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Babylonian astronomy collated earlier observations and divinations into sets of Babylonian star catalogues, during and after the Kassite rule over Babylonia. These star catalogues, written in cuneiform script, contained lists of constellations, individual stars, and planets. The constellations were probably collected from various other sources. The earliest catalogue, Three Stars Each, mentions stars of Akkad, of Amurru, of Elam and others. Various sources have theorized a Sumerian origin for these Babylonian constellations, but an Elamite origin has also been proposed. A connection to the star symbology of Kassite kudurru border stones has also been claimed, but whether such kudurrus really represented constellations and astronomical information aside from the use of the symbols remains unclear.
References
- Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book, Diane 1989
- Michael Rice, Who's Who in Ancient Egypt, Routledge 1999, p. 54
- Scott B Noegel, Joel Thomas Walker, Brannon M Wheeler, Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, Penn State Press 2003, pp. 123ff.
- ↑ Clagett, Marshall (1995). Ancient Egyptian Science: Volume 2: Calendars, clocks, and Astronomy. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-214-6.
- ↑ Claget, op.cit. pp.489ff.
- ↑ Noegel et al., op.cit., pp.143f
- ↑ Lehoux, Daryn (2007). Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World. New York: Cambridge University. ISBN 978-0-521-85181-7.
- ↑ "Harkhebi (crater)". babylon-software.com. Babylon. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
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