Werner Papke (historian)

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Werner Papke (* 1944 in Allenstein ) is a German natural science historian and religious scholar .

He studied biophysics , history of science and ancient oriental studies . In 1978 he received his doctorate from the University of Tübingen with a thesis on the MUL.APIN tablets , cuneiform tablets with lists of the heliacal rising of the constellations in the sky. From 1983 he worked at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences in the Deutsches Museum in Munich . Since 1985 he has taught at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

He gained fame through his book Die Sterne von Babylon , in which he subjected the Gilgamesh epic to an astronomical interpretation. His speculative theses, however, were received only cautiously by specialist science.

Although his dissertation was recognized by van der Waerden , at that time the authority in the field of ancient astronomy, the overall reaction was negative, especially among the ancient orientalists. Its dating of the MUL.APIN tablets to the 3rd millennium BC BC, deviating from the generally accepted dating around 1000 BC. BC was particularly rejected by Johannes Koch. He therefore self-published more recent works.

Fonts

  • The cuneiform series MUL. APIN, Document of Scientific Astronomy in the 3rd Millennium. Dissertation. University of Tübingen 1978.
  • Corresponding culminations and heliacal ascents in MUL.APIN. In: Oriens Antiquus. 19. 1980, pp. 193-204.
  • Two Pleiades switching rules from the 3rd millennium. In: Archive for Orient Research. 31, 1984, pp. 67-70.
  • The stars of Babylon. The secret message of Gilgamesh - deciphered after 4000 years. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, ISBN 3-7857-0498-4 . New edition: Weltbild, Augsburg 1993, ISBN 3-89350-551-2 . Contains a translation of the first panel of the MUL.APIN cuneiform series as well as a translation of the Gilgamesh epic (pp. 312–377).
  • The mark of the Messiah. A scientist identifies the star of Bethlehem. CLV, Bielefeld 1995, ISBN 3-89397-369-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bartel L. van der Waerden: Greek astronomical calendars I. The parapegma of Euctemon. In: Archive for History of Exact Sciences 29, No. 2 (1984), pp. 101-114. See also: van der Waerden: The astronomy of the Greeks. An introduction. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1988. S. 3f.
  2. ^ Hermann Hunger , David Pingree : Mul.Apin: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform. Berger, Horn (Lower Austria) 1989, p. 10ff ( PDF )
  3. ↑ For the reception see also Dieter Koch: The Bullfight of Gilgamesh. ISBN 978-3-9318-0605-7 , pp. 16ff [1]
  4. ↑ Johannes Koch: Book review “W. Papke, The Star of Babylon ”. In: Welt des Orients 14 (1993) pp. 213-222; Heinz Neumann: Notes on Johannes Koch, New Investigations on the Topography of the Babylonian Fixed Star Sky. In: Archive for Orient Research. Volumes 38-39; Johannes Koch trials and tribulations of a review. In: Archive for Orient Research. 38-39 (1991-1992), pp. 125-130
personal data
SURNAME Papke, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German science historian and religious scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Allenstein