Mesopotamian astronomy in Iran (1)

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There are no traces of mathematical astronomy in the earlier parts of Avesta. The earliest knowledge of mathematical astronomy in the Iranian territory originated in Mesopotamia. It developed and improved during the Achaemenid period, and culminated in the Babylonian solar, lunar, and planetary theories of the Seleucid and Parthian periods. Babylonian astronomy and the astral omen literature that was associated with it was adopted by the Iranian scholars and it is implied by its transmission to India in the late fifth or early fourth century BCE. But there is no direct evidence, that would clarify the nature of Iranian astronomy during the Achaemenid period. In the Parthian period we can find evidence from eastern Iran that Babylonian mathematical astronomy and astral omens continued to be studied and that Indian concepts had begun to be influential. For astronomy and the omens the evidence consists of planetary omens reported by the Chinese historian Ssūma Chien (ca. 100 BCE) and of the structure of Early Han planetary theory: both the omens and the theory seem to have originated in Mesopotamia. The influence of the Indian concepts is found in the Buddhist Sanskrit texts which were preserved in manuscripts from Central Asia or which were translated into Chinese or into Central Asian languages in the 2nd century CE or later. Some of the texts include both Indian adaptations of Mesopotamian astronomy and astral omens.

Bibliography

Andrea Piras

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