Editing Planet (section)

==== Babylon ====
{{Main|Babylonian astronomy}}

The first civilization known to have a functional theory of the planets were the [[Babylonia]]ns, who lived in [[Mesopotamia]] in the first and second millennia BC. The oldest surviving planetary astronomical text is the Babylonian [[Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa]], a 7th-century BC copy of a list of observations of the motions of the planet Venus, that probably dates as early as the second millennium BC.<ref name="practice" /> The [[MUL.APIN]] is a pair of [[cuneiform]] tablets dating from the 7th century BC that lays out the motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets over the course of the year.<ref>{{cite book | first=Francesca | last=Rochberg | chapter=Astronomy and Calendars in Ancient Mesopotamia | title=Civilizations of the Ancient Near East | volume=III | editor=Jack Sasson | date=2000 | page=1930 }}</ref> Late Babylonian astronomy is the origin of Western astronomy and indeed all Western efforts in the [[exact science]]s.<ref name="Aaboe, Asger">{{ Citation | last = Aaboe | first = Asger | author-link = Asger Aaboe | editor-last = Boardman | editor-first = John | editor-link = John Boardman (art historian) | editor2-last = Edwards | editor2-first = I. E. S. | editor2-link = I. E. S. Edwards | editor3-last = Hammond | editor3-first = N. G. L. | editor3-link =  N. G. L. Hammond | editor4-last = Sollberger | editor4-first = E. | editor5-last = Walker | editor5-first = C. B. F | date = 1991 | title = The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries B.C. | chapter = The culture of Babylonia: Babylonian mathematics, astrology, and astronomy | series = The Cambridge Ancient History | volume = 3 | issue = 2 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | pages = 276–292 | isbn = 978-0521227179 }}</ref> The ''[[Enuma anu enlil]]'', written during the [[Neo-Assyrian]] period in the 7th century BC,<ref>{{cite book | volume=8 |series=State Archives of Assyria |title=Astrological reports to Assyrian kings |editor=Hermann Hunger |date=1992 |publisher=Helsinki University Press |isbn=978-951-570-130-5}}</ref> comprises a list of [[omen]]s and their relationships with various celestial phenomena including the motions of the planets.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Babylonian Planetary Omens. Part One. Enuma Anu Enlil, Tablet 63: The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa. |first1=W. G. |last1=Lambert |date=1987 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |doi=10.2307/602955 |volume=107 |issue=1 |last2=Reiner |first2=Erica |jstor=602955 |pages=93–96}}</ref><ref name="ancientmes">{{cite journal |url=http://www.folklore.ee/Folklore/vol16/planets.pdf |last1=Kasak |first1=Enn |last2=Veede |first2=Raul |title=Understanding Planets in Ancient Mesopotamia |journal=Electronic Journal of Folklore |access-date=6 February 2008 |volume=16 |date=2001 |pages=7–35 |editor=Mare Kõiva |editor2=Andres Kuperjanov |doi=10.7592/fejf2001.16.planets |citeseerx=10.1.1.570.6778 |archive-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204141254/http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol16/planets.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[inferior planet]]s [[Venus]] and [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] and the superior planets [[Mars]], [[Jupiter]], and [[Saturn]] were all identified by [[Babylonian astronomy|Babylonian astronomers]]. These would remain the only known planets until the invention of the [[telescope]] in early modern times.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Babylonian Observational Astronomy |first=A. |last=Sachs |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]] |volume=276 |issue=1257 |date=2 May 1974 |pages=43–50 [45 & 48–49] |jstor=74273 |doi=10.1098/rsta.1974.0008 |bibcode=1974RSPTA.276...43S|s2cid=121539390 }}</ref>