![]() ![]() “Nowhere ever after has any civilization done anything like it,” he adds. The ancient Babylonians studied the night skies for 700 years, making their work “arguably, the longest lasting scholarly science project that ever existed,” says Frahm. ![]() The ancient stargazers were so intrigued by the mechanics of the heavens - and the possibility of being able to make predictions from what they saw in the night sky - that, from the 8th century to the 1st century BCE, they observed very closely on a daily basis the movements of the stars to determine what exactly was happening in the sky, and documented these observations on clay tablets. In the age before light pollution, the vivid night sky made such a strong impression on our ancient ancestors that they thought that the stars and various other heavenly bodies represented deities, says Yale Assyriologist Eckart Frahm. In fact, astronomy and astrology were important disciplines in this region from early on. Throughout time, celestial events such as these have - in equal parts - piqued curiosity and portended evil.Īncient Mesopotamia was no exception. Just in the first two months of 2019 alone, the night sky has been illuminated by a blood moon, a winter moon, and a super moon. ![]()
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