Literary and astronomical evidence for a total eclipse of the sun observed in ancient Ugarit on 3 May 1375 b.c
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2812637 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John F A Sawyer (0000-0002-6276-3527), F R Stephenson |
| Year | 1970 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 467-489 |
| Publication date | 1970-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0041-977X • E-ISSN: 1474-0699 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0041977x00126515 |
| OpenAlex | W2156729723 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
A total eclipse of the sun is rare enough in any one place and spectacular enough to leave a profound impression on those who observe it. From very early times it was regarded as a portent of disaster and carefully recorded. Advances in the field of geophysics, together with the advent of the high-speed computer, have made it possible to compute early solar eclipses with a new degree of precision, and we may now expect to find a significant correlation between literary and astronomical evidence for solar eclipses in areas where a sufficiently representative bloc of literature has survived. The region around Has Shamra (ancient Ugarit) is one such area, and it was decided to compute the principal solar eclipses visible there during the period covered by the Ugaritic texts (c. 1450-1200 b.c.), and scan the texts for possible references
Art · Astronomy · Eclipse · Literature · Physics · Solar eclipse · Ancient Near East History · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |