Walker, Christopher [Editor]

Astronomy Before the Telescope [Patrick Moore Foreword] [Ancient Astronomy Worldwide]

London: British Museum Press, 1996.
THE SKY BEFORE MODERN SCIENCE

Long before telescopes transformed humanity's understanding of the cosmos, civilizations across the globe carefully observed, recorded, and interpreted the movements of the heavens. Astronomy Before the Telescope brings together leading scholars to examine how ancient cultures understood the night sky, revealing a remarkably sophisticated history of observation, calculation, and cosmological thought stretching across continents and millennia.

Distinguished by its global perspective, the volume moves well beyond the traditional focus on Greece and the Islamic world. Chapters explore astronomical traditions in the Americas, Africa, China, Japan, Korea, Polynesia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Europe, and the Islamic world, creating one of the most comprehensive surveys of pre-telescopic astronomy available in a single volume. Reviewers praised the work for complementing conventional histories of astronomy by broadening the cultural and geographic scope of the subject.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Publisher's hardcover in dust jacket. Quarto; 10 inches tall. 252 pages with glossary and index. Illustrated with approximately 120 black-and-white and 20 color illustrations, including photographs, diagrams, charts, maps, manuscripts, instruments, and archaeological material.

CONDITION: Fine in a Fine dust jacket protected in Mylar. No flaws or blemishes; minimal shelf handling. A new, giftable copy. Original dust jacket price of $45 present.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE —

Published under the auspices of the British Museum, Astronomy Before the Telescope broadened the study of astronomical history by emphasizing the global development of celestial observation. Rather than focusing solely on European achievements, it places the traditions of Asia, Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and the ancient Near East within a shared story of humanity's efforts to understand the heavens. Patrick Moore, one of the twentieth century's leading popularizers of astronomy, contributed the foreword.

Rather than presenting astronomy as a simple progression of scientific discovery, the volume examines how cultures around the world developed their own methods of observing and interpreting the sky. Contributors explore the roles of astronomy in calendars, navigation, agriculture, religion, and daily life, from Babylonian star catalogs and megalithic monuments to Polynesian navigation and East Asian observational traditions.

Richly illustrated with photographs, diagrams, manuscript images, and reconstructions, the book serves as both an engaging visual survey and a substantial reference on the history of astronomy before the telescope.

ABOUT THE EDITOR —
Christopher Walker is a noted historian of ancient science and a specialist in Mesopotamian astronomy and cuneiform studies. For this volume he assembled an international group of scholars whose expertise spans archaeology, astronomy, anthropology, history, and the history of science. Their collective work presents a rare cross-cultural survey of humanity's earliest astronomical traditions.

SUBJECTS: Ancient Astronomy; History of Astronomy; Archaeoastronomy; Celestial Navigation; Ancient Civilizations; Chinese Astronomy; Islamic Astronomy; Polynesian Navigation; Mayan Astronomy; History of Science, Astronomy; History of Science; Ancient History; Cultural History; Reference.

Item #22057
ISBN: 0312167784

Price: $75.00