Babylonian Eclipse Observations from 750 BC to 1 BC edited by Peter
J. Huber and Salvo De Meis
Milan: IsIAO-Mimesis, 2004. Pp. vi + 291. ISBN 88 8483 213 6. Pa-
per Å„ 19.00
Reviewed by
Bernard R. Goldstein
University of Pittsburgh
[e-mail]
This book has been long awaited it has often been cited as  Huber
1973  and it has circulated privately as a  manuscript over many
years before this editio princeps. The most extensive previous study,
based on the relevant data, appeared in Steele 2000; it remains to be
seen if any of Steele s conclusions need to be modified. As indicated
in the preface, in 1973 the manuscript was only 123 pages in length
(with 172 lunar and 32 solar eclipse possibilities); and it grew slowly
over the years as new information became available, until shortly
before the actual publication (now with 269 lunar and 90 solar eclipse
possibilities).
As has been widely recognized, Babylonian eclipse records are
fundamental both to astronomy and to the history of astronomy,
since they come from the most extensive archive of observational
data to survive from antiquity. The proper discussion and analysis of
them calls for a variety of skills; it is indeed most fortunate that the
authors have the requisite background in astronomy, mathematics,
and Assyriology. This technical study is filled with transliterations
and translations of Babylonian texts as well as tables of data and
charts of eclipses.
For historians of astronomy the main interest is in having a
reliable discussion in one place of Babylonian eclipse observations
that meets the standard set by O. Neugebauer for the study of Babylo-
nian astronomical theories. The authors indicate that it is not a
trivial task to distinguish between calculated and observed data in
Babylonian texts. As a working tool, they use the concept of  eclipse
possibility , meaning a syzygy (conjunction or opposition of the Sun
and the Moon) at which the Sun is within half a month s progress
© 2004 Institute for Research in Classical Philosophy and Science
All rights reserved
ISSN 1549 4497 (online) ISSN 1549 4470 (print) ISSN 1549 4489 (CD-ROM)
Aestimatio 1 (2004) 122 125
123 Aestimatio
from a lunar node [7]. There are 38 such possibilities in 223 months
or about 18 years, as the Babylonians had discovered. Generally, an
eclipse report was dated by the regnal year and name of the king,
month, and day. But many of the tablets are broken and only parts
of them survive; hence, the dates of the reports often have to be
reconstructed.1
Astronomy in the Greek tradition is based on a handful of obser-
vations, and most of those from antiquity are only extant in Ptolemy s
Almagest (ca AD 150). Ptolemy cited a small number of lunar eclipses
observed at Babylon, and they have been discussed by John Britton
[1992]. A proper assessment of the influence of the Babylonian astro-
nomical tradition on Greek science is greatly enhanced by the avail-
ability of this observational record. In fact, far and away the longest
continuous set of such detailed records at a single location comes from
Babylon, dating from -7462 [76 77] to -9 [174]. As such, it is worthy
of study in its own right as one of the crowning achievements of Baby-
lonian civilization, regardless of its impact on later scientific work.
But this astronomical tradition presents a puzzle to historians. For,
though Babylonian astronomical theories are very successful in ac-
counting for positional data of the planets (including the Sun and the
Moon) and times of eclipses, and therefore must be based in some way
on observational data, the Babylonians themselves do not address the
derivation of their models and parameters from the data, and there
has been no consensus among historians on the methods they used.
Perhaps this database will help in reconstructing their practice.
For astronomers and geophysicists the main interest lies in the
determination of "t, the difference between Ephemeris Time and
Universal Time. Ephemeris Time assumes that the rotation of the
Earth is constant, and Universal Time is based on meridian cross-
ings of celestial bodies at Greenwich. It has long been known that
Universal Time is not uniform because of slow and irregular changes
in the rate of the Earth s rotation. The best way to determine "t is
from lunar eclipses, and the Babylonian records considerably extend
the database. In 1952 D. Brouwer tabulated "t from 1621 onwards
1
For a list of the kings who ruled Babylon with the dates of their reigns, see
page 11.
2
The dating of this report is somewhat uncertain. In technical astronomy,
the year preceding AD 1 is year 0, in turn preceded by year -1, and so on.
BERNARD R. GOLDSTEIN 124
[see Nautical Almanac Office 1961, 90 91]; but extrapolations to pre-
modern times have been much disputed. In the volume under review
this topic is discussed in żż2.9 10 where the authors introduce a
Brownian motion model (first proposed in Huber 2000).
In sum, the authors have produced a scholarly masterpiece, and
it will be consulted with profit for many years to come.
Since the book is lacking a table of contents, I offer it here to
serve as a guide [see p. 125, below].
bibliography
Britton, J. P. 1992. Models and Precision: The Quality of Ptolemy s
Observations and Parameters. New York/London.
Huber, P. J. 2000.  Modeling the Length of Day and Extrapolat-
ing the Rotation of the Earth . Pp. 91 104 in F. Bònoli, S. De
Meis, and A. Panaino edd. Astronomical Amusements: Papers in
Honor of Jean Meeus. Milan.
Nautical Almanac Office. 1961. Explanatory Supplement to the As-
tronomical Ephemeris and the American Ephemeris and Nauti-
cal Almanac. London.
Steele, J. M. 2000. Observations and Predictions of Eclipse Times
by Early Astronomers. Dordrecht/Boston.
125 Aestimatio
Babylonian Eclipse Observations from 750 BC to 1 BC
Table of Contents
Foreword iii
Preface v
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Sources 1
1.2 Coverage 7
1.3 Observations and predictions 7
1.4 Reliability of the data 8
1.5 Development of observational practice 8
1.6 Note on the transliteration 9
1.7 Terminology of the texts 10
2 Data analysis 19
2.1 Astronomical theories and programs 20
2.2 Rising and setting of Sun and Moon 21
2.3 Eclipse phases: the shadow of the Earth 22
2.4 Secular terms 24
2.5 The statistics of the lunar eclipse timings 28
2.6 Timings relative to planet events 31
2.7 Timings relative to culminations 32
2.8 Solar eclipses 34
2.9 The bigger picture 37
2.10 Conclusions and recommendations 43
2.11 Supplement: Fitting of lunar eclipses 45
2.12 Supplement: Fitting of solar eclipses 56
3 Bibliography 61
4 Transliterations and translations of eclipse reports 65
4.1 List of eclipses 67
4.2 Lunar eclipse observations 75
4.3 Solar eclipse observations 153
5 Eclipse canons for Babylon 177
5.1 Canon of lunar eclipses from -800 to 0 177
5.2 Canon of solar eclipses from -800 to 0 207
6 Indices 215
Index to Chapters 1 to 3 215
Index to the transliterations 217
Notes on the eclipse diagrams 235
Solar and lunar eclipse diagrams 237