SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 



we can gain fewer glimpses in this direction than in al- 

 most any other, for it is the record of war and conquest 

 rather than of the peaceful arts that commanded the 

 attention of the ancient scribe. So in dealing with the 

 scientific achievements of these peoples, we shall per- 

 force consider their varied civilizations as a unity, and 

 attempt, as best we may, to summarize their achieve- 

 ments as a whole. For the most part, we shall not at- 

 tempt to discriminate as to what share in the final 

 product was due to Sumerian, what to Babylonian, and 

 what to Assyrian. We shall speak of Babylonian sci- 

 ence as including all these elements ; and drawing our 

 information chiefly from the relatively late Assyrian 

 and Babylonian sources, which, therefore, represent 

 the culminating achievements of all these ages of ef- 

 fort, we shall attempt to discover what was the actual 

 status of Mesopotamian science at its climax. In so far 

 as we succeed, we shall be able to judge what scientific 

 heritage Europe received from the Orient; for in the 

 records of Babylonian science we have to do with the 

 Eastern mind at its best. Let us turn to the specific 

 inquiry as to the achievements of the Chaldean scien- 

 tist whose fame so dazzled the eyes of his contem- 

 poraries of the classic world. 



BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMY 



Our first concern naturally is astronomy, this being 

 here, as in Egypt, the first-born and the most important 

 of the sciences. The fame of the Chaldean astronomer 

 was indeed what chiefly commanded the admiration of 

 the Greeks, and it was through the results of astronom- 

 ical observations that Babylonia transmitted her most 



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