The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World

Editor: 
John M. Steele

Publication Year: 
2016

Publisher:
Brill

Abstract:

Astronomical and astrological knowledge circulated in many ways in the ancient world: in the form of written texts and through oral communication; by the conscious assimilation of sought-after knowledge and the unconscious absorption of ideas to which scholars were exposed. The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World explores the ways in which astronomical knowledge circulated between different communities of scholars over time and space, and what was done with that knowledge when it was received. Examples are discussed from Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, India, and China.

Table of Contents:

Front Matter
pp i –x

Introduction
pp 1 –4

The Brown School of the History of Science: Historiography and the Astral Sciences
pp 5 –17

Astral Knowledge in an International Age: Transmission of the Cuneiform Tradition, ca. 1500–1000 B.C.
pp 18 –54

Traditions of Mesopotamian Celestial-Divinatory Schemes and the 4th Tablet of Šumma Sin ina Tāmartišu
pp 55 –82

The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge between Babylon and Uruk
pp 83 –118

The Micro-Zodiac in Babylon and Uruk: Seleucid Zodiacal Astrology
pp 119 –138

Virtual Moons over Babylonia: The Calendar Text System, Its Micro-Zodiac of 13, and the Making of Medical Zodiology
pp 139 –229

On the Concomitancy of the Seemingly Incommensurable, or Why Egyptian Astral Tradition Needs to be Analyzed within Its Cultural Context
pp 230 –244

Some Astrologers and Their Handbooks in Demotic Egyptian
pp 245 –286

The Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria
pp 287 –315

Interpolated Observations and Historical Observational Records in Ptolemy’s Astronomy
pp 316 –349

Mesopotamian Lunar Omens in Justinian’s Constantinople
pp 350 –395

A Parallel Universe: The Transmission of Astronomical Terminology in Early Chinese Almanacs (Ethan Harkness)
pp 396 –415

Mercury and the Case for Plural Planetary Traditions in Early Imperial China
(Daniel Patrick Morgan)
pp 416 –450

Calendrical Systems in Early Imperial China: Reform, Evaluation and Tradition
(Yuzhen Guan)
pp 451 –477

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac during the Tang and Song Dynasties: A Set of Signs Which Lost Their Meanings within Chinese Horoscopic Astrology
pp 478 –526

On the Dunhuang Manuscript P.4071: A Case Study on the Sinicization of Western Horoscope in Late 10th Century China
pp 527 –558

Were Planetary Models of Ancient India Strongly Influenced by Greek Astronomy?
pp 559 –575

Indexes
pp 577 –585