WHY ARE THERE ONLY 60 SECONDS IN A MINUTE?

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 In older civilizations, we used numerical systems based on the number 60 (today, it is 10). The most widely used numeral system is decimal (base ten). It is easy for humans to count using their fingers. The civilizations that first divided the day into smaller parts used different numeral systems, specifically duodecimal (base 12) and sexagesimal (base 60).

The ancient Babylonians used this counting system based on 60. I think Babylonian scientists and scholars were efficient enough that their contributions still serve us to date. Don't you think so?

Babylonian Contributions:

The Babylonians were the first to recognize that astronomical phenomena are periodic and to apply mathematics to their predictions.

Although it is no longer applicable for general computation, the sexagesimal system, we use it to measure angles, geographic coordinates, and time. Both the circular face of a clock and the sphere of a globe owe their divisions to a 4,000-year-old numeric system of the Babylonians.

Babylonian astronomy was the study and recording of celestial objects during the early history of Mesopotamia.

It seems to have focused on a select group of stars and constellations known as Ziqpu stars.[1] 


Cuneiform script

The sexagesimal system is a numbering system based on sixty. This system simplified the calculation and recording of unusually great and small numbers. The modern practice of dividing a circle into 360 degrees, of 60 minutes each, began with the Sumerians. [2]

During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Babylonian astronomers developed a new empirical approach to astronomy. This was a significant contribution to astronomy and the philosophy of science, and some modern scholars have thus referred to this novel approach as the first scientific revolution. [3] This approach to astronomy was adopted and further developed in Greek and Hellenistic astrology. Classical Greek and Latin sources frequently use the term Chaldeans for the astronomers of Mesopotamia. 

Only fragments of Babylonian astronomy have survived, consisting of contemporary clay tablets containing astronomical diaries, ephemerides, and procedure texts. Hence, current knowledge of Babylonian planetary theory is not perfect. [4] Nevertheless, the surviving fragments show that Babylonian astronomy was the first successful attempt at giving a refined mathematical description of astronomical phenomena and that all subsequent varieties of scientific astronomy in the Hellenistic world, in India, in Islam, and in the West depend upon Babylonian astronomy in decisive and fundamental ways.[5]

  •   Babylonians were the first to recognize that astronomical phenomena are periodic
  • The sexagesimal system (base 60), we use it to measure angles, geographic coordinates, and time.
  • Since 60 is the smallest number divisible by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30.
  • 4,000-year-old numeric system of the Babylonians.
  • They began studying and recording their belief system and philosophies dealing with the nature of the universe, and employed internal logic within their predictive planetary systems [7].

 History:

On the Euphrates River, 4000 years ago, an ancient city became the most magnificent in the Near East. This city was Babylon, and when Hammurabi conquered Mesopotamia. He established his capital there. Over centuries, the fortune of Babylonia rose and fell because of the invasion by Hittites, Kassites, and Assyrians. The Assyrians destroyed Babylon in 689 BC. In 612 BC, the Babylonians retaliated by conquering the Assyrians and again made their city the world's greatest one. Babylonian splendor continued after the Persian Empire absorbed it in 539 BC.

Science:

 

Babilonia was famous as the home of scientists and scholars.

Babilonia was famous as the home of scientists and scholars.

  •      Babylonian astrologers studied the movement of planets and stars, recorded their findings on clay tablets, and used these to predict the future.
  •      Many texts were so detailed that modern astronomers can date ancient events from them.
  •       Ancient Greeks and Romans used the Babylonian system for naming planets.

 

Literature and Art:


The Babylonian Empire was world-famous for its artistic and literary achievements.

 

  •       Literature such as the legendary epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian hero, was written on clay tablets in cuneiform.
  •        Artistic splendors included terracotta plaques, sculptures, glassware, and, above all, the lavish and decorative entrance to the city- the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way.



 

Planetary theory:

 Babylonians possess a 7th-century BC copy of a list of observations of the motions of the planet Venus that probably dates as early as the second millennium BC (Ammisaduqa). The Enuma anu enlil, written during the Neo-Assyrian period in the 7th century BC,[14] comprises various celestial phenomena.

 

Features:

  •      The oldest surviving planetary astronomical text is the Babylonian Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa.
  •      They have a list of omens and their relationships with various celestial phenomena, including the movements of the planets. [15]

 

  •      Babylonian astrologers laid the foundation of what would eventually become Western astrology. [13]

Omens:

Omen Compendia, a Babylonian text from the beginning of the second millennium, reveals the relationship of Mesopotamians with omens [16].

It is a source that reveals ancient Mesopotamians saw omens as preventable. The text also contains information on Sumerian rites to avert evil.

The Enuma Anu Enlil is a series of cuneiform tablets that provide insight into various sky omens Babylonian astronomers [17] Reports from Nineveh and Babylon, circa 2500-670 B.C.C., show lunar omens observed by the Mesopotamians. When the moon

  • Celestial bodies, such as the Sun and Moon, were considered significant omens. 
  • They believed that they could read omens through astronomy and astrology. 
  • It was a common Mesopotamian belief that gods could and did indicate future events to living things through omens.

 

Features of Babylonian astronomy:

  •    The Babylonians were the first civilization to have a functional theory of the planets. [12]
  • Babylonian astronomy focused on a select group of stars and constellations.
  • It gives a refined mathematical description of astronomical phenomena.
  • A new empirical approach to astronomy
  • Employed internal logic in belief systems and philosophies dealing with the nature of the universe
  • Noval approach. 
  • The first successful attempt at giving a refined mathematical description of astronomical phenomena
  • Babylonians made astronomical calculations using the sexagesimal (base 60) system.
  • We use it to measure angles, geographic coordinates, and time
  • It is the time accounting system that still serves us today (4,000 years old).

Old Babylonian astronomy:

All Western advances in the exact sciences are descendants of the work of the late Babylonian astronomers.[6]. It reveals Babylonian observations of celestial phenomena. The MUL.APIN contains catalogs of stars and constellations, schemes for predicting heliacal risings and settings of the planets, and lengths of daylight. The Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie along declination circles and thus measure right-ascensions or time intervals, and also employs the stars of the

zenith, which are also separated by given right-ascensional differences. [10][11][12] There are dozens of cuneiform Mesopotamian texts with real observations of eclipses, mainly from Babylonia.

  •  The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa lists the first and last visible risings of Venus over approximately 21 years. 
  • Babylonian astronomers developed zodiac signs by dividing the sky into three sets of thirty degrees and the constellations that inhabit each sector. [9]
  • The ivory prism was a unit converter for calculating the movement of celestial bodies and constellations. [8]
  • Enûma Anu Enlil - the oldest significant astronomical text we possess is Tablet 63
  • Tablets dating back to the Old Babylonian period document the application of mathematics to the variation in the length of daylight over a solar year. 

Astrolabes


They are a list of thirty-six stars connected with the months in a year,[9] written between 1800 and 1100 B.C. Other texts concerning the astrolabes are the Brussels and Berlin compilations. They offer similar information to the Pinches anthology but do contain some differing information from each other. [18]

 

Relationship of calendar, mathematics, and astronomy:

 The relationship between the Sun, Moon, and other celestial bodies affected the development of Mesopotamian culture. The knowledge about the sky led them to develop a calendar and advanced mathematics in these societies. One priest, Nabu-rimanni, is the first documented Babylonian astronomer. He was a priest for the moon god. Seventeen or eighteen computation tables were there, which documented the orbiting speeds of planets and the Moon. 

  •     Babylonian priests were responsible for developing new forms of mathematics.
  •  Nabu-rimanni, is the first documented Babylonian astronomer to calculate the movements of celestial bodies.
  • He wrote lunar and eclipse computation tables and other elaborate mathematical calculations.
  • Computation tables documented the orbiting speeds of planets and the Moon. 

23.5 degrees is the axial tilt of the Earth, which is the angle between the rotational and orbital axis.

Due to this tilt, the Sun shines at different latitudes and angles throughout the year, causing the seasons. The length of the stretch of the celestial equator that rises over the eastern horizon as a fixed length of the ecliptic rise depends on which part of the ecliptic will be up.

For example, in Babylon, roughly twice the length of the celestial equator rises (or culminates at the meridian) in the time it takes the zodiac sign Virgo as it takes Pisces.

To determine the length of day and night, we can use the rising time for each zodiac by adding up the rising times corresponding to 180° of the ecliptic with the point that rises at sunrise or sunset. Otto E. Neugebauer showed that Babylonians employed it in the so-called System A and System B lunar theories of Late Babylonian mathematical astronomy [13].

Egyptian contribution:

They observed a set of 36 stars that divided the circle of the heavens into equal parts. They marked the passage of the night with the appearance of 18 stars.

The period of total darkness was marked by the remaining 12 stars, resulting in 12 divisions of night (another nod to the duodecimal system). During the New Kingdom (1550 to 1070 B.C.), they simplified the measuring system with 24 stars, 12 of which were for the passage of night. The timepiece, a specimen of which was found at the Temple of Ammon in Karnak, dated back to 1400 B.C., was a vessel with slanted interior surfaces to allow for decreasing water pressure, inscribed with scales that marked the division of the night into 12 parts during various months.

 The period of total darkness was marked by the remaining 12 stars

Egyptian astronomers simplified the measurement system by using 24 stars.

The water- clock, was the most accurate timekeeping device of the ancient world.

 The concept of a 24-hour day was in place when the light and dark hours each were 12 parts. The idea of fixed-length hours did not originate until the Hellenistic period when Greek astronomers began using such a system for their theoretical calculations. Hipparchus, whose work primarily took place between 147 and 127 B.C., proposed dividing the day into 24 equinoctial hours. It was the idea of 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness observed on equinox days. Despite this suggestion, people continued using seasonally varying hours for many centuries. (Hours of fixed length became commonplace only after mechanical clocks first appeared in Europe during the 14th century).

  •  They simplified the measuring system with 24 stars, 12 of which were for the passage of night [19]
  • The clepsydra, or water clock, was also used to record time during the night and was perhaps the most accurate time-keeping device of the ancient world.
  •  The idea of fixed-length hours did not originate until the Hellenistic period when Greek astronomers began using such a system for their theoretical calculations

There is evidence of the use of sundials by Egyptians. They were the first civilization to divide the day into smaller parts. The first sundials were simply stakes placed in the ground that indicated time by the length and direction of the resulting shadow. As early as 1500 B.C., the Egyptians developed a more advanced sundial, a T-shaped bar on the ground. They calibrated the instrument to divide the interval between sunrise and sunset into 12 parts. This division reflected Egypt's use of the duodecimal system. The importance of the number 12 is typically attributed either to the fact that it equals the number of lunar cycles in a year or the number of finger joints on each hand (three in each of the four fingers, excluding the thumb), making it possible to count to 12 with the thumb. The next-generation sundial likely formed the

 first representation of what we now call the hour. Although the hours within a given day were approximately equal, their lengths varied during the year.

Features of sundials used by the Egyptians.

  • There is evidence of the use of sundials by the Egyptians
  • The first sundials were simply stakes placed in the ground.
  • That indicated time by the length and direction of the resulting shadow.
  • Egyptians developed a more advanced sundial, a T-shaped bar on the ground.
  • Calibrated the instrument to divide the interval between sunrise and sunset into twelve parts
  • Number 12 is typically attributed either to the fact that it equals the number of lunar cycles in a year or the number of finger joints on each hand.

They observed a set of 36 stars that divided the circle of the heavens into equal parts. They marked the passage of the night with the appearance of 18 stars.

Greek Contributions:

  •  Hipparchus proposed dividing the day into 24 equinoctial hours
  • The idea of 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness being observed on equinox days.
Hipparchus and other Greek astronomers employed astronomical techniques developed by the Babylonians, who resided in Mesopotamia.

The Babylonians made astronomical calculations in the sexagesimal (base 60) system they inherited from the Sumerians, who developed it around 2000 B.C.

References:

1  Hunger, Herman (1999). Ziqpu Star Texts. Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia. Brill. pp. 84–90. ISBN 9789004101272. Archived from the original on 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2018-10-13.

2 ^ "Time Division". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2018.

3 ^ Jump up to a b D. Brown (2000), Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology, Styx Publications, ISBN 90-5693-036-2.

4 ^ Jump up to:a b c Asger Aaboe (1958). "On Babylonian Planetary Theories". Centaurus. 5 (3–4): 209–277. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0498.1958.tb00499.x.

5 ^ A. Aaboe (May 2, 1974). "Scientific Astronomy in Antiquity". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 276 (1257): 21–42. Bibcode:1974RSPTA.276...21A. doi:10.1098/rsta.1974.0007. JSTOR 74272. S2CID 122508567.

6  ^ Aaboe, Asger (1991), "The culture of Babylonia: Babylonian mathematics, astrology, and astronomy", in Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E.; Walker, C. B. F (eds.), The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries B.C., The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 276–292, ISBN 978-0521227179

7 ^ Steele, John (2019-06-01). "Explaining Babylonian Astronomy". Isis. 110 (2): 292–295. doi:10.1086/703532. ISSN 0021-1753. S2CID 181950933.

8 ^ Jump up to:a b c d van der Waerden, B. L. (1951). "Babylonian Astronomy. III. The Earliest Astronomical Computations". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 10 (1): 20–34. doi:10.1086/371009. JSTOR 542419. S2CID 222450259.

9 ^ Jump up to:a b Rochberg-Halton, F. (1983). "Stellar Distances in Early Babylonian Astronomy: A New Perspective on the Hilprecht Text (HS 229)". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 42 (3): 209–217. doi:10.1086/373020. JSTOR 545074. S2CID 161749034.

10^ Pingree, David (1998), "Legacies in Astronomy and Celestial Omens", in Dalley, Stephanie (ed.), The Legacy of Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, pp. 125–137, ISBN 978-0-19-814946-0

11^ Rochberg, Francesca (2004), The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture, Cambridge University Press

12 ^ Jump up to a b Evans, James (1998). The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy. Oxford University Press. pp. 296–7. ISBN 978-0-19-509539-5. Archived from the original on 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2008-02-04.

13 Otto Neugebauer, “Jahreszeiten und Tageslängen in der babylonischen Astronomie,” Osiris, 1936, 2:517–550; and Neugebauer, “The Rising Times in Babylonian Astronomy,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 1953, 7:100–102.

14 Hermann Hunger, ed. (1992). Astrological reports to Assyrian kings. State Archives of Assyria. Vol. 8. Helsinki University Press. ISBN 978-951-570-130-5.

15 ^ Lambert, W. G.; Reiner, Erica (1987). "Babylonian Planetary Omens. Part One. Enuma Anu Enlil, Tablet 63: The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 107 (1): 93. doi:10.2307/602955. JSTOR 602955.

16 Hunger, Herman (1999). Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia. Brill. ISBN 9789004101272. Archived from the original on 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2018-10-13.

17 ^ Hunger, Herman (1999). "Enūma Anu Enlil". Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia. Brill. pp. 12–20. ISBN 9789004101272. Archived from the original on 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2018-10-13.

18 ^ Jump up to:a b c van der Waerden, B. L. (1949). "Babylonian Astronomy. II. The Thirty-Six Stars". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 8 (1): 6–26. doi:10.1086/370901. JSTOR 542436. S2CID 222443741.

19  Wikipedia.

 

 

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