File:A history of science (1904) (14781800695).jpg

Identifier: cu31924003595109 (find matches)
Title: A history of science
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Williams, Henry Smith, 1863-1943 Williams, Edward Huntington, 1868-1944. joint author
Subjects: Science
Publisher: New York, London, Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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oad as-tronomical conditions as the regularity of the moonsphases, and the relation of the lunar periods to thelonger periodical oscillations of the sun. Nor couldthe curious wanderings of the planets escape the at-tention of even a moderately keen observer. Thechief distinction between the Chaldean and Egyptianastronomers appears to have consisted in the relativeimportance they attached to various of the phenomenawhich they both observed. The Egyptian, as we haveseen, centred his attention upon the sun. That lumi-nary was the abode of one of his most important gods.His worship was essentially solar. The Babylonian,on the other hand, appears to have been pecuHarly im-pressed with the importance of the moon. He couldnot, of course, overlook the attention-compelling factof the solar year; but his unit of time was the lunarperiod of thirty days, and his year consisted of twelvelunar periods, or 360 days. He was perfectly aware,however, that this period did not coincide with the 62 V OO 2
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SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA actual year; but the relative unimportance which heascribed to the solar year is evidenced by the fact thathe interpolated an added month to adjust the calendaronly once in six years. Indeed, it would appear thatthe Babylonians and Assyrians did not adopt preciselythe same method of adjusting the calendar, since theBabylonians had two intercular months called Elul andAdar, whereas the Assyrians had only a single suchmonth, called the second Adar. (The VeAdar of theHebrews.) This diversity further emphasizes the factthat it was the lunar period which received chief at-tention, the adjustment of this period with the solarseasons being a necessary expedient of secondary im-portance. It is held that these lunar periods haveoften been naade to do service for years in the Baby-lonian computations and in the allied computationsof the early Hebrews. The lives of the Hebrew pa-triarchs, for example, as recorded in the Bible, are per-haps reckoned in lunar years

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