Related papers: On the Astronomical Records and Babylonian Chronol…
The recently shown two premises (Gurzadyan 2000), i.e. the absence of 56/64 year Venus cycle constraints, at the importance of the 8-year cycle in the Venus Tablet, stimulated new studies on the Chronology of the Ancient Near East (2nd…
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,…
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…
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…
This is a historian's view of how modern astronomy data can be used to discuss the shifting historical worldview of Late Antiquity. In this article an attemp is made to construct an approximate model of how the cycles of astronomical…
This paper introduces two astronomical methods developed through computational simulation to evaluate the historical dating of ancient astronomical sources. The first identifies a 1151-year planetary cycle based on the recurrence of visible…
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…
We report the empirical detection of a multi-planet quasi-commensurability in the Solar System and identify an anomalous exclusion that may bear on the dynamical history of Uranus. An exhaustive search identifies T* = 420,403 days (approx.…
The Astronomical Diaries from Babylonia (ADB) are an excellent source of information of natural phenomena, including astronomical ones, in pre-Christ era because it contains the record of highly continuous and systematic observations. In…
Astronomical observations were used as a marker for time and the Calendar from ancient times. A more subtle calibration of epochs is thrown up by an observation of the position of the solstices and equinoxes, because these points shift in…
We examine in detail 15 Babylonian observations of lunar appulses and occultations made between 80 and 419 BC for the purpose of setting useful limits on Earth's clock error, as quantified by $\Delta$T, the difference between Terrestrial…
In a previous work, we establish that the acclaimed 'Arabic' records of SN 1054 from ibn Butlan originate from Europe. Also, we reconstructed the European sky at the time of the event and find that the 'new star' (SN 1054) was in the west…
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…
Total solar eclipses are not only astronomical spectacles but also great astrophysical laboratories. Their historical records are particularly helpful for assessing the past variability of the Earth's rotation speed. Chinese records played…
Astronomical (or Milankovi\'c) forcing of the Earth system is key to understanding rhythmic climate change on time scales >~ 10 kyr. Paleoceanographic and paleoclimatological applications concerned with past astronomical forcing rely on…
Astronomy is in an era where all-sky surveys are mapping the Galaxy. The plethora of photometric, spectroscopic, asteroseismic and astrometric data allows us to characterise the comprising stars in detail. Here we quantify to what extent…
Determining the chronology of ancient handwritten manuscripts is essential for reconstructing the evolution of ideas. For the Dead Sea Scrolls, this is particularly important. However, there is an almost complete lack of date-bearing…
It is shown that the refraction near the horizon is introducing an additional bias into the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa, which is able to influence the interpretation of the data. We then discuss the attempts to link certain solar eclipses…
In early 2011, the discovery of two planets moving on surprisingly extreme orbits around the eclipsing polar cataclysmic variable system HU Aquraii was announced based on variations in the timing of mutual eclipses between the two central…
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.…