On the Astronomical Records and Babylonian Chronology

1 METHODOLOGY This paper, which covers some aspects of the astronomical background of the chronology proposed by Gasche et al. (1998), is offered here for two reasons. That brief volume was intended to present a new approach and was not regarded as a comprehensive treatment of chronological issues in the ancient Near East, and certainly not as the final word on the role astronomy can play in solving chronological problems. It was to be hoped that polemical debate could be avoided and the ensuing critical discussion would be based on the data and methodology presented. The drawbacks of the approach are now apparent, however. On the one hand, there appears to be a real need (e.g., Huber 1999/2000b) for some additional general explanation of the astronomical conclusions published in that volume. On the other hand, it is increasingly evident that the work of colleagues (particularly Huber) who have employed astronomical methods requires a more direct kind of attention. The little attention payed to Huber and the lack of astronomical detail in Gasche et al. (1998) can be attributed to the fact that the book's origins lay in the study of the archaeological material and the Middle Chronology, and thus neither astronomy nor the High Chronology were at the center of the project. A discussion of the archaeology must be left to my colleagues,