Related papers: The April 1, 2471 b.C. eclipse and the end of 4th …

Recently, arXiv published a work by G. Magli about the eclipse of 1 April 2471 BC and a supposed influence of it on the end of the fourth Egyptian dynasty and the beginning of the fifth one. In Magli's arXiv/2412.13640 paper, the eclipse is…

For many decades scholars converse how to correctly include the Old Babylonian Empire into the absolute timeline of history. A cuneiform text from the series Enuma Anu Enlil (EAE #20) reports on the destruction of Babylon after a lunar and…

We suggest an earlier date for the accession of the pharaoh Akhenaten of the New Kingdom in Egypt. His first year of reign would be placed in 1382 BCE. This conjecture is based on the possible witness of three annular eclipses of the sun…

We reanalyse the solar eclipse linked to the Biblical passage about the military leader Joshua who ordered the sun to halt in the midst of the day (Joshua 10:12). Although there is agreement that the basic story is rooted in a real event,…

We present a review on the renowned solar eclipse in the Chinese book "Shujing" describing the oldest account of this kind. After balancing the arguments on the time, place, and the celestial stage, we offer a new scenario. The path of…

The traditional date of 1595 BCE for the destruction of Babylon by the Hittite king Mursili I is accepted by most historians for many years despite notable controversies. This pivotal date is considered crucial to the various calculations…

We reconsider the description of a solar eclipse in the Coptic ostracon in the Egyptian museum, Turin, confirming its identification with the solar eclipse of 10 march 601. This provides one of very few fixed dates in Coptic chronology. We…

The mysterious lines in the desert of Nazca in southern Peru received many attempts at an explanation. We discuss the possibility that their origin is based on solar eclipses which could have evoked some kind of "reaction" by the…

This illustrated article represents a popular account of the study of the Babylonian astronomical records of Enuma Anu Enlil tablet series i.e. of the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa and of two lunar eclipses linked with the IIIrd dynasty of Ur,…

The pyramids of ancient Egypt are said to have shone brilliantly in the sun. Surfaces of polished limestone would not only have reflected diffusely in all directions, but would also likely have produced specular reflections in particular…

The search of a rational explanation of eclipses pervades the beginnings of philosophical and scientific thought. Within this intellectual frame, the knowledge of the "saros cycle" (a cycle of 18 years, 10 or 11 days and 1/3 of a day that…

This article advances the hypothesis that the heightened eschatological sensitivity evident among the historians writing in the 5th century and its weaker echos in the time of Charlemagne were caused by the irregularities of the the…

The total lunar eclipse on March 14, 2025 UT occurs nearly exactly 521 years (one Hypersaros) after a similar eclipse on March 1, 1504 UT that is renowned for its importance to the voyage of Columbus to Jamaica. Eclipses separated by a…

On 31 December 2018 at 10:36:34 UTC shallow earthquake of ML=4.3 took place 25 Km east of Cairo and in the vicinity of the under-construction new Capital city of Egypt (Fig.1). The event was interesting as it was felt with intensity IV up…

The Great Pyramid or Khufu's Pyramid was built on the Giza Plateau (Egypt) during the IVth dynasty by the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), who reigned from 2509 to 2483 BC. Despite being one of the oldest and largest monuments on Earth, there is no…

In this paper we re-examine historical references to the supernova event of 1054 AD with a view to establishing a sequence astronomical events which minimizes apparent conflicts between the various sources. We find that the explosion of the…

The number of planets in the solar system over the last three centuries has, perhaps surprisingly, been less of a fixed value than one would think it should be. In this paper, we look at the specific case of Vulcan, which was both a planet…

The Ancient Egyptians wrote Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky Days that assigned astronomically influenced prognoses for each day of the year. The best preserved of these calendars is the Cairo Calendar (hereafter CC) dated to 1244--1163 B.C.…

According to classical tradition, Thales of Miletus predicted the total solar eclipse that took place on 28 May 585 BCE. Even if some authors have flatly denied the possibility of such a prediction, others have struggled to find cycles…

The blinding of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI in Constantinople in August 797 and his overthrow by his mother Eirene, who then until 802 ruled as first female emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, was used as legitimation for the…