Ephemeris texts (Babylonia)

Projection of the earth's orbit (ecliptic) onto the constellations of the zodiac

The term Ephemeris Texts (also Astronomical Cuneiform Texts , ACT ) describes Babylonian - mathematical recordings of columns of numbers that contain astronomical assignments of stars , planets or constellations in logograms .

discovery

The Assyriologist Johann Strassmaier and the astronomers Josef Epping and Franz-Xaver Kugler first began translating the approximately 300 surviving Babylonian-astronomical cuneiform texts . The outstanding research achievements of the time were continued by Otto Neugebauer , among others . In 1955 the three-volume standard work Astronomical cuneiform Texts - Babylonian ephemerides of the Seleucid period for the motion of the sun, the moon, and the planets , which still forms the basis of Babylonian astronomical history to this day, was published.

Content of the texts

Three consecutive days of conjunction between the Moon and Venus .

The calculations of the columns of numbers and the astronomical links related to the following topics:

• Time at which the moon is in conjunction or opposition to the sun and which position is taken in each case in the ecliptic . Additional recording of the current speed of the moon.
• Date, times and size of lunar eclipses .
• Cycles of the sunrises and sets and the cycles of the moon rises and sets at the time of conjunctions and oppositions.
• Eastern heliacal rising of the planets and constellations as well as the associated positions in the ecliptic.

literature

• Lis Brack-Bernsen: On the origin of the Babylonian moon theory. Observation and theoretical calculation of moon phases . Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07089-3 , ( Boethius 40), (also: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1997).
• Josef Epping, Johann-Nepomuk Strassmeier: Astronomical things from Babylon or the knowledge of the Chaldeans about the starry sky . Herder, Freiburg 1889, ( parts from Maria-Laach supplementary books 44).
• Franz-Xaver Kugler : astronomy and star service in Babel . Volume 1: Development of Babylonian Planetary Studies from its Beginnings to Christ. According to mostly unpublished sources from the British Museum . Aschendorff, Münster 1907.
• Otto Neugebauer : The exact sciences in antiquity . Unabridged, slightly corrected reprint of the 2nd edition, Brown University Press, 1957. Dover Publications, New York NY 2004, ISBN 0-486-22332-9 , ( Dover classics of science and mathematics ).
• Otto Neugebauer (Ed.): Astronomical cuneiform Texts. Babylonian ephemerides of the Seleucid period for the motion of the sun, the moon, and the planets . Reprint edition. 3 volumes. Springer, New York NY et al. 1983, ISBN 0-387-90812-9 , ( Sources in the history of mathematics and physical sciences 5), (the original edition appeared: Humphries, London 1955).