What's the origin of our constellations?
Dr. Dr. Susanne M Hoffmann
(Friedrich Schiller University Jena)
The popular narrative of the modern constellations are typically fairy tales that is called Ancient Greek and Roman star lore. It is hardly known that "the Ancient Greek" culture is a multicultural mixture with strong roots in Mesopotamian mathematical astronomy but not limited to this influence. Tracing back the historical roots of the constellations, in particular with the rich material from Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BCE, we can now link the roots of the modern constellations to the same concepts of calendaric schemas as they are found in all cultural astronomies all over the world: processions of constellations as they are known from the distant Inca astronomy (without implying any historical connection!) can also be found in ancient Mesopotamia, suggesting similar ideas at different places under the one sky of humankind.
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