Related papers: Astronomy and the Fall of Babylon
The main source of information regarding ancient Mesopotamian history and culture are clay cuneiform tablets. Despite being an invaluable resource, many tablets are fragmented leading to missing information. Currently these missing parts…
We present two Arabic texts of historic observations of supernova SN 1006 from Yemen as reported by al-Yamani and Ibn al-Dayba (14th to 16th century AD). An English translation of the report by the latter was given before (Stephenson &…
We investigate possible reasons for the absence of historical records of the supernova of 1054 in Europe. At the same time, we search for the new evidences as well. We establish that the previously acclaimed 'Arabic' records from ibn Butlan…
Recently it has been discovered that on a stone tablet over 3800 years old, the Plimpton-322 table, are carved the geometric relations that exist between the sides of 15 right triangles chosen in a very special way. Due to its property as a…
We report the results of a detailed numerical study designed to estimate both the absolute age and the uncertainty in age (with confidence limits) of the oldest globular clusters. Such an estimate is essential if a comparison with the…
This study aims timing the eclipses of the short period low mass binary star AB And. The times of minima are taken from the literature and from our observations in October 2013 (22 times of minima) and in August 2014 (23 times of minima).…
Around the turn of the first Millennium AD, both in Christian polities such as the Byzantine Empire as well as in Buddhist communities such as in Heian Japan, expectations of an end of times emerged. Although based on different religious…
Ratios and coefficients are used to simplify calculations. For geometric usage these values also called function values. Like in Egypt also in Babylon such a value system can be shown. The reconstructed calculation sequence, of the Plimpton…
This paper examines the theory of a Babylonian origin of Aryabhata's planetary constants. It shows that Aryabhata's basic constant is closer to the Indian counterpart than to the Babylonian one. Sketching connections between Aryabhata's…
I review the history of scientific research on galaxy clusters, from 1784, the year of publication of Messier's catalogue, to 1983, the year of George O. Abell's premature death. My review covers four main topics: 1) the distribution of…
Previously, the most prominent explanation for the Star of Bethlehem was to identify one of many astronomical events in the sky as being the inspiration for the trip of the Magi. However, all the astronomical answers have detailed…
In a recent paper in Antiquity (Darvill 2022), the author has proposed that the project of the <<sarsen>> phase (stage 2) of Stonehenge (c. 2600 BC) was conceived in order to represent a calendar year of 365.25 days, that is, a calendar…
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…
This paper examines the predictions made by Chinese, Muslim and Jesuit astronomers of the eclipse of 21 June 1629 in Beijing, allegedly the event that determined Emperor Chongzhen's resolution to reform the calendar using the Western…
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…
Many have have taken in hand to write a treatise on the Star of Bethlehem, particularly on Kepler's explanation as a stellar birth, triggered by Mars joining a great conjunction (a meeting of Jupiter and Saturn), as he observed it in…
I discuss how modern cosmology illustrates under-determination of theoretical hypotheses by data, in ways that are different from most philosophical discussions. I emphasize cosmology's concern with what data could in principle be collected…
The beginning of the calendar record inscribed on the Mamari tablet has been dated to the day of the summer solstice of December 20, 1680 A.D. The moon was not visible earlier at night. Because of a possible solar eclipse it was a perilous…
Auroral records found in historical archives and cosmogenic isotopes found in natural archives have served as sound proxies of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar energetic particles (SEPs), respectively, for dates prior to the onset of…
D\'ungal's letter to Charlemagne on the double solar eclipse in the year 810 is extremely interesting both for its form and for its subject matter. Part I of the present study deals with the epistula as a literary work (genre, language,…