The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Absolute Chronology of the Neo-Babylonian Era 155
Astronomical Observation Sites in Babylonia
Finally, in the Persian and Seleucid eras, they had developed a
very high level of scientific and mathematical astronomy that had
never been reached by any other ancient civilization. 3
The nature of the Babylonian astronomical texts*
Although astronomical cuneiform texts have been found also in
the ruins of Nineveh and Uruk, the bulk of the texts—about
1,600—comes from an astronomical archive somewhere in the city
of Babylon.
3 It has often been pointed out that the Babylonian interest in the sky to a great
extent was astrologically motivated. Although this is correct, Professor Otto
Neugebauer points out that the main purpose of the Babylonian astronomers was
not astrology, but the study of calendaric problems. (Otto Neugebauer, Astronomy
and History. Selected Essays. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1983, p. 55.) For further
comments on the astrological motive, see the Appendix for chapter four, section 1:
“Astrology as a motive for Babylonian astronomy.”
* Consideration of astronomical evidence inescapably involves much technical data.
Some readers may prefer to bypass this and go to the summary at the end of this
chapter. The technical data is nonetheless there for corroboration.