Near East Astronomy

Improved Essays
The history of mathematics in the near consisted of three distinct divisions of time. The mid-third millennium is when there became evidence for knowledge of symmetry and geometry. Then continuing on into the later third millennium the establishment of accounting for time and labor became prevalent as well as the use of the sexagesimal place value system. The first systematic accounting techniques were developed in the southern Iraq city of Uruk as a result of a growth in the size of the city by 250 hectares in 3000BCE (Robson 2008, 28). A system was developed to account for quantities of objects and as a result, numeracy became literate (Robson 2008, 28). By the early second millennium, the field of mathematics in the near east had expanded to applications of metrology, multiplication, …show more content…
Both of these branches of astronomy incorporate the Near Eastern ideas of the zodiac and the derivation of a horoscope based upon the position of seven planets at the time of one’s birth (Rochberg 1995, 1,932).
In terms of the lunar theory of the Near East, the zodiac was invented near the end of the fifth century in Babylon (Britton 2010, 639). The factors that the Babylonians most likely considered when determining the placement of the zodiac were that the signs should bear some relationship to their constellations. These constellations are evenly distributed throughout the ecliptic. The placement of the zodiacs would have also been set to normal stars and summed to 12 signs of thirty degrees each (Britton 2010, 631). The use of the position of zodiac coordinates for planetary, lunar, and solar positions provides some evidence that the positions were derived using mathematics rather than just observed (Rochberg 1995, 1,933). This provides credit to the astronomical knowledge of the Near

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