A Guide to Understanding Cosmogonic Myths and Theoretical Science
Astronomy in Egypt | Biblical References to Egyptian Science | Astronomy in Mesopotamia | Biblical References to Babylonian Science | Astronomy in China | Astronomy in Greece | Biblical References to Greek Science | Astronomy in India | Bibliography
Definitions:
Egypt - 3,000 BCE
The ancient Egyptians held fast to a complicated calendar with two different mutually shifting years and festivals. They had a 365 day (36 decans: 36 x 10 = 360) calendar (360 days and 5 festival days) for New Year rites and a Sothis (Sirius) calendar of 365 1/4 days for agriculture (sowing and harvesting), measured by watching the helical rising of Sirius. This was called The Canicular Year ( Sirius is known as the Dog-Star and canis in Latin means Dog ). The Egyptians knew that the two calendars would be out of step after 1,461 years (this is called the Sothic Cycle or The Great Canicular Cycle) -- that is 1,460 x 365 1/4 = 533,265 and 1461 x 365 = 533,265. A supposed relationship is that the Sothic period is the time in which any given day of the year of 365 days would have passed through all seasons of the year (365 1/4).
The Egyptians measured the twenty-four hour day as we do, that is, from midnight to midnight with its presumption of twelve hours of day and twelve hours of night. Different peoples in the ancient world measured the day differently, in Babylon and Greece it was reckoned from dawn to dawn (called Suns) but in Babylon there were 12 hours each of which were 2 of our hours long, the Hebrews measured from sunset to sunset, and the Teutonic peoples counted nights (14 days = fortnight).
In the Egyptian language the word 'sky' is feminine. Thus for the Egyptians, unlike most other peoples, sky is a goddess (Nut or Hathor) represented either as a cow with four hooves planted on the earth or as a woman whose body bends in an arc so that her toes and fingertips touch the earth. She gives birth every day to the Sun. The Sun, similarly is called by different names depending on whether it is the rising sun (Khepri), the sun at zenith (Ra), or the setting sun (Atum). The Moon was also known by different name: Aah, Thoth, Khons and depicted as a dog-headed ape, an ibis, or the left eye of a great celestial hawk. These identifications, it seems pre-date the development of hieroglyphic writing.
The Egyptians were also great practical geometers, as we know, from the monumental engineering projects they undertook. The oldest megalithic site with an astronomical orientation was found in Nabta in 1998. They were also concerned with practical arithmetic. Egyptian mathematicians devised cunning ways around the fact that their numbers were unsuitable for multiplication as is shown in the Rhind papyrus (named after the Scottish Egyptologist A Henry Rhind, who purchased it in Luxor in 1858) which was written around 1650 BC by the scribe Ahmes who is copying a document which is 200 years older. This makes the original papyrus and the Moscow papyrus both date from about 1850BC. The multiplication is achieved with only additions, a very early use of binary arithmetic.
Finally, as most students of chemistry know, Egypt's name for itself is Kham (in the King James Bible - "Ham") from which Khemeia derives - the Egyptian art of chemistry.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO EGYPTIAN SCIENCE AND COSMOLOGY
Gen 28:12 (KJV) "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."
John 1.51 (KJV) "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angles of God Ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.'"
A symbol of the upward or heavenward yearning of the soul in stages of progress, the ladder of the God or the ladder of Set is referenced in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. [SABS1] In one tradition, it was by means of a ladder guarded by Ra and Horus (son of Isis) that Osiris ascended to heaven:
Ra setteth upright the ladder for Osiris, and Horis raiseth up the ladder for his father Osiris, when Osiris goeth to [find] his soul; one standeth on the one side, and the other standeth on the other, and Unas is betwixt them. In an earlier version found at the temple of Pepi I, the ladder guardians are Set and Horus the Elder: "Hail to thee, O Ladder of God, hail to thee, O Ladder of Set. Stand up, O Ladder of God, stand up, O Ladder of Set, stand up, O Ladder of Horus, whereon Osiris went forth into heaven. (2)
Old Babylonian Sky-lore to 1000 BCE
Mesopotamian omen texts which date from 1800 BCE base foretellings on the lunar eclipse. The eclipses were recorded with the explanation that the Moon god was under attack by demons.
The sky-lore of Babylon, an important center of city-life in Mesopotamia, consisted of continuing observations of the Moon which, over time, lead to the creation of a lunar calendar. A lunar calendar is based on the phases of the moon (in Babylon, crescent moon to crescent moon) which repeats about every twenty- nine 1/2 days. The earliest computations were concerned with the length of the day and night in different seasons, the rising and setting of the Moon and the appearance and disappearance of Venus (the latter of which is recorded in the sixty-third tablet of 'Enuma, Anu, Enlil' written between 1400 BCE and 900 BCE) (3). See also John D. Weir, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga. 1972.
Constellations such as Orion, Scorpio, Capricorn, the stars of the Pleiades and other bright stars were named. The Sun (Shamash), the Moon (Sin), and the five observable planets were important as principle divinities and for interpreting or predicting events on earth in an early system of astrology.
Sin (Moon) was depicted as an old man with a long beard and a turban. He is the father of Shamash (Sun) and the five planets. He travelled through the night sky in a lunar barque and the backdrop of stars through which the moon passed regularly in each of 29 and 1/2 days, came to be known as the "Mansions of the Moon." In the days of the lunar calendar, the Moon was also important as a measurer of time:
At the month's beginning to shine on earth
Thou shalt show two horns to mark six days,
On the seventh day divide the crown in two;
On the fourteenth day, turn thy full face.(4)
Temple towers were ideal observatories from which the courses of the stars and the planets could be plotted and the cycle of the planets studied. The continuity of civilization in this part of the world meant that records were preserved over a sufficiently long period of time for the recognition of features such as the precession of the equinoxes and the regularity of eclipses. It is interesting to note that the latitude of Babylon (approximately 32 degrees North) was similar to that of Charleston, South Carolina. In fact the sky as seen from Babylon would not be too different from what we could see in Baltimore at the latitude of 39*18 (if our electricity would go off some time on a clear night instead of a stormy one).
From an early date the sky was divided into zones, the most important being that which lay along the celestial equator (ecliptic) the apparent path followed by the sun (and the moon and the planets) across the backdrop of the sky. This equator was, in turn, divided into twelve (12) sections, each named after the principle constellation of stars appearing within each division. These twelve constellations, through which the sun, moon and planets appear to pass in their yearly journeys have come down to us as the Zodiac. The Bull, the Twins, the Crab, the Lion, the Scales, the Scorpion, the Archer, the Water-Bearer and the Fish were identified by the Babylonians. The Goat was known as the Goat-fish, the Ram as the Day-labourer, and the Virgin as the Great Mother. Today, of course, we use the Latin names, as used by the Romans for the above constellations, but the meanings of the Latin names are those given by the Babylonians.
Assyrian Astronomy / Astrology - 800 BCE
The Assyrians, warlike conquerors of the Mesopotamian plains, including Babylon, adopted the culture of the conquered. The old calendar was no longer the principal motive for observing the stars. In Assyrian times astrology, the idea that the course of the stars has significance for events on earth -- especially as the events related to Kings -- became the chief reason for observations of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Lunar eclipses were observed and future ones predicted. The priest astronomers understood that lunar eclipses only could take place at the time of the full moon (although not at every full moon).
New Babylonian Science - 600 BCE to 45 BCE
Babylon became part of the Persian empire, and its glory dimmed for a while. However, after Alexander conquered the Persian empire, Babylon's culture and science exerted a considerable influence on the Greeks.
By 600 BCE, the Babylonians could predict planetary motions beautifully, due to very careful observations and the fact that from ancient times the Babylonians possessed an excellent mathematical implement in the sexagesimal system of numbers (a place-value system based on 60), it is also partly decimal (base ten). The main units were ten, six times ten, ten times six times ten, and so on. On this basis, systems of weights, measurements and time-divisions were evolved, and complicated problems could be solved by extracting roots, raising to powers, and solving complex equations, as well as by the use of ordinary addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Perhaps the most important achievement of these mathematicians was the use of the "position-concept" in numeration. This involves the use of a very limited number of numerical symbols, the magnitudes of which are determined by their positions within a compound figure. It is, of course, the system we use today. For example, 21 does not mean 2 + 1, as it would in the Roman numeral system, but 2 x 10 + 1. Similarly the number 221 means 2 x 100 + 2 X 10 + 1.
In our decimal (base ten) system, moving a figure one place to the left multiplies it by ten, and similarly moving it to the right divides it by ten. The Babylonian base was sixty, so moving a figure one place to the left multiplied it by sixty. Thus a figure 2,1 ( or 21 base 60) would mean 2 x 60 + 1, that is 121 (base ten). For a system like this to be workable it is important to have a symbol for zero to indicate an empty place between two other figures, and this too is to be found in later Babylonian texts. Another important feature of the system was its extension to sub-multiples of the unit as well as multiples , in other words the system of sexagesimal fractions comparable to our decimal fractions. (Which numbers divide 60 evenly?).
It can be seen that the Babylonian system was essentially "modern" in its methods, and far superior to any other in the ancient world. Unfortunately its merits were not appreciated by posterity. The "position-concept" was lost until its revival in connection with Arabic numbers, and the idea of sub-multiples disappeared until its revival in the late sixteenth century in connection with decimal numbers. Some elements of the sexagesimal system have survived without interruption to the present day. See if you can name some survivors of the sexagesimal system still in use for some types of measurement.
Fragments of astronomical tables (called the Chaldean tables) have been found, giving positions of the planets ("wanderers") at different times, and Lunar tables were by now quite accurate for predicting eclipse phenomena. Even Mercury's synodic period was figured out fairly accurately by the Babylonians: Mercury takes 87.96 days for its 360 degree revolution around the sun; the synodic period is the time it takes a planet to move from one configuration (such as an inferior conjunction) to that same configuration, in this case, 116 days.
In the ancient middle-east a highly developed theoretical astronomy came into being in the course of a thousand years. What we do know about it shows a unique system of science. Its theory does not imply a new System of world structures, or a physical interpretation, but a formal mathematical representation of the phenomena which helped predict motions of the visible planets and the moon over any number of years.
By the time the Babylonian culture died out, its influence on Greece had led to a new astronomy.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO BABYLONIAN SCIENCE AND MYTH
2Kin 20:8 (KJV) "And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day? 9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forth ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? 10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz."
Hezekiah is sick. Isaiah says that God will send a sign and he will be well. What is the sign? That the shadow on the dial will move backward 10 degrees or steps. It does. This is a reference to the step sun-dial. Such dials have been found in Egypt.
Matthew 14:6 (KJV) "But when Herod's birthday was kept the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. 8 And she being before instructed of her mother said Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. 9 And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake and them which sat with him at meat he commanded it to be given her. 10 And he sent and beheaded John in the prison. 11 And his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother."
Mark 6:22 (KJV) "And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in and danced and pleased Herod and them that sat with him the king said unto the damsel Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt and I will give it thee. 23 And he sware unto her Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me I will give it thee unto the half of my kingdom. 24 And she went forth and said unto her mother What shall I ask? And she said The head of John the Baptist. 25 And she came in straightway with haste unto the king and asked saying I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. 26 And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake and for their sakes which sat with him he would not reject her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison 28 And brought his head in a charger and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. 29 And when his disciples heard of it they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb."
Salome's (the daughter of Herodias) dance. The mother goddess (the planet Venus) is Ishtar/Inanna also called Ashtoreth. Salome's dance replicative of the shedding of clothes by Inanna in her underworld journey. Remember that Venus disappears from the sky in transition from being the morning star to evening star.
Astronomical ideas played an important part in the culture of China. It is difficult to arrive at a true picture of the development of those ideas because later Chinese authors try to ascribe an earlier origin to later ideas in order to give them venerability and validity. Nevertheless, an Anyang bone inscription records a lunar eclipse "on the fifteenth day of the twelfth moon of the twenty-ninth year of King Wu-Ting (November 23, 1311 BCE)." Some time later in 1137 BCE, the Shang Emporer Ti- hsin is noted as ordering a sacrifice because the predicted lunar eclipse occurred on the wrong day. (5)
The Chinese were very conservative and they clung to old ways of observing the sun and stars. By 700 BCE the Chinese observed the shadows of the sun from special towers (gnomens) which remained in continuous use for calendrical use for 1500 years.
By 350 BCE the length of the solar year was known to be 365 1/4 days, based on the helical rise of Spica in the constellation of Virgo.
Cosmological ideas were interwoven with the Chinese world concept, which embodied the knowledge of the celestial sphere with its daily rotation around a pole. The horizon played a role, but the planets were not considered important, although their motions were noticed.
There were three cosmological theories that evolved by 100 CE and which may be predate to 2000 BCE although no one is sure. These theories are:
The Chinese may or may not have believed in the flat earth. The earth was often depicted as a square within the circle of the cosmos - as an examination of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing indicates - but this does not mean they thought the earth itself was flat. Finding the world center (or naval) requires fixing the turmoil of chaos at one point which means the energies can be tapped - these become cosmic power points on earth.
Chinese Geomancy (Feng Shui) is a system of maintaining harmony with the intrinsic geometry of all material things and the cosmos. The city of Beijing is laid out on the principle of a cross superimposed on a square - the orientation to true North and South in AD 1410 are now 2 1/2 degrees off of meridian to the west. The Geomancers (magnetic) compass, a Chinese invention, eventually led to the construction of three systems based on variations in field magnetism over time. Which is, of course, the point - the Chinese never discard anything.
In astronomy three systems of numeration are used = those of the "lower degree" are based on the powers of ten and the values are multiplied by ten; those of the "middle degree" where the values are multiplied by 10,000; and those of the "upper degree" where the values are multiplied by 10 to the 8th power, 10 to the 16th power, and 10 to the 32nd power. The Chinese also used a place value system separate from the numeral system it was positional from the start and is independently derived and incorporates the concept of zero without the zero sign.
Similarly, the Chinese developed Pythagoras' theorem without Pythagoras and Pascal's Triangle without Pascal.
The Greeks were great geometers and philosophers, many of whom thought circles and spheres were absolute perfection. Such thoughts led to both truth and error, but at least the Greeks were thinking. One of the first great truths they discovered was that the world was a sphere, along with proofs of that fact and some good measurements of distances.
The Greeks about 500 BCE were trying to explain the movements of the planets by first assuming the Earth to be the center of the universe. A philosopher named Anaximenes about 550 BCE suggested that the stars were fixed in a huge hollow sphere that enclosed the Earth, the Sun, the moon and the planets which moved in circles as a cap upon the head. He also postulated that the stars gave light but no heat because they were far away.
The heavenly sphere might be motionless while the earth turned or vice-versa. The Greeks argued both ways. Perhaps you can see why when you watch the planetarium sky.
The Order of the Greek Spheres:
Sphere of the Stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Earth
If you've heard of being in seventh heaven - it is arrived at by counting the spheres after the moon's sphere.
Some Greeks, Aristarchus of Samos for example, believed that the Earth rotated on its axis and that Mercury and Venus traveled about the Sun. Using geometric ideas, he also postulated that the Sun was larger than the Earth. About 250 BCE, Aristarchus suggested that though the moon traveled about the Earth and the other planets, including the Earth traveled about the sun. His was the heliocentric theory.
The heliocentric theory was never accepted by the Greeks, partially because the great philosopher Aristotle, about 50 years before, had already "proved" by many philosophical arguments that the Earth must be the center of the universe, and Aristotle's authority won out.
Ptolemy (125 CE) a theorist living in Alexandrian Egypt, put the geocentric theory with a mathematical mode of epicycles and deferents (to be explained later) into final shape in a book called (by the Arabs) the Almagest. After Ptolemy's generation, the ancient civilizations began to decline. No one came along to challenge him or improve his theory. Astronomy came to a halt in Europe with the fall of Rome.
For 1400 years Ptolemy had the last word on the theory of the universe. However, about 1450, a German Cardinal of the Catholic Church, Nicholas of Cusa, began to wonder if the Earth might be moving about the Sun. He didn't worK out a theory in detail, but in the late 1400's a young Polish student, Nicholas Copernicus, began the great revolution against Ptolemy.
Outline of "Greek" Cosmological Thought.
In contrast with the Babylonian astronomers who were observers of the apparent motion of the moon, sun, planets and stars, the Greek thinkers were called "philosophers" because their speculations on the nature of things dealt with the world in it's entirety. Some Greek thinkers were also mathematicians, but few were astronomical observers preferring, instead, to think about what had already been observed by others.
The ideas of a few of these important philosophers are listed below with a sentence or two concerning their basic trends of thought.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO HELENISTIC SCIENCE AND COSMOLOGICAL THOUGHT:
Letter of Paul "To the Ephesians" ca. AD 180. (6)
Ephe 1:10 "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, but which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:"
Ephe 2:2 "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:" (The 'air' is the atmosphere between the earth and the lowest of the celestial spheres that surround it).
Ephe 3:9 "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:" (The Creative word).
Ephe 3:10 "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God," (The heavenly spheres were the abode of the stars, subordinate gods and demons who operate in nature and influence the earth).
Ephe 3:18 "May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;" (The spherical cosmos extends from zenith to nadir and from horizon to horizon).
Ephe 4:14 "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;" (Remember Saturn devouring his children?).
Ephe 4:17 "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:"
Ephe 6:12 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,...." (An explicit association of the cosmic powers with the devil). The City of Ephesus is an ancient city located in Ionia, Asia Minor. Most reknowned is the great temple of Artemis the chaste huntress, virgin goddess of the Moon and protector of women. Christian tradition tells us that Jesus' mother lived out the rest of her life at Ephesus.
The book of Acts tell us that Paul was harrassed while speaking at Ephesus, which is the confrontation between Christ (the word) and Artemis (the goddess):
Acts 19:23-28 "And about that time there was no little disturbance about the Way. For a certain silversmith named Demetrius was making silver shrines of Artemis, providing no little trade for the craftsmen. And assembling the workmen about such things, he said, Men, you understand that from this trade is our wealth. And you see and hear that not only Ephesus, but almost all of Asia this Paul persuading has perverted a huge crowd, saying that those being made by hands are not gods. And not only is this dangerous to us, lest our part come to be in contempt, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted nothing, and her majesty is also about to be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships. And hearing, and becoming full of anger, they cried out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (7) An interesting outcome follows.
The people of the Indian subcontinent established a complicated and integrated cosmological system.
The cosmology of India is based on the idea of the unity of the cosmos and that it should be perceived as an organic whole in which all parts are inter-dependent. The Sun (Surya)is the center of creation, the point at which the manifest (seen) and unmanifest (unseen) worlds unite and is the visible source of the world in which we live. But all worlds destruct in Time (Kala) and dissolve back to the unmanifest.
In the Hindu number system, there are the designated numbers from 1 to 9 and Sanskrit words to designate them:
1 = eka, 2 = dvi, 3 = tri, 4 = catur
There is also a collection of Sanskrit words representing things, ideas, persons which also are used as number symbols - some of which have cosmologic significance. For example, the concept ONE can also be designated:
Pitamaha = "first father" (Brahma); Adi = "beginning" ; Tanu = "body"
The Hindus also developed the concept of ZERO to indicate the absence of units of a certain order ( viyad - sky, ambara - atmosphere, akasa - space, sunya - void, bindu - dot). These can be expresed in ascending orders of the powers of ten.
Social and Behavioral Sciences E-Campus Comments to: joanaa@umd5.umd.edu Content copyright © 1986-1999 Joan A. Andersen; Revised: 19 March 1999 URL: http://www.erols.com/bcccsbs/c2science.htm