Babylonian Measurement

[Guest guest]

Getting back to a past topic (approximately March 14-16):

 

From my reading I thought it was very clear how the Babylonians observed

the movement of bodies in the sky, so I was surprised to read:

 

" Sidereal motion, back then, was also a matter of pole stars,and thus the

grid of right ascension. As for the equinox, all one needed to do was

measure when the sun rose or set due east or west... " (Ed K) March 14

 

" If you are saying that Fagan found that the Babylonians used an

'ecliptic,' you are surely mistaken. " (Ed K to Ken Bowser)

 

" With regard to the Babylonians having " no concept of the plane of the

ecliptic, " it's important to note that they were EXCLUSIVELY ecliptic

oriented having no concept of equatorial corrdinates as did the Chinese,

for example... " (Ken Bowser, March 15)

 

There's a a little diagram on page 25 of Koch-Westenholz' MESOPOTAMIAN

ASTROLOGY that clearly describes the Babylonian observation of the skies.

The Babylonian horizon was divided into three side-by-side 'paths' or arcs

(Anu, Enlil and Ea) with the equator roughly marking the middle point of

the middle path. These were the 'paths of the Moon through which the Sun

and planets also moved.

 

In the diagram these three nightly paths are marked simply by perpendicular

lines to the horizon, the two equinox points. Constellations were observed

within and without the equinox boundaries (the three paths).

 

The equator reference remains stationary and cuts the horizon at an angle.

There was no measurement of stars and planets related to the equator. The

ecliptic, sun and planets moved across the horizon in the course of the

year, moving from one wide path to the next. However, this doesn't mean the

Babylonians knew what the ecliptic was. The Moon and planets simply teneted

different areas in relation to the horizon at different times of the year.

 

Observing that the Sun, Moon and planets rise at different points along the

horizon during the year may in fact be declination, but there was no

concept of an equator in Mesopotamia. There was no 'grid of right

ascension' as there is today. As the planets stay in the vacinity of the

ecliptic, this means that in fact, astronomers were noting the ecliptic as

it 'moves' along the horizon during the year. The truth is that the three

paths of ancient Mesopotamia were not specifically related to either the

equator or ecliptic as precise circles in space. Rather, the Mesopotamians

dealt with AREAS of the sky, which is not the same thing.

 

So it seems to me that neither of the above views (Ed and Ken) is entirely

right or entirely wrong, at least the way they were stated. The two equinox

points marked the boundaries between the three paths, but the

constellations beyond those boundaries were utilized. As the Moon's

latitude varies throughout the year, the Moon did not stay within the

horizon boundaries of the equinox points and had no particular reference to

an invisible equator.

 

Therese