A brief history of cosmology in the ancient world

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COSMOLOGICAL THEORIES
Cosmic Adventure 3.01: A brief history of

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The Universe
The universe we live in is a huge space occupied by
dust, rocks, planets, stars, galaxies, and radiation.

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How did they came to this?
For thousands of years, it has always been
the desire of man to study and understand
the universe. How did all these came into
being? Was it always like that? Or did it
evolve from something different?

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Study of the Universe
The study of the structure and changes in the universe is called Cosmology. The
word cosmology came from the Greek kosmos which means "world" and -logia
which means "study of". That branch of cosmology that deals specifically with
the origin of the Universe is called cosmogony. The root –gony in Greek is "to be
born, come about“.
cosmos ≈ world
logy ≈ study of
gony ≈ birth

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Unaided Speculations
However, in the past, there was no data and observational equipment. Not
even the simplest telescope was available. The concept of force, gravitation
and electromagnetism were either absent or inadequate. Cosmology could
not but become the practice of speculation.
No instruments No idea of electromagnetism No idea of gravitation

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Limited Resources
In the absence of
instrumentation and
reach, ancient
people could only
came up with many
speculations and
imaginative
schemes. Each
culture produced its
own versions of
cosmogony and the
materials can fill a
small library.

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Common Points in Ancient Cosmology
Although in ancient times, different cultures at different period produced
their own stories of creation, there were a few common points running
through almost all of them.
. . . . . .

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Common Points
1. There was some creator god(s) who is responsible for the creation of the
cosmos and humanity's existence.
2. Creation did not come out of nothing. Some primary materials or
element always existed or in parallel to the creator prior to the creation.
3. The cosmos created were structured as a closed, three-storied whole.
The earth, in particular, is a flat piece of land surrounded by the
primeval ocean
4. The creator god subsequently became the sovereign power dominating
the functions and destinies of what he or they have created.

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The Early Universe
The second point is of particular
interest to cosmologists because it
is in concern with the origin of
matter in this universe.
When the ancient people looked
around him in the sea, the top of
the water looked flat in every
direction. The horizon where the
water met the sky looked like a
circle with the observer at the
centre. At the same time, the sky
looked like a bowl turned upside
down to fit the horizon.
HEAVEN
EARTH
WATERS

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The Early Universe
So the earliest idea of earth
was a circular piece of land
surrounded by waters and
the sky was a semi-spherical
dome hugging the flat
earth and waters.
The early people could not
explain what all these
natural elements and
phenomena were. The best
answer they could have
were that they are gods
who ran the universe in an

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WATER AS ORIGIN

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The Common Element
Although the ancient
Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and
Hebrews had different stories of how
their world was formed, there are
many basic aspects in common. One
of the major similarities is connected
with the existence of some elements
prior to the creation. All their most
popular cosmological theories held
that the world had arisen out of the
waters of chaos.
[Douglas A. Knight, "Cosmogony and Order in the
Hebrew Tradition," in Cosmogony and Ethical
Order: New Studies in Comparative Ethics, ed.
Robin W. Lovin and Frank E. Reynolds (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 138-139.]

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Babylonian Mythology
The Babylonians believed there were two gods in the beginning governing the
bodies of chaotic water: Apsû over fresh water and his wife Tiamat over salt water.
[Ab=water and zu= to know or ‘deep’ was the name for fresh water. Wikipedia]
Apsu Tiamut
FRESH WATER SALT WATER

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Babylonian Creation
In the beginning Apsu and Tiamat were the only beings around. When
they mingled their waters together, they gave birth to the other gods and
subsequently everything in this world. Nothing existed before these chaos
god; so the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish says:

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Enuma Elish
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both
Their waters were mingled together;
And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;
When of the gods none had been called into being,
And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;
Then were created the gods, [all. of them]

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The Orderly Universe
Tiamat was known as being a rather wild kind of woman, and was often
labelled as "chaos" or "total nuttiness in the universe, where nothing makes
sense!“. However it was the great hero Marduk who killed Tiamat and put
the world in order.
Sky vault
Stars Moon Sun
Water
Earth
MARDUKTIAMAT

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A Flat Earth on Water
The Babylonia universe was a three
tier structure with a flat earth floating
on waters under the heaven.
HEAVEN
EARTH
WATERS
An ancient stone that depicting
how the earth was thought of by
the ancient Babylonians.

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Egyptian Creation Myth
In ancient Egypt, there were
many accounts of the creation
of the world. But in all the
accounts, the world was said to
have arisen out of the infinite
lifeless waters of chaos in “the
first occasion”.
It became an important part of
the ritual that the sun rises over
the circular mound of creation
as goddesses pour out the
primeval waters around it.
Allen, James P. (2000). Middle Egyptian: An
Introduction to the Language and Culture of
Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press. p. 466.
ISBN 0-521-77483-7.

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Shu and Tefenet
In one version of the
Hermopolitan cosmogony, in
which the Egyptians
believed, the god Atum
mated with his own hand,
thus creating his two
children Shu and Tefenet,
who were personifications -
Shu personified as the air,
and his sister, Tefenet,
associated with moisture.5

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The Hierarchy of Gods
Shu and Tefenet then bore two
other deities, Geb and Nut. The
picture shows Shu holding up
Nut, the sky goddess above
Geb, the earth god. It was
believed that Geb and Nut were
originally locked together in a
close embrace, but their father
Shu divided them, thus giving
Nut her place as the arch of
heaven, and leaving Geb to
become the physical earth.6 Shu
himself became the air between
the heaven and earth.7
This Picture is based on the "Heliopolis Cosmogony," one of
several dominant myths in the Egyptian Pantheon. The earth on
which they walked was the body of the god Geb.

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God Started Creation on Waters
The ancestors of the Israelites had close contact with Babylonia. Abraham actually came from
there and his later generations moved into Egypt. It’s natural that they would have described
the universe similarly except that God created it all. In the book of Genesis of the Christian
Bible, it was written:
In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. [Chapter 1:
Verse 1.] And the earth was without
form, and void. And darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters. [Chapter 1: Verse 2.]
It is obvious that water existed before
the creation, and that God’s work
started from the waters.

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Water Everywhere
According to the Harper's Bible
Dictionary, “The ancient Hebrews
imagined the world as flat and
round, covered by the great solid
dome of the firmament which
was held up by mountain pillars,
(Job 26:11; 37:18).
The blue colour of the sky was
attributed to the chaotic waters
that the firmament separated
from the earth (Genesis 1:7). The
earth was thus surrounded by
waters above and below.
THE GREAT DEEP
SHEOL
EARTH
THE SKY
SEA SEA
The sky is a vault
above the earth. It may
fall like any object and
so has to rest on
foundations.
The earth is a disk
floating on the
waters supported by
pillars.
The sheol is a
place beneath
the earth.

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THE EARTH – FROM BEING FLAT TO SPHERICAL
To be continued in Cosmic Adventure 3.02