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NEAstr investigates the history of astronomy, calendar computation, and related sciences in the Near East (3rd-8th centuries CE), highlighting minority cultures' contributions to science and knowledge
Image: Oversize LJS 57 Astronomical anthology, 1391.
The third to eighth centuries CE has been marginalised by falling between two periods of Near Eastern pre-eminence in the sciences: ancient Mesopotamia before it, and the Arabic scientific renaissance under the Abbasids after.
This five-year project aims to demonstrate how astronomy, calendar and related sciences thrived in local Near Eastern languages, religious and cultural traditions during this period. We challenge the idea that this was a 'dark age' and that these sciences were merely 'popular' or unoriginal. This project highlights the contributions of minority cultures to the history of science.
The project brings to light bodies of scientific literature in Syriac, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Armenian, mainly from Christian and Jewish traditions, and argues that they were interrelated, engaged in similar endeavours, and responding to a similar historical context. Our focus will also extend to old Arabic, Middle Persian, and Mandaic. As part of the project, we will edit and translate the texts, and create an online, multilingual scientific glossary. We will evaluate the extent to which astronomy and calendar sciences in Near Eastern cultures preserved Mesopotamian astronomical tradition, drew on contemporary Hellenistic scholarship, and impacted the later rise of Arabic astronomy.
As a multi-disciplinary team, we will explore the relationship between these sciences, their broader cultural impact, and how they transcended language, religion, and cultural boundaries in the late antique and early medieval Near East.
This project runs from 1 February 2025 to 31 January 2030.
Research Fellows
Stephanie Pambakian
Research Fellow
Stephanie Pambakian is a specialist in Armenian Studies with a particular interest in in the history of science, ideas, and education in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Her work on NEAstr involves collecting, examining, and reassessing texts attributed to the seventh century Armenian mathematician Anania Širakac'I that relate to astronomy, the calendrical sciences, and astrology.
Abigail Pearson
Research Fellow in Syriac Astronomy and Related Sciences
The largest body literature relating to astronomy and related sciences from the Near East in the 3rd-8th centuries is found in Syriac, yet few texts from this rich tradition have been edited and translated. Key figures from this period include Severus Sebokht who, among other works on practical astronomy, authored one of the earliest known treatises on the astrolabe; Sergius of Resh Ayna, who translated several Greek texts into Syriac, including the cosmological treatise Περὶ κόσμου (De Mundo); and George, Bishop of the Arabs, who wrote a number of letters discussing astronomy and cosmology. Recent contributions to the study of Syriac astronomy and astrology have been made by Émilie Villey, Stefanie Rudolf, Olivier Defaux, and Hidemi Takahashi.
As part of the NEAstr project, Abigail Pearson is conducting a thorough search for Syriac manuscripts relating to astronomy, astrology, and calendar computation housed in libraries worldwide; and producing editions and translations of select texts. She is examining the development of a Syriac scientific lexicon in these disciplines, in order contribute to the project's multilingual scientific glossary. Her research also investigates the transfer of astronomical knowledge between Syriac and other Near Eastern traditions, along with borrowings from ancient Mesopotamian astronomy and contemporary Hellenistic astronomy.
Nadia Vidro
Research Fellow
Nadia Vidro will join the NEAstr project from September 2025.
Selected by the ERC, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
