We have talked about Babylonian and other ancient astronomy efforts before. You can read about the accuracy of the Babylonian astronomy here. Today we will just talk about ancient astronomy in general, using Babylonia as an example.
In relation to the previous article, Why is it always a temple, we do not think ancient ziggurats were actual temples. Some may be astronomical observatories. Dr. Chittick in his book, The Puzzle of Ancient Man, mentioned this for the Tower of Babel (pg. 148).
He is not alone in creating this idea.
Some twenty-five hundred years ago, the Ancient Babylonians constructed mud brick towers that rose up towards the night sky. The towers known as Ziggurats, could have very well been for making observations of the night sky in ancient Mesopotamia, present day Iraq. Scribes that may have used the towers gathered unrivaled knowledge of the heavens.(source)
The Babylonians and other ancient nations have been known to study the stars and identifying these ancient structures as observatories makes perfect sense. The records we have from Babylonia, Assyria and other ancient nations tell us that the ancient civilizations were more advanced and far more serious about the world we all live in.
The earliest written texts known from Mesopotamia attest to knowledge of the cycles of the sun and moon in the form of a calendar with months which began with the first appearance of the new moon crescent and the addition of an extra thirteenth month in certain years in order to keep the calendar in line with the seasons.
From the early second millennium BCE we have Babylonian cuneiform texts containing omens drawn from the appearance of celestial phenomena including eclipses and texts containing simple numerical schemes for the variation in the length of day and night over the seasons, as well as evidence for a well-established tradition of the star and constellation names (source)
Those records have been translated after years of hard work:
In ancient times, tablets were often kept by cultures to record important dates, traditions, a historical account of their culture and astronomical events that occurred. The ancient Babylonian tablets spoke of a tale that recounted many astronomical events..
…Ancient Babylonian tablets that were recovered were also being deciphered by scholars and priests alike…What was revealed from deciphering the tablets was absolutely astonishing.
The present day arrangement of the calendar into its present pattern of weeks and months is in part attributed to ancient Babylonian scribes. The Babylonian scribes had predicted the motion of the moon with mathematical precision. Scholars were also able to identify the names of the major planets on the tablets thus paving the way for future discoveries… (source)
But one important aspect of ancient astronomy is that, the presence of astrology and other pseudo-astrological work does not undermine the legitimacy of the real astrological work the ancient societies performed.
The term “Babylonian astronomy” is used to refer to a diverse range of practices undertaken by people in ancient Babylonia and Assyria including what in modern English would be referred to as astronomy, astrology and celestial divination, and cosmology. (source)
These same pseudo-astrological fields exist today. They do not undermine any legitimacy of real modern astronomy. There is no point in saying that they did for the ancient world as that would be a distortion of the ancient past.
Another key issue that needs to be mentioned is the concept of firsts.
Ancient Babylonian thinkers were outstanding mathematicians, as they were the first people to use fractions (source)
We cannot be sure if they were the first ancient civilizations to use fractions. Not that many tablets, etc., of previous civilizations like Sumer, Akkadia, and the civilizations prior to those two survive.
Since Noah and his sons built the ark, we can say with confidence that they and even the pre-Babel civilization knew about and used fractions. The oldest discovered does not necessarily translate into being the first.
We just do not have enough evidence to make that claim for Babylonia. Then this article, Babylonians Were Using Geometry Centuries Earlier Than Thought, talks about the Babylonian use of geometry hundreds of years earlier than thought.
This article supports Dr. Charles Pellegrino’s mention of their use of Euclid geometry 2000 years before Euclid discovered it (pg. 20, Return to Sodom & Gomorrah). What the ancients knew is lost in the shadows of time and we only get brief glimpses of their intellect through archaeological discoveries.
The same can be said for the Pythagorean Theorem:
Babylonian mathematical tablets show that not only did they use multiplication, but that their system counting was sexagesimal (based on sixty) and that they were the first people to use fractions. Their geometry was also advanced enough that they used the “Pythagorean Theorem” long before it was known as such.(source)
Finally, we should address a topic that we consider to be a misconception of the ancient people:
That makes Ossendrijver pretty sure that the author was one of the astronomer-priests of the temple (source)
Why they are called priests is unclear. It is highly unlikely that they were. But if archaeologists, anthropologists, and astronomers make their findings related to religion in some way, then they get better press.
This is a travesty when it comes to understanding our past. Modern researchers distort the past for whatever reason they may have. That is a topic for another day. We prefer calling them scientists and astronomers as they functioned in the same way as modern scientists and astronomers function.
To get a fuller understanding of ancient astronomy through Babylonian eyes, read the articles we have linked to. They are very informative
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