Journal for the History of Astronomy最新文献

{"title":"Time in Pre-Columbian America","authors":"E. Krupp","doi":"10.1177/00218286211048989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211048989","url":null,"abstract":"Celebrated for scholarly symposia on Pre-Columbian America, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. mobilized a program on time in Mesoamerica and the Andes in the run-up to the 21 December 2012 completion of baktun 13, a calendrically significant interval in the Maya Long Count odometer of time. The world at that time was preoccupied with the meaning of time in the ancient Maya world, and international media routinely spotlighted the dubious claims of self-appointed purveyors of apocalypse. On the other hand, the 14 articles collected here and edited by symposium organizer Anthony F. Aveni emerged from the presentations by authentic experts in astronomy, anthropology, archaeology, art history, and history of science. Varied in focus and approach, these papers broadly belong to studies of astronomy and culture, with an emphasis on time, the calendar, and time-factored enterprises. According to the dust wrapper, the collection addresses how history was conceived, codified, and preserved in ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes, how enterprises—particularly rituals—were timed and why, and what we can know about the indigenous perceptions and applications of time from what these societies left behind. The book’s title suggests a broad and comprehensive review—a publication that consolidates the basics, demonstrates their operation across a variety of circumstances, shows how they generate shared and divergent responses, and explains why this is so and what it means. In fact, most of the articles are very technical, highly specialized, and directed to a limited and informed audience. The material is detailed, dense, and demanding. The book opens with Aveni’s accessible and inviting introduction, and once past Richard Landes’s worthy and concept-heavy examination of end times, ordinary times, and chronological precision in the West, the greater part of the book is divided in two. One section is said to examine how time was sensed in Pre-Columbian America, and the other is assigned to the way time was registered in its communities. That distinction is, however, labored and seems designed to ease the reader’s burden with an illusion of structure. The partition doesn’t really tell the reader what is most important about the contributions each section harbors. 1048989 JHA0010.1177/00218286211048989Journal for the History of AstronomyBook Reviews book-review2021","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"53 1","pages":"124 - 125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48631332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Indicating hours in ancient cultures","authors":"Annette Imhausen","doi":"10.1177/00218286211043958","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211043958","url":null,"abstract":"For the most part, these inquiries, though substantive and valuable, are narrow. They comprise more of a gathering of specialist inquiries than a synthesis of varied material and fundamental principles. This remains evident in Aveni’s very useful concluding commentary. He highlights interesting elements of the articles but is hard-pressed to identify a singular, unifying perspective from their content. Documentation and formalization of research are among the primary functions of academic publication, and this assembly of work on the measure and meaning of time in Mesoamerica and the Andes addresses those tasks. The value of each article for each reader will vary with the reader’s specialized interest and knowledge. The articles range from the highly abstract to the unambiguously concrete. For example, “Ecumene Time, Anecume Time: Proposal and Paradigm” by Alfredo López Austin systematizes most of the fundamentals of Aztec cosmovision and mythic creation in a framework that distinguishes between time of this world and time not of this world. More tangible cultural assets are examined by Stella Nair in “Space and Time in the Architecture of Inca Royal Estates.” Although I’m not convinced the Inca ruler deliberately manipulated architecture and landscape on behalf of an intended perception of time, the hierarchy of power is evident in this deliciously specific analysis of the king’s design of royal estates. Other topics include time and animate objects for contemporary Tz’utujil Maya ritualists, Classic Maya concepts of time and space, the ceque system of Cuzco, time and the Huarochiri Manuscript, linearity and cyclicity in Maya calendrics, calendrical considerations in Mexican dynastic imagery, world ages in the Andes, time and political emblems in Colonial Peru, and calendars and computers in Mesoamerica and Bali. This is a rich inventory, but it is intended for those working seriously in Mesoamerican and Andean archaeology and anthropology and with interests related to the authors’ priorities. Readers need to come already equipped with the basics and the motivation to penetrate esoteric material. Anyone believing the end of the world was upon us in 2012 and looking for superficial guidance would have been made impatient for the Apocalypse by the intellectual investment this book requires.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"53 1","pages":"125 - 127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45527781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Determining the right time, or the establishment of a culture of astronomical precision at Neuchâtel Observatory in the mid-19th century","authors":"Julien Gressot, Romain Jeanneret","doi":"10.1177/00218286211068572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211068572","url":null,"abstract":"In the mid-19th century, the need for an accurate time becomes ever more important for many economic and industrial sectors, as well as for maritime and railway transport. States took a keen interest in these developments, which resulted in the founding of an increasing number of state observatories. While this well-known phenomenon has attracted the attention of numerous historical researches, the actual setting up of an observatory has more rarely been studied. Based on the well-documented case of the Observatoire cantonal de Neuchâtel, we will look at the setting up of the establishment through its scientific instruments and work procedure. Founded in 1858, the Observatory was primarily intended to fulfill the needs of the watchmaking industry while contributing to the progressive standardization of Swiss time. Adolphe Hirsch, the Observatory’s first director, spent 3 years setting up, installing, and calibrating an operating chain dedicated to the time service. The astronomer’s correspondence shows his expectations and the manufacturers’ technical capabilities. We can thus reconstruct the steps in the design of the scientific instruments—which operated as a network. The outcome being a high-performance operating chain for the time determination. During the commissioning process, Adolphe Hirsch chose an emerging technology—the printing chronograph. In fact, the Observatory was entirely configured around this new method, placing this institution among the first in the field. This new observation technique modifies the episteme of time determination and the role of the human factor within the process.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"53 1","pages":"27 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47998636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Astrologica athribitana: Four demotic-hieratic horoscopes from Athribis (O. Athribis 17-36-5/1741 and ANAsh.Mus.D.O.633 reedited)","authors":"M. Escolano-Poveda","doi":"10.1177/00218286211068573","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211068573","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents the edition of three new horoscopes from Athribis in Upper Egypt (O. Athribis 17-36-5/1741), and the reedition of ANAsh.Mus.D.O.633, identified as part of the same group of horoscopes originating from Athribis. The first three horoscopes date to the reign of Augustus (27, 21, and 6 BCE), and the Ashmolean text to year 8 of Cleopatra, 44 BCE. The Athribis group constitutes the earliest attestation of horoscopes from Egypt. They include the date of birth, name, and origin of the native, entries for the two luminaries and the planets, and the position of the four cardines and Places. Relevant features not commonly present in other Demotic horoscopes are a series of lunar dates following the 25-year cycle of P. Rylands IV 589, the complete listing of the Places, Term rulers in the longitudes, and a short phrase that may be connected to the calculation of the length of life.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"53 1","pages":"49 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41788609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Three Gallo-Roman bronze disks with astral inscriptions","authors":"Alexander Jones","doi":"10.1177/00218286211052655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211052655","url":null,"abstract":"This article concerns three archaeologically recovered circular bronze objects found at Gallo-Roman (first century BC–fourth century AD) sites in France. Through comparisons with other more or less contemporary objects of known function, it is argued that one of these disks definitely, and another likely, belonged to gearwork devices for keeping track of simple chronological cycles, while the third belonged to a clepsydra of a type recognized only recently.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"52 1","pages":"381 - 396"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49166415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Obstacles encountered by four major European astronomical observatories belonging to academies in the 18th century","authors":"E. Chassefière","doi":"10.1177/00218286211052194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211052194","url":null,"abstract":"It is known that, in the first half of the 18th century, the conditions for astronomy at the Imperial Observatory of St-Petersburg, directed by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, were comparable to those enjoyed by astronomers at the royal observatories of Paris and Greenwich created in the previous century. But what about the public observatories created in the first half of the 18th century in Berlin, Uppsala and Bologna? The rich correspondence maintained by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle with the astronomers working in these observatories provides elements of an answer to this question. It also provides more precise information on Delisle’s working conditions at the St-Petersburg Observatory. In this article, we present a comparative analysis of the obstacles encountered by astronomers at these different observatories, and the particular contexts in which they operated, including a breakdown by observatory of salaries and expenditure on astronomy equipment.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"52 1","pages":"414 - 441"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47383999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Accuracy of medieval Chinese and Middle-Eastern timings of eclipses","authors":"L. Morrison, F. Stephenson, C. Hohenkerk","doi":"10.1177/00218286211048263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211048263","url":null,"abstract":"Analysis of 111 Chinese timings of solar and lunar eclipses in the period AD 434–1280 and of 56 Middle-Eastern timings in AD 829–1020 reveals that their accuracy approached the limiting resolution of their clock systems. The Chinese accuracy improved progressively over the period of observation, with the standard deviation reducing from approximately 18 minutes round about AD 600 to 7 minutes circa AD 1200. The Middle-Eastern timings have a standard deviation of 5 minutes around AD 950.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"52 1","pages":"397 - 413"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43649166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Photographing Indian observatories","authors":"S. Mohammad Mozaffari","doi":"10.1177/00218286211032416","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211032416","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"52 1","pages":"494 - 495"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64912283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Late Babylonian astronomy and astrology","authors":"M. Willis Monroe","doi":"10.1177/00218286211042962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211042962","url":null,"abstract":"An advantage to this approach of reproducing the notebooks is that it lets a reader peer over the observer’s shoulder as Amici records his measurements, sketches double star orientations, calculates average values, and sometimes doodles on the margins (see for instance p. 137). It also makes apparent information that may have disappeared had Amici ever published his catalog. For example, though he tells Herschel in a letter of February 1825 of observing the planet that “will hand down to posterity the glorious name of your family” (not realizing Herschel never referred to Uranus as “Herschel”), Amici’s notebook from that night reveals this to be a diplomatic lie. He records, in fact, that he measured the “diametro di Urano.” (It was 4.085”; see pp. 37, 119). On the other hand, the lack of an index forces readers interested in specific data to search the notebooks chronologically for when an object would have been visible. For example, observations from the night Herschel joined Amici at Modena and measured the diameter of Jupiter to test Amici’s new micrometer only appear in a “Memoria” on the final page of the second notebook (p. 139), easily missed. Likewise, as the components of γ Virginis swung toward their closest approach, Herschel coordinated as many observations of the prominent double star as possible. Amici measured the star on 30 April 1815, when it was at a comfortable separation (p. 111), but did he ever observe it again? An online version of this reproduction, though not as enjoyable to leaf through, might answer such a question with search functionality. The volume also includes an inventory of Amici’s astronomical library and concludes with attractive full-color plates, including images of Amici’s instruments with descriptive captions in Italian and English. Amici’s double star catalog formed a significant part of his works and correspondence, and this lovingly-produced volume thus forms an integral part of the Edizione.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"52 1","pages":"492 - 494"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41602945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A definitive survey of Iberian and Maghribī astronomy","authors":"R. Morrison","doi":"10.1177/00218286211043317","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286211043317","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"52 1","pages":"499 - 500"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44520110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}