Science
Related: About this forumSigns of Modern Astronomy Seen in Ancient Babylon
For people living in the ancient city of Babylon, Marduk was their patron god, and thus it is not a surprise that Babylonian astronomers took an interest in tracking the comings and goings of the planet Jupiter, which they regarded as a celestial manifestation of Marduk.
What is perhaps more surprising is the sophistication with which they tracked the planet, judging from inscriptions on a small clay tablet dating to between 350 B.C. and 50 B.C. The tablet, a couple of inches wide and a couple of inches tall, reveals that the Babylonian astronomers employed a sort of precalculus in describing Jupiters motion across the night sky relative to the distant background stars. Until now, credit for this kind of mathematical technique had gone to Europeans who lived some 15 centuries later.
That is a truly astonishing find, said Mathieu Ossendrijver, a professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, who describes his archaeological astronomy discovery in an article on Thursday in the journal Science.
Its a figure that describes a graph of velocity against time, he said. That is a highly modern concept.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/science/babylonians-clay-tablets-geometry-astronomy-jupiter.html
Judi Lynn
(160,451 posts)Thu Jan 28, 2016 5:50pm EST
Knowing all the angles: Ancient Babylonians used tricky geometry
WASHINGTON | By Will Dunham
Ancient Babylonian astronomers were way ahead of their time, using sophisticated geometric techniques that until now had been considered an achievement of medieval European scholars.
That is the finding of a study published on Thursday that analyzed four clay tablets dating from 350 to 50 BC featuring the wedge-shaped ancient Babylonian cuneiform script describing how to track the planet Jupiter's path across the sky.
"No one expected this," said Mathieu Ossendrijver, a professor of history of ancient science at Humboldt University in Berlin, noting that the methods delineated in the tablets were so advanced that they foreshadowed the development of calculus.
Ancient Babylonian astronomers were way ahead of their time, using sophisticated geometric techniques that until now had been considered an achievement of medieval European scholars.
That is the finding of a study published on Thursday that analyzed four clay tablets dating from 350 to 50 BC featuring the wedge-shaped ancient Babylonian cuneiform script describing how to track the planet Jupiter's path across the sky.
"No one expected this," said Mathieu Ossendrijver, a professor of history of ancient science at Humboldt University in Berlin, noting that the methods delineated in the tablets were so advanced that they foreshadowed the development of calculus.
"This kind of understanding of the connection between velocity, time and distance was thought to have emerged only around 1350 AD," Ossendrijver added.
More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-babylonians-idUSKCN0V62ZS
lastlib
(23,166 posts)...or any other science.
What? Oh, Babylon! I thought you said "Babble-On". My bad.........
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)so it should be known to her.
Meanwhile Bristol Palin complains about Tina Fey not sounding like her Mom.
http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/01/29/bristol-palin-disses-tina-fey-erin-moos-pkg.cnn
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)I think we have this false narrative of "scientific advancement" caused by the Greco-Roman and early medieval world being fairly backward scientifically compared to other societies. It is really was not until around AD 1700 that Europe started pulling away from the rest of the world in terms of science.