1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789565703321

Autore

Watson Rita <1949->

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden ; ; Boston, : Brill, 2011

ISBN

1-283-12094-1

9786613120946

90-04-20231-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (251 p.)

Collana

Culture and history of the ancient Near East, , 1566-2055 ; ; v. 48

Altri autori (Persone)

HorowitzWayne <1957->

Disciplina

520.935

Soggetti

Astronomy, Assyro-Babylonian

Akkadian language

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Preliminary Material / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter One. MUL.APIN / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter Two. Writing And Conceptual Change / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter Three. Terms Of Analysis / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter Four. MUL.APIN: Text And Analysis / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter Five. Summary Of Results / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter Six. Discussion: MUL.APIN, Writing, And Science / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter Seven. Further Thoughts: The Cognitive Function Of Writing In MUL.APIN / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Chapter Eight. A Final Word: From List To Axiom / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Bibliography / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Appendix One. The Translated Text Of MUL.APIN / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Appendix Two. The Babylonian Month-Names / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Appendix Three. Tablet And Line Correspondences With Hunger-Pingree / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Subject Index / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Author Index / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- Akkadian And Sumerian Word Index / R. Watson and W. Horowitz -- MUL.APIN Text Citation Index / R. Watson and W. Horowitz.

Sommario/riassunto

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