ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Mesopotamian Lunar Visibility, Length of Daylight, and Shadow Length Tables and their Relationship to Greek, Jewish, Egyptian, and Ethiopic Tables

• In Event: Tabular Practices and the Cross-cultural Exchange of Knowledge in Ancient in Medieval Astronomy 3

English Abstract

Several tables for the change in the visibility of the lunar crescent, the length of the day, and the length of the shadow cast by a gnomon are preserved from Mesopotamia. All of these tables are based upon simple numerical schemes which are part of a tradition of numerically descriptive schematic astronomy. In this paper I will examine these tables and compare them with similar tables from Greece, Qumran, Egypt and Ethiopia. Particular attention will be paid to whether there is a relationship between these and their Mesopotamian counterparts and how material was adjusted to local contexts and local styles of presentation.

Author

• John Steele, Brown University