The History of Astronomy in the Ancient World

The history of astronomy in the Ancient World can be traced back thousands of years, and well before the Ancient Greek philosophers famously worked on it. It is generally agreed that the discipline of astronomy began in the region of Mesopotamia, although there are scholars who argue it originated in Egypt, and others for ancient India. The evidence of Nabta Playa, a stone circle in Egypt that dates to the fifth millennium BCE and has been interpreted as a prehistoric astronomical calendar, is a main cause for the belief that the Egyptians were the first astronomers. It's definitely a bit of a 'who was first’ debate between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley Civilisation over who can claim to have been the region with the first astronomers.

The study of how the universe functioned and why, setting aside theistic beliefs concerning gods and creation, and instead relying on mathematical calculations and observations, was certainly not invented by the Greeks as they were latecomers to the field of astronomy, drawing on the works of the Egyptians and the Babylonians. To understand the universe and the earth’s place in it, they developed a working model of the universe explained not by the gods, but by natural laws. Plus, by understanding how the planets moved, the concept of astrology and the idea of planets influencing human affairs transformed into a more scientific view of how planetary movement influenced human affairs. As the planets moved closer and further away from the earth, they were believed to have exerted a certain power over both humans and the natural world.

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— CHAPTERS —
0:00​ Introduction
1:04 Early Astronomy — Egypt and Mesopotamia
3:48 Ancient Greek Astronomy
5:42 The Pre-Socratics
8:03 From Plato to Ptolemy
12:34 Outro

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— ATTRIBUTIONS —

The music used in this recording is the intellectual copyright of Michael Levy, a prolific composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, and used with the creator's permission. Michael Levy's music is available to stream at all the major digital music platforms. Find out more on:

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Johann Bayer / This image is courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory Library

Carole raddato

World History Encyclopedia

#ancientastronomy #astronomyhistory #greekastronomy

[WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

What do you think might have happened if Aristarchus’ Heliocentric model had been accepted in his time?

[doveophesao]

Very professional and interesting too, nicely done, worth watching 👍

[adamc]

Welcome back Kelly ! Great subject matter.

[stevenbrown]

It’s unfortunate that the idea of Aristarchus regarding Heliocentric was rejected. It would have saved a lot of time accurately developing astronomy. Still, the accomplishments of these early astronomers are really remarkable. Thanks for the great video.

[Tekmirion]

Nice subject. I dont have any clues on it except some parts but thanks for the intel.

[iconoclad]

I want to know what tools they used for their observations and measurements.

[CardsMan]

The problem with the heliocentric model was that it did not accurately predict motion as well as Ptolemy's geocentric model using the mathematics available then.

[Youngkizzy_]

Can any1 tell me the order by each part of the video like: Stonehenge, Aristolte and etc ??

[sergueiignacinskybenitovic]

Pre-Socratics are those who had a system of beliefs before that of Socrates, not that lived before him.

[starcapture]

Eratosthenes experiment it turn out to be impossible to be done at his time

[kurtiscobain]

I think we would be ahead in our universal understanding, but we most likely wouldn’t know any more that 10% of everything in the universe. (If Aristarchus’s heliocentric model was accepted)

[wcovey]

I enjoyed this video very much. Understand what I'm saying here. It is Thales, it's Thales, it is all his doing. Thales traveled about his world to learn. Going here and there and then he brought it home, improved on what he learned and the schooled others, one of which was Pythagoras, who also traveled the world to learn and setup shop where he did. It is all about Thales, yes, it is. Thales interduce "Geometry" and its ways to the west; laws and poofs and other stuff, the proof of the right triangle within a circle. Look at the temples built in Greece and Rome from his time onward. All of that just to say, in geometry the reference point does not move. When on Earth looking up to the sky, everything is moving in relationship to the looker (the geo system) not only that the looker is at the center of it all, employing the laws of gravity and movement the Sun becomes the center or is it the galaxy core. By what law are you use to setup the reference point?

[wheresmyeyebrow]

Too bad I can’t see 90% of this stuff cause of where I live lol

[BigHeadTre]

IM HERE FOR KELLY SHE SO DAMNN BEAUTIFUL’ I CAN LOOK AT HER ALLDAY GOOD LAWD 😍🤤

[vassilisioannou]

Greeks were late comers and did not look at the sky's with scientific eyes, yeah you definitely have no clue what your talking about