The Venus Tablet and Refraction
V.G.Gurzadyan
TL;DR
This paper examines how near-horizon refraction affects the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa and discusses the reliability of solar eclipse records for historical dating, highlighting potential biases and limitations.
Contribution
It identifies the impact of atmospheric refraction on the Venus Tablet data and critically assesses the use of solar eclipses as historical anchors.
Findings
Refraction introduces bias into Venus Tablet interpretations.
Single solar eclipse records are unreliable without detailed descriptions.
Refraction effects must be considered in astronomical-historical analyses.
Abstract
It is shown that the refraction near the horizon is introducing an additional bias into the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa, which is able to influence the interpretation of the data. We then discuss the attempts to link certain solar eclipses to the birth of Shamshi-Adad and conclude that a record of a single solar eclipse without description of details and/or unambiguous historical links, can hardly act as a reliable anchor.
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Taxonomy
TopicsAncient Egypt and Archaeology · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Ancient Near East History