Abstract
THE traditional view that the knowledge of astronomy of the Greece of classical times had been derived from Egypt, a view to which the writings of the Greeks themselves lent support, has lost favour with increased acquaintance with the achievement of the peoples of Mesopotamia in this branch of science, and of the indebtedness of Greek thought to Babylonian and Assyrian conceptions of the nature and movements of the heavenly bodies. At the same time, research on the astronomical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians has shown that its basis of exact and scientific observation has, if anything, been overrated. At the recent autumn meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held at Brown University, Providence, R.I., on October 23–25, Dr. O. Neugebauer, in a communication on “The Egyptian Picture of the Sky” (Science, 90, 410; Nov. 3, 1939), pointed out that while Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy are usually quoted as equivalent foundations of Greek, and, therefore, medieval and modern astronomy, really very little is known about Egyptian astronomy. Investigation of Demotic texts, however, has now shown that Egyptian methods of treating the movements of the moon and planets were only very approximate, and without any consideration of details. This picture, Dr. Neugebauer stated, has now been completed by a Demotic text recently purchased by the Egyptological Institute in Copenhagen, which shows how the aspect of the sky and the setting and rising of the stars was connected with the religious myths. The close connexion of religion, especially so far as the underworld is concerned, with the changing aspect of the sky during the year indicates that the main interest of Egyptian astronomy was not a mathematically detailed description of very complex effects, but merely a rough scheme, just good enough to reflect the main traces of the observed facts.
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Astronomy in Ancient Egypt. Nature 144, 1041–1042 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/1441041c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1441041c0