Editing Naburimannu

{{Short description|Ancient astronomer and mathematician}}
'''Nabu-[[ri (cuneiform)|ri]]-man-nu''' (also spelled ''Nabu-rimanni''; Greek sources called him Ναβουριανός, ''Nabourianos'', Latin ''Naburianus'') ([[floruit|fl.]] c. 6th – 3rd century BC) was a [[Babylonian astronomy|Chaldean astronomer]] and [[Babylonian mathematics|mathematician]].

Classical and ancient [[cuneiform]] sources mention an astronomer with this name:

* The Greek geographer [[Strabo]] of [[Amaseia]], in ''Geography'' 16.1–.6, writes: "In [[Babylon]] a settlement is set apart for the local [[philosopher]]s, the [[Chaldea|Chaldaeans]], as they are called, who are concerned mostly with [[astronomy]]; but some of these, who are not approved of by the others, profess to be writers of [[horoscope]]s. (There is also a tribe of the Chaldaeans, and a territory inhabited by them, in the neighborhood of the [[Arabia|Arabs]] and of the [[Persian Gulf]], as it is called.) There are also several tribes of the Chaldaean astronomers. For example, some are called Orcheni [those from [[Uruk]]], others Borsippeni [those from [[Borsippa]]], and several others by different names, as though divided into different sects which hold to various dogmas about the same subjects. And the mathematicians make mention of some of these men; as, for example, [[Kidinnu|Kidenas]], '''Nabourianos''' and [[Soudines]]".
* The damaged [[colophon (publishing)|colophon]] of a cuneiform clay tablet (VAT 209; see ACT 18) with a  Babylonian System A [[moon|lunar]] [[ephemeris]] for the years 49–48 BC states that it is the [tersit]u of Nabu-[ri]-man-nu.  This is similar to the colophons of two System B clay tablets that say that they are the ''tersitu'' of [[Kidinnu]].

The following is an excerpt of a century of scholarship discussed in the sources referenced below.
The meaning of ''tersitu'' is not known definitively.  Already [[Franz Xaver Kugler]] proposed that ''tersitu'' can be interpreted as "table" here; in another context it seems to mean something like "tool", but in yet another the word refers to a blue enamel paste.  P. Schnabel, in a series of papers (1923–1927), interpreted the phrase as an assignment of authorship.  Based on this, he argued that Naburimannu developed the Babylonian System A of calculating [[Solar System]] ephemerides, and that Kidinnu later developed Babylonian System B.  [[Otto E. Neugebauer]] has remained reserved to this conclusion and disputed Schnabel's further inferences about Naburimannu's life and work.  The mathematician [[Bartel Leendert van der Waerden|B.L. van der Waerden]] later (1963, 1968, 1974) concluded that System A was developed during the reign of [[Darius I]] (521–485 BC).  System A, which uses [[step function]]s, appears to be somewhat more primitive than System B, which uses [[zigzag]] [[linear function]]s, although System A is more consistent than System B. While it thus appears that System A preceded System B, both systems remained in use at least until the 1st century BC.

The earliest preserved System A clay tablets (BM 36651, 36719, 37032, 37053) calculate an ephemeris for the [[planet]] [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] from 424 to 401 BC. The oldest preserved lunar tablets date from 306 BC in the [[Hellenistic]] period.  If Naburimannu was the originator of System A, then we can on that basis place him in Babylonia sometime between the Persian and Macedonian conquests.

==References==
*Otto E. Neugebauer: ''A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy'' Part Two IV A 4, 4A (p.&nbsp;611). Springer, Heidelberg 1975 (reprinted 2004).
*Otto E. Neugebauer: ''Astronomical Cuneiform Texts''. 3 volumes. London: 1956; 2nd edition, New York: Springer, 1983. (Commonly abbreviated as ''ACT''): Vol.I pp.&nbsp;12,13
*Herman Hunger and [[David Pingree]]: ''Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia'' pp.&nbsp;215–217, 224, 258, 264. Brill, Leiden 1999.

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110611093234/http://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~snikova/svb_nordic04.pdf A. Braeken, V. Nikov, and S. Nikova, "Zigzag Functions and Related Objects in New Metric"]
* [http://motls.blogspot.com/2005/03/maldacena-in-lineland.html Luboš Motl's Reference Frame: Maldacena in the Lineland] (defines and discusses zig-zag functions)

[[Category:Babylonian astronomers]]
[[Category:People from the Achaemenid Empire]]
[[Category:6th-century BC astronomers]]