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"Astronomy, Ancient."
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The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World
The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World explores the ways in which astronomical knowledge circulated between different communities of scholars over time and space, and what was done with that knowledge when it was received.
eBook
Astronomy and mathematics in ancient India = Astronomie et mathâemathiques de l'Inde ancienne
\"Already in 1786, Sir William Jones, founder of the Asiatick Society in Calcutta, wrote \"What their astronomical and mathematical writings contain, will not, I trust, remain long a secret: they are easily procured, and their importance cannot be doubted\". Nevertheless, though India is nowadays a part of our daily media environment, its science, as ancient as Greek science, is still badly known and insufficiently included in history of science manuals. This book aims at helping to fill this gap by letting some of the best specialists in Indian astronomy and mathematics express themselves. They recount the evolution of these sciences, from the 'Aryabhatiya' (6th century) to the works of the Keralese astronomers-mathematicians (13-16th centuries), via treatises on prosody (14th century) and on astrolabe making produced since the same period. These treatises are described in association with the oldest Sanskrit astrolabe, preserved in Belgium.\"--P. [4] of cover.
Book
Debunking Ancient Jewish Science
A recently published collection of articles focuses upon a relatively small group of texts dealing mainly with astronomical calculations and omens as well as physiognomic omens, attempting to use these as a basis for reconstructing ancient Jewish science in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. The present review raises questions regarding the aims and methods employed, offering an alternative suggestion for the transfer of technical knowledge from Babylonia to ancient Palestine.
Journal Article
Astral science in early China : observation, sagehood, and the individual
Challenging monolithic modern narratives about 'Chinese science', Daniel Patrick Morgan examines the astral sciences in China c.221 BCE-750 CE as a study in the disunities of scientific cultures and the narratives by which ancients and moderns alike have fought to instil them with a sense of unity. The book focuses on four unifying 'legends' recounted by contemporary subjects: the first two, redolent of antiquity, are the 'observing of signs' and 'granting of seasons' by ancient sage kings; and the other two, redolent of modernity, involve the pursuit of 'accuracy' and historical 'accumulation' to this end. Juxtaposing legend with the messy realities of practice, Morgan reveals how such narratives were told, imagined, and re-imagined in response to evolving tensions. He argues that, whether or not 'empiricism' and 'progress' are real, we must consider the real effects of such narratives as believed in and acted upon in the history of astronomy in China.
Book
Charting the skies of history.(In The News Short news items of interest to the scientific community)
Researchers have reconstructed a chronology of past astronomical events based on aurora sightings in Meigetsuki (\"The Record of the Clear Moon,\" circa 1180-1241) by Fujiwara no Teika of Japan and in Song Shi (\"History of Song,\" commissioned in 1343) from China. \"An early Japanese record of prolonged auroras, that is, auroras that persisted for two or more nights within one week, was documented on Feb 21-23, 1204, in Meigetsuki Meigetsuki,\" says lead researcher Ryuho Kataoka. \"At the same time in Song Shi, a large sunspot was recorded on the 21.\" Such sunspots are an indication of intense magnetic activity on the Sun, including solar flares. The researchers looked further into Song Shi to see if there were additional indications of auroras between the years 900-1200 and found that there were 10 incidents of prolonged auroras during this time.
Journal Article
Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East
Modern science historians have typically treated the sciences of
the ancient Near East as separate from historical and cultural
considerations. At the same time, biblical scholars, dominated by
theological concerns, have historically understood the Israelite
god as separate from the natural world. Cooley's study, bringing to
bear contemporary models of science history on the one hand and
biblical studies on the other hand, seeks to bridge a gap created
by 20th-century scholarship in our understanding of ancient Near
Eastern cultures by investigating the ways in which ancient authors
incorporated their cultures' celestial speculation in
narrative.
In the literature of ancient Iraq, celestial divination is
displayed quite prominently in important works such as Enuma
Eliš and Erra and Išum . In ancient Ugarit as well,
the sky was observed for devotional reasons, and astral deities
play important roles in stories such as the Baal Cycle and
Shahar and Shalim . Even though the veneration of astral
deities was rejected by biblical authors, in the literature of
ancient Israel the Sun, Moon, and stars are often depicted as
active, conscious agents. In texts such as Genesis 1, Joshua 10,
Judges 5, and Job 38, these celestial characters, these \"sons of
God,\" are living, dynamic members of Yahweh's royal entourage,
willfully performing courtly, martial, and calendrical roles for
their sovereign.
The synthesis offered by this book, the first of its kind since
the demise of the pan-Babylonianist school more than a century ago,
is about ancient science in ancient Near Eastern literature.
eBook