How Ancient Babylonians Predicted Eclipses
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- Опубликовано: 10 июн 2024
- There's an eclipse coming up in April of 2024! You'd think it takes a lot of modern technology for us to know about it, but it turns out that humans have been able to predict eclipses for nearly three thousand years. And we've been using the same method that the ancient Babylonians figured out all those centuries ago. So grab your eclipse glasses and let's learn about it!
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Sources:
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citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/documen...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/...
eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros...
sunearthday.nasa.gov/2006/loc...
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www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-a...
Images:
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www.gettyimages.com/detail/il...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5188/
javalab.org/en/eclipse_en/
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/ph...
I did the first year of an archaeology course about 20 years ago. One thing that's stuck with me is a professor telling us how it's really important not to think of ancient people as "primitive" just because they lived a long time ago. I feel like this is a perfect example of why.
In the islam book the god tell us there are a netron star it sound like hamer🔨. So the god tell us about the star before the we found the star so you should be muslim
@@xxipadxx1317You just made that up, lol:D It says nothing like that.
Fun fact: Seafaring was widespread during Enoch's time, which was only about 1000 years after creation, and before the deluge.
@@heavymetalnewsdesk Even though life in sea emerged shortly after Earth formed 5 billion years ago, it was still a lot more than 1000 years.
@@juzoli there's absolutely no evidence of what you just said
Quick correction: This isn't the last total solar eclipse visible in the North America until the 2040s. In 2033 there will be a total eclipse visible in Alaska, and Alaska is very much part of North America. :)
Classic Americans
Which part of Alaska?
@@forest_895 The 2033 eclipse will be total over northwestern Alaska. The duration of the eclipse will be longest near Point Barrow (2 minutes, 37 seconds) and at that location the sun will be quite low in the sky, at an elevation of only 11 degrees. Nome will experience totality; Fairbanks and Anchorage will see a partial eclipse.
Can't really blame them for that mistake, it'll probably be seen by 5 people 😂
It still counts, no matter how few or many people see it.
I’d like to see a historical fiction action drama about a well liked decoy king being part of a plot to overthrow the real king who is a cruel tyrant in the time he gets appointed during an eclipse. Some high calibre court intrigue and a look into real Babylonian culture
Lol! almost that same scenario ran through my head while watching this episode! I thought... if they made me a decoy king, I'd try to turn it around.
Although not a Babylonian, but nevertheless a Mesopotamian king, Enlil-bāni(1860-1837 BCE) of the First Dynasty of Isin was claimed to have been a substitute king who remained on the throne after the real king died while the replacement.
Hey guard make sure to sacrifice the right king this time or the Anunnaki will be disappointed and you won’t get your spot in nibiru when you get sacrificed
Jesus myth is kind of just that.
It's not quite the same plot, but I have a book out called The Imposter King that focuses on the decoy king appointed for exactly this. :)
When "Eclipses are bad luck for the king" becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy...
RIP Elvis Presley 🤟😔
"It's good to be the king." -Piss Boy disguised as King Louis XVI
"I wish I could be king, even just for a day" - famous last words, Babylonia.
I was fortunate enough to witness an eclipse like that in 1997. It is a awe-inspiring event. You guys up there (I live in Brazil) that can, don't hesitate and GO! You won't regret, I assure you.
“Credit: British Museum” is a bold assignment of credit. 😂
We're not done looking at it yet
Thieves, looters and pirates.
Not how credits work
It's credit for the photograph itself, not the tablet.
@@CBWBS favorite James Acaster take on the British museum.
At 2:05 if you study Gematria you know what that 223 is. I saw that and almost spit my drink out LOL
I don't, please share!
The eclipse is happening on my 20th birthday! That's very exciting.
Don't tempt fate.
happy birthday!
@@mre695 thank you, I just saw the Eclipse (through special glasses) it was amazing!
I always love to learn about ancient civilizations.
Ayy I remember the one in 2017, I am in AZ, our work passed out those funky glasses.
I didn't know the Babylonians put a substitute king on the throne during eclipses and killed him and his queen afterwards. That's so fascinating.
Combining this with Religion For Breakfast's video, it's really interesting how humans figured out how solar eclipses physical worked, and then ascribed bad omens to them anyway. This seems to be something that humans like to do, understanding something and then making up a story and a ritual about it.
Yeah I find that peculiar
People have always been people, some dude absolutely sold Eclipse Merch in Babylon. Snacks at the very least. 😂
I know that's a joke, but yeah they probably sold some junk to commemorate it.
@@darkknightx0992 I was being funny, but I also totally meant it, I really do think that with enough advanced warning there will have always been someone throughout human history selling/ bartering/ trading favors/whatever at Events, Big and Small.
More fun eclipse history: the great peace maker who united the 5 nations to create the Haudenosaunee confederacy, said there would be a sign in the sky to show that peace was the way forward. There was a solar eclipse, and the leaders of the Seneca Nation were convinced to join the new confederacy. (Later on a 6th nation joined them)
Sometimes an eclipse isn't a portent of doom. Sometimes it's a portent of peace. 😊
The eclipse happens 2 days before my birthday. It's really cool of the Solar System to give me an early birthday present.
Don't tempt fate.
@@SolaceEasy Jokes on the universe! I wanna die!
Last time I watched an eclipse my collarbone was broken, I’ve learned my lesson, don’t look at eclipses when working with cattle 😂
Yay Savannah!
If you can go see the eclipse coming up, do it! I saw the one in 2017 and it amazing beyond words. ❤
I remember the crickets got confused and started singing : )
@@mcv2178 And the birds! Don’t think I’ll ever forget that day, every minute seemed so unreal. 😊
Thank you 🙏
I’m so excited!! My friend lives in the *exact* centre of the umbra where it’ll be passing over us and we’re ready for it!
Best wishes for good weather!
I turn 18 this year does that mean that we had the same cerestrial geometry (saros cycle) the year I was born and will have the same cerestrial geometry i.e the saros cycle when I turn 36?? Dayum that's fascinating
It’s not about interest in astronomy, or even eclipses. It’s all about having a written language and the infrastructure that allows record-keeping to allow cycles in nature to be noticed and the recording of those observations to be made systematic.
**Time Traveller moves a leaf 🍃**
6:22
I'm so excited to see this upcoming eclipse, it's on my birthday too so it's like a birthday gift straight from the moon
Babylonians on their predicted eclipses: As it was written!
I've never had the pleasure of experiencing the awe of an eclipse in my side of the world 🥺 a tiny island in Europe with very little area to witness such an event unfortunately. I live vicariously through all of you!
Corsica, Cyprus, Santorini, Malte, Jersey, Guernsey, Canary, Faroe, Rügen, Wolin, Sardinia, Crete, Tiber Island?
Sorry I'm just curious to know where in Europe you didn't get a chance to observe one ^^"
@@azertytoresI believe that is most normal not to have a chance than to have one - I live in Brazil and I may have seen only one or two lunar eclipses, with the solar ones only available online.
@@ErickSoares3 Quite true, it's rare indeed, but none?
A bit sad 😢
There's going to be one over parts of Spain in 2026, maybe that's accessible to you?
Annular eclipses are people too!
Interesting that the ancient Babylonians knew more about the heavens than a lot of RUclips influencers.
Go Go Sci Show!
You warn people about needing special glasses to look at the eclipse. However, you need to explain why making your own dark lens is dangerous. Many people think that if they stack dark filters together, it is then safe enough. The problem is that these may or may not block the non-visible light that does the actual damage. Filters that are certified for eclipse observation have been tested to verify that it blocks the ultraviolet and infrared appropriately. You should warn people that making your own filter, even though it may look dark enough, may be extremely dangerous. These lenses make your eyes dilate to let in more light, including more of that dangerous light that didn’t get filtered.
Thumb this up, people.
You can just look right at it.
Cool
British museum, they didn’t take the pyramids because it’s too big.
Is the ancient fascination with the stars anything to do with some of the earliest Cuneiform clay tablets discovered is a recipe for beer (Ode to Ninkasi)?
100% Sahi Baat Hai,
Missed You Sav!!
Me: Wow, the Babylonians were very intelligent! Its absolutely amazing that this level of mathematics and critical thinking was-
Babylonians: *performs human sacrifice based on their scientific findings*
Me: 😐... 😑😐...
We still do blood sacrifices. Look at all the wars.
I definitely was a hunter and water fetcher in my babyloian times because the math and amount of patience to figure this out hurts my brain. 😅 Wait... I was a medicine runner for sure. Not a shaman, but his pharmaceutical rep. I had to have been. 🎉
that's a cool shirt
You can buy it in their shop😊
Sausages!
Hey! I have that shirt😂
What does the word mean, I don't get it?
What does the shirt say??
Piano!
My birthday lol
If they could predict eclipses they would also know the earth revolves around the sun right?
Probably. The idea of geocentrism only got popularized in medieval Christian society, and the idea that the earth was round was popular everywhere until the 1970s.
Not necessarily.
Ancient astronomers could track the patterns of the movements of the sun and moon and planets while assuming that they all orbited around the Earth. The ancient Greeks developed elaborate models of the motions of the heavenly bodies around the Earth.
But they would have to understand that when heavenly bodies set below the horizon, they would continue to move around the other side of the Earth. I. e. that the Earth was a sphere with another "side".
The idea that the Earth was not stationary but orbited around the sun began to be accepted among scientists starting around 1500 AD and finally explained by Newton's Law of Gravity around 1700. It's still highly counter-intuitive, and goes against what our ordinary senses tell us.
Still over my pea brain. Good video. Perhaps slow speech a tad. But worth my subscription
❤❤
🎉
Did the Babylonians know that the next eclipse in the same cycle would happen in a completely different part of the world? They didn’t know the earth was round, and they probably didn’t know how big it was… and travelling to the other side of the earth was too much hassle at the time
solar exclipses happens as offen as lunar once, but moon umbra being smaller makes it lass likely to see partial eclipse, but also evEn less likdly to be in totality, also annular eclipses may have been as doom looking as total for them
If they know the year and approximate location of the solar eclipse, shouldn't someone be able to figure out the date of the eclipse with math? Like I know there's a famous battle from like 200 BCE that we know the exact day of because a solar eclipse happened, and they were able to calculate exactly when that happened in history.
I didn't understand that comment about the 1223 BCE eclipse either. There were two central solar eclipses that year; the one mentioned in the video was a total eclipse on March 5, so we do know the exact location, time, and date of this event. 🤷♂
Were smart enough to figure all this out
Also though a decoy king and queen were needed and killed them
Canada also is within the path of the eclipse
And Mexico
@@luddity Americans more often than not think they're the only country that exists.
@AlbertaGeek America isn't the only country that exists, it's the only one that matters.
What are you bitching about she said "in North America". Canada is part of north america
Solar eclipses aren’t any rarer than lunar eclipses. The opportunity to see a solar eclipse is more rare. But they actually occur just as often.
For your consideration (whoever you are reading this): could we maybe report on the ancient star knowledge held by the Indigenous nations to Turtle Island (North America) since this eclipse falls on the ancestral territory of these folks? I’m Anishinaabe and we have lots of stories about solar eclipses as well as the Haudenosaunee people. Thousands of years old. Maybe not recorded evidence of the astronomical math on tablets but creation stories and star knowledge that has been passed down since time immemorial. Laurie Rousseau Nepton is an Inuit astronomer, that’s a good place to start!
the baby lions knew too much
And to make it more interesting, there is at least some evidence that the Babylonians were basing their observations and conclusions on knowledge they obtained from other older sources.
They also predicted fornite live events at that time
Do the Antikythera mechanism next.
Spoiler alert: it's a h3ll of a lot less "incredible" than all the sensationalist reporting would have you think.
+
Oh the host woman is amazing :D
Not
Y'know if I live to be 96 in 2099, I'll be able to see ANOTHER total solar eclipse, except one MUCH closer to home. My birth place in Staunton, VA 😂 Though I honestly don't see myself even NEAR there if I am alive then 👀 who is to say? It is 3/4 a century away 😂 Maybe I'll get lucky and reincarnate in time
I wonder who the decoy royal of America is?
2600 years ago?
It's interesting that the length of the lunar month was mentioned, since it matches the length of the Jewish month. Months in the Hebrew calendar are lunar, with 29 or 30 days, while the year is solar, matching the agricultural cycle in Israel. In fact, before the Romans colonised Israel and re-named it "palestine" after the Hebrew word for "invaders" (pelishtim), the year only officially began when the barley ripened in the fields.
I'll be in the eclipse's path, and I'm thinking of playing part of The Alan Parsons Project's I, Robot album while it goes total. I'm trying to decide between starting with Total Eclipse or skipping straight to Genesis Ch 1 Ver 32. Anyone have an opinion?
For those of you who live in Mexico, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia there will be an amazing total solar eclipse on May 11th, 2078. ☀️🌑🌎😏
Meh… I’ll be dead by then. :-p
Assuming we haven't died out by then.
There will be one that covers most of Mississippi, a good chunk of Alabama, and nearly all of Florida in 2045, just 21 years from now.
OK, but can't astronomers "reverse engineer" the calculations and determine the exact date in 1223 BC when a solar eclipse would have been visible in that part of the Middle East (though it wasn't called that then)?
What about the decoy snail?
So did ancient Babylonians know these cycles through mathematics, or was it more observational?
Observations lead to patterns which can be turned into mathematics to predict future events.
One of the longest running scientific projects in history involved tracking astronomical configurations and worldly events over the course of a couple thousand years. When you get that much raw data, you can find correlations and bada bing bada boom, you get archetypal astrology. Then Western materialists who refuse to look at Middle Eastern data deny astrology altogether when all it would take is to look at history to see it plain as day.
Yes
Everything under the sun is in tune
It's a total eclipse of my heart that it does not happen over Germany!
and then there was their Base 60 number system! OT: I'll never understand why BCE is based on the birth of christ.
Because everyone uses it, regardless of religion
@@burner555 BC is still used.
Now do one for how Mayans predicted eclipses
Good luck: Its gonna happen on my birthday!
Bad luck: Im in South America🙃
Edit: Btw Happy pi Day!
King for a day!
I'm pretty sure enough time passed between solar eclipses that no one remembered what happened to the last one. I'd just send a crew to knock on someone's door and say, "Guess what? You may have won ...." or "You Have Been Pre-Approved ..." If anyone asks later, I'd say he got a treasure map and departed post-haste.
No matter how much my brain tries, I still can't help but read that as "How ancient baby lions predicted eclipses"
Except in Buffalo.lol
I am not a robot
And yet.... You act exactly like one. Yawn.
Beep boop me neither
That's exactly what a robot would say.
@@schroedingersdog7965 Beat me to it by only 7 hours.
But you play one at work.
Babylonians: Eclipse is coming! Put decoy king in fast!
Lightning strike on real king: You're not fooling me, mortals!
But how do they do that and still spin like 20000mph 😭
Sorry, but I did start compulsively chanting TIME CUBE TIME CUBE TIME CUBE when you showed the 4 concurrent Saros cycles.
Most of these internet young'uns don't know about the glorious insanity that was
TIME CUBE. [sigh] Those were the glory days.
Back when you had less options of ways to waste your time at night.
Don't let the Ancient Alien's guy see this. He'll claim that it is proof the ancients got help from aliens.
It is wild to me that they were able to predict eclipses but thought the bad luck was stupid enough to fall for a decoy king.
I mean, look at all the people who murder people to this day because of space zombie daddies.
I dont buy idea that humans are only creature capable of making prophecies,,i believe there are dozens of prophecies come from every creatures ,,because prophecies is part and parcel of creature's mind
I always wondered how cicadas count 7 years before they come to the surface. Do they have 7 little fingers on their little hands?
Should be enough to kill off all flat earth theories you would think, even those in ancient times clearly knew the earth was a sphere!
MAFA
Noooooo, akshually the Sun and the Moon orbit in a shape of an 8 in the sky, so sometimes one occludes the other! /s
No such luck. On and after April 8th the Flat Earthers tripped all over themselves denying what happened.
It couldn't be the moon because the moon isn't dark, NASA sent up a disk or turned off the sun, NASA was projecting a hologram, the CERN LHC caused it, etc.
Yes, they're that crazy.
the word "ÉKLEIPSIS" hurts my brain. thanks
What does it mean?
Omg that single π in that t-shirt where everything else is in the Roman alphabet but in a sort of weird Greek transliteration drives me *nuts*.. Am I the only one? 😅
It's kind of like how everyone includes the Roman Hercules in the Greek mythology instead of Heracles.
Someone please tell Taylor Greene. 😂
I don't get it, why would I need some protective eyewear to look at it. There's going to a large chunk of planet in the way, which along with blocking my view of the eclipse, I'm sure will also block my view of the light. Or is the protective eyewear sufficiently out of phase with the planet, that I'll be able to see the eclipse, whilst also not being harmed by the sun (being "a deadly laser").
do a google search
During total eclipse you DON'T need protection. But even a little bit away from totality is dangerous-more so than even looking at the sun normally is. Your pupils contract when there's too much visible light, but if most of the visible light is blocked out they don't contract sufficiently, and enough UV still gets through to do damage
It doesn't block enough light to not hurt you.
@@geeksdo1tbetter It certainly does!
As I recall, lunar eclipses are actually rarer than solar eclipses, at least all types of solar eclipses put together. But maybe they are not rarer than total solar eclipses alone.
Obviously, either way, a lot more people - namely all the people on parts of the earth experiencing night at the time - are going to see lunar eclipses.
Alas, I won't be able to make it to the 2024 North American solar eclipse, which really sucks because I was actually born in the shadow of the moon on May 10, 1994 and really wanted to see it. But I'll definitely travel to see one when I can!
lowkey annoyed that the eclipse merch is very US-centered when it was also viewable in Canada and Mexico...
Maybe i should hop on a cycle
How long is it going to last for 😮
Depends on your perspective. Check the map at 0:10. See the path of totality (the black streak)? The closer you are the the center of the path, the longer the totality and vice versa. It will be for about a minute in my area at the edge of the path, but if I were to drive 90 minutes to the west, I could hit max totality (about 4 minutes).*
If I had a plane and followed the path, I could extend totality for hours.
If you are asking how long the Earth will continue to have total solar eclipses. I dunno. As I recall from 6th grade, the moon drifts away from the Earth at about an inch a year. Eventually, the Moon will be too far away to fully block the sun. Will that be before the Sun runs out of fuel? I dunno.
*This all assumes that the weather cooperates.
to be honest I didn't undertsand anything,I'll have to rewatch 😅😂
She didn't either. Hence confusion.
At this point, it's hard to believe that they did it without using AI.
Hard to believe for m0r0ns who have never learned what it means to make an effort.
Am I supposed to be surprised that our ancestors just 2,000 years ago out of MILLIONS!!!! Could guess an eclipse 😂
They used the cursed Grail, obviously.
One would think that if you could predict an eclipse then it had nothing to do with luck, and the King should have been safe anyway....
As above, so below. There's no avoiding that truth
It seems like we’ve had an eclipse visible in near totality in the USA annually for multiple years and now there will be an eclipse hiatus for decades? What’s up with that?
*watches video
“Oh. Ok.”
You just said that an eclipse happens when the earth passes between the sun and the moon. That's wrong. It's when the moon passes between the sun and the earth.
Lunar vs solar eclipse
@@geeksdo1tbetter Yup, I realized that after I posted.