The Astronomical Diaries (ADs) are a ready of cuneiform tablets recording a multifariousness of observed celestial, climatic, ecological, together with economical phenomena, likewise every bit giving accounts of historical events. They constitute 1 of the largest collections of observational information available from the Ancient World, consisting of to a greater extent than than 1,000 tablets together with fragments dating from ca. 650-60 BCE. The texts are beingness published inwards an ongoing displace since the 1980s.
The ADs are a unique illustration of information gathering for the purpose of establishing an empirical reason for both astronomical together with astrological prediction. The improve purpose of the information contained unremarkably relates to celestial – astronomical together with meteorological – observations, together with inwards item to the put of the Luna inwards the ecliptic during each nighttime of a Babylonian lunar month. However, it has to endure emphasized that the somewhat misleading term 'Astronomical Diaries' is the modern designation past times their afterward editor A. Sachs, who was mainly interested inwards the astronomical content of the tablets. The to a greater extent than neutral Babylonian designation was nasāru ša ginê, pregnant "regular observation". The astronomical department is unremarkably followed past times cost quotations for foodstuffs together with wool, together with a depository fiscal establishment complaint on the degree of the river Euphrates. Often, a historical department is added. The ADs are indeed the unmarried close of import rootage for the political history of Late Achaemenid together with Seleucid Babylonia. Among the historical accounts, the quite extensive written report of the battle of Gaugamela together with Alexander the Great's subsequent entry into the metropolis of Babylon has attracted item attending (AD -330A+B), every bit has the description of preparatory measures preceding the First Syrian War betwixt the Ptolemaic together with the Seleucid Empires inwards 274/3 BCE (AD -273B).
This corpus, the largest coherent trunk of empirical information gathered inwards antiquity, is unique, together with its importance tin hardly endure overrated. Available on Oracc are currently ADART volumes I - III. Publication of farther volumes inwards in progress.
Astronomical Diaries Digital is a constituent of Oracc
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