Science and Ancient Babylon
Ancient Babylon was responsible for many of the scientific practices that we use in our modern world today. It seems that Babylonians touched almost every part of our world including the sciences, astronomy, the way our calendar works, mathematics, and medicine. All of the information that we now have about the Babylonians shows that they were truly the inventors of the fundamentals that continue to provide the foundation for everything that we do.
The Babylonian astrologers made sure to record their nightly findings every night, and these findings held many predictions such as the calculation of the solar and lunar year. These predictions were true and that was not only very important to Babylonians as their year was based on the lunar year but it’s also important to us today because there are still many traditions and celebrations that are based around the lunar year. The lunar year has twelve months but due to the fact that these months were much shorter than what we know today, there was months added.
Although the people of Ancient Babylon were not the first to have a calendar, they were second only to the Sumerians. This calendar was extremely important to them because it dictated their agriculture and provided them with a basis of when to plant and when to harvest, providing them with the necessities of life. Today, our calendar is becoming more important every day it seems, as we plan our lives around it. The Babylonians also divided each week of the year up into seven different days. The Babylonians also used clocks but not the same type of clocks you would think of today. Instead, they used water and sun dial clocks so they could see what time of day it was.
The Babylonians were also quite advanced when it came to mathematics as well. There are still elements of the geometry and algebra system that the Babylonians used that are still used in practice today. The Babylonians first came up with a system in which they could measure angles and they also created a numerical system. The numerical system that the people of Ancient Babylon invented was based on the number sixty. You can still see evidence of this today when you see that an hour is comprised of sixty minutes and how a circle contains 360 degrees.
The Babylonians used two different types of medicine. They used a physician as well as an exorcist, and depending on the type of illness one is suffering from, one or both types of experts may be called upon. The people of Babylon were very familiar and accurate in their knowledge of human animal anatomy and they performed surgery, even in delicate areas such as the eye!
The Babylonians were far more advanced than people might generally think when considering how long ago their time was. With technological, scientific and mathematical advances every day in the modern world, it’s interesting to see that the basic principles on which these advancements are made are many centuries old!
