John Steele

Biographic Data

ID3785372
NAMEJohn Steele
GIVEN NAMESJohn
FAMILY NAMESteele
SIGNATURESTEELE J
AFFILIATIONSBrown University
ORCID0000-0001-8064-8963
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS39
TOTAL CITATIONS3
AUTHOR COUNT38
EDITOR COUNT1
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1933
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2022
H-INDEX1

  • José Chabás, Computational Astronomy in the Middle Ages

    Open AccessJohn SteeleARTICLEAestimatio Sources and Studies in…2022

    Astronomical tablets have been a major focus of study by historians of science since the middle of the 20th century. Building upon the pioneering work of E. S. Kennedy, O. Neugebauer, and others, recent scholars have applied a range of techniques drawn from the exact sciences (e.g., computer-aided statistical analysis of tabular data to uncover the mathematical functions underlying a table’s construction), cognitive studies (e.g., examination of …

  • The Continued Relevance of MUL.Apin in Late Babylonian Astronomy

    John SteeleARTICLEJournal of Ancient Near Eastern…2021

    The astronomical compendium MUL.APIN was composed sometime before the seventh century BC and is known from many copies dating between the Neo-Assyrian and the Seleucid period. In this paper I argue that MUL.APIN continued to be read and understood throughout this period, and that there was still an active tradition of astronomy founded upon MUL.APIN until the end of cuneiform astronomy

  • Writing Science before the Greeks: A Naturalistic Analysis of the Babylonian Astronomical Treatise MUL.Apin. By Rita Watson and Wayne Horowitz

    John M Steele, John SteeleARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…2021

    Writing Science before the Greeks: A Naturalistic Analysis of the Babylonian Astronomical Treatise MUL.APIN. By Rita Watson and Wayne Horowitz. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, vol. 48. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. xxvi + 222. $137

  • Italic>A Babylonian Calendar Treatise: Scholars and Invaders in the Late First Millennium BC , by Frances Reynolds

    John SteeleARTICLEJournal of Astronomical History…2020

  • How Can We Incorporate Visual Evidence into the History of the Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia

    Open AccessJohn SteeleARTICLENTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte…2020

  • Vessels Pulsing with Energies and Stories to Tell

    John SteeleARTICLEde arte2020References: 16

    In this article, attention is drawn to stories arising from some southern African contemporary everyday ceramics utilityware created by selected local South African eastern seaboard potters, with an eye to identifying certain characteristics that result in works by these potters being most regularly used in the writer's household and studio. This conversation then takes a prehistoric turn, via a fingerprint on a fired lump of clay, to a brief dis…

  • Keeping Watch in Babylon: The Astronomical Diaries in Context

    Johannes Haubold, John Steele et al.BOOKKeeping Watch in Babylon2019

    This volume of collected essays, the first of its kind in any language, investigates the Astronomical Diaries from ancient Babylon, a collection of almost 1000 clay tablets which, over a period of some five hundred years (6th century to 1st century BCE), record observations of selected astronomical phenomena as well as the economy and history of Mesopotamia and surrounding regions. The volume asks who the scholars were, what motivated them to ‘ke…

  • Explaining Babylonian Astronomy

    John SteeleARTICLEIsis2019References: 4

    A large number of cuneiform tablets from ancient Babylonia containing astronomical texts are preserved. It is on the basis of these texts that we can attempt to reconstruct the history of Babylonian astronomical practice. In order to do so, the individual astronomical texts themselves must be understood. This essay discusses three different types of explanation of an astronomical text that are part of this process: a philological explanation, a t…

  • A Late Babylonian Compendium of Calendrical and Stellar Astrology

    John Steele, J M SteeleARTICLEJournal of Cuneiform Studies2015References: 2

    BM 36303+36326, BM 36628+36786+36817+37178+37197, and BM 36988 are three fragments of what was once a large, almost square tablet containing a compendium of astrological texts. The compendium, which dates to sometime after the invention of the zodiac in the late fifth century BCE, contains sections that concern astrological geography, business and the height of the river Euphrates, astrological medicine, the Dodecatemoria and Kalendertext schemes…

  • Observations and Predictions of Eclipse Times by Early Astronomers

    John M Steele, John SteeleBOOKObservations and Predictions of…2013

  • A Comparison of Astronomical Terminology, Methods and Concepts in China and Mesopotamia, With Some Comments on Claims for the Transmission of Mesopotamian Astronomy to China

    John Steele, J M SteeleARTICLEJournal of Astronomical History…2013

    Mesopotamia and China have long traditions of astronomy and celestial divination, and share some similarities in their approach to these subjects. Some scholars have therefore argued for the transmission of certain aspects of Mesopotamian astronomy to China. In this paper, I compare four aspects of ancient astronomy in these cultures in order to assess whether there is any evidence for transmission. I conclude that the similarities between Chines…

  • Almanacs, Babylonian

    Open AccessJohn M Steele, John SteeleCHAPTERThe Encyclopedia of Ancient History2012

    Babylonian almanacs contain collections of predicted astronomical phenomena for a given year.

  • Sciences, exact

    Open AccessJohn M Steele, John SteeleCHAPTERThe Encyclopedia of Ancient History2012

    The term “exact sciences” is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “those which admit of absolute precision in their results; esp. the mathematical sciences.”

  • Goal‐year texts

    Open AccessJohn M Steele, John SteeleCHAPTERThe Encyclopedia of Ancient History2012

    Babylonian goal‐year texts contain collections of astronomical observations to make predictions of future astronomical phenomena using known lunar and planetary periodicities.

  • Ephemerides, astronomical

    Open AccessJohn M Steele, John SteeleCHAPTERThe Encyclopedia of Ancient History2012

    Babylonian astronomical ephemerides are tables of astronomical phenomena computed using arithmetical schemes. Ephemerides are known for the Moon and for each of the five planets known to ancient astronomers. Typically, an ephemeris will be devoted to a single heavenly body, but there are a small number of tablets which have ephemerides for different planets on the obverse and reverse of the tablet.

  • Astronomy, ancient Near East

    Open AccessJohn M Steele, John SteeleCHAPTERThe Encyclopedia of Ancient History2012

    A large number of sources attest to the astronomical interests of Assyrian and Babylonian scribes during the second and first millennium BCE .

  • Cultural Heritage in the Work of Two Xhosa-speaking Ceramic Artists

    Gcinikhaya Dase, Siziwe Sotewu et al.ARTICLEAfrican Arts2007Cited by: 1References: 9

    September 01 2007 Cultural Heritage in the Work of Two Xhosa-speaking Ceramic Artists Gcinikhaya Dase, Gcinikhaya Dase GCINIKHAYA DASE has been Ceramics Specialist for a United Nations development program located at Polokwane in Limpopo Province, South Africa, and is currently engaged in Masters: Fine Art studies at University of Johannesburg. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Siziwe Sotewu, Siziwe Sotewu SIZIWE S…

  • A New Scheme from Uruk for the Retrograde Arc of Mars

    John Steele, J M SteeleARTICLEJournal of Cuneiform Studies2005

  • The Enterprise of Science in Islam

    John Steele, J M SteeleARTICLESixteenth Century Journal2004

  • Prehistoric southern African ceramics: A hidden heritage

    John SteeleARTICLEde arte2002References: 9

  • Philips [Phillipps, Phillips], Peter

    John SteeleCHAPTERThe new Grove dictionary of music…2001

  • A Seal Pressed in the Hot Wax of Vengeance: A Girardian Understanding of Expressive Punishment

    John SteeleARTICLEJournal of Law and Religion2001

    Expressive punishment is popular at the voting booth and in academic journals. Yet concerns remain about expressive punishment's pathological tendencies. The work of Rene Girard explains the popularity of expressive punishment and diagnoses its pathology. Girard's analysis of violence, including the lawful violence categorized as punishment, is religious, anthropological, and literary. He posits that the mimetic and conflictual nature of human de…

  • Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus

    John Steele, J M Steele et al.ARTICLEJournal of the American Oriental…2001

  • The Greco-Roman World

    John M Steele, John SteeleCHAPTERObservations and Predictions of…2000

  • Babylonian Lunar Theory ReconsideredZur Entstehung der babylonischen Mondtheorie: Beobachtung und theoretische Berechnung von Mondphasen. Lis Brack-Bernsen

    John M Steele, John SteeleARTICLEIsis2000