Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge in the Ancient World

John Steele, PhD (1998), is Professor of the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity in the Department of Egyptology and Assyriology at Brown University. He is the author of A Brief Introduction to Astronomy in the Middle East (Saqi Books 2008), and Ancient Astronomical Observations and the Study of the Moon’s Motion (1691–1757) (Springer 2012), as well as the editor of several volumes including Calendars and Years: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient Near East (Oxbow Books 2007).Contributors are: Dennis Duke, Yuzhen Guan, Ethan Harkness, Alexander Jones, Zoë Misiewicz, M. Willis Monroe, Clemency Montelle, Daniel Patrick Morgan, Weixing Niu, Joachim Friedrich Quack, Francesca Rochberg, Matthew T. Rutz, Shenmi Song, John M. Steele, Zackary Wainer, John Z. Wee, Andreas Winkler.

• List of Figures and TablesIntroduction1 The Brown School of the History of Science: Historiography and the Astral SciencesFrancesca Rochberg2 Astral Knowledge in an International Age: Transmission of the Cuneiform Tradition, ca. 1500–1000b.c.Matthew T. Rutz3 Traditions of Mesopotamian Celestial-Divinatory Schemes and the 4th Tablet of Šumma Sin ina TāmartišuZackary Wainer4 The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge between Babylon and UrukJohn M. Steele5 The Micro-Zodiac in Babylon and Uruk: Seleucid Zodiacal AstrologyM. Willis Monroe6 Virtual Moons over Babylonia: The Calendar Text System, Its Micro-Zodiac of 13, and the Making of Medical Zodiology John Z. Wee7 On the Concomitancy of the Seemingly Incommensurable, or Why Egyptian Astral Tradition Needs to be Analyzed within Its CulturalContextJoachim Friedrich Quack8 Some Astrologers and Their Handbooks in Demotic Egyptian Andreas Winkler9 The Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of AlexandriaClemency Montelle10 Interpolated Observations and Historical Observational Records in Ptolemy’s AstronomyAlexander Jones11 Mesopotamian Lunar Omens in Justinian’s ConstantinopleZoë Misiewicz12 A Parallel Universe: The Transmission of Astronomical Terminology in Early Chinese AlmanacsEthan Harkness13 Mercury and the Case for Plural Planetary Traditions in Early Imperial ChinaDaniel Patrick Morgan14 Calendrical Systems in Early Imperial China: Reform, Evaluation and TraditionYuzhen Guan15 The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac during the Tang and Song Dynasties: A Set of Signs Which Lost Their Meanings within Chinese Horoscopic AstrologyShenmi Song16 On the Dunhuang Manuscript p.4071: A Case Study on the Sinicization of Western Horoscope in Late 10th Century ChinaWeixing Niu17 Were Planetary Models of Ancient India Strongly Influenced by Greek Astronomy? Dennis DukeIndex of Modern Authors Index of SubjectsIndex of Sources