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account log in contents move to sidebar hide top 1 dating historical events 2 dating artifacts 3 dating structures by their orientation 4 see also 5 notes 6 references 7 bibliography 8 external links toggle the table of contents astronomical chronology 7 languages العربية español italiano 日本語 português русский türkçe edit links article talk english read edit view history tools tools move to sidebar hide actions read edit view history general what links here related changes upload file permanent link page information cite this page get shortened url switch to legacy parser print export download as pdf printable version in other projects wikidata item appearance move to sidebar hide from wikipedia the free encyclopedia method of determining the age of events or artifacts astronomical chronology or astronomical dating is a technical method of dating events or artifacts that are associated with astronomical phenomena written records of historical events that include descriptions of astronomical phenomena have done much to clarify the chronology of the ancient near east works of art which depict the configuration of the stars and planets and buildings which are oriented to the rising and setting of celestial bodies at a particular time have all been dated through astronomical calculations dating historical events edit astronomical dating can be a powerful tool for establishing absolute chronologies but it can easily produce precise and impressive looking results based on invalid assumptions results so precise and impressive they may not be questioned by scholars in other fields john steele the use and abuse of astronomy in establishing absolute chronologies the use of descriptions of astronomical phenomena to date historical events began in the 16th century a time of a renewed humanistic interest in history and of increasingly precise astronomical tables 1 eclipses in particular are relatively infrequent events and can be dated precisely when the circumstances are not exact and descriptions leave ambiguities one can often use other details such as the month of the eclipse or the position of other stars and planets to identify the specific eclipse 2 astronomical dating like other forms of historical interpretation requires care in interpreting the surviving written records john steele has proposed three questions that must be asked when dating an event does the record refer to an actual astronomical event or is this merely a modern assumption if it does refer to an actual astronomical event is the source reliable can the record provide an unambiguous date without making unwarranted assumptions about ancient astronomical observational methods 3 babylonian astronomical diaries provide detailed and unambiguous accounts of the positions of all the visible planets often in relation to specific stars that have been used to provide precise dates of events like the defeat of darius iii by alexander the great at the battle of gaugamela on 1 october 331 bce and of alexander s subsequent death on 11 june 323 4 since the success of this method depends on the reliability of the written sources and the precision of their accounts of astronomical phenomena attempts to date literary texts which may describe astronomical events loosely or even as metaphors have led researchers to conclusions that appear precise but rely on invalid assumptions and are consequently less widely accepted thus the attempts to date vedic texts describing the pleiades as rising due east to about 2300 bce which is the time when the pleiades rose exactly due east is complicated by the fact that poetic descriptions need not be taken as reflecting precise astronomical observations while precession is a very slow process which makes only small changes in the azimuth of a star rising in the east 5 dating artifacts edit ninth century diagram of the positions of the seven planets on 18 march 816 among the artifacts that can most readily be dated by astronomical techniques are depictions of the positions of the celestial bodies at a particular time since the motions of the celestial bodies are all at different periods it takes many centuries for all the planets plus the sun and the moon to reach the same positions in the signs of the zodiac for a configuration accurate to 15 that is within a single sign the positions of these seven bodies will only return to the same configuration once in about 3700 years a particular case involved a medieval illuminated manuscript which portrayed the position of these seven celestial bodies on 18 march 816 corresponding to the period when the manuscript was written this calculation demonstrated that this illustration was not a copy of an earlier classical depiction of the position of the stars 6 the rapidly moving moon is the most sensitive indicator for the exact time if one can estimate the indicated position of the moon to within a degree the time of the diagram can be computed to within an hour 7 a striking example of this method was an astrological portrait of sir christopher hatton 1540 1591 which depicted the positions of the seven classical planets in the zodiac and noted the computed positions of the planets to the nearest minute of arc here the largest source of error in the date was the uncertainty of 16th century astronomical calculations the resulting time was about noon of 12 december 1581 8 dating structures by their orientation edit a more controversial archaeoastronomical approach has been used to date structures that are believed to have been oriented on astronomical principles by measuring their orientation and computing the date in the past when a single specified celestial body whether the sun or a selected star rises or sets at the measured azimuth the astronomer norman lockyer applied this method to stonehenge 9 by measuring the orientation of the stonehenge avenue and comparing it to the position of solstitial sunrise which changes slowly due to the changing obliquity of the ecliptic the archaeologist f c penrose applied a similar method to ancient greek temples attempting to establish their dates by relating their orientation to the appearance of stars on the horizon the position of which changes slowly due to the precession of the equinoxes 10 the wide variance of these dates from historically accepted ones led the architect and archaeologist william bell dinsmoor to mistrust dates established by the slowly changing obliquity of the ecliptic or by stellar alignments which involve an arbitrary selection of a star that rises on the proper azimuth instead he proposed a method employing what was already known from historical records concerning the dates of construction of greek temples the festivals associated with specific temples and the nature of the greek lunisolar calendar since the date of a festival in the greek lunisolar calendar only recurs on the same date in the solar calendar every eight or nineteen years dinsmoor identified a festival connected with a specific temple and was able to determine the exact year near the historically recorded construction date when the sun rose in alignment with the temple on the date of the festival 11 see also edit astronomical chronology age of the earth age of the universe chronological dating archaeological chronology absolute dating relative dating phase archaeology archaeological association geochronology geologic time scale geological history of earth notes edit anthony grafton some uses of eclipses in early modern chronology journal of the history of ideas 64 2003 213 229 f r stephenson and j m steele astronomical dating of babylonian texts describing the total solar eclipse of s e 175 journal for the history of astronomy 37 2006 55 69 john m steele the use and abuse of astronomy in establishing ancient chronologies physics in canada la physique au canada 59 2003 243 8 p 247 jona lendering astronomical diaries archived 2011 05 14 at the wayback machine michael witzel the pleiades and the bears viewed from inside the vedic texts electronic journal of vedic studies archived march 20 2008 at the wayback machine 5 1999 issue 2 richard mostert and marco mostert using astronomy as an aid to dating manuscripts the example of the leiden aratea planetarium quaerendo 20 1999 248 261 see esp 6 reliability of the dating method p 258 william d stahlman astronomical dating applied to a type of astrological illustration isis 47 1956 154 160 p 158 arthur beer astronomical dating of works of art vistas in astronomy 9 1967 177 223 norman lockyer and f c penrose an attempt to ascertain the date of the original construction of stonehenge from its orientation proceedings of the royal society of london 69 1901 1902 137 147 penrose f c 1893 on the results of an examination of the orientations of a number of greek temples with a view to connect these angles with the amplitudes of certain stars at the time the temples were founded and an endeavour to derive therefrom the dates of their foundation by consideration of the changes produced upon the right ascension and declination of the stars by the precession of the equinoxes philosophical transactions of the royal society of london a 184 805 834 dinsmoor william bell 1939 archæology and astronomy proceedings of the american philosophical society 10 95 173 references edit neugebaer otto a history of ancient mathematical astronomy 3 vols new york springer 1975 vol 3 pp 1071 1076 provides a brief introduction to astronomical chronology bibliography edit fraser gordon fraser star territory printing the universe in nineteenth century america material texts philadelphia university of pennsylvania press 2021 giovannetti singh gianamar astronomical chronology the jesuit china mission and enlightenment history journal of the history of ideas 83 3 2023 487 510 https doi org 10 1353 jhi 2023 a901491 gingerich owen and barbara welther planetary lunar and solar positions a d 1650 to 1805 memoirs of the american philosophical society 59s philadelphia 1983 neugebauer paul v astronomische chronologie 2 vols berlin de gruyter 1929 steele john m the use and abuse of astronomy in establishing absolute chronologies physics in canada la physique au canada 59 2003 243 248 tuckerman bryant planetary lunar and solar positions 601 b c to a d 1 memoirs of the american philosophical society 56 philadelphia 1962 tuckerman bryant planetary lunar and solar positions a d 2 to 1649 memoirs of the american philosophical society 59 philadelphia 1964 external links edit van gent r h astronomical chronology v t e time key concepts past present future eternity measurement and standards chronometry utc universal time tai unit of time orders of magnitude time measurement systems italian six hour clock thai six hour clock 12 hour clock 24 hour clock relative hour daylight saving time chinese decimal hexadecimal hindu jain metric roman sidereal solar time zone calendars main types solar lunar lunisolar gregorian julian hebrew islamic solar hijri chinese hindu panchang maya list clocks main types astronomical astrarium atomic quantum hourglass marine sundial watch 24 hour wristwatch mechanical stopwatch water based cuckoo clock digital clock grandfather clock history timeline chronology history astronomical chronology big history calendar era deep time periodization regnal year timeline philosophy of time a series and b series b theory of time chronocentrism duration endurantism eternal return eternalism event moving spotlight theory perdurantism presentism temporal finitism temporal parts the unreality of time religion mythology ages of man destiny immortality dreamtime kāla time and fate deities father time wheel of time kalachakra human experience and use of time chronemics generation time mental chronometry music tempo time signature rosy retrospection tense aspect mood time management yesterday today tomorrow time in science geology geological time age chron eon epoch era period geochronology geological history of earth physics absolute space and time arrow of time chronon coordinate time instant proper time spacetime theory of relativity time domain time translation symmetry time reversal symmetry other fields chronological dating chronobiology circadian rhythms clock reaction glottochronology time geography related leap year memory moment sabbath space system time tempus fugit time capsule time immemorial time travel time value of money category commons v t e time measurement and standards international standards coordinated universal time offset ut δt dut1 international earth rotation and reference systems service iso 31 1 iso 8601 international atomic time 12 hour clock 24 hour clock barycentric coordinate time barycentric dynamical time civil time daylight saving time geocentric coordinate time international date line iers reference meridian leap second solar time terrestrial time time zone 180th meridian obsolete standards ephemeris time greenwich mean time prime meridian time in physics absolute space and time spacetime chronon coordinate time discrete time and continuous time proper time theory of relativity time dilation gravitational time dilation time domain time translation symmetry t symmetry chronometry clock astrarium atomic clock complication history of timekeeping devices hourglass marine chronometer marine sandglass radio clock watch stopwatch water clock sundial dialing scales equation of time history of sundials sundial markup schema calendar gregorian hebrew hindu holocene islamic lunar hijri julian solar hijri astronomical dominical letter epact equinox intercalation julian day leap year lunar lunisolar solar solstice tropical year weekday determination weekday names archaeology and geology chronological dating geologic time scale international commission on stratigraphy astronomical chronology galactic year nuclear timescale precession sidereal time other units of time instant flick shake jiffy second minute moment hour day week fortnight month year olympiad lustrum decade century saeculum millennium related topics orders of magnitude chronology duration music mental chronometry decimal time metric time system time time value of money timekeeper v t e chronology key topics archaeology astronomy geology history big history paleontology time periods eras epochs calendar eras human era ab urbe condita anno domini common era anno mundi bosporan era bostran era byzantine era seleucid era era of caesar iberia before present hijri egyptian sothic cycle hindu units of time yuga jain units of time avasarpiṇī mesoamerican long count short count tzolkʼin haabʼ regnal year anka year canon of kings english and british regnal year lists of kings limmu era names chinese japanese korean vietnamese calendars pre julian julian pre julian roman original julian proleptic julian revised julian gregorian gregorian proleptic gregorian old style and new style dates adoption of the gregorian calendar dual dating astronomical lunisolar hebrew hindu solar lunar islamic astro...