Ancient Mesopotamian Astronomy and Astrology: The History of Celestial Observations in Mesopotamia

In ancient Mesopotamia, the Sumerians also provided the civilizational template for the earliest forms of astronomy. As the Sumerians gazed at the sky and began mapping the cosmos, they successfully tracked retrograde motion and predicted lunar and solar eclipses, bringing forth thousands of years of discoveries made by enterprising astronomers.

For the Mesopotamians, astronomy and astrology intertwined. Today, astronomy is understood as the scientific study of the universe, focusing on the ...