Chronoi Talks: “Time as a Point of Intersection between Astronomy and Ritual in First Millennium BC Babylonia” (Online)
October 29, 2020
5 pm - 6 pm
Prof. Dr. John Steele (Brown University; EC-Chronoi)
Ritual texts from first millennium BC Babylon and Uruk provide evidence for rituals to be performed according to monthly and yearly cultic calendars as well as rituals to be performed on special occasions such as during an eclipse of the moon or at the foundation of a new temple building. In addition, evidence from temple records and references in ritual activities in documentary sources (in particular the so-called Astronomical Diaries) attest to the practice of these and other rituals. Astronomy plays several roles in these rituals: providing the framework for the cultic calendar, providing indications of when certain parts of a ritual are to take place (e.g. by reference to the appearance or culmination of a particular star), etc. In this talk, I will outline the framing questions of my research project at Chronoi into the intersection between time, astronomy, and ritual, and report some tentative first results from the project.
Watch the recording of this presentation here: