CHAPTER III

PRE-BABYLONIAN SCIENCE

The transcending wonders of the phenomena of the heavenly bodies attracted the attention of primitive man at an early period of his intellectual development. The succession of day and night, the phases of the moon, comets, meteorites, the eclipses of sun and moon, the recurrence of the seasons were observed and recorded. In this way, through long uncivilized times, many scientific facts were noticed and handed down by tradition, and probably were among the first scientific data collected. We have no means of determining when the primitive science of astronomy became systematized, although there are reasons for believing that it was roughly outlined at a remote date.

There was a tradition among the Babylonian priests that their astronomical observations and records went back to a period of more than 400,000 years. This statement was believed by the people of antiquity, and was made to Alexander the Great during his Indian campaign.

Astronomy appears to have been developed into an organized system by the primitive peoples of central Asia. It was carried to China, India, and Arabia by learned travelers. There were government astronomers in China before the year 3000 B. C., and history records that two of these officials, named Ho and Hi, were beheaded in the year 2159 B. C. for being careless in their work and failing to issue a timely prediction of a solar eclipse.

Chinese history also relates that the Emperor, in 2857 B. C., issued an edict recommending the study of astronomy. From these and other historical references we learn that nearly 5,000 years ago astronomical science was not only well developed, but that its educational value was recognized.

While attention was being given to the study of astronomy in China, this science was independently developed in India. The astronomers of India invented a different system from that of the Chinese, and compiled numerous astronomical tables which were published and widely used as far back as 3102 B. C.

These early astronomical studies resulted in the division of time practically as we know it to-day. The Babylonians had a week of seven days. The days bore names of the planets and were divided into hours and minutes. Days were combined into months and years. The Babylonian and Chaldean astronomers, like those of China and India, were important men and were credited with great learning.

The Babylonian month began on the evening when a new moon was first observed. An adjustment was made necessary between the months, owing to the fact that the actual lunar interval is about twenty-nine and a fraction days. Numerous astrological observations were made with the view of obtaining data to facilitate the monthly adjustments. The taking of these observations was made easier by maps of the heavens which were recorded on baked clay tablets and prisms. Similar maps of the world, with positions fixed by astronomical observations, were likewise made in Babylonian times.

The usefulness of astronomical observations and predictions led to the belief that they could be employed with advantage for wider purposes. The astrologers endeavored to deduce omens and forecast horoscopes. In order to facilitate their calculations, the astrologers invented calculating and time-dividing machines. Tablets from the royal library at Nineveh indicate that Chaldean astrologers possessed mechanisms which divided the hours of the day by mechanical means. These were forerunners of modern clocks and timepieces.

These early scientists represented the earth as a vast circular plain, intersected by high mountain ranges and surrounded by a large river, with other mountain chains which lost themselves in an infinite ocean. The heavenly vault was believed to be supported by the highest peaks of the outlying mountains. It was owing to the peculiar nature of this cosmogony that the pre-Babylonians and Babylonians were unable to develop a satisfactory mechanical view of the world. The world had to wait for an adequate mechanical theory before general knowledge could be advanced, so that men like Newton and Laplace could correct the errors of early theories and furnish a sound working hypothesis.

The advancement of science requires methodical observations and the use of the highest powers of the imagination. It is thinking in picture-like figures that supplies primitive reasoning. While pure reasoning deals with abstract, verbal images, the more concrete picture-thinking deals with object-images. The differences between thinkers and dreamers is chiefly in the way their minds act. But even thinkers are supplied with thought material by the elementary mental operation of picture-thought, dreams, or dream-thinking. Science needs the active use of the imagination to anticipate experience and suggest the issues of a process in course of action. Most great inventions, and probably all primitive inventions, were stimulated by imagination. But the imagination, unless skillfully directed, is liable to numerous errors. That is why in all ages there has been much error in connection with knowledge. There could, however, be little or no progress without imaginative work. It is only within very recent years that the modern sciences have been stripped of much absurd matter derived from crude imaginative work. When we bear this in mind, we have the key to the part played by ancient myths, magic, and ceremonies in developing civilization.

The term magic is derived from the Persian term for priest. The magi, or priests of Zoroaster, their religion, learning, and occult practices had important world-wide effects just before the Babylonian era. Magic is a pioneer of religion, philosophy, and science.

Medicine was benefited, in some ways, by the priests seeking means for dealing with the work of the spirits of evil. Chemistry and metallurgy were also advanced, and new realms of knowledge were opened even by magicians.

The magic of the Babylonians survived their empire. It was handed over to the Egyptians and contemporary peoples, and was in turn passed down to the magicians and alchemists of the Middle Ages, and to the dramatists, poets, and novelists of all ages.

The accumulation of scientific facts was greatly facilitated by the improvements made by the Babylonians in the manufacture of earthenware tablets, scrolls, and prisms. Beautifully drawn cuneiform picture signs recorded on these all the knowledge of the day. These stonelike records were filed away in many monasteries and libraries. Subsequently, letters were invented, alphabets were formed, and writing displaced the hieroglyphic symbols.

The invention of alphabets made reading easier. This resulted in giving an impetus to education which has had cumulative effects right down through the ages.

We are now in a position to realize why scientific discoveries were made very slowly, and at long intervals apart, in early times. Facts had to be accumulated, studied, grouped, and compared. Accounts of these studies had to be pictured and stored away for future use. Only exceptionally learned men did this. But when alphabets were invented and education increased, numerous minds became active and there was a great extension of thought, experimentation, and philosophical contemplation. This was followed by the establishment of new religious houses, schools, and philosophical academies, at all of which the ablest men of the day emulated the scholars in formulating theories and making inventions.

Soon after the perfecting of cuneiform writing in Babylon, characters were devised for representing numbers. A vertical, arrowlike wedge represented the figure 1, while a horizontal wedge stood for 10. A vertical and horizontal wedge, placed together, signified 100. Other arrangements of these characters meant that they were to be multiplied, subtracted, divided, or added together. In this simple manner all kinds of arithmetical results could be recorded.

The Babylonian mathematicians were familiar with decimals, integers, and fractions, and their tables and records of astronomical and engineering calculations reveal a remarkably high degree of mathematical ability, indicating that peoples who preceded us by several thousands of years were familiar with the more important calculations requisite in trade and industry as well as for astrological computations.

Babylon was a great world metropolis. It occupied a position similar to that occupied by London to-day. Its merchants were engaged in world-wide commercial operations which needed good systems of bookkeeping and accountancy. These, in turn, presupposed a highly developed arithmetical system. Practically all the arithmetical calculations used in commerce to-day were employed by them. Their accountants, like those of China to-day, used the abacus, or calculating machine.

A lucid illustration of the accuracy of ancient calculations, the efficiency of their reports, and the confidence with which they executed intellectual duties is afforded by the following translation of a Babylonian astronomer's official report:

"To the King, my lord, thy faithful servant, Mar-Istar.

"... On the first day, as the new moon's day of the month of Thammuz declined, the moon again became visible over the planet Mercury, as I previously had predicted that it would to my master the King. My calculations were accurate."

The records of Babylon furnish us with a wealth of documents of this character.

The numerous peoples of India have always been divided into castes. This has resulted in the pioneering work in science falling to the priests. However, the principal priests were among the most intellectual men of each generation and, as they traveled in search of instruction, India was always in contact with the progress made in China, central Asia, and Babylonia. These great centers of ancient learning progressed together.

The Indians were able mathematicians and discovered and developed at an early period what is now known as "Arabic notation." In this work they were assisted by the Babylonians.

The Indians, like the Chinese and Babylonians, solved problems in interest, discounts, partnership, the summation of arithmetical and geometrical series, and determined number changes in combinations and permutations with ease. They were also proficient in algebra, the extraction of the roots of numbers, various classes of equations, and the principles of trigonometry.

The Chinese have always been good mathematicians. It is probably due to this fact that they have at all times been such able traders and bankers.

We are not so familiar with the works of Chinese mathematicians in pre-Babylonian times as we are with the Indian; but the references of contemporary writers indicate that the Chinese scientists were as able and active as their contemporaries.

We have remarked the high degree of perfection which was attained in the Babylonian era by scholars in science and mathematics. Similar perfection was attained in art, industry, law, and medicine. The wonderful law work that has come down to us under the name of the code of Hammurabi indicates not only the extensive progress which had been made in law, but incidentally through its references the progress of agriculture, industry, commerce, and business.

Many references in the Hammurabic code, written about 2300 B. C., show that the medical profession had attained considerable advance in Babylon. Surgeons were daring operators. They commonly performed operations for cataract. Many of the common major operations now performed by surgeons were also done by the ancients. They were experts at setting fractured bones. The physicians made effective use of drugs. Many drugs employed to-day were known to them.

The discoveries of the early oriental nations were collected and developed in Babylon. The entire fields of science, mathematics, geometry, agriculture, astronomy, philosophy, and art were focused in Babylon and handed down to the Egyptians and the Greeks. Much credit that is given to ancient Greece should be shared also by Babylon. It was from Babylon that Greece obtained the principles of its civilization, arts and sciences. Even Greek architecture and sculpture were originally derived from Babylon.