NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Earliest marine navigation, was New discussion thread topics?
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Feb 12, 10:38 -0400
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2004 Feb 12, 10:38 -0400
My understanding of early navigation history is too thin, and I would like to learn more: http://jimthompson.net/boating/CelestialNav/NavHistory.htm http://jimthompson.net/boating/CelestialNav/CelestNotes/CelestNavHistory.htm From the earliest part of my timeline, so far: 15,000 BCE: Humans scratched the moon cycle on bone. 5000's BCE: Sumer's culture in what is now southern Iraq views the earth as flat (http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/flat_earth_myth_ch5.html) 3000's BCE: Cretans crossed the Mediterranean in open galleys. How did they navigate? 2000's BCE: Babylonians could predict motions of the sun, moon, planets and stars across the sky. 1950-1750 BCE: Babylonians knew the Pythagorean theorem, solved linear and quadratic equations, and compiled tables of square and cube roots. Did they have some of the first written tables for celestial navigation, the earliest precursors of our modern almanac? 1000-800 BCE: Polynesians used celestial observations and seabird migration. The constellations were well known by this time. See http://www.pvs-hawaii.com/navigation/hawaiian_nav.htm for an excellent article giving a sense of the complexity of their navigation skills. 700 BCE: Assyrians and Babylonians define the Zodiac, and divide the celestial sphere into 360o. 600's BCE (at least): Greeks navigated by the sun and stars. 500's BCE: Greeks "developed the idea that the stars were fixed on a celestial sphere which rotated about the spherical Earth every 24 hours, and that the planets, the Sun and the Moon, moved in the ether between the Earth and the stars" (http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Cosmology.html). Thales used geometry to estimate distance of a ship from shore. They believe the earth is spherical (http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/flat_earth_myth_ch5.html). 434 BCE: Navigation instruments still not in use at sea: "Sanskrit Mu'allim: He knows the course of the stars, both regular, accidental, and abnormal, of good and bad weather: he distinguishes regions of the ocean by the fish, the colour of the sea, the nature of the bottom, the birds of the mountains, and other indications. And the only aids he possesseth are his memory, helped by a pilot book, and a sounding lead or staff." (http://www.westsea.com/tsg3/octlocker/octchart.htm) Jim Thompson jim2@jimthompson.net www.jimthompson.net Outgoing mail scanned by Norton Antivirus ----------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Navigation Mailing List > [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Jean-Pierre > MARTIN > Yes, I am personnally and mainly intereested in the second point. > > Le mercredi, 11 f?v 2004, ? 19:27 Europe/Paris, Royer, Doug a ?crit : > > All,looking back over the archives I've noticed some areas of the art > > and > > science of navigation haven't been discussed by the group at all. > > 2. Traditional native ocean or terrestrial navigation
