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The relation of Babylonian astronomy to its culture and society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 June 2011
Extract
Babylonian astronomy is quite different from astronomy as it is customary today. We have to reconstruct it exclusively from texts and a few schematic drawings accompanying them. No instruments related to astronomy have been found. These texts are written on clay tablets in cuneiform script which was used in the Near East from ca. 3000 BCE to 100. It was completely forgotten and only deciphered in the middle of the 19th century. Since then, hundreds of thousands of clay tablets have been found in archaeological excavations, mostly in present-day Iraq. Among these are a few thousand tablets related to astronomy. Many have been published, but more still need to be worked on. And of course an unknown number of such texts is still buried under the sands of Iraq.
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- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S260: The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture , January 2009 , pp. 62 - 73
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011
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