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    09/01/2025, 14:11 Babylonian astronomy - Wikipedia

    Babylonian astronomy
    Babylonian astronomy was the study or
    recording of celestial objects during the early
    history of Mesopotamia. The numeral system used,
    sexagesimal, was based on sixty, as opposed to ten
    in the modern decimal system. This system
    simplified the calculating and recording of
    unusually great and small numbers.[1]

    During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian


    astronomers developed a new empirical approach to
    astronomy. They began studying and recording
    their belief system and philosophies dealing with an
    ideal nature of the universe and began employing
    an internal logic within their predictive planetary
    systems. This was an important contribution to
    astronomy and the philosophy of science, and some
    modern scholars have thus referred to this
    approach as a scientific revolution.[2] This approach
    to astronomy was adopted and further developed in
    Greek and Hellenistic astrology. Classical Greek and
    Latin sources frequently use the term Chaldeans for
    the philosophers, who were considered as priest-
    scribes specializing in astronomical and other forms
    of divination. Babylonian astronomy paved the way
    A Babylonian tablet recording Halley's comet in
    for modern astrology and is responsible for its
    164 BC
    spread across the Graeco-Roman empire during the
    2nd Century, Hellenistic Period. The Babylonians
    used the sexagesimal system to trace the planets transits, by dividing the 360 degree sky into 30
    degrees, they assigned 12 zodiacal signs to the stars along the ecliptic.

    Only fragments of Babylonian astronomy have survived, consisting largely of contemporary clay
    tablets containing astronomical diaries, ephemerides and procedure texts, hence current
    knowledge of Babylonian planetary theory is in a fragmentary state.[3] Nevertheless, the surviving
    fragments show that Babylonian astronomy was the first "successful attempt at giving a refined
    mathematical description of astronomical phenomena" and that "all subsequent varieties of
    scientific astronomy, in the Hellenistic world, in India, in Islam, and in the West … depend upon
    Babylonian astronomy in decisive and fundamental ways."[4]

    Old Babylonian astronomy

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_astronomy 1/10

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