Stars over Ancient Babylon

Stars over Ancient Babylon from Kerry Magruder on Vimeo.

Join the ancient Babylonian astronomer Kidinnu for a survey of the origin of mathematical astronomy in Ancient Mesopotamia. Babylonian astronomers were sources for Greek astronomy. Without the Babylonian contributions, later Greek astronomy such as we find in Hipparchos (150 BC) and Ptolemy (150 AD) would not have been possible.

Script, discussion questions, instructor notes, and true/false questions: download pdf. My related websites:

• Ancient Mesopotamian astronomy pages (and here and here) from History of Science Online.

Written and produced by Kerry Magruder. Not polished, but hopefully better than a PowerPoint. I apologize for the poor audio narration – we recorded it in the wee hours one morning to get it ready in time for my class that week.