The Babylonian astronomical diaries are a collection of

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge- ...

texts that contain systematic records of

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...

observations and political events as well as predictions, based on astronomical observations. They also include other information such as commodity prices for particular dates and weather reports. Currently, they are stored in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. It is suggested that the diaries were used as sources for the

Babylonian Chronicles The Babylonian Chronicles are a series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. They are thus one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography. The Babylonian Chronicles were written in Babylonian cuneiform, ...

History

The Babylonians were the first to recognise that astronomical phenomena are periodic and to apply mathematics to their predictions. The oldest known significant astronomical text is Tablet 63 of the ''

Enûma Anu Enlil Enuma Anu Enlil ( ,'' The Assyrian Dictionary'', volume 7 (I/J) – ''inūma'', The Oriental Institute, Chicago 1960, s. 160. ''When he gods Anu and Enlil'' .., abbreviated EAE, is a major series of 68 or 70 tablets (depending on the recension) ...

'' collection, the

Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (''Enuma Anu Enlil'' Tablet 63) is the record of astronomical positions for Venus, as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets dating from the first millennium BC. It is believed that this astronomical record was firs ...

, which lists the first and the last visible risings of Venus over a period of about 21 years. It is the earliest evidence that planetary phenomena were recognised as periodic. The systematic records of ominous phenomena in astronomical diaries began during the reign of

Nabonassar Nabû-nāṣir was the king of Babylon from 747 to 734 BC. He deposed a foreign Chaldean usurper named Nabu-shuma-ishkun, bringing native rule back to Babylon after twenty-three years of Chaldean rule. His reign saw the beginning of a new er ...

(747–734 BC), when a significant increase in the quality and frequency of astronomical observations occurred. That allowed, for example, the discovery of a repeating 18-year

Saros cycle The saros () is a period of exactly 223 synodic months, approximately 6585.3211 days, or 18 years, 10, 11, or 12 days (depending on the number of leap years), and 8 hours, that can be used to predict eclipses of the Sun and Moon. One saros period ...

of lunar eclipses.

Translation

Translations of the Diaries are published in multivolume ''Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia'', edited by

Abraham Sachs Abraham (Abe) Sachs (1915 – April 22, 1983) was an American Assyriologist. He earned his PhD in Assyriology in 1939 at Johns Hopkins University. Of note is his collaboration with Otto Neugebauer, whom he met in 1941 when the latter visited th ...

and

Hermann Hunger Hermann Hunger (born 1942), an Austrian Assyriologist, professor emeritus of Assyriology at the University of Vienna, from which he retired in 2007. He has been recognized for his work on Babylonian astronomy and celestial omens. Biography Herm ...

.''Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia'', Abraham Sachs and Hermann Hunger (eds.), Wien, Austrian Academy of Sciences. * Volume 1 – ''Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C.'' (, 1988). * Volume 2 – ''Diaries from 261 B.C. to 165 B.C.'' (, 1989). * Volume 3 – ''Diaries from 164 B.C. to 61 B.C.'' (, 1996). * Volume 4 – not yet published. * Volume 5 – ''Lunar and Planetary Texts'' (, 2001), contains lunar and planetary data from the 8th century BC to the 1st century BC. * Volume 6 – ''Goal Year Texts'' (, 2006), contains lunar and planetary data, from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century BC. * Volume 7 – ''Almanacs and Normal Star Almanacs'' (, 2014), contains astronomical almanacs, from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD.

References

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External links

Astronomical Diaries
article at ''livius.org''

for 333-63 B.C. Babylonian astronomy Mesopotamian chronicles Clay tablets