D. N. Starostin | Searcharxiv

arXiv2024

Astronomical Lunisolar Cycles and Late Antique Chronology

This article advances the hypothesis that the heightened eschatological sensitivity evident among the historians writing in the 5th century and its weaker echos in the time of Charlemagne were caused by the irregularities of the the lunisolar calendar and its particular realization, the Easter calendar. The lunisolar calendar that Christians used for the calculation of the date of the Easter had a number of key periods when the cycles of the Sun and the Moon came in sync in relationship to the beginning of the count and thus produced an effect of the times repeating themselves or ending with the nearly precise astronomical repetition. It is shown that Late Antique scholars who were actively involved in the construction of the Christian history's chronology were limited in their choices by the astronomical peculiarities of the Earth-Moon system. The total conjunctions of the astronomical Solar and Lunar calendars took place, some within the 1st century CE, and the next one, in 483 CE. This was also a special year because the lunar calendar lost one day. Thus the 5th century was the time of heightened expectations of whether the calendar and the Moon's showings will repeat those that accompanied the birth of Jesus. The Full Supermoon (or whatever phase it was on December 25th, 1 BCE) may have repeated in 410 CE (the entry of Goths into Rome), in 467 CE and in 476 CE (the Fall of the Roman Empire), marking the coming of the time very similar to Jesus' birth. The Full Moon was supposed to repeat December 25th, 800 CE and in the year 1000 CE. This may have determined the setting of the biblical calendar in a way that put the birth of Christ on 5199 CE (making the year 800 CE, the year of the Full Supermoon or of its phase on December 25th, 1 BCE) a critical turning point.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2023

Astronomy of the Earth-Moon system and the Eschatological Expectations of the Christian Historians of the 5th century CE

This is a historian's view of how modern astronomy data can be used to discuss the shifting historical worldview of Late Antiquity. In this article an attemp is made to construct an approximate model of how the cycles of astronomical bodies' visible rotation aaffected the writing of history and self-representation of the Roman empire's powerful people. It is argued that while rare outstanding events like solar eclipses might have caused a short stir in the minds of the rulers and their environment, long-term cycles based on the synchronization of the Moon's phases with the solar calendar and the cycles of the planets lining up in the same disposition (in relationship to the Moon or without this relationship) were the foundation of astronomy-based Christian chronological system. The emergence of the Christian historical worldview in the 5th century was marked by appearance of a significant eschatological strain in it. Historians paid attention not only to the theology-defined signs of the end of the world, but also, as it has been suggested in modern studies, to the some outstanding celestial phenomena. In this paper I would like to address several criteria which may help understand what in the celestial motions interested the astronomers and historians of the 5th century. This paper uses the first approximation of astronomical data for solving the problem of how relevant the skies were for historians, although all numeric parameters are taken from the up-to-date astronomy reference publications. It is an attempt to understand whether the very basic approximations can be related to what historians know from the array of sources available to them. The analysis suggests that there is a whole array of occasions when the dates of astronomical events, received with the help of these basic approximations, coincide with the data from historical sources.

physics.hist-ph↗