Astronomy appears to have been developed into an organized system by the primitive peoples of central Asia. It was carried to China, India, and Arabia by learned travelers. There were government astronomers in China before the year 3000 B. C., and history records that two of these officials, named Ho and Hi, were beheaded in the year 2159 B. C. for being careless in their work and failing to issue a timely prediction of a solar eclipse.
Chinese history also relates that the Emperor, in 2857 B. C., issued an edict recommending the study of astronomy. From these and other historical references we learn that nearly 5,000 years ago astronomical science was not only well developed, but that its educational value was recognized.
While attention was being given to the study of astronomy in China, this science was independently developed in India. The astronomers of India invented a different system from that of the Chinese, and compiled numerous astronomical tables which were published and widely used as far back as 3102 B. C.
These early astronomical studies resulted in the division of time practically as we know it to-day. The Babylonians had a week of seven days. The days bore names of the planets and were divided into hours and minutes. Days were combined into months and years. The Babylonian and Chaldean astronomers, like those of China and India, were important men and were credited with great learning.
The Babylonian month began on the evening when a new moon was first observed. An adjustment was made necessary between the months, owing to the fact that the actual lunar interval is about twenty-nine and a fraction days. Numerous astrological observations were made with the view of obtaining data to facilitate the monthly adjustments. The taking of these observations was made easier by maps of the heavens which were recorded on baked clay tablets and prisms. Similar maps of the world, with positions fixed by astronomical observations, were likewise made in Babylonian times.
The usefulness of astronomical observations and predictions led to the belief that they could be employed with advantage for wider purposes. The astrologers endeavored to deduce omens and forecast horoscopes. In order to facilitate their calculations, the astrologers invented calculating and time-dividing machines. Tablets from the royal library at Nineveh indicate that Chaldean astrologers possessed mechanisms which divided the hours of the day by mechanical means. These were forerunners of modern clocks and timepieces.
These early scientists represented the earth as a vast circular plain, intersected by high mountain ranges and surrounded by a large river, with other mountain chains which lost themselves in an infinite ocean. The heavenly vault was believed to be supported by the highest peaks of the outlying mountains. It was owing to the peculiar nature of this cosmogony that the pre-Babylonians and Babylonians were unable to develop a satisfactory mechanical view of the world. The world had to wait for an adequate mechanical theory before general knowledge could be advanced, so that men like Newton and Laplace could correct the errors of early theories and furnish a sound working hypothesis.
The advancement of science requires methodical observations and the use of the highest powers of the imagination. It is thinking in picture-like figures that supplies primitive reasoning. While pure reasoning deals with abstract, verbal images, the more concrete picture-thinking deals with object-images. The differences between thinkers and dreamers is chiefly in the way their minds act. But even thinkers are supplied with thought material by the elementary mental operation of picture-thought, dreams, or dream-thinking. Science needs the active use of the imagination to anticipate experience and suggest the issues of a process in course of action. Most great inventions, and probably all primitive inventions, were stimulated by imagination. But the imagination, unless skillfully directed, is liable to numerous errors. That is why in all ages there has been much error in connection with knowledge. There could, however, be little or no progress without imaginative work. It is only within very recent years that the modern sciences have been stripped of much absurd matter derived from crude imaginative work. When we bear this in mind, we have the key to the part played by ancient myths, magic, and ceremonies in developing civilization.
The term magic is derived from the Persian term for priest. The magi, or priests of Zoroaster, their religion, learning, and occult practices had important world-wide effects just before the Babylonian era. Magic is a pioneer of religion, philosophy, and science.
Medicine was benefited, in some ways, by the priests seeking means for dealing with the work of the spirits of evil. Chemistry and metallurgy were also advanced, and new realms of knowledge were opened even by magicians.