Ephemeris (Babylonian mathematical astronomy)

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babylonian: Ephemeris / Ephemerides (modern scholarly genre-label for ACT 1-199 lunar + ACT 300-799 planetary tabular-output corpus)

Definition

A Babylonian Ephemeris is the Late-Babylonian cuneiform text-genre carrying the tabulated computational output of System A or System B procedures: parallel columns of numbers giving, line by line, the longitudes and times of the synodic phenomena of the Moon or a planet over a regular sequence of months or years. Neugebauer compares them to a modern "nautical almanac." Ephemerides pair with Procedure Texts (which carry the computational rules) as the two complementary ACT text-classes.

In Tradition

Neugebauer, Hunger-Pingree, and Rochberg concur in treating Ephemerides as the principal documentary basis for reconstructing Babylonian mathematical astronomy: the theoretical rules are abstracted from the completed columns of computed numbers. Rochberg notes the columns generate the synodic phenomena via λ = f(λ) (System A) or λ = f(n) (System B); a lunar Ephemeris may carry up to eighteen columns each realising a specific computational function of time.

In Practice

For the student of Late-Babylonian mathematical astronomy, the Ephemeris is the tabulated end-product whose internal structure reveals the underlying System A or System B procedures. Hunger-Pingree organise the ACT corpus: lunar Ephemerides ACT 1-199 in Volume 1; planetary Ephemerides ACT 300-799 in Volume 2 (grouped by planet). Rochberg locates the canonical column-labels: in a lunar Ephemeris, Column E carries lunar latitude, Column F carries lunar velocity; Column Φ (System B) carries the zigzag function for the variable solar velocity. The columns track synodic-phenomena dates and longitudes — new moons, eclipses, planetary first/last visibilities, stations — rather than positions at arbitrary dates. Rochberg cautions that direct use of Ephemerides for horoscope construction is hard to demonstrate; rounded computational values may have been taken for horoscopes, but the Almanac is the more natural empirical-input bridge.

Historical Origin

Surviving Babylonian Ephemerides cover, with only minor gaps, the years 227 to 48 BCE; Neugebauer counts fewer than 250, more than half lunar, the rest planetary. Modern critical treatments: Neugebauer, *Astronomical Cuneiform Texts* (1955), the foundational edition; *The Exact Sciences in Antiquity* (1957/1969), Ch. V §46 pp. 105-106; Hunger-Pingree, *Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia* (1999), Ch. II §C4.2 p. 230; Rochberg, *The Heavenly Writing* (2004), Ch. 4 §4.2.4 pp. 157-158.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading