Writing science before the Greeks : a naturalistic analysis of the Babylonian astronomical treatise MUL.APIN / / by Rita Watson and Wayne Horowitz.

• Superior document: Culture and history of the ancient Near East, v. 48
• Author: Watson, Rita, 1949-
• TeilnehmendeR: Horowitz, Wayne, 1957-
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Culture and history of the ancient Near East ; v. 48.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (251 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary Material /; Chapter One. MUL.APIN /; Chapter Two. Writing And Conceptual Change /; Chapter Three. Terms Of Analysis /; Chapter Four. MUL.APIN: Text And Analysis /; Chapter Five. Summary Of Results /; Chapter Six. Discussion: MUL.APIN, Writing, And Science /; Chapter Seven. Further Thoughts: The Cognitive Function Of Writing In MUL.APIN /; Chapter Eight. A Final Word: From List To Axiom /; 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 /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• ISBN: 1283120941; 9786613120946; 9004202315
• ISSN: 1566-2055
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Rita Watson and Wayne Horowitz.

The beginnings of written science have long been associated with classical Greece. Yet in ancient Mesopotamia, highly-sophisticated scientific works in cuneiform script were in active use while Greek civilization flourished in the West. The subject of this volume is the astronomical series MUL.APIN, which can be dated to the seventh century BCE and which represents the crowning achievement of traditional Mesopotamian observational astronomy. Writing Science before the Greeks explores this early text from the perspective of modern cognitive science in an effort to articulate the processes underlying its composition. The analysis suggests that writing itself, through the cumulative recording of observations, played a role in the evolution of scientific thought. \'All in all, the authors should be congratulated for this groundbreaking study. Apart from significant new insights into MUL.APIN it has opened up a new avenue for research on ancient scientific texts that is likely to yield further interesting results, particularly if the cognitive analysis is combined with other approaches.\' Mathieu Ossendrijver, Humboldt University