![]() The societal class responsible for this were the Chaldeans, priest-astronomers who began to look to the skies for the prediction of events, astrologers as much as astronomers. From 1800 BC, they meticulously plotted the movement of the sun and the moon, using them to track the procession of the seasons. The first real insight into the history of astronomy begins with the Babylonians, who used the heavens as their means to establish an accurate calendar, crucial in a region where agriculture depended upon exact dates for planting at the right time. Babylonian Ancient Astronomy - Observation and Prediction The Sumerians also used the sexagesimal system of measurement, the reason why we still divide circles into 360 sections, a system still used by modern astronomers to plot cosmological phenomena. ![]() Thus, we can make an educated guess that the Sumerian priests were also astronomers, a very common trait in the region and one that defines the history of astronomy. The Mesopotamian pantheon of gods began with the Sumerians, and many of these Gods were tied to the planets, a tradition carried on by the Greeks and Romans. Early Babylonian records, dating from around 1800 BC, use the Sumerian names for stars, suggesting that a body of knowledge was passed down. Our knowledge of their contribution to ancient astronomy is gleaned from indirect transmission to the Babylonian culture. ![]() Historians are sure that the oldest of the civilizations, the Sumerians, were astronomers, but most of their knowledge was lost, leaving a few tantalizing fragments of their sophisticated culture. Thousands of these baked clay tablets survive, allowing historians to glean a unique insight of the Mesopotamian life and society and, after many trials and tribulations, were translated. To write, the Mesopotamians pressed the ends of cut reeds into wet clay, making the distinctive, cuneiform wedge shaped marks, the basis of their written language. This linguistic innovation dates back to between 35 BC, and is one of the reasons why we know so much about their sophisticated astronomy. The main Mesopotamian contribution to human history was the creation of written language, using the cuneiform script. The Fertile Crescent is where civilization began, and was home to the great civilizations of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. This land, straddling the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now lies in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran. Whilst we can safely assume that humanity developed sophisticated astronomical techniques long before the dawn of recorded history, the history of Western astronomy begins in Mesopotamia. The Chinese and Indian mystics made their contribution to the history of astronomy, but the Mesopotamians were the masters of ancient astronomy, their sophisticated techniques and observations passing on to the Greeks.Īncient Astronomy and the Sumerians, the Foundation of Civilization Ancient humanity followed the cycles of the seasons and lived close to the natural rhythms of the planet. For the ancients, where successful agricultural techniques were a matter of life and death, they needed to know exactly when to plant and harvest. The ancient astrologers and astronomers became instrumental in establishing the measurement of time for the modern world, with the hectic lifestyle and schedules, time is merely a convenience. Astrological practitioners were capable of making meticulous measurements and accurate predictions about the movements of the heavenly spheres, tying them to a pantheon of gods and the fate of kings. People tend to judge astrology by the poorly written, generic horoscopes in newspapers and internet sites but, back in the time of the ancients, it was a genuine proto-science. Most civilizations practiced ancient astronomy, and it pervaded culture and society much more than in the modern world, where we have convenient explanations for the complexity and stark, harsh beauty of the universe. ![]() Halley’s Comet always seems to bring fear, destruction and rebirth in its wake, the portent of doom that caused seismic shifts in human history. ![]() Many notable events in history were shaped by conjunctions of stars and astronomic events, such as the star (supernova) that guided the Magi to Bethlehem. The Queen of the Night, probably 1792 - 1750 BC, represents an ancient Babylonian goddess. The History of Astronomy - Shaping Human History ![]()
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