Shine On: Solar Eclipses in Antiquity

Figure 1: Petroglyph from Chaco Canyon in the southwestern US.  This petroglyph is believed to depict a solar eclipse.

 

Solar eclipses are rare occurrences that inspire shock and awe among observers today, and there is quite a bit of fervor surrounding the upcoming eclipse.  In honor of the upcoming total solar eclipse that will cross the continental United States on Monday, August 21 today’s blog post will explore incidences of solar eclipses as they have occurred in antiquity.  This blog post will discuss what a solar eclipse is, the sources of information pertaining to the incidence of solar eclipses in the past (as well as the limitations in those sources), as well as the occurrences and cultural reactions to such phenomenon.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, thereby blocking out part or all of the sun from view.  An eclipse takes up to three hours from start to finish, and there are varying degrees of blockage of the sun over that time. This creates a partial eclipse in some areas and a total eclipse in others.  A solar eclipse will occur in any region once every 350-400 years, making them fairly rare occurrences (although given the ability to travel the world an individual can potentially see more than one solar eclipse in his or her lifetime if one is willing to travel).  Because solar eclipses are rare occurrences they do hold a special status within each society and culture-both today and in the past.

Our knowledge pertaining to prehistoric incidences of solar eclipses are limited to specific types of records and artifacts.  Where a culture has a written language and records one might think it would be easier to identify when and the reactions to the solar eclipse, but that is not always the case.  Because of the complexities of language and the values and perceptions associated with solar eclipses it can sometimes be difficult to identify when a writer is discussing a solar eclipse.  Solar eclipses have been described as total darkness, the sun and moon not meeting properly, sun being put to shame, the sun being eaten or devoured, etc. in prehistoric written records, and as you may already realize these descriptors are not clear or direct. 

In cases of societies and cultures that do not have a written language and/or written record the identification of solar eclipses is a little more difficult, although not impossible.  Scholars have been able to identify potential solar eclipse incidences from petroglyphs (Figure 1), architectural features (Figure 2), oracle bones (Chinese only), clay tablets, bronzes, oral histories, and paintings/drawings.  These identifications are based on the interpretation of archaeologists who rigorously study these artifacts and whose interpretations are widely scrutinized through demanding peer-review.   

Figure 2: Stonehenge in England has been reported as being related to solar and lunar phenomenon, including eclipses.

 

While we know and recognize that solar eclipses occurred in the past among cultures around the world there is actually little consistency in regards to cultural groups’ reactions and feelings toward them.  Many different cultural groups deemed these celestial acts as bad omens, associating them with negative events that were either real or imagined.  For example, ancient Middle Eastern cultures associated solar eclipses with destructive events as one had occurred during a siege of a city.  This sentiment was also shared by some Aboriginal Australian groups who claimed that solar eclipses were punishments for the heinous murder of an old woman and her male companions by rival clan members.  Other groups, including the ancient Greeks, Indians, Chinese, and British, also viewed the solar eclipses as negative events that should be feared and loathed.  Other groups, however, such as the ancient Irish and other Polynesian groups, found solar eclipses to be favorable occurrences that they welcomed.

Several different Old World societies actually developed means of predicting solar eclipses.  Ancient Mesopotamians and Greeks created elaborate astronomical devices to aid them in predicting when and where solar eclipses would occur.  Although they were sophisticated devices they were not completely accurate.  Southwest Native American groups, particularly the Anasazi and Hohokam, are credited with building structures to assist them in predicting these celestial phenomenon, which were related to their agricultural lifestyles.  These groups cultivated and harvested their crops based on the patterns of the sun and moon, so their predictions of solar eclipses may have been an unintended consequence. 

Ancient cultural groups also had a variety of means of dealing with solar eclipses.  Among the Toba-Pilagrá of the Brazilian highlands it was believed that loud noises, including but not limited to screaming and beating of drums and dogs, would scare the evil spirits that were devouring the sun.  Various Australian Aboriginal groups would employ a medicine man or other sacred individual to perform a ritual to ward off the evil associated with the celestial event.  This ritual included throwing sacred objects at the eclipse and chanting or saying certain words.  This act was always successful as solar eclipses are temporary and the individual would have his status reaffirmed and/or elevated as a result of successfully stopping the eclipse.  Even the ancient Chinese relied on their leaders to perform specific rituals and dietary abstentions to end the solar eclipse.

In conclusion, solar eclipses have occurred for centuries and continue to capture the attention of cultures around the world.  The reactions to such events have varied from fear to glee, and the means of reconciling such events were just as diverse.  For individuals wishing to learn more about solar eclipses in the past please join me during my lecture on this topic at the Missouri Regional Library on Sunday, August 20 at 3:30 pm as I’ll be providing more details on this topic.  I look forward to seeing you there. 

References

 

Charette, F. (2006). Archaeology: High tech from Ancient Greece. Nature, 444(7119), 551-552.

Downey, W. S. (2015). The Cretan middle bronze age ‘Minoan Kernos’ was designed to predict a total solar eclipse and to facilitate a magnetic compass. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 15(1), 95-107.

Gurzadyan, V. G. (2003). The Venus tablet and refraction. arXiv preprint physics/0311036.

Hamacher, D. W., & Norris, R. P. (2011). ‘Bridging the gap’through Australian cultural astronomy. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 7(S278), 282-290.

Hamacher, D. W., & Norris, R. P. (2011). Eclipses in Australian aboriginal astronomy. arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.2635.

Hawkins, G. S. (1968). Astro-archaeology. Vistas in astronomy, 10, 45in155-54in288.

Henriksson, G. (2007). Chronology for the Egyptian Pharaohs of the Amarna period and the Israeli leaders Moses and Joshua by correlation with eight solar eclipses. In BAR, British Archaeological Reports International Series: Archaeoastronomy in Archaeology and Ethnography, Papers from the annual meeting of SEAC held in Kecskemét in Hungary in 2004 (Vol. 1647, pp. 133-148).

Henriksson, G. (2008). A New Attempt to Date the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties by Solar Eclipses. Astronomy and Cosmology in Folk Traditions and Cultural Heritage Archaeologia Baltica, 10, 105-9.

Iyengar, R. N. (2006). Some Celestial Observations Associated with Krsna-Lore. Indian Journal of History of Science, 41(1), 1.

Liu, C. Y. (2002). Astronomy in the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 5, 1-8.

Masse, W. B. (2007). The archaeology and anthropology of Quaternary period cosmic impact. In Comet/asteroid impacts and human society (pp. 25-70). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Mickle, R.E. (2005).  Archaeoastronomy of the Chacoan Pueblo.  Denver Astronomical Society

Miller, M.  (2015).  Ancient Irish Were the First Known to Mark an Eclipse in Stone.  Ancient Origins.  Retrieved from http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/ancient-irish-were-first-known-mark-eclipse-stone-003542

Norris, R. P. (2007). Searching for the astronomy of Aboriginal Australians. In Conference proceedings, pp (Vol. 1, p. 4).

Rjabchikov, S. V. (1998). Polynesian Petroglyphs: Reports about Solar Eclipses. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 107(2), 231-232.

Saturno, William A., et al. "Ancient Maya Astronomical Tables from Xultun, Guatemala." Science 336.6082 (2012): 714-717.

Sawyer, J. F. (1972). Joshua 10: 12–14 and the Solar Eclipse of 30 September 1131 bc. Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 104(2), 139-146.

Schindler, K.  (2017).  Archaeological Evidence of a Total Solar Eclipse.  Lowell Observatory.  Retrieved from https://www.lowellsolareclipse.com/2017/03/09/archaeological-evidence-eclipse/