How Can We Incorporate Visual Evidence into the History of the Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia?
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Significant progress has been made in understanding Mesopotamian astronomy and astrology since the decipherment of cuneiform tablets containing astronomical and astrological texts in the late nineteenth century. However, until now few attempts have been made to write a detailed history of the Mesopotamian astral sciences as opposed to detailed studies of particular texts and types of astronomy or astrology. My aim in this paper is to present some ideas of how such a history should be written and in particular to consider if and how visual evidence can be brought alongside textual evidence in the writing of this history. Keywords: Astronomy, Astrology, Drawings, Mesopotamia, Zodiac Wie können wir visuelle Anhaltspunkte in die Geschichte der mesopotamischen Astrowissenschaften integrieren?
Seit der Entzifferung der Keilschrifttafeln mit astronomischen und astrologischen Texten im späten 19. Jahrhundert sind bedeutende Fortschritte zum Verständnis der mesopotamischen Astronomie und Astrologie gemacht worden. Jedoch sind bislang nur wenige Versuche unternommen worden, eine detaillierte Geschichte der mesopotamischen Sternwissenschaften im Gegensatz zu detaillierten Studien spezieller Texte und Typen von Astronomie und Astrologie zu schreiben. Mein Ziel ist es, in diesem Artikel Ideen vorzustellen, wie solch eine Geschichte geschrieben werden könnte. Dabei werde ich mich insbesondere auf die Frage konzentrieren, ob und wenn ja, wie visuelle Anhaltspunkte zusammen mit Texten in eine derartige Geschichte eingebracht werden können. Schlüsselwörter: Astronomie, Astrologie, Mesopotamien, Tierkreis, Zeichnungen
Since the discovery and decipherment of cuneiform tablets containing astronomical and astrological texts in the second half of the nineteenth century a significant number of detailed and penetrating studies of individual or groups of texts or of specific topics within Mesopotamian astral science have been published. These studies have sought to decipher the astronomical and astrological terminology used within these texts, to understand the way that observations and predictions were made and the internal mathematical structure of systems of astronomical calculation, and to reconstruct the origins of systems of mathematical astronomy. Fewer attempts have been made to write a history of Mesopotamian astral science, however.
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John Steele
By this I mean that almost all work in the field has aimed at explaining individual astronomical texts or particular aspects of the astronomy or astrology—a process that combines basic philological research, astronomical and mathematical analysis, and comparison with other texts (Steele a)—as opposed to attempting to bring together all of these individual studies to build a larger understanding of astronomical and astrological activity as well as addressing the historical processes intertwined with its development, the connections between astronomy and other aspects of c
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