rom Alexander's conquest of the city.
Epigenes related that these observations were recorded upon tablets of
baked clay, which is quite in accordance with all that we know of the
literary habits of the people. They must have extended, according to
Simplicius, as far back as B.C. 2234, and would therefore seem to have
been commenced and carried on for many centuries by the primitive
Chaldaean people. We have no means of determining their exact nature or
value, as none of them have been preserved to us: no doubt they were at
first extremely simple; but we have every reason to conclude that they
were of a real and substantial character. There is nothing fanciful, or
(so to speak) astrological, in the early astronomy of the Babylonians.
Their careful emplacement of their chief buildings, which were probably
used from the earliest times for astronomical purposes, their invention
of different kinds of dials, and their division of the day into those
hours which we still use, are all solid, though not perhaps very
brilliant, achievements. It was only in later times that the Chaldaeans
were fairly taxed with imposture and charlatanism; in early ages they
seem to have really deserved the eulogy bestowed on them by Cicero.

It may have been the astronomical knowledge of the Chaldaeans which gave
them the confidence to adventure on important voyages. Scripture tells
us of the later people, that "their cry was in the ships;" and the early
inscriptions not only make frequent mention of the "ships of Ur," but by
connecting these vessels with those of Ethiopia seem to imply that they
were navigated to considerable distances. Unfortunately we possess no
materials from which to form any idea either of the make and character of
the Chaldaean vessels, or of the nature of the trade in which they were
employed. We may perhaps assume that at first they were either canoes
hollowed out of a palm-trunk, or reed fabrics made water-tight by a
coating of bitumen. The Chaldaea trading operations lay no doubt,
chiefly in the Persian Gulf; but it is quite possible that even in very
early times they were not confined to this sheltered basin. The gold,
which was so lavishly used in decoration, could only have been obtained
in the necessary quantities from Africa or India; and it is therefore
probable that one, if not both, of these countries was visited by the
Chaldaean traders.

Astronomical investigations could not be conducted without a fair