Rita watson, wayne horowitz writing science before the greeks a naturalistic analysis of the babylonian astronomical treatise MUL APIN 2011

Writing Science before
the Greeks


Culture and History of the
Ancient Near East
Founding Editor

M. H. E. Weippert
Editor-in-Chief

Thomas Schneider
Editors

Eckart Frahm (Yale University)
W. Randall Garr (University of California, Santa Barbara)
B. Halpern (Pennsylvania State University)
Theo P. J. van den Hout (Oriental Institute)
Irene J. Winter (Harvard University)

VOLUME 48


Writing Science before
the Greeks
A Naturalistic Analysis of the Babylonian
Astronomical Treatise MUL.APIN

By

Rita Watson and Wayne Horowitz

LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011


This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watson, Rita
Writing science before the Greeks : a naturalistic analysis of the Babylonian astronomical treatise MUL.APIN / by Rita Watson and Wayne Horowitz.
p. cm. — (Culture and history of the ancient Near East, ISSN 1566-2055 ; v. 48)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-20230-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Astronomy, Assyro-Babylonian.
2. Akkadian language—Texts. I. Horowitz, Wayne, 1957– II. Title. III. Series.
QB19.W38 2011
520.935—dc22
2010051431

ISSN 1566-2055
ISBN 978 90 04 20230 6
Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission
from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by

Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.


In tribute to Herman Hunger and David R. Olson for their lifelong
achievements in our respective fields; and in memory of our friend
John Britton.



CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ......................................................................
Acknowledgments .......................................................................
Foreword .....................................................................................

xvii
xix
xxi

Introduction ................................................................................ xxiii
Chapter One MUL.APIN .......................................................
1.1 The Text ........................................................................
1.2 Form ..............................................................................
1.3 Date of Composition .....................................................
1.4 MUL.APIN and the Scribal Tradition ........................
1.5 Sequence in MUL.APIN ..............................................
1.5.1 Sequence: Procedural Considerations ...............
1.6 Mesopotamians and Moderns ......................................

1.7 Analytic Considerations: Why We Chose
MUL.APIN ...................................................................
1.8 Conclusion .....................................................................

1
1
2
3
6
7
8
10

Chapter Two Writing and Conceptual Change .....................
2.1 The Cuneiform Scribal Tradition .................................
2.1.1 The Cuneiform Lists and Conceptions of
Language ............................................................
2.2 Writing, Cognition, and Culture ...................................
2.2.1 Literacy and the Brain .......................................
2.2.2 Naturalistic Approaches .....................................
2.2.3 Cognitive Evolution ...........................................
2.2.4 Cultural Variation ..............................................
2.2.5 Cultural Transmission .......................................
2.3 Writing and Conceptual Change ..................................
2.3.1 Writing and Rationality .....................................
2.3.2 The Greeks and the “Great Divide” .................
2.3.3 Moderns, Media, and Materialism ....................
2.3.4 Pragmatics and the Uses of Writing .................
2.3.5 Permanence, Memory, and the Archival Uses
of Texts ..............................................................

15
16

12
14

17
18
19
20
21
23
24
25
26
26
30
32
33


viii
2.4

contents
A Model of Writing and Conceptual Change ..............
2.4.1 Writing and Cultural Transmission ..................
2.4.2 Writing as Communication ...............................
2.4.3 Writing Recalibrates Inferential Environments

2.4.4 Writing and Rationality .....................................
Conclusion: Summary of Pre-Analytic Assumptions ....

35
35
36
38
40
42

Chapter Three Terms of Analysis ...........................................
3.1 The Language of Space and Time ...............................
3.1.1 The Language of Space .....................................
3.1.2 Coordinating Systems or Frames of
Reference ............................................................
3.1.3 The Language of Time ......................................
3.2 Deixis, Indexical Expressions, and Context .................
3.3 Categories and Concepts ...............................................
3.3.1 Kinds of Concepts .............................................
3.4 Naming ..........................................................................
3.5 Definition .......................................................................
3.5.1 Stipulative Definition .........................................
3.6 Assumptions and Axioms ..............................................
3.7 Rhetorical Concerns ......................................................

45
45
46

Chapter Four MUL.APIN: Text and Analysis .......................

A Note on the Form of the Akkadian Text of
MUL.APIN .............................................................................
4.1 Section a, MUL.APIN I i 1–ii 35 .................................
4.1.1 Astronomical Content ........................................
4.1.2 Textual Form .....................................................
4.1.3 Translated Text .................................................
4.1.4 Analysis ...............................................................
4.1.4.1 Discourse Forms: List Structure .........
4.1.4.2 Discourse Forms: Time and Space ....
4.1.4.3 Minor Textual Form: The Planets .....
4.1.5 Categories ...........................................................
4.2 Sections b–d, MUL.APIN I ii 36–I iii 12 .....................
4.2.1 Astronomical Content ........................................
4.2.2 Textual Form .....................................................
4.2.3 Translated Text .................................................
4.2.4 Analysis ...............................................................

61

2.5

47
48
51
53
53
54
55
56
58

58

61
63
63
63
64
66
66
66
67
68
69
69
69
69
72


contents
4.2.4.1

4.3

4.4

Discourse Forms: Time and Space ....
4.2.4.1.1 Discourse Forms:
Section b ...........................
4.2.4.1.2 Discourse Forms:

Section c ............................
4.2.4.1.3 Discourse Forms:
Section d ...........................
4.2.4.1.4 Minor Textual Form in
Section b ...........................
4.2.5 Categories ...........................................................
Intermediate Section, MUL.APIN I iii 49–50 .............
4.3.1 Astronomical Content ........................................
4.3.2 Translated Text .................................................
4.3.3 Analysis ...............................................................
4.3.3.1 Discourse Forms: Time and Space,
Generalized Description .....................
4.3.3.2 Rhetorical Device: Proto-Axioms ......
4.3.3.3 Rhetorical Function: Transition ........
4.3.4 Categories ...........................................................
Section e, MUL.APIN I iv 1–30 ..................................
4.4.1 Subsection e-1, MUL.APIN I iv 1–9 ................
4.4.1.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.4.1.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.4.1.3 Translated Text ..................................
4.4.1.4 Analysis .............................................
4.4.1.4.1 Rhetorical Devices:
Introduction and
Conclusion .........................
4.4.1.4.2 Rhetorical Devices:
Direct Address ...................
4.4.1.4.3 Discourse Devices:
Continuous Discourse .......
4.4.1.4.4 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time, Multiple

Marking .............................
4.4.1.4.5 Generalizations ................
4.4.1.5 Categories ...........................................
4.4.2 Subsection e-2, MUL.APIN I iv 10–30 ............
4.4.2.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.4.2.2 Textual Form ......................................

ix
72
72
72
73
73
74
74
74
74
75
75
75
76
76
76
76
76
76
77
77
77
78

78
79
79
79
79
79
80


x

contents
4.4.2.3
4.4.2.4

4.5

4.6

Translated Text ..................................
Analysis ...............................................
4.4.2.4.1 Rhetorical Devices:
Introduction, Direct
Address ..............................
4.4.2.4.2 Dividing Lines ...................
4.4.2.4.3 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time, Multiple
Marking .............................
4.4.2.4.4 Generalizations ..................
4.4.2.5 Categories ...........................................

Section f, MUL.APIN I iv 31–II i 8 .............................
4.5.1 Subsection f-1, MUL.APIN I iv 31–39 .............
4.5.1.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.5.1.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.5.1.3 Translated Text ..................................
4.5.1.4 Analysis ...............................................
4.5.1.4.1 Rhetorical Devices:
Introduction and
Conclusion .........................
4.5.1.4.2 Discourse Forms: Time and
Space, Complex
Descriptions .......................
4.5.1.4.3 Generalizations ..................
4.5.1.5 Categories ...........................................
4.5.2 Subsection f-2, MUL.APIN II i 1–8 .................
4.5.2.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.5.2.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.5.2.3 Translated Text ..................................
4.5.2.4 Analysis ...............................................
4.5.2.4.1 Rhetorical Devices:
Conclusion .........................
4.5.2.4.2 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time ...........................
4.5.2.4.3 Generalizations ..................
4.5.2.5 Categories ...........................................
Section g, MUL.APIN II i 9–24 ...................................
4.6.1 Astronomical Content ........................................
4.6.2 Textual Form .....................................................
4.6.3 Translated Text .................................................

80
81
81
81
82
83
83
83
84
84
85
85
85
85
85
86
86
86
86
87
87
87
87
87
87
88
88
88
88
89

contents

4.7

4.6.4 Analysis ...............................................................
4.6.4.1 Rhetorical Devices: Conclusion, Direct
Address ................................................
4.6.4.2 Discourse Forms: Space and Time ....
4.6.4.2.1 Complexity ........................
4.6.4.2.2 Generalized Expressions .....
4.6.4.3 Dividing Lines .....................................
4.6.5 Categories ...........................................................
Sections h and i, MUL.APIN II i 25–71; plus
Gap A 1–7, from Section j ............................................
4.7.1 Subsection h-i-1, MUL.APIN II i 25–37 ..........
4.7.1.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.7.1.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.7.1.3 Translated Text ..................................
4.7.1.4 Analysis ...............................................
4.7.1.4.1 Rhetorical Devices: Direct
Address ..............................
4.7.1.4.2 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time ...........................
4.7.1.4.3 Generalizations ..................
4.7.1.5 Categories ...........................................
4.7.2 Subsection h-i-2, MUL.APIN II i 38–43 ..........
4.7.2.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.7.2.2 Textual Form ......................................

4.7.2.3 Translated Text ..................................
4.7.2.4 Analysis ...............................................
4.7.2.4.1 Rhetorical Devices:
Conclusion, Direct
Address ..............................
4.7.2.4.2 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time ...........................
4.7.2.4.3 Generalizations ..................
4.7.2.5 Categories ...........................................
4.7.3 Subsection h-i-3, MUL.APIN II i 44–67 ..........
4.7.3.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.7.3.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.7.3.3 Translated Text ..................................

xi
90
90
90
91
91
91
92
92
93
93
93
94
94
94
95

95
95
95
95
95
96
96
96
96
96
97
98
98
98
98


xii

contents
4.7.3.4

4.8

Analysis ...............................................
4.7.3.4.1 Discourse Forms:
Complexity ........................
4.7.3.4.2 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time ...........................
4.7.3.4.3 Generalizations ..................

4.7.3.5 Categories ...........................................
4.7.3.6 Minor Textual Form: Description
of Mercury ..........................................
4.7.4 Subsection h-i-4, MUL.APIN II i 68–71 ..........
4.7.4.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.7.4.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.7.4.3 Translated Text ..................................
4.7.4.4 Analysis ...............................................
4.7.4.4.1 Rhetorical Devices: Direct
Address, Procedures ..........
4.7.4.4.2 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time ...........................
4.7.4.4.3 Generalizations ..................
4.7.4.5 Categories ...........................................
4.7.5 Subsection j-1, Gap A 1–7 ................................
4.7.5.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.7.5.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.7.5.3 Translated Text ..................................
4.7.5.4 Analysis ...............................................
4.7.5.4.1 Discourse Forms: Space
and Time ...........................
4.7.5.4.2 Rhetorical Devices ............
4.7.5.4.3 Generalizations ..................
Subsections j-2 and j-3, MUL.APIN II Gap
A8-II ii 20 ......................................................................
4.8.1 Subsection j-2, MUL.APIN II Gap
A8-II ii 17 ..........................................................
4.8.1.1 Astronomical Content ........................
4.8.1.2 Textual Form ......................................
4.8.1.3 Translated Text ..................................

4.8.1.4 Analysis ...............................................
4.8.1.4.1 Discourse Forms: Time
and Space ..........................

100
100
100
100
101
101
101
101
102
102
102
102
102
103
103
103
103
103
104
104
104
104
104
105
105
105

105
106
107
107


contents
4.8.1.4.2

4.8.2
4.9

Section
4.9.1
4.9.2
4.9.3
4.9.4

4.9.5
4.10 Section
4.10.1
4.10.2
4.10.3
4.10.4

4.10.5
4.11 Section
4.11.1
4.11.2
4.11.3

4.11.4

Rhetorical Devices:
Summary Statement,
Direct Address .............
4.8.1.4.3 Generalizations: Decision
Rules Expressed as
Conditionals .................
4.8.1.4.4 Rhetorical Devices:
Mathematical
Procedure .....................
4.8.1.5 Categories ......................................
Subsection j-3, MUL.APIN II ii 18–20 ........
4.8.2.1 Content and Analysis ....................
4.8.2.2 Translated Text .............................
k, MUL.APIN II ii 21–42 ..............................
Astronomical Content ....................................
Textual Form .................................................
Translated Text ..............................................
Analysis ...........................................................
4.9.4.1 Rhetorical Device: Table-Like
Format ...........................................
4.9.4.2 Rhetorical Devices: Direct Address,
Summary Statement ......................
Categories .......................................................
L, MUL.APIN II ii 43–II iii 15 .....................
Astronomical Content ....................................
Textual Form .................................................
Translated Text .............................................
Analysis ...........................................................

4.10.4.1 Discourse Forms: Time
and Space .......................................
4.10.4.2 Rhetorical Devices: Direct Address,
Conclusion, Axiom ........................
Categories .......................................................
m, MUL.APIN II iii 16–iv 12 .......................
Content ...........................................................
Textual Form .................................................
Translated Text ..............................................
Analysis ...........................................................
4.11.4.1 Rhetorical Devices:
Omens ...........................................

xiii

107
108
108
109
110
110
110
111
111
111
111
112
112
113
113

114
114
114
115
116
116
116
117
117
117
118
118
121
121


xiv

contents

Chapter Five Summary of Results .........................................
5.1 The Language of Space and Time ...............................
5.2 Rhetorical Features: Introductions and
Conclusions ....................................................................
5.3 Rhetorical Features: Direct Address .............................
5.4 Natural Categories: An Emerging Taxonomy of
Stars ...............................................................................
5.5 Procedures and Procedural Categories .........................
5.6 Definitions and Stipulation: Non-Natural Categories ...
5.7 Ancient Forms of Text Marking: DIŠ and

Horizontal Rulings ........................................................
5.8 Generalizations, Axioms, and Assumptions ..................
Chapter Six Discussion: MUL.APIN, Writing, and
Science ....................................................................................
6.1 A Developmental Progression .......................................
6.2 Applying an Inferential Model to MUL.APIN ............
6.2.1 Textual Evidence for Recalibration:
Rhetorical-Indexical Clusters .............................
6.2.2 Summary: Rhetorical-Indexical Clusters ..........
6.3 Textual Indicators of Logic and Rational Thought in
MUL.APIN ....................................................................
6.3.1 An Incipient Taxonomy of Stars .......................
6.3.2 Generalizations ...................................................
6.3.3 Generalizations and the Text Marker DIŠ .......
6.3.4 Definitions: Content and Form .........................
6.3.5 Summary: Categories, Generalizations,
and Definition ....................................................
Chapter Seven Further Thoughts: The Cognitive Functions
of Writing in MUL.APIN ......................................................
7.1 Writing and Dual-Process Models of Cognition ..........
7.2 The Mind’s Confrontation with Its Own Invention ....
7.3 Lists, Science, and Domains of Knowledge .................
7.4 A Cognitive Influence on the Organization of the
Lists ................................................................................
7.5 Listwissenschaft: But Is It Science? ..................................
7.6 Star Lists and the Extended Function of Writing in
MUL.APIN ....................................................................
7.7 Summary ........................................................................

123

123
125
127
128
131
133
135
137
139
139
140
142
146
148
148
150
150
151
154
157
158
160
161
162
164
165
167


contents

Chapter Eight A Final Word: From List to Axiom ...............
8.1 MUL.APIN and the Technical Handbook
Tradition ........................................................................
8.2 The Omens and Anomalous Text ................................
8.3 MUL.APIN, Science, and Rationality ..........................
Bibliography ................................................................................
Appendix One The Translated Text of MUL.APIN .............
Appendix Two The Babylonian Month-Names .....................
Appendix Three Tablet and Line Correspondences with
Hunger & Pingree ..................................................................
Subject Index ..............................................................................
Author Index ..............................................................................
Akkadian and Sumerian Word Index ........................................
MUL.APIN Text Citation Index ...............................................

xv
169
169
172
173
177
187
206
207
209
217
220
221

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The opening lines of the cuneiform tablet BM 86378
(Hunger & Pingree, 1989, MUL.APIN Source A)
Copy: CT 33 pl. 1 ..................................................... frontispiece
The closing lines and colophon of the cuneiform tablet
BM 86378 (Hunger & Pingree, 1989, MUL.APIN
Source A) Copy: CT 33 pl. 8 ..................................... endpiece
Hunger & Pingree, 1989 MUL.APIN Plate I, Source F,
Obverse ........................................................................ 61



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the editors of Archiv für Orientforschung and Herman Hunger for their permission to quote freely from
the translated version of MUL.APIN in Hunger and Pingree 1989.
We also acknowledge the Trustees of the British Museum for permission to study materials in the Museum’s collection, and to reproduce
copies of BM 86378. We would also like to express our thanks to the
Hebrew University for support during the preparation of the manuscript, and to the numerous friends and colleagues who contributed
their thoughts to our own during the incubation stage of the writing
of this book; in particular, to David R. Olson for writing the foreword.
Rita Watson also acknowledges support from The Abraham Schiffman Chair during the preparation of the manuscript, and Wayne
Horowitz acknowledges The Israel Science Foundation for a research
fellowship on the topic of Babylonian scholarship. We would also like
to express our gratitude to our editors at Brill, Jennifer Pavelko and
Katelyn Chin, for guiding the volume into print, and to Michael J.
Mozina and Gene McGarry for their invaluable contribution during
the production process.

FOREWORD
This is an interesting book in two ways. First it provides an account of
the extraordinary achievements in Babylonian astronomy as set out in
a 400-line cuneiform text, MUL.APIN. Second, it presents a textual
analysis to show that MUL.APIN is not merely a record of astronomical thinking of the period, but that it indicates how writing may itself
have been instrumental in the advance of astronomical knowledge.
In this way, it illuminates the much-debated relation between writing
and science.
As the authors show, the astronomical knowledge expressed in
MUL.APIN has many of the features we take as characteristic of science. It details lists of astronomical entities, stars, their relation to each
other, their relation to the observer, to the seasons, to diurnal (night
and day) events in the different seasons, and the calculation of leap
years. The compilers of MUL.APIN even knew something that came
as a bit of a surprise to me, namely, that the length of one’s shadow
is correlated with the season.
The authors cite an abstract formulation that appears in the latter
portion of the treatise, described as an axiom: “4 is the coefficient for the
visibility of the Moon.” They write: “This axiom . . . puts the astronomer
scribes who wrote it well within reach of a formal, theoretical, mathematical science.” But, as they note, the treatise also contains discourse
of a decidedly non-scientific nature, the obligatory astrological implications pertaining not only to planting and harvest but also to the
probable success of one’s hopes and schemes.
The primary concern of the Watson and Horowitz book, however,
is to explore the extent to which the advance of Mesopotamian astronomical science could have been, at least in part, a product of writing
and literacy. There is no question that the science was built upon a
long history of keeping records of times, distances, risings and settings,
and measurements of angles and distances. But the authors speculate, further, that the very formulation of knowledge into the patterns,
principles, and axioms that make up the text may reflect successive
attempts by the ancient scribes to formulate written accounts that
would be increasingly comprehensible to readers.

xxii

foreword

The component texts that comprise MUL.APIN indicate a progression over time, a reformulation of knowledge from simple lists of stars
to expressions of complex relations amongst celestial and terrestrial
events, to advancing definitions and drawing inferences. All of these
are features that implicate, if not actually demonstrate, the uses of
writing for science.
Two lines of work come to mind in relation to that presented in
this volume. Chemla (2004) examines the role of writing in the evolution of science and mathematics in antiquity in several cultures, work
that complements that of Watson and Horowitz. The second line of
work that warrants comparison is Gladwin’s (1970) celebrated work on
Micronesian navigation. Gladwin studied the traditional, that is, preliterate, navigational practices still employed for sailing long distances
out of the sight of land by the Caroline Islanders. The navigator memorizes the pattern of stars, comparable to the “star paths” described
by Watson and Horowitz. The navigator then visualizes himself as
the fixed centre of two moving frames of reference, one provided by
the islands that eventually come into sight, the other provided by the
pattern of stars which wheel overhead from east to west. What turns
such sophisticated practical knowledge into science is the attempt to
turn that practical knowledge into a form of a text that, as Watson and
Horowitz show, is designed to be useful to a reader, shows reasoned
progression, appeals to formalization and mathematization, and is useful for communicating and teaching knowledge.
This book is an important contribution to answering the question
of just how writing something down could change our mental representation of it. Like Watson and Horowitz, I believe that it does, and
continue to ponder just how.
David R. Olson
University Professor Emeritus

OISE/University of Toronto