Many of the works of ancient Greek scientists (mathematicians, astronomers, and geographers) have been preserved up to the present time, or some aspects of their work and thought are still known through later references. However, achievements in these fields by ancient Near Eastern civilizations, notably those in Babylonia, were forgotten for a long time. Since the discovery of key archaeological sites in the 19th century, many cuneiform writings on clay tablets have been found, some of them related to astronomy. Most known astronomical tablets have been described by Abraham Sachs and later published by Otto Neugebauer in the Astronomical Cuneiform Texts (ACT). To suggest a relevant news story for the main page, refer to the criteria then add your suggestion at the candidates page. ... Ancient Greece is the period of Greek history spanning much of the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins and lasting for close to a millennium, until the rise of Christianity. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ... A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of the physical environment and human habitat. ... Overview map of the Ancient Near East The term Ancient Near East or Ancient Orient encompasses the early civilizations predating Classical Antiquity in the region roughly corresponding to that described by the modern term Middle East (Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, Anatolia), during the time roughly spanning the Bronze Age from... Babylonia, named for its capital city, Babylon, was an ancient state in the south part of Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... The cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... Small tablets made out of clay were used from late 4th millennium BC onwards as a writing medium in Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Hittite, and Minoan/Mycenaean civilizations. ... Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, aurora, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ...

Since the rediscovery of the Babylonian civilization, it has become apparent that Greek astronomy was strongly influenced by the Chaldeans. The best documented borrowings are those of Hipparchus (2nd century BCE) and Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century CE). Chaldea, the Chaldees of the KJV Old Testament, was a Hellenistic designation for a part of Babylonia. ... Hipparchus. ... Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: ; c. ...

Influences on Hipparchus and Ptolemy

In 1900, Franz Xaver Kugler demonstrated that Ptolemy had stated in his Almagest IV.2 that Hipparchus improved the values for the Moon's periods known to him from "even more ancient astronomers" by comparing eclipse observations made earlier by "the Chaldeans", and by himself. However Kugler found that the periods that Ptolemy attributes to Hipparchus had already been used in Babylonian ephemerides, specifically the collection of texts nowadays called "System B" (sometimes attributed to Kidinnu). Apparently Hipparchus only confirmed the validity of the periods he learned from the Chaldeans by his newer observations. Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name (al-kitabu-l-mijisti, i. ... An ephemeris (plural: ephemerides) (from the Greek word ephemeros= daily) was, traditionally, a table providing the positions (given in a Cartesian coordinate system, or in right ascension and declination or, for astrologers, in longitude along the zodiacal ecliptic), of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets in the sky at... Kidinnu (also Kidunnu) (circa 400 BC – possibly 14 August 330 BC) was a Chaldean astronomer and mathematician. ...

It is clear that Hipparchus (and Ptolemy after him) had an essentially complete list of eclipse observations covering many centuries. Most likely these had been compiled from the "diary" tablets: these are clay tablets recording all relevant observations that the Chaldeans routinely made. Preserved examples date from 652 BC to AD 130, but probably the records went back as far as the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar: Ptolemy starts his chronology with the first day in the Egyptian calendar of the first year of Nabonassar, i.e., 26 February, 747 BC. Centuries: 8th century BC - 7th century BC - 6th century BC Decades: 700s BC 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC - 650s BC - 640s BC 630s BC 620s BC 610s BC 600s BC Events and Trends Occupation begins at Maya site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala 657 BC - Cypselus becomes the... For other uses, see number 130. ... Nabonassar (also Nabonasser, Nabu-nasir, Nebo-adon-Assur or Nabo-n-assar) was a king of Assyria, who founded the Chaldean and Babylonian kingdom. ... Centuries: 9th century BC - 8th century BC - 7th century BC Decades: 790s BC 780s BC 770s BC 760s BC 750s BC - 740s BC - 730s BC 720s BC 710s BC 700s BC 690s BC Events and Trends February 26 747 BC - Nabonassar becomes king of Assyria 747 BC - Meles becomes king...

This raw material by itself must have been hard to use, and no doubt the Chaldeans themselves compiled extracts of e.g., all observed eclipses (some tablets with a list of all eclipses in a period of time covering a saros have been found). This allowed them to recognise periodic recurrences of events. Among others they used in System B (cf. Almagest IV.2): A Saros cycle is a period of 6585 + 1/3 days (approximately 18 years 10 days and 8 hours) which can be used to predict eclipses of the sun and the moon. ...

• 223 (synodic) months = 239 returns in anomaly (anomalistic month) = 242 returns in latitude (draconic month). This is now known as the saros period which is very useful for predicting eclipses.
• 251 (synodic) months = 269 returns in anomaly
• 5458 (synodic) months = 5923 returns in latitude
• 1 synodic month = 29;31:50:08:20 days (sexagesimal; 29.53059413... days in decimals = 29 days 12 hours 44 min 3⅓ s)

The Babylonians expressed all periods in synodic months, probably because they used a lunisolar calendar. Various relations with yearly phenomena led to different values for the length of the year. The orbital period is the time it takes a planet (or another object) to make one full orbit. ... In Egyptian mythology, Month is an alternate spelling for Menthu. ... In Egyptian mythology, Month is an alternate spelling for Menthu. ... A Saros cycle is a period of 6585 + 1/3 days (approximately 18 years 10 days and 8 hours) which can be used to predict eclipses of the sun and the moon. ... ECLiPSe is a constraint logic programming language developed in IC-Parc. ... In Egyptian mythology, Month is an alternate spelling for Menthu. ... The month is a unit of time, used with calendars, which is approximately as long as some natural period related to the motion of the Moon. ... A lunisolar calendar is a calendar whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. ...

Similarly various relations between the periods of the planets were known. The relations that Ptolemy attributes to Hipparchus in Almagest IX.3 had all already been used in predictions found on Babylonian clay tablets. A planet is generally considered to be a relatively large mass of accreted matter in orbit around a star that is not a star itself. ...

Other traces of Babylonian practice in Hipparchus' work are:

• first Greek known to divide the circle in 360 degrees of 60 arc minutes.
• first consistent use of the sexagesimal number system.
• the use of the unit pechus ("cubit") of about 2° or 2½°.
• use of a short period of 248 days = 9 anomalistic months.

A degree (in full, a degree of arc, arc degree, or arcdegree), usually symbolized °, is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1／360 of a full rotation. ... A minute of arc, arcminute, or MOA is a unit of angular measurement, equal to one sixtieth (1/60) of one degree. ... The sexagesimal (base-sixty) is a numeral system with sixty as the base. ...

Possible Means of Transmission

All this knowledge was transferred to the Greeks probably shortly after the conquest by Alexander the Great (331 BC). According to the late classical philosopher Simplicius (early 6th century AD), Alexander ordered the translation of the historical astronomical records under supervision of his chronicler Callisthenes of Olynthus, who sent it to his uncle Aristotle. It is worth mentioning here that although Simplicius is a very late source, his account may be reliable. He spent some time in exile at the Sassanid (Persian) court, and may have accessed sources otherwise lost in the West. It is striking that he mentions the title tèresis (Greek: guard) which is an odd name for a historical work, but is in fact an adequate translation of the Babylonian title massartu meaning "guarding" but also "observing". Anyway, Aristotle's pupil Callippus of Cyzicus introduced his 76-year cycle, which improved upon the 19-year Metonic cycle, about that time. He had the first year of his first cycle start at the summer solstice of 28 June 330 BC (Julian proleptic date), but later he seems to have counted lunar months from the first month after Alexander's decisive battle at Gaugamela in fall 331 BC. So Callippus may have obtained his data from Babylonian sources and his calendar may have been anticipated by Kidinnu. Also it is known that the Babylonian priest known as Berossus wrote around 281 BC a book in Greek on the (rather mythological) history of Babylonia, the Babyloniaca, for the new ruler Antiochus I; it is said that later he founded a school of astrology on the Greek island of Kos. Another candidate for teaching the Greeks about Babylonian astronomy/astrology was Sudines who was at the court of Attalus I Soter late in the 3rd century BC. Alexander the Great (in Greek , transliterated Megas Alexandros) (July 356 BC – June 11, 323 BC), King of Macedon (336–323 BC), is considered one of the most successful military commanders in world history, conquering most of the world known to the ancient Greeks before his death. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC Years: 336 BC 335 BC 334 BC 333 BC 332 BC - 331 BC - 330 BC 329 BC... Simplicius, a native of Cilicia, a disciple of Ammonius and of Damascius, was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. ... (5th century — 6th century — 7th century — other centuries) Events The first academy of the east the Academy of Gundeshapur founded in Persia by the Persian Shah Khosrau I. Irish colonists and invaders, the Scots, began migrating to Caledonia (later known as Scotland) Glendalough monastery, Wicklow Ireland founded by St. ... Callisthenes, or Kallisthenes, ( in Greek) of Olynthus (c. ... Aristotle (Ancient Greek: AristotelÄ“s 384–March 7 322 BCE) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Sassanid Empire at its greatest extent The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) was the name given to the kings of Persia during the era of the second Persian Empire, from 224 until 651, when the last Sassanid shah, Yazdegerd III, lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the Umayyad Caliphate... Callippus (or Calippus) (circa 370 B.C.–circa 300 B.C.) was a Greek astronomer. ... The Metonic cycle or Enneadecaeteris in astronomy and calendar studies is a particular approximate common multiple of the tropical year and the synodic month. ... June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 186 days remaining. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 335 BC 334 BC 333 BC 332 BC 331 BC - 330 BC - 329 BC 328 BC 327... The Julian calendar was introduced in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and took force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). ... A Proleptic calendar or era is that calendar extrapolated to dates prior the its first adoption. ... In the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeated Darius III of Persia. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC Years: 336 BC 335 BC 334 BC 333 BC 332 BC - 331 BC - 330 BC 329 BC... Berossus (also Berossos or Berosus) Greek: Βεροσσος was a Hellenistic Babylonian writer who was active at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. // Life and work Berossus published the Babyloniaca (hereafter, History of Babylonia) some time around 290-278 B.C.E. for the Macedonian/Seleucid king, Antiochus I. Certain astrological... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC - 280s BC - 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 286 BC 285 BC 284 BC 283 BC 282 BC 281 BC 280 BC 279 BC 278... Silver coin of Antiochus I Antiochus I Soter ( 324/323_262/261 BC reigned 281 BC - 261 BC) was half Persian, his mother Apame being one of those eastern princesses whom Alexander had given as wives to his generals in 324 BC. On the assassination of his father Seleucus I in... Astrology refers to any of several systems, traditions or beliefs in which knowledge of the apparent positions of celestial bodies is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing knowledge about human affairs and events on Earth. ... Port of Kos Archaeological site Tree of Hippocrates Roman amphitheater Kos or Cos (36°51′N 27°14′E, Greek Κώς, Turkish: Ä°stanköy) is a Greek island in the Dodecanese group of islands, in the Aegean Sea, which it separates from the Gulf of Cos . ... Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, law of the stars) is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, aurora, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. ... Astrology refers to any of several systems, traditions or beliefs in which knowledge of the apparent positions of celestial bodies is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing knowledge about human affairs and events on Earth. ... Sudines (Greek: Σουδινες) ca. ... Bust of Attalus I, circa 200 BC Attalus I (Soter Savior) (269 BC–197 BC)1 ruled Pergamon, a Greek city-state in present-day Turkey, from 241 BC to 197 BC. He was the second cousin and the adoptive son of Eumenes I2, whom he succeeded, and was the... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) // Events Teotihuacán, Mexico begun The first two Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome over dominance in western Mediterranean Rome conquers Spain Gaulish migration to Macedon, Thrace and Galatia 282-226: Colossus of Rhodes 281 BC Antiochus I Soter, on the assassination...

In any case, the translation of the astronomical records required profound knowledge of the cuneiform script, the language, and the procedures, so it seems likely that it was done by some unidentified Chaldeans. Now, the Babylonians dated their observations in their lunisolar calendar, in which months and years have varying lengths (29 or 30 days; 12 or 13 months respectively). At the time they did not use a regular calendar (such as based on the Metonic cycle like they did later), but started a new month based on observations of the New Moon. This made it very tedious to compute the time interval between events. The cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... The Metonic cycle or Enneadecaeteris in astronomy and calendar studies is a particular approximate common multiple of the tropical year and the synodic month. ... The lunar phase depends on the Moons position in orbit around Earth. ...

What Hipparchus may have done is transform these records to the Egyptian calendar, which uses a fixed year of always 365 days (consisting of 12 months of 30 days and 5 extra days): this makes computing time intervals much easier. Ptolemy dated all observations in this calendar. He also writes that "All that he (=Hipparchus) did was to make a compilation of the planetary observations arranged in a more useful way" (Almagest IX.2). Pliny states (Naturalis Historia II.IX(53)) on eclipse predictions: "After their time (=Thales) the courses of both stars (=Sun and Moon) for 600 years were prophecied by Hipparchus, ...". This seems to imply that Hipparchus predicted eclipses for a period of 600 years, but considering the enormous amount of computation required, this is very unlikely. Rather, Hipparchus would have made a list of all eclipses from Nabonasser's time to his own. The ancient civil Egyptian calendar had a year that was 365 days long, consisting of 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end of the year. ... Thales of Miletus (ca. ...

References

• Kugler, F. X. Die Babylonische Mondrechnung ("The Babylonian lunar computation.") Freiburg im Breisgau, 1900.
• Neugebauer, Otto. Astronomical Cuneiform Texts. 3 volumes. London:1956; 2nd edition, New York: Springer, 1983. (Commonly abbreviated as ACT).
• Toomer, G. J. "Hipparchus and Babylonian Astronomy." In Scientific Humanist: Studies in Memory of Abraham Sachs, edited ???, pp. 353-362. Philadelphia: The University Museum, 1988.

See also

• History of astronomy (Section on Mesopotamia)