Ancient Egyptian astronomy: timekeeping and cosmography in the new kingdom
The study of astronomy in Ancient Egypt has traditionally fallen between the fields of Egyptology, astronomy, archaeoastronomy,and history of science. Researchersfrom all four disciplines have looked at the area from different perspectives. In addition however, there have been reasonswhy researchershave not tackled the field: Egyptologists have felt it required too much technical knowledge while other researchershave believed that those capable of reading the texts are most suited to studying the material.
Total solar eclipses in Ancient Egypt
The sun played such an important role in the life of Ancient Egyptians, particularly in their religion that it is surprising that there is virtually no mention of solar eclipses in ancient records from the Nile valley.
A New View of Early Greek Astronomy
In our view, however, planetary theory was not central to early Greek astronomy as Simplicius and Geminus suggest;
Astral Divination in the Context of Mesopotamian Divination, Medicine, Religion, Magic, Society, and Scholarship
The fundamental premise lying behind celestial and other forms of divination in Mesopotamia was that the gods would, on occasions, impart information to humans through signs, that could bode both well and ill, providing a positive or negative answer to a query, or more specific (unfalsifiable) information on what will happen in the future.
Was there Science in Ancient Judaism? Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Religion and Science
This essay will attempt to map part of this terrain and to chart directions for further study. It will begin by considering some of the methodological challenges involved in seeking evidence for scientific interests and inquiries in our ancient Jewish sources. It will then survey material related to astronomy and cosmology in Second Temple and Rabbinic Jewish sources.
The Star of Bethlehem — a Comet in 5 BC — and the Date of the Birth of Christ
The star of Bethlehem has been considered either to be mythical or a miraculous object beyond the bounds of scientific explanation or a real astronomical phenomenon. The question of whether a celestial phenomenon reported in ancient literature in an historical context was a real astronomical object is one which occurs quite frequently.