment for the ¼ d error
• Originally, the year started with the heliacal rising of Sirius, (Sothis) in late
June
• It was divided into THREE seasons of four months, defined by agriculture
• After a few centuries, the ¼ d error became noticeable so the priests
decoupled agricultural activities and festivities from the civil calendar

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

EGYPT – SOPDET or SOTHIS

• Egyptian priests noticed a bright star’s (Sirius) heliacal rising
coinciding with the rising of Nile waters around Memphis
• The star was named Sopdet, and it was considered divine (Greeks
called it Sothis)
• Isis as goddess of fertility was associated with Sothis
• Originally, rising of the Sothis was the beginning of the year, but ..
• Because of the ¼ d error, the new year shifted a month in 120 years
• Also, over time, Sothis’ heliacal rising shifted to mid July, so it
decoupled from the arrival of the floods

Sopdet
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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

EGYPT – 24 HOUR DAY

• Egyptians divided the sky into 36 zones, each covering a 10-degree arc
• These were called DECANs; each decan covered a star group
• They used sun dials - divided the day into 10 hours, added 1+1 for twilight hours
• They divided the nighttime into 12 hours each covering one decan (@ Sothis
heliacal rising)
• The hours were not of equal length – varied by season

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
STAR CLOCKS & TEMPLE BOOKS
• Coffin lids and temple ceilings had star tables painted
• Many scrolls have star depictions, but it is impossible to
identify most
• The pyramids had openings aligned to the pole star (a
different one than our Polaris)
• The temple at Karnak had its main corridor lined up
with the midwinter sun
• They kept temple books recording the movement of
sun, moon, and certain stars
• Most important one was the Book of Nut
(or Fundamentals of the Course of the Stars)

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
.
BOOK OF NUT Nut supported by Shu (air)

• Three texts on monuments,

• Six in papyrus scrolls
• Developed over centuries
• Differences among copies
• Covers movements of the sun,
moon, planets, stars of the
decans
• Depicts sunrise as a
mythological rebirth

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

COSMOLOGY - CREATION MYTH

• PTAH is the creator god – willed Atum into
existence
• Memphite creation myth is intellectual rather
than sexual or struggle based
• Ptah’s creative thought and word engenders
the gods (the Heliopolitan Ennead)
• Heliopolitan Ennead combined with Ptah
create the material world
PTAH & THE HELIOPOLITAN ENNEAD

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT

COSMOLOGY
• The universe emerges from a vast cosmic ocean
• At first creator god Atum is asleep in this primordial sea
• When he eventually awakes, he wills an “island” to emerge
• On this “island” calls into existence god Shu (air) and goddess Tefnut
(moisture)
• Next earth god Geb and sky goddess Nut are created
• Then everything else and the next level of deities in charge of them
• The interpretation of religious texts as to the details of the cosmos are still
debated among Egyptologists

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
Your two eyes move day and night,
Right is the sun disk, Left is the moon

COSMOLOGY
• Sky is not a passive dome, it is an active force
• Sky has two sides, R and L, R faces earth during the day, L at night
• Time manifests itself thru the changing sky
• Sun moves with the sky and comes into existence at dawn (Nut giving birth..)
• At night, sun travels on reed floats across the encircling ocean
• There is no netherworld in Egyptian cosmos (Conman paper, 2003)

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY

PREHISTORY, MESOPOTAMIA & EGYPT
CHINA
• Astronomy, cosmology, and world order closely related
• Time reckoning starts with lunar observations
• By 350 BCE we have evidence that the solar year is known to be 365 ¼ d
• As agriculture is sun dependent, calendar adjusted by intercalation
• China is the center of the flat earth; heaven is a dome or a sphere
• Emperor maintains harmony of heaven and earth
• Eclipses are sign of bad government or officials’ failure to observe ceremony
• Very little interaction and almost no influence on the West

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WHEN ASTRONOMY WAS PHILOSOPHY
INTERSECTION OF MESOPOTAMIA, EGYPT
& THE GREEK WORLD - EARLY 3RD C BCE
10/1/2022

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