En détail – Philologie und Archäologie im Diskurs, 2019
The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dend... more The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dendera has become emblematic of Egyptian astronomy. In spite of its iconic status, this familiar image was once controversial. The nineteenth-century debates over how this particular depiction of the zodiac ought to be interpreted have been revisited in The Zodiac of Paris
A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterran... more A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterranean basin have survived to the present day. The oldest of these sources are the Southern Mesopotamian clay tablets produced in the third millennium before the Common Era. More recent sources were copied in the Byzantine Middle Ages from a long chain of texts which stem back to lost originals. Nonetheless, these late copies provide some evidence of educational activity and pedagogical orientation. As may be seen in the case studies in this chapter, these sources represent a wide chronological distribution but of diverse genres texts. Some texts, like the tablets made of nearly indestructible clay, survive in great numbers and enable a reconstruction of the mathematical instruction of ancient Mesopotamia. Excavations in Iraq, Iran, and Syria since the late nineteenth century have produced a sufficient number of tablets to permit a detailed reconstruction of the basic mathematics curriculum...
A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterran... more A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterranean basin have survived to the present day. The oldest of these sources are the southern Mesopotamian clay tablets produced in the third millennium before the Common Era. More recent sources were copied in the Byzantine Middle Ages from a long chain of texts which stem back to lost originals. Nonetheless, these late copies provide some evidence of educational activity and pedagogical orientation. As may be seen in the case studies in this chapter, these sources represent a wide chronological distribution but of texts of diverse genres. Some texts, like the tablets made of nearly indestructible clay, survive in great numbers and enable a reconstruction of the mathematical instruction of ancient Mesopotamia. Excavations in Iraq, Iran, and Syria since the late nineteenth century have produced a suffi cient number of tablets to permit a detailed reconstruction of the basic mathematics curric...
This survey updates Otto Neugebauer's 1943 list of extant Demotic astrological texts. A brief dis... more This survey updates Otto Neugebauer's 1943 list of extant Demotic astrological texts. A brief discussion of each text highlights the contents of the Demotic texts, contextualizes their contents and offers possible re-interpretations. Most dramatically, Text B of Papyrus Vindob. 6286 is brought closer to the Babylonian tradition. In general, these texts bridge the Babylonian and Greek traditions. Evidence for this connection comes from the omen literature, planetary epithets and pseudepigraphy of Babylon, Greece and Egypt. Horoscopes appear separately and their discussion focuses on Demotic terms for the doctrine of lots.
Mathematicians have often discussed mathematics as a language. Common linguistic categories have ... more Mathematicians have often discussed mathematics as a language. Common linguistic categories have analogous mathematical objects. A comparison of linguistic categories and mathematical objects is developed with reference to the early history of mathematics.
Handbook on the History of Mathematics Education, 2013
This chapter is derived from highly heterogeneous sources both in their nature and in their geogr... more This chapter is derived from highly heterogeneous sources both in their nature and in their geographic and chronological distribution. These sources represent different environments and refer to different cultural and institutional codes. Whereas ancient sources do not describe a coherent picture of teaching mathematics in Antiquity, some details from the better documented educational contexts of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Greco-Roman World provide impressionistic insight into these traditions. This approach shows that modern knowledge of these contexts is limited and that even the kinds of questions framing the topic depend strictly on the nature of the surviving sources.
Certain astrological pseudepigraphies attribute early doctrines of ancient western astrology to “... more Certain astrological pseudepigraphies attribute early doctrines of ancient western astrology to “Nechepso” and “Petosiris.” Nechepso was supposedly a king of Egypt; Petosiris’ relationship to him is unclear, but they are often cited together. Keywords: cultural history; Egyptian history; history of science; medicine and technology
The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dend... more The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dendera has become emblematic of Egyptian astronomy. In spite of its iconic status, this familiar image was once controversial. The nineteenth-century debates over how this particular depiction of the zodiac ought to be interpreted have been revisited in The Zodiac of Paris
PROCEEDINGS OF THE EIGHTH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF IRANIAN STUDIES, 2019
The writings of the astrologer Dorotheus have survived primarily in the Arabic translation of his... more The writings of the astrologer Dorotheus have survived primarily in the Arabic translation of his Pentabiblos. Despite initial conclusions that Dorotheus entered Arabic directly, modern scholars have identified the survival of this work as a product of the translations of Greek works into Middle Persian, begun by order of Shāpūr I in the mid-third century. According to this hypothesis, the Arabic version represents a translation of a Middle Persian intermediary. The dates proposed for Dorotheus (and thus, by extension, the viability of this model of cultural transmission) derive from internal evidence, including horoscopes. The modern editor of the text contended that two horoscopes were appended by Persian astrologers. A reconsideration of these horoscopes depreciates the hypothesis of a Middle Persian intermediary by revealing difficulties in the interpretation of the manuscripts and editorial decisions. An account of the transmission of Zoroastrian literature in Arabic requires an understanding of the varied paths of astrological lore into Middle Persian and Arabic.
Proceedings of the 8th European Conference of Iranian Studies, 2019
The hypothesis made by the late David Pingree of a Middle-Persian translation of Dorotheus has pa... more The hypothesis made by the late David Pingree of a Middle-Persian translation of Dorotheus has paved the way to a full theory according to which Arabic astrological treatises and parts of Hermetic literature had been transmitted through Sassanian intermediaries. The paper offers an in-depth analysis of the elements offered by Pingree to support his hypothesis.
En détail – Philologie und Archäologie im Diskurs, 2019
The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dend... more The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dendera has become emblematic of Egyptian astronomy. In spite of its iconic status, this familiar image was once controversial. The nineteenth-century debates over how this particular depiction of the zodiac ought to be interpreted have been revisited in The Zodiac of Paris
A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterran... more A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterranean basin have survived to the present day. The oldest of these sources are the Southern Mesopotamian clay tablets produced in the third millennium before the Common Era. More recent sources were copied in the Byzantine Middle Ages from a long chain of texts which stem back to lost originals. Nonetheless, these late copies provide some evidence of educational activity and pedagogical orientation. As may be seen in the case studies in this chapter, these sources represent a wide chronological distribution but of diverse genres texts. Some texts, like the tablets made of nearly indestructible clay, survive in great numbers and enable a reconstruction of the mathematical instruction of ancient Mesopotamia. Excavations in Iraq, Iran, and Syria since the late nineteenth century have produced a sufficient number of tablets to permit a detailed reconstruction of the basic mathematics curriculum...
A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterran... more A wide variety of documents relating to mathematics education in the Near East and the Mediterranean basin have survived to the present day. The oldest of these sources are the southern Mesopotamian clay tablets produced in the third millennium before the Common Era. More recent sources were copied in the Byzantine Middle Ages from a long chain of texts which stem back to lost originals. Nonetheless, these late copies provide some evidence of educational activity and pedagogical orientation. As may be seen in the case studies in this chapter, these sources represent a wide chronological distribution but of texts of diverse genres. Some texts, like the tablets made of nearly indestructible clay, survive in great numbers and enable a reconstruction of the mathematical instruction of ancient Mesopotamia. Excavations in Iraq, Iran, and Syria since the late nineteenth century have produced a suffi cient number of tablets to permit a detailed reconstruction of the basic mathematics curric...
This survey updates Otto Neugebauer's 1943 list of extant Demotic astrological texts. A brief dis... more This survey updates Otto Neugebauer's 1943 list of extant Demotic astrological texts. A brief discussion of each text highlights the contents of the Demotic texts, contextualizes their contents and offers possible re-interpretations. Most dramatically, Text B of Papyrus Vindob. 6286 is brought closer to the Babylonian tradition. In general, these texts bridge the Babylonian and Greek traditions. Evidence for this connection comes from the omen literature, planetary epithets and pseudepigraphy of Babylon, Greece and Egypt. Horoscopes appear separately and their discussion focuses on Demotic terms for the doctrine of lots.
Mathematicians have often discussed mathematics as a language. Common linguistic categories have ... more Mathematicians have often discussed mathematics as a language. Common linguistic categories have analogous mathematical objects. A comparison of linguistic categories and mathematical objects is developed with reference to the early history of mathematics.
Handbook on the History of Mathematics Education, 2013
This chapter is derived from highly heterogeneous sources both in their nature and in their geogr... more This chapter is derived from highly heterogeneous sources both in their nature and in their geographic and chronological distribution. These sources represent different environments and refer to different cultural and institutional codes. Whereas ancient sources do not describe a coherent picture of teaching mathematics in Antiquity, some details from the better documented educational contexts of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Greco-Roman World provide impressionistic insight into these traditions. This approach shows that modern knowledge of these contexts is limited and that even the kinds of questions framing the topic depend strictly on the nature of the surviving sources.
Certain astrological pseudepigraphies attribute early doctrines of ancient western astrology to “... more Certain astrological pseudepigraphies attribute early doctrines of ancient western astrology to “Nechepso” and “Petosiris.” Nechepso was supposedly a king of Egypt; Petosiris’ relationship to him is unclear, but they are often cited together. Keywords: cultural history; Egyptian history; history of science; medicine and technology
The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dend... more The circular zodiacal ceiling of the pronaos of the Osiris chapel at the temple of Hathor in Dendera has become emblematic of Egyptian astronomy. In spite of its iconic status, this familiar image was once controversial. The nineteenth-century debates over how this particular depiction of the zodiac ought to be interpreted have been revisited in The Zodiac of Paris
PROCEEDINGS OF THE EIGHTH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF IRANIAN STUDIES, 2019
The writings of the astrologer Dorotheus have survived primarily in the Arabic translation of his... more The writings of the astrologer Dorotheus have survived primarily in the Arabic translation of his Pentabiblos. Despite initial conclusions that Dorotheus entered Arabic directly, modern scholars have identified the survival of this work as a product of the translations of Greek works into Middle Persian, begun by order of Shāpūr I in the mid-third century. According to this hypothesis, the Arabic version represents a translation of a Middle Persian intermediary. The dates proposed for Dorotheus (and thus, by extension, the viability of this model of cultural transmission) derive from internal evidence, including horoscopes. The modern editor of the text contended that two horoscopes were appended by Persian astrologers. A reconsideration of these horoscopes depreciates the hypothesis of a Middle Persian intermediary by revealing difficulties in the interpretation of the manuscripts and editorial decisions. An account of the transmission of Zoroastrian literature in Arabic requires an understanding of the varied paths of astrological lore into Middle Persian and Arabic.
Proceedings of the 8th European Conference of Iranian Studies, 2019
The hypothesis made by the late David Pingree of a Middle-Persian translation of Dorotheus has pa... more The hypothesis made by the late David Pingree of a Middle-Persian translation of Dorotheus has paved the way to a full theory according to which Arabic astrological treatises and parts of Hermetic literature had been transmitted through Sassanian intermediaries. The paper offers an in-depth analysis of the elements offered by Pingree to support his hypothesis.
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Papers by Micah Ross
works into Middle Persian, begun by order of Shāpūr I in the mid-third century. According to this hypothesis, the Arabic version represents a translation of a Middle Persian intermediary. The dates proposed for Dorotheus (and thus, by extension, the viability of this model of
cultural transmission) derive from internal evidence, including horoscopes. The modern editor of the text contended that two horoscopes were appended by Persian astrologers. A reconsideration of these horoscopes depreciates the hypothesis of a Middle Persian intermediary by revealing difficulties in the interpretation of the manuscripts and editorial decisions. An account of the transmission of Zoroastrian literature in Arabic requires an understanding of the varied
paths of astrological lore into Middle Persian and Arabic.
works into Middle Persian, begun by order of Shāpūr I in the mid-third century. According to this hypothesis, the Arabic version represents a translation of a Middle Persian intermediary. The dates proposed for Dorotheus (and thus, by extension, the viability of this model of
cultural transmission) derive from internal evidence, including horoscopes. The modern editor of the text contended that two horoscopes were appended by Persian astrologers. A reconsideration of these horoscopes depreciates the hypothesis of a Middle Persian intermediary by revealing difficulties in the interpretation of the manuscripts and editorial decisions. An account of the transmission of Zoroastrian literature in Arabic requires an understanding of the varied
paths of astrological lore into Middle Persian and Arabic.