Writing science before the Greeks : a naturalistic analysis of the Babylonian astronomical treatise MUL. APIN / by Rita Watson and Wayne Horowitz.

By:

Watson, Rita, 1949-

Contributor(s):

Horowitz, Wayne, 1957-

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English, Akkadian Series: Culture and history of the ancient Near East ; v. 48.Publication details: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2011.Description: 1 online resource (xxvi, 222 pages) : illustrationsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9789004202313
9004202315

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Writing science before the Greeks.DDC classification:

520.935 22

LOC classification:

QB19 .W38 2011eb

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Foreword; Introduction; Chapter One MUL. APIN; Chapter Two Writing and Conceptual Change; Chapter Three Terms of Analysis; Chapter Four MUL. APIN: Text and Analysis; Chapter Five Summary of Results; Chapter Six Discussion: MUL. APIN, Writing, and Science; Chapter Seven Further Thoughts: The Cognitive Function of Writing in MUL. APIN; Chapter Eight A Final Word: From List to Axiom; Bibliography; Appendix One The Translated Text of MUL. APIN; Appendix Two The Babylonian Month-Names; Appendix Three Tablet and Line Correspondences with Hunger-Pingree.

Summary: The beginnings of written science have long been associated with classical Greece. Yet in ancient Mesopotamia, highly-sophisticated scientific works in cuneiform script were in active use while Greek civilization flourished in the West. The subject of this volume is the astronomical series MUL. APIN, which can be dated to the seventh century BCE and which represents the crowning achievement of traditional Mesopotamian observational astronomy. Writing Science before the Greeks explores this early text from the perspective of modern cognitive science in an effort to articulate the processes underlying its composition. The analysis suggests that writing itself, through the cumulative recording of observations, played a role in the evolution of scientific thought. \'All in all, the authors should be congratulated for this groundbreaking study. Apart from significant new insights into MUL. APIN it has opened up a new avenue for research on ancient scientific texts that is likely to yield further interesting results, particularly if the cognitive analysis is combined with other approaches.\' Mathieu Ossendrijver, Humboldt University.

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Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Print version record.

English and Akkadian.

The beginnings of written science have long been associated with classical Greece. Yet in ancient Mesopotamia, highly-sophisticated scientific works in cuneiform script were in active use while Greek civilization flourished in the West. The subject of this volume is the astronomical series MUL. APIN, which can be dated to the seventh century BCE and which represents the crowning achievement of traditional Mesopotamian observational astronomy. Writing Science before the Greeks explores this early text from the perspective of modern cognitive science in an effort to articulate the processes underlying its composition. The analysis suggests that writing itself, through the cumulative recording of observations, played a role in the evolution of scientific thought. \'All in all, the authors should be congratulated for this groundbreaking study. Apart from significant new insights into MUL. APIN it has opened up a new avenue for research on ancient scientific texts that is likely to yield further interesting results, particularly if the cognitive analysis is combined with other approaches.\' Mathieu Ossendrijver, Humboldt University.

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