Descrizione del progetto
Osservare più da vicino il modo in cui si è diffusa l’astrologia basata sullo Zodiaco
L’astrologia basata sullo Zodiaco si è diffusa nel V secolo a.C. a partire da Babilonia fino all’Egitto, al mondo greco-romano e oltre. La cosiddetta svolta zodiacale è stata accompagnata da una svolta matematica nell’astronomia e da una svolta personale nell’astrologia. Pertanto, in che modo l’astrologia basata sullo Zodiaco è emersa e si è diffusa in diverse culture antiche? Cosa spiega l’enorme successo di questo fenomeno interculturale? Il progetto ZODIAC, finanziato dall’UE, risponderà a questi interrogativi. Condurrà un’indagine interdisciplinare, concentrandosi su tutti gli aspetti che determinano le trasformazioni interculturali. Ad esempio, l’accuratezza delle previsioni antiche verrà analizzata in modo interculturale attraverso la moderna astrofisica. La ricerca contestualizzerà l’astrologia all’interno di un nuovo quadro sviluppato in un dialogo con i modelli esistenti di innovazione, trasmissione e cambiamento teorico.
Obiettivo
The introduction of the zodiac in Babylonia in the 5th century BCE was a turning point in the history of astral science - astronomy and astrology, scholarship and culture at large. The “zodiacal turn” was accompanied by a “mathematical turn” in astronomy and a “personal turn” in astrology. From Babylonia, zodiacal astral science spread to Egypt, the Greco-Roman world and beyond. In view of its entanglement with social practices, religious doctrines, philosophical theories and iconographic expressions, its global spread can be compared with that of Christianity, Islam, or Copernican astronomy. How did zodiacal astral science emerge, develop and spread to different ancient cultures and take root there? What explains the enormous success of this cross-cultural phenomenon? Until now, scholarship has failed to answer these questions, because crucial evidence has been ignored.
ZODIAC will develop an account based on the hypothesis that zodiacal astral science offered universally appealing, adaptable solutions to social, religious and political needs that emerged in multi-cultural empires. It achieve this with an interdisciplinary approach that pays full attention to all aspects that shape transmission by conceiving astral science as a package of entangled astronomical, astrological, mathematical and other practices. It wil carry out the first in-depth, comprehensive study of cross-cultural transformations in textual and iconographic sources, including pivotal groups of overlooked ones, to reveal strategies that foster acceptance in new contexts. The accuracy of ancient predictions will be cross-culturally analysed using modern astrophysics. Recent scholarship on ancient empires will contextualise astral science in a new framework that transcends microhistorical approaches. The new account will be developed in dialogue with existing models of innovation, transmission and theory change, thus connecting ancient astral science to contemporary narratives of globalisation.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
14195 Berlin
Germania