Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. Mathieu Ossendrijver

Professor for the History of Science in the Ancient Near East

Principal Investigator (PI) ERC Advanced Grant ZODIAC

Address

Arnimallee 10
Room 110
14195 Berlin

Telephone

+49 30 838 69883

ossendrijver@zedat.fu-berlin.de

Homepage

Personal Profile
Leader of the project "Late Babylonian Mathematical Practices"
ERC Advanced Grant: ZODIAC - Ancient Astral Science in Transformation

Mathieu Ossendrijver is an historian of ancient science, Assyriologist (PhD), and astrophysicist (PhD) with a research focus on Babylonian astral science (astronomy, astrology) and mathematics, institutional, social and other contextual aspects of Babylonian scholarship, and cross-cultural transformations of knowledge between Babylonia, Egypt and the Greco-Roman world. I am currently working on the following projects:

ZODIAC – Ancient Astral Science in Transformation (ERC Advanced Grant 2021-2026)

The introduction of the zodiac triggered an ultimately global and enduring transformation of astral science and other realms of scholarship which took shape in Babylonia, Egypt and the Greco-Roman world between the 5th century BCE and the 3rd century CE. The zodiac became the central concept for interpreting, predicting, computing and representing celestial phenomena. The associated “mathematical turn” has shaped scholarly and cultural practices ever since and horoscopic astrology is omnipresent around the globe. While originating in Babylonia, zodiacal astral science was transformed through interactions with Egyptian, Greco-Roman and other ancient cultures. Due to its entanglement with social practices, religious doctrines, philosophical theories and iconographic traditions, this is an innovation that shaped science and culture globally but lacks a satisfactory explanation.

ZODIAC aims to reconstruct and explain the spread of the zodiac and the associated practices and theories. How did these innovations emerge and transform through cross-cultural transmission? How could they take root in Egypt, the Greco-Roman world and other ancient cultures? In the project ZODIAC an interdisciplinary team of researchers will try to answer these questions with the hypothesis that zodiacal astral science offered universally appealing, adaptable solutions to social, religious and political needs that emerged in multi-cultural empires.

Monograph Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy. Planetary Tables. Springer, Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics

The preparation of this monograph with new editions and multi-faceted investigations of the Late Babylonian planetary tables from the corpus of mathematical astronomy (ca. 400-50 BCE) will be finalized in 2022. This monograph constitutes volume II of a complete edition of the corpus of mathematical astronomy. (Volume I: 2012, Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy. Procedure Texts Springer, Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics).

Late Babylonian Mathematical Practices (DFG)

Mathematical practices, e.g. counting, accounting and computing, are core competences of Mesopotamian scribal and scholarly culture that emerged in the 4th millennium BCE along with cuneiform writing itself. The project entails a comprehensive study of Late Babylonian mathematical practices attested in sources from the Babylon-Sippar collection of the British Museum, including an edition of ca. 60 unpublished tablets from that collection. The Late Babylonian period (ca. 700 BCE – 100 AD) is a pivotal era of innovations in Mesopotamian scholarship. The mathematisation of scholarship, as witnessed by the increasing use of mathematical approaches in the astral sciences (astronomy, astrology), divination, healing practices, commentaries, hermeneutics and cultic practices is a Late Babylonian innovation, which subsequently informed scholarly practices throughout the ancient world and beyond. However, Late Babylonian mathematics, currently represented by ca. 115 tablets, remains sparsely documented and studied compared to earlier Mesopotamian mathematics and Late Babylonian mathematical astronomy. This project significantly expands the Late Babylonian mathematical corpus. It investigates material, formal, epistemic, conceptual, diagrammatic, practical, contextual and institutional aspects of all mathematical tablets of the Babylon-Sippar collection. It includes a comparative study with earlier mathematical practices aimed at identifying continuities, transformations and innovations, a study of the connections with Late Babylonian mathematical practices in other areas of scholarship, and an exploratory investigation of the practical applications in accounting and measurement. The project will result in a fuller understanding of Late Babylonian mathematical practices and the mathematisation of Late Babylonian scholarship.