Re:Ancient Computers
by adrian_b on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @09:50AM
(#33880830)
As another poster has also said, it is not likely that the 7-day week has a Babylonian origin and it is pretty certain that it does not have a Sumerian origin.
The Sumerians did not worship 7 gods seen in the sky, that claim is an anachronism. Among those listed, initially they worshiped only the Sun and the Moon.
Some time, probably during the 4th millennium BC, the Sumerian goddess Inanna has become associated with the Morning Star and the Evening Star, after the Sumerians have made the very important discovery that the Morning Star and the Evening Star are the same celestial body, which is now known as the planet Venus, by a transfer from Inanna to the goddess Ishtar in Babylon, then to Aphrodite in Greece, and finally to the goddess Venus in Rome. (There is an intriguing possibility that the association between Inanna and the planet Venus might have been caused by the sight of a great comet. When they are visible, the comets are seen in the same places as Venus, i.e. not far from the Sun. When the great comet became invisible, Venus could become visible in about the same place, and the Sumerians could have interpreted the facts as that they had seen Inanna going to war and then returning to her peaceful state, as in some of their myths. There are some poems and drawings that suggest the possibility of such an interpretation. The memory of such an impressive celestial event would explain the great awe of the Sumerians for Inanna and her star, now the planet Venus. Otherwise it would have been normal to consider the Sun and the Moon as much more important.)
Except for the Sumerians and those who have inherited their culture, there is no evidence of ancient people who were aware that the Morning Star and the Evening Star are the same body, even as late as in the first half of the first millennium BC, e.g. Homer and the other early Greek writers do not appear to be aware of this, even if they mention both the Morning Star and the Evening Star very frequently.
So the Sumerians knew only 3 celestial bodies associated with gods.
The 4 planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have been discovered by the Babylonians, some time in the second millennium BC, and eventually they became associated with 4 of the Babylonian gods, e.g. the planet named now Jupiter was the planet of Marduk. The Greeks took the god-planet associations from the Babylonians, then the Romans from the Greeks.
There is no evidence that anyone had any knowledge about Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn before the Babylonians.
Obviously the earlier people must have noticed that there are some places in the sky where some times a bright star can be seen (i.e. usually Jupiter or Mars), but some times the star is in a different position or it is no longer seen anywhere close.
However, until the star observations began to be recorded, continuously for many years, like in Babylon, no earlier than the 2nd millennium BC, it was not possible to decide how many of these random star sightings correspond to the same wandering star, or to different stars that appear and disappear, and how many such mobile stars exist.
The Sumerians did not worship 7 gods seen in the sky, that claim is an anachronism. Among those listed, initially they worshiped only the Sun and the Moon.
Some time, probably during the 4th millennium BC, the Sumerian goddess Inanna has become associated with the Morning Star and the Evening Star, after the Sumerians have made the very important discovery that the Morning Star and the Evening Star are the same celestial body, which is now known as the planet Venus, by a transfer from Inanna to the goddess Ishtar in Babylon, then to Aphrodite in Greece, and finally to the goddess Venus in Rome. (There is an intriguing possibility that the association between Inanna and the planet Venus might have been caused by the sight of a great comet. When they are visible, the comets are seen in the same places as Venus, i.e. not far from the Sun. When the great comet became invisible, Venus could become visible in about the same place, and the Sumerians could have interpreted the facts as that they had seen Inanna going to war and then returning to her peaceful state, as in some of their myths. There are some poems and drawings that suggest the possibility of such an interpretation. The memory of such an impressive celestial event would explain the great awe of the Sumerians for Inanna and her star, now the planet Venus. Otherwise it would have been normal to consider the Sun and the Moon as much more important.)
Except for the Sumerians and those who have inherited their culture, there is no evidence of ancient people who were aware that the Morning Star and the Evening Star are the same body, even as late as in the first half of the first millennium BC, e.g. Homer and the other early Greek writers do not appear to be aware of this, even if they mention both the Morning Star and the Evening Star very frequently.
So the Sumerians knew only 3 celestial bodies associated with gods.
The 4 planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have been discovered by the Babylonians, some time in the second millennium BC, and eventually they became associated with 4 of the Babylonian gods, e.g. the planet named now Jupiter was the planet of Marduk. The Greeks took the god-planet associations from the Babylonians, then the Romans from the Greeks.
There is no evidence that anyone had any knowledge about Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn before the Babylonians.
Obviously the earlier people must have noticed that there are some places in the sky where some times a bright star can be seen (i.e. usually Jupiter or Mars), but some times the star is in a different position or it is no longer seen anywhere close.
However, until the star observations began to be recorded, continuously for many years, like in Babylon, no earlier than the 2nd millennium BC, it was not possible to decide how many of these random star sightings correspond to the same wandering star, or to different stars that appear and disappear, and how many such mobile stars exist.