Ancient astronomers were highly sophisticated observers of the night sky. Though they lacked telescopes or any kind of magnification device, stargazing is one of the only things you could do at night, ...

All societies have had ways of understanding nature based on their experiences of it. For example, farmers need to understand the seasons and weather to know when to plant and harvest their crops.

Ancient Babylonian astronomers tracked the motion of Jupiter using a technique that historians had thought was invented some 1,400 years later, in Europe. The Babylonians lived before the birth of ...

The Babylonians, who lived in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria and Iran), predicted omens by analyzing the time of night, movement of shadows, duration, and date of ...

Scientists have long believed inroads in elementary calculus were developed in the 14th century. At that time in history, new concepts were developed to investigate a wide range of problems, one of ...

Cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia cover a range of topics, from exorcising ghosts to uncovering the location of Noah’s Ark. Cuneiform tablet, c. 2nd–1st century B.C.E., Mesopotamia, probably ...

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. All societies have had ways of understanding ...

James Byrne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...