Black Africans and astronomy
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: African History
Forum Discription: Talk about African History
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22815
Printed Date: 15-May-2024 at 00:42
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.56a - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Black Africans and astronomy
Posted By: Siemowit
Subject: Black Africans and astronomy
Date Posted: 12-Dec-2007 at 22:49
| Did Black Africans know any kind of astronomy ? |
Replies:
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 13-Dec-2007 at 00:21
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Of course they had. Particularly the agricultural people do have astronomy by default. Even more, the Khoisan people appear in the TV special Cosmos of Carl Sagan. The astronomer explain the Khoisan knew the Milky Way under the name "The spine of the night", so that shows Khoisans also had a cosmology associated to the stars. ------------- |
Posted By: jdalton
Date Posted: 15-Dec-2007 at 04:49
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Africans from just south of the Sahara, however much about astronomy they knew before, would certainly have been able to learn a great deal about it before the arrival of Europeans. They were fortunate to live near some of the greatest astronomers in history- the Ancient Egyptians and the Arabs. Ancient Nubians knew all about Egyptian mythology and literature and farmed the same crops along the Nile river. I'm sure they knew everything about astronomy that the Egyptians knew. I wonder if the Arabs ever took advantage of having contact with African Muslims to add to their knowledge of astronomy? Africans would have been able to see parts of the sky that Arab astronomers couldn't because they were so much farther south. ------------- http://www.jonathondalton.com/mycomics.html - Lords of Death and Life (a Mesoamerican webcomic) |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 15-Dec-2007 at 12:54
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Rather than astronomy borrowed from Egypt, Ethiopia or other powers that were in contact with the rest of the world, is more important the astronomy that was developed by SS Africans by themselves.
All people of the world celebrated the solstices of winter and summer. Africans were not the exception. So, there are sundials in SS Africa as well, developed by themselves.
Now for astronomy comming probably from Egyp, just look at this:
http://wysinger.homestead.com/nabtaplaya.html - http://wysinger.homestead.com/nabtaplaya.html
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