Long before telescopes or space agencies, ancient Mesopotamians were decoding the secrets of the cosmos. Beneath skies unpolluted by modern light, they tracked the movements of planets, charted eclipses, and read the stars not just for science—but for signs from the gods.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid to uncover the origins of written astronomy and the extraordinary legacy of left by the Mesopotamians that studied it. Their observations shaped empires, guided kings, and laid the groundwork for astronomy as we know it. From clay tablets to the zodiac, from omens to eclipse prediction—this is the story of how ancient Mesopotamians turned stargazing into science.View the Balasi tablet - https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu//saao/saa10/P334428/htmlPhoto of tablet - https://cdli.earth/artifacts/334428Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Max Carrey, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on
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Nineveh, 2,700 years ago. A man looks up at the night sky. In an age where light pollution was minimal, he sees countless stars high above him. His name is Balassi, and he is an astronomer, serving in the court of the famous Assyrian king, Esaraddon. Amongst the twinkling stars, he can also see his favourite celestial object, a light that shines incredibly bright in the night sky.
This was Dilibat, the Sumerian name for Venus, the shining planet strongly associated with the goddess Ishtar. Balasi was in awe of Venus and the rest of this great divine world above, but he was also annoyed that Only recently, another scholar had mistakenly identified Venus as Mercury. How this scholar could have made such an error was beyond ballassy.
The planets looked completely different to the naked eye. Whereas Venus was the brightest object in the sky after the moon, Mercury was a minuscule dot almost impossible to find if you didn't know where to look. Worst of all, this astronomer had then proceeded to misinterpret this celestial omen from the gods and sent the wrong prediction to the king. The moron.
Such an error had to be punished and corrected. And so, Balassi had written to the king. Imprinting his message on a clay tablet, it was the ancient Mesopotamian equivalent of a brutal peer review. He slated his colleague for not knowing the cycles or revolutions of Venus. He labelled him an ignoramus.
Unfortunately for this unnamed Assyrian astronomer, the tablet has survived and will forever be his legacy. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. Today we're exploring the fascinating story of astronomy in ancient Mesopotamia and how this scientific field evolved over more than a thousand years. Early on, astronomy was linked primarily to omens.
Comets, eclipses, stars and planets were interpreted as signs left in the night sky by the gods to be deciphered by skilled astronomers who would then predict what this meant would happen on Earth. But over time, these observations were no longer just used to predict events on Earth, but also to predict future astronomical phenomena.
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