文档介绍：ALEXANDER JONES
A GREEK PAPYRUS CONTAINING BABYLONIAN LUNAR THEORY
aus: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 119 (1997) 167-172
© Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn
167
A GREEK PAPYRUS CONTAINING BABYLONIAN LUNAR THEORY
The papyrus presented here, which is owned by Prof. M. L. Colker (University of Virginia), was first
described, as a writing exercise, in two dealers’ Subsequently Dr David Jordan identified
the mathematical nature of the text on the reverse, and in turn enlisted the assistance of O. Neugebauer.
Neugebauer published an article containing photographs of both sides, a partial transliteration of the
reverse, and a discussion demonstrating the relation of the numerical table to Babylonian lunar
Neugebauer fully appreciated that the papyrus was a document of remarkable importance for the
history of astronomy; but because he set out his discovery with characteristic brevity and understate-
ment in a volume devoted ostensibly to assyriology, few who are not specialists in ancient mathematical
astronomy know about it. The present article hopes to bring the papyrus to wider attention, and to
supplement Neugebauer’s article in several respects, most importantly by providing a fuller description
and the first proper transcription of the astronomical
Historical background and significance. In its latest period, as represented