NATURE 



553 



EARLY ASTRONOMY. 



Researches into the Origin of the Primitive Constellations 



of the Greeks, Phoenicians and Babylonians. By 



Robert Brown, jun. \'ol. i. Pp. xvi + 361. (London : 



Williams and Norgate, 1899.) 



THE early history of the science of astronomy is a 

 very fascinating, but also a very difficult, subject 

 tor study, inasmuch as it is almost impossible to say with 

 ;ertainty at what point astrology ends and astronomy 

 Degins. That accurate observations of the stars were 

 ! made by the Egyptians at a very remote period of their 

 history, has been conclusively proved by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer, from a study of the orientation of the principal 

 Egyptian temples ; but in its dawn astronomy was of an 

 essentially religious and magical character. The desire 

 to obtain a knowledge of the future from the aspect of the 

 heavens, was doubtless one of the principal motives which 

 actuated the Egyptians, the Chinese, and, in particular, 

 the Babylonians in their earlier observations of the stars ; 

 land it was only after many centuries that the practice of 

 'astrology gave place to more scientific aims and methods. 

 That the Babylonians took astronomical observations 

 from an early period is attested by general tradition, 

 'which in some cases, however, e.xhibits curious exagger- 

 ation. Pliny, for instance, refers to certain calculations 

 (in accordance with one of which the Babylonians pos- 

 sessed recorded observations extending over a period of 

 490,000 years, while according to another their calcu- 

 jlations reached back to some 720,000 years. Yet, in spite 

 lof such absurdities, there was doubtless a substratum of 

 ] truth in the tradition, and it is probable that the Baby- 

 lonians, like the ancient Egyptians, from a very remote 

 period were watching the stars and laying the foundations 

 I of astronomy. During the Assyrian empire we know 

 I that important astronomical schools existed at Ashur, 

 Nineveh and Arbela in the eighth and seventh centuries 

 I B.C., and a number of reports made by the royal astro- 

 logers have come down to us. From these reports, and 

 j from the lists of stars, observations and calendars of the 

 ' same period that we possess, we may conclude that at 

 ! this time the science was still in its astrological stage of 

 ! development. 



Some eighteen years ago excavations were undertaken 

 at Abu-Habbah, the site of the Babylonian city of 

 Sippar, and they resulted in the discovery of numerous 

 fragments of astronomical tablets belonging to the 

 Seleucid and Arsacid eras. They are written in the 

 late Babylonian cursive form of writing, and were found 

 to be very difficult to decipher ; but, after several years of 

 patient study. Dr. Strassmaier and the late astronomer 

 Dr. Epping, working in collaboration, succeeded in 

 accurately determining the contents of many of them. 

 From them we gather that the later Babylonians, 

 although they made their calculations solely by the 

 cumbrous processes of addition and subtraction, did 

 study astronomy on a purely scientific basis. It is true 

 they had no correct conception of the solar system, but 

 they had at least arrived at the conclusion that the 

 NO. 1537, VOL. 59] 



motions of the heavenly bodies were governed by laws 

 and were amenable to calculation ; in fact, the tablets 

 prove that they calculated the time of the new moon's 

 appearance, and the periodical occurrence of lunar and 

 solar eclipses, that they noted the courses of the planets, 

 and included in their observations a number of the 

 principal constellations and fixed stars. In consequence 

 of these discoveries it is now a generally accepted 

 opinion that the Greeks obtained from the Babylonians 

 of this period the greater part of their knowledge of 

 astronomy. 



According to its title-page, Mr. Robert Brown's book 

 is concerned with the " Primitive Constellations of the 

 Greeks, Phoenicians and Babylonians," whatever that 

 may mean. We have read Mr. Brown's book through, 

 and, so far as we understand his position, we gather 

 that he has two principal convictions with regard to the 

 history of early astronomy. One is that the Greeks had 

 a very full and accurate knowledge of the constellations 

 from the earliest period of their history ; the other is 

 that they gained their knowledge at this early period 

 from the Babylonians, through intercourse with the 

 "Hittites" and the Phoenicians. In accordance with 

 his first supposition, Mr. Brown attempts to trace the 

 constellations mentioned by late Greek writers on 

 astronomy to corresponding Akkadian, Babylonian or 

 Assyrian stars and deities ; in accordance with his 

 second supposition, he asserts that the Greeks of the 

 Homeric and pre-Homeric ages were quite familiar 

 with the names of the constellations known to their 

 later descendants. Mr. Brown's methods of proof, if 

 we may so term them, differ for these two theories ; 

 for the first they are philological, for the second 

 archaeological. Mr. Brown devotes the earlier part of 

 his book to developing his first theory, but for the sake 

 of convenience we will reverse his order. 



To prove that the early Greeks were familiar with the 

 later Greek names for the constellations Mr. Brown 

 depends on certain passages in Homer, the figures on 

 Greek coins, and representations in early Greek art. 

 Mr. Brown's method is simple enough ; he approaches 

 his subject with his theory ready made, and looks round 

 for evidence to support it. For instance, the Homeric 

 poems " speak of serpents, horses, charioteers, archers, 

 wreaths, lyres, birds, rams, goats, virgins, doves, fishes, 

 streams, altars, and tripods" (p. 248). Mr. Brown admits 

 that in mentioning an eagle or a hare. Homer may have 

 no further meaning than to refer to them as living 

 creatures ; but he proceeds to note as " a singular fact ' 

 that "the poems contain references to almost every 

 figure which formed one of the primitive constellations." 

 Mr. Brown makes the same sort of remarks about the 

 figures of animals, &c., on early Greek coins, which he 

 would like to regard as symbols for constellations, or, 

 at any rate, as " constellational subjects." With regard 

 to such designs upon coins, which have given rise to a 

 good deal of discussion, Prof Ridgeway in his work 

 upon the origin of currency has developed the very 

 ingenious theory that they represented objects of barter, 

 which in course of time were displaced by the more 

 convenient metallic currency. It is possible that Prof. 

 Ridgeway has carried his theory too far in certain 



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