Download or read book Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy astrology written by David Brown and published by Brill. This book was released on 2000 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pliny wrote of Babylon that "here the creator of the science of astronomy was". Excavations have shown this statement to be true. This book argues that the earliest attempts at the accurate prediction of celestial phenomena are indeed to be found in clay tablets dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BC from both Babylon and from Nineveh. The author carefully situates this astronomy within its cultural context, treating all available material from the relevant period, and also analysing the earlier astrological material and the later well-known ephemerides and related texts. A wholly new approach to cuneiform astral concerns emerges - one in which both celestial divination and the later astronomy are shown to be embedded in a prevailing philosophy dealing with the ideal nature of the early universe, and in which the dynamics of the celestial divination industry that surrounded the last Assyrian monarchs account for no less than the first recorded "scientific revolution". This work closely adheres to the original textual sources, and argues for the evolution on the basis of the needs of the ancient scholars and the internal logic of the divinatory and predictive systems employed. To this end, it offers, for the first time, a Mesopotamian contribution to the philosophy, and not only the history, of science.
Download or read book Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia written by Hermann Hunger and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Astronomy and astrology, or the astral sciences, played an enormous, if not a key role in the political and religious life of the Ancient Near East, and, later, of the Greek and Roman world. This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the origins of the astral sciences in the Ancient Near East. Every type of Sumerian or Akkadian text dealing with descriptive or mathematical astronomy, including many individual tablets are thoroughly dealt with. All aspects, such as the history of discovery, reconstruction, and interpretation come to the fore, accompanied by a full bibliography. At that the reader will find descriptions of astronomical contents, an explanation of their scientific meaning and the place a given genre or tablet has in the development of astronomy both within the Mesopotamian culture and outside of it. Because celestial omens are intimately related to astronomy in Mesopotamian science, these are also discussed extensively. The material is arranged both chronologically and thematically, so as to help make Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia a reference work on the subject in its truest sense.
Download or read book Astronomy written by and published by PediaPress. This book was released on with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Astronomy the Human Quest for Understanding written by Dale A. Ostlie and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-11 with total page 913 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since humans first looked up at the stars, astronomy has had a particular ability to stir the imagination and challenge the thinking of scientists and non-scientists alike. Astronomy: The Human Quest for Understanding is an introductory astronomy textbook specifically designed to relate to non-science majors across a wide variety of disciplines, nurture their curiosity, and develop vital science-based critical-thinking skills. This textbook provides an introduction to how science operates in practice and what makes it so successful in uncovering nature's secrets. Given that the study of astronomy dates back thousands of years, it is the ideal subject for tracing the development of the physical sciences and how our evolving understanding of nature has influenced, and been influenced by, mathematics, philosophy, religion, geography, politics, and more. This historical approach also illustrates how wrong turns have been taken, and how the inherent self-correcting nature of science through constant verification and the falsifiability of truly scientific theories ultimately leads us back to a more productive path in our quest for understanding. This approach also points out why, as a broadly educated citizenry, students of all disciplines must understand how scientists arrive at conclusions, and how science and technology have become central features of modern society. In discussing this fascinating and beautiful universe of which we are a part, it is necessary to illustrate the fundamental role that mathematics plays in decoding nature's mysteries. Unlike other similar textbooks, some basic mathematics is integrated naturally into the text, together with interpretive language, and supplemented with numerous examples; additional tutorials are provided on the book's companion website. Astronomy: The Human Quest for Understanding leads the reader down the path to our present-day understanding of our Solar System, stars, galaxies, and the beginning and evolution of our universe, along with profound questions still to be answered in this ancient, yet rapidly changing field.
Download or read book The History of Astronomy written by Richard Pearson and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy written by James Evans and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998-10 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birth of astronomy -- Celestial sphere -- Some applications of spherics -- Calendars and time reckoning -- Solar theory -- Fixed stars -- Planetary theory -- Frequently used tables -- Appendix : patterns for models.
Download or read book Early Astronomy written by William Matthew O'Neil and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Heavenly Writing written by Francesca Rochberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In antiquity, the expertise of the Babylonians in matters of the heavens was legendary and the roots of both western astronomy and astrology are traceable in cuneiform tablets going back to the second and first millennia BC. The Heavenly Writing, first publsiehd in 2004, discusses the place of Babylonian celestial divination, horoscopy, and astronomy in Mesopotamian intellectual culture. Focusing chiefly on celestial divination and horoscopes, it traces the emergence of personal astrology from the tradition of celestial divination and the use of astronomical methods in horoscopes. It further takes up the historiographical and philosophical issue of the nature of these Mesopotamian 'celestial sciences' by examining elements traditionally of concern to the philosophy of science, without sacrificing the ancient methods, goals, and interests to a modern image of science. This book will be of particular interest to those concerned with the early history of science.
Download or read book Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East written by Jeffrey L. Cooley and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Anunnaki Origins and Sumerian Connections written by Faruq Zamani and published by DTTV PUBLICATIONS. This book was released on with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where did the Sumerian civilization come from? You would think scholars, academics, and historians have been struggling to solve this cultural riddle, yet we still have hundreds of thousands of Sumerian clay writings crumbling to dust in museums rather than getting them all translated. The Sumerians were a multi-ethnic civilization, including the people who lived in Sumer and other people brought in from outside. The early Sumerian civilization builders came from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran and migrated south into what is now known as Iraq. This we know for sure. They comprise two groups, The Anunnaki Rulers, later called gods and deified, and Sumerian peoples, or indigenous people of the earth. Several Semitic peoples settled in Sumer, according to ancient historical records, starting around 4500 BCE. These immigrants settled throughout Mesopotamia and intermarried with the local population. Over time, these groups created their own cultures and languages but still followed many of the customs of their Anunnaki overlords.
Download or read book The Story of Astronomy written by Peter Aughton and published by Quercus. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the ancient origins of astronomy to the Copernican revolution, and from Galileo to Hawking's research into black holes, The Story of Astronomy charts the discoveries of some of the greatest minds in human history, and their attempts to unveil the secrets of the stars. Peter Aughton's trademark narrative style is to the fore, demystifying some of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of science, and packed full of fascinating nuggets such as why we have 60 minutes in an hour, how the Romans bodged the invention of the leap year and when people really discovered the Earth wasn't flat (a thousand years before Columbus). And explaining in the most straightforward and compelling of ways what Newton, Einstein, Hubble and Hawking really achieved.
Download or read book The Sumerians written by Samuel Noah Kramer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-09-17 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sumerians, the pragmatic and gifted people who preceded the Semites in the land first known as Sumer and later as Babylonia, created what was probably the first high civilization in the history of man, spanning the fifth to the second millenniums B.C. This book is an unparalleled compendium of what is known about them. Professor Kramer communicates his enthusiasm for his subject as he outlines the history of the Sumerian civilization and describes their cities, religion, literature, education, scientific achievements, social structure, and psychology. Finally, he considers the legacy of Sumer to the ancient and modern world. "There are few scholars in the world qualified to write such a book, and certainly Kramer is one of them. . . . One of the most valuable features of this book is the quantity of texts and fragments which are published for the first time in a form available to the general reader. For the layman the book provides a readable and up-to-date introduction to a most fascinating culture. For the specialist it presents a synthesis with which he may not agree but from which he will nonetheless derive stimulation."—American Journal of Archaeology "An uncontested authority on the civilization of Sumer, Professor Kramer writes with grace and urbanity."—Library Journal
Download or read book History of Astronomy written by John Lankford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Encyclopedia traces the history of the oldest science from the ancient world to the space age in over 300 entries by leading experts.
Download or read book Histories of Scientific Insights written by Igor Ushakov and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2007 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Histories of Scientific Insights is a walk through time, from the birth of civilization to the present, looking at key discoveries, detailing the people and the context of those discoveries. The focus is on concepts we use daily about which we wonder occasionally where they came from.
Download or read book Astronomy Through the Ages written by Sir Robert Wilson and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-12-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an historical perspective, this text presents an entirely non- mathematical introduction to astronomy from the first endeavours of the ancients to the current developments in research enabled by cutting edge technological advances. Free of mathematics and complex graphs, the book nevertheless explains deep concepts of space and time, of relativity and quantum mechanics, and of origin and nature of the universe. It conveys not only the intrinsic fascination of the subject, but also the human side and the scientific method as practised by Kepler, defined and elucidated by Galileo, and then demonstrated by Newton.
Download or read book Astronomy and Astrology in the Islamic World written by Stephen P. Blake and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was the astronomers and mathematicians of the Islamic world who provided the theories and concepts that paved the way from the geocentric theories of Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD to the heliocentric breakthroughs of Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Algebra, the Arabic numeral system, and trigonometry: all these and more originated in the Muslim East and undergirded an increasingly accurate and sophisticated understanding of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets. This nontechnical overview of the Islamic advances in the heavenly sciences allows the general reader to appreciate (for the first time) the absolutely crucial role that Muslim scientists played in the overall development of astronomy and astrology in the Eurasian world.
Download or read book Advancing Cultural Astronomy written by Efrosyni Boutsikas and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays on cultural astronomy celebrates the life and work of Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at Leicester University. Taking their lead from Ruggles’ work, the papers present new research focused on three core themes in cultural astronomy: methodology, case studies, and heritage. Through this framework, they show how the study of cultural astronomy has evolved over time and share new ideas to continue advancing the field. Ruggles’ work in these areas has had a profound impact on the way that scholars approach evidence of the role of sky in both ancient and modern cultures. While the papers span many time periods and regions, they are closely connected by these three major themes, presenting methodological investigations of how we can approach archaeological, textual, and ethnographic evidence; describing detailed archaeoastronomical case studies; or stressing the importance of global heritage management. This work will appeal to researchers and scholars interested in the history and development of cultural astronomy.
