In the second millennium b.c., Babylonian scribes assembled a
vast collection of astrological omens, believed to be signs from
the gods concerning the kingdom's political, military, and
agricultural fortunes. The importance of these omens was such that
from the eighth or seventh until the first century, the scribes
observed the heavens nightly and recorded the dates and locations
of ominous phenomena of the moon and planets in relation to stars
and constellations. The observations were arranged in monthly
reports along with notable events and prices of agricultural
commodities, the object being to find correlations between
phenomena in the heavens and conditions on earth. These collections
of omens and observations form the first empirical science of
antiquity and were the basis of the first mathematical science,
astronomy. For it was discovered that planetary phenomena, although
irregular and sometimes concealed by bad weather, recur in limited
periods within cycles in which they are repeated on nearly the same
dates and in nearly the same locations.
N. M. Swerdlow's book is a study of the collection and
observation of ominous celestial phenomena and of how intervals of
time, locations by zodiacal sign, and cycles in which the phenomena
recur were used to reduce them to purely arithmetical computation,
thereby surmounting the greatest obstacle to observation, bad
weather. The work marks a striking advance in our understanding of
both the origin of scientific astronomy and the astrological
divination through which the kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia were
governed.
Originally published in 1998.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905.
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