For the Diaries, the number of fragments covering a range of time suggests the possibility of not just an author but rather authors - an idea supported by the general lack of authorial information for most Mesopotamian texts. Because the evidence of women in ancient sciences is lacking, scholars frequently attribute astronomical and observation texts to men, but the question of who wrote these texts is not so straightforward.Īncient Mesopotamian culture did not prioritize authorship, meaning that even familiar texts such as Gilgamesh and certainly less familiar astronomical texts including the Astronomical Diaries or Enūma Anu Enlil have made their way to us with no identified writer. Cuneiform letters sent between women famously comprise the archives at Mari, for example. There is, however, some evidence that women took on these traditionally masculine roles. Specialized arenas such as the scribal school and realms of astronomy and astrology were often reserved for men. Mesopotamia is conventionally viewed as a patriarchal culture. Because the Astronomical Diaries were an integral part of early Babylonian astronomy and were kept for hundreds of years, it is imperative to consider whether during this thousand-year span of time women were able to participate in such defining activities.Įxamining whether there is any room for women observers in something as significant as the Astronomical Diaries, or if there is even value to searching for them, can rewrite a domain of Mesopotamian culture where gender is traditionally assumed male or forgotten entirely. They were even integrated into later Greek astronomy to help establish cycles of astronomical phenomena. Additionally, keeping these records became part of the astronomical culture and defined Babylonian astronomy for almost a millennium. The zig-zag functions and almost algorithmic methods for determining planetary positions made famous by Babylonian astronomy depended on accurate observations and likely grew out of the record keeping of the Astronomical Diaries. The information collected in the Diaries provided the basis for many of the predictive systems that came in later Babylonian mathematical astronomy. Eventually, the content of the diaries standardized to contain information on what Francesca Rochberg-Halton describes as “collected lunar, planetary, meteorological, economic, and, occasionally, political (or otherwise peculiar) events.” These tablets collect naked-eye observations made nightly over the course of half a year with the aid of little more than a water clock for timing. The Astronomical Diaries currently include more than 1200 preserved and identified fragments of clay tablets with written cuneiform records. Examining whether there is any room for women observers in something as significant as the Astronomical Diaries, or if there is even value to searching for them, can rewrite a domain of Mesopotamian culture where gender is traditionally assumed male or forgotten entirely. These records enabled much of later Babylonian astronomy from the 5th century BCE onward, and they helped identify cycles of appearances for the known planets, the moon, and the sun, contributing to the later mathematical astronomical texts. This includes the Astronomical Diaries, some of humanity’s earliest records of observational astronomy. Even though much scholarly material from Mesopotamia lacks a named author, it is assumed to have been produced by men.
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