Intro: Sumeria to Babylon
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The ancient Babylonians have long been recognized as the preeminent astronomers of the far, distant past of the ancient world. Several thousands of years before Copernicus they realized that the earth and other planets were spherical and that all revolved around the sun. With this knowledge they were able to accurately predict the eclipses of the sun and the moon. Up until modern times, most scholars assumed that the Babylonians had developed this astronomy themselves, the result of their need to do accurate calculations for their astrology. This however turns out not to be the case. Newly translated Babylonian texts indicate that the position of the stars and planets were calculated instead according to complex equations inherited from the Sumerian civilization.
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