Studies on the Ancient Exact Sciences in Honour of Lis Brack-Bernsen
John Steele, Mathieu OssendrijverThe ancient exact sciences are the main subject in this
collection of papers, offered in honor of Lis Brack-Bernsen by her colleagues
and friends. The topics of the articles are linked by the themes that have been
at the center of much of Lis’s own work: the Babylonian observational record,
and the relationship between observation and theory; the gnomon, sundials, and
time measurement; and the relationship between different scientific activities
in the ancient world, especially the connections between mathematics and
astronomy. Lis Brack-Bernsen has been a key figure in transforming the study
of Babylonian astronomy from an almost exclusive focus on the mathematical
astronomy of the late period to embracing a much broader consideration of all
aspects of the subject, both early and late, mathematical and observational,
astronomical and astrological, and their relationships between one another. The
papers demonstrate the wide variety of questions asked and approaches used by
historians of ancient science.