NMC102H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Berossus, Babylonian Astronomy, Pythagorean Theorem
16 Sep 2018
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NMC102H1 Winter 2018
Lecture 24
2. Mostly Uruk and Babylon
• Babylonian Map of the World
• Counting System
o Most math tablets are school texts during the late third millennium onwards
o Many different topics/applications
o Bricks counted in 720
o Sale contracts drawn up by specific scribes, may be related to taxes
o Pythagorean Theorem was known
• The calendar
o Used luni-solar calendar
o 29-30 day months based on when new moon was sighted
o 19-year cycle with intercalary months to keep up with the seasons
o From 300 BC, they predicted months in advance, regular events were able to be planned in
advance
• Babylonian Astronomy
o Observational
• Observed the plant Venus
o Predictive
• Allowed plans to be made in advance
o Mathematical
• Algorithm made from astronomical diaries
• Developed planet predicting concepts still used today
o Many astronomical diaries which started around the 8th century
• About the moon, planets, eclipses, market prices (after political or other events), etc.
o Zodiac
• Divided sun/moon/planets into 12 sections
• Around 5000 astronomical tablets
• Miro-zodiac columns for each sign with observations/consequences
• Horoscopes started in the middle of the first millennium BC
• First application to celestial to person
o Astronomers got enough barley to feed their families
o Hellenistic Uruk
• One family got an eclipse wrong and were investigated for wasting resourses
• Berossus
o Babylonian priest of Bale or Marduk
o Babylonian but wrote in Greek
o Known from quoted passages from other authors
o Impossible to tell how much original work survived
• Most has biblical context due to later Jewish and Christian authors
o Made Babylonian culture accessible to Greeks; he was well acquainted with Greek culture
• Graeco-Babyloniaca tablets
o Tablets with Greek on one side and cuneiform on the other
• Sumerian and Akkadian
