Essays on the history of Sumerian astronomy

Astronomy in the broad sense of the word - as a reflection of all cultural reflexions associated with heaven and luminaries - formed a picture of the world at the very early stages of the history of mankind. The book of G. Kurtik is devoted to the study of astronomical knowledge of one of the oldest civilizations - Mesopotamia - in the period from the second half of the 4th millennium BC. e. Until the middle of the II millennium BC. e. The author examines in detail the history of the Mesopotamian calendar and the representations of the ancients about the Sun, the Moon and Venus, the symbolic images of which are found already at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The field of research also includes the earliest information about the origin and distribution of the system of Mesopotamian constellations, the mention of stars in cuneiform texts of various categories and data on planets as a special category of luminaries. The book analyzes many cuneiform texts, and the images in glyptic and ceramics have become additional sources that have or can have astronomical significance.
Gennady Evseevich Kurtik - candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of History of Natural Science and Technology named after S. I. Vavilova RAS, author of numerous articles and monographs on the history of astronomy of ancient Mesopotamia and ancient astronomy