In Mesopotamia, several millennia BC, societies observed the sky within a religious framework. The Ancients try to read the future in the constellations and the movement of the stars, which they consider divine. It is from this form of astrology that astronomy was born, at the time when ancient kings set up continuous observation of the sky to try to predict its vagaries.
In the Greek world, the sky god, Ouranos, is with the Earth the creator of the gods and the world. This original myth did not prevent ancient scientists from seeking to develop a functional model of the universe. To do this, ancient astronomers had a method: observation and calculation. Without astronomical glasses, they observe the sky with the naked eye to catalog the stars and use instruments of their invention to precisely calculate the movement of celestial bodies.
LSD, the documentary series Listen later
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This history of astronomy is also a history of the circulation of knowledge. Astronomical knowledge was dispersed throughout the Mediterranean area – in Greece, Italy, Egypt, Syria – and research has revealed Indian and Chinese influences in Western astronomy of late antiquity. Furthermore, this circulation of knowledge takes place over time: not only are ancient theories on the organization of the universe the foundation of contemporary astronomy, but the transmission of knowledge through writing and the construction of knowledge through reading, criticism and comparison of texts is the basis of modern science.
How did representations of the starry sky evolve throughout Antiquity? How did the ancients’ fascination with the sky contribute to the development of ancient sciences?
The course of history Listen later
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To know more
Victor Gysembergh is a historian of the philosophy and sciences of antiquity, responsible for research on ancient thought at the Léon Robin center of the CNRS. In 2023, he received the CNRS bronze medal.
He notably published:
- Aristotle, From the sky. Text introduced, translated and commented by Michel Federspiel, updated by Victor Gysembergh, Les Belles Lettres, 2017
Emilie Villey is a historian of astronomy, CNRS research fellow within the Orient & Méditerranée laboratory in the Semitic Worlds team. She is interested in the history of astronomy in the Mediterranean world in ancient and medieval times, and is a specialist in Syriac texts.
Sound references
- Archive of Jean-Pierre Vernant in the show Good pleasureFrance Culture, July 2, 1994
- Archive of Gaston Bachelard in the show Knowledge of manRTF, August 4, 1954
- Credits music: Gendèr by Makoto San, 2020
