Lunar eclipse from 19./20. March 702 BC Chr.

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Course of the lunar eclipse (source: NASA ).

The lunar eclipse of 19./20. March 702 BC BC (-701 according to astronomical time calculation ) is handed down in a Babylonian cuneiform note and belongs to the genre of the ACT texts . The 19th / 20th century specified in the Julian calendar system . March 702 BC In conversion to today's Gregorian calendar corresponds to the 12./13. March 702 BC Chr.

Today the cuneiform tablet BM 45640 is in the British Museum in London . This record acquired special significance because it refers to the Babylonian king Bel-ibni .

First translations

The Assyriologist Johann Strassmaier and the astronomers Josef Epping and Franz-Xaver Kugler first began to translate the Babylonian-astronomical cuneiform text.

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 the Babylonian astronomical history to this day, was published.

Babylonian text BM 45640 (LBAT 1415)

The astronomical event mentioned was a partial lunar eclipse , which had to be dated precisely based on the information in the cuneiform text. By checking with other historical eclipses, it was found that the historical dates deviate from the back-calculated values. The corresponding time difference is referred to as " Δ T ".

Taking into account the Δ T , the lunar eclipse in Babylonia began around 4:00 a.m. on March 20  ,  702 BC. And reached its maximum at around 6:35 am. The scribe of the Babylonian cuneiform text noted the exact time of the lunar eclipse:

“Bel-ibni 1st year: [First month ( Nisannu ) ... beginning] on the southern side. [He] darkened [... before sunrise . "

- BM 45640 (LBAT 1415)

See also

literature

  • 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 According to mostly unpublished sources from the British Museum .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).
  • Francis Richard Stephenson : Historical Eclipses and Earth's rotation . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-521-46194-4 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Date in the proleptic Julian calendar .
  2. ^ Jean Meeus : Astronomical Algorithms - Applications for Ephemeris Tool 4,5 - , Barth, Leipzig 2000 for: Ephemeris Tool 4,5 according to Jean Meeus, conversion program, 2001 .
  3. ↑ 5 hours and 20 minutes.
  4. ↑ The month that is no longer legible has been reconstructed, so a reliable assignment cannot be made.
  5. ↑ The sunrise occurred around 6:20 a.m. local time.
  6. ^ Francis Richard Stephenson: Historical Eclipses and Earth's rotation . P. 194.