Ever thought about what the night sky looked like during antiquity in Greece?
According to RT, scientists from the University of Texas have, and they are one step closer to satisfying their curiosity.
The experiment included in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage saw a group of astronomers and physicians recreate the night from ancient Greece using advanced planetarium software, and by drawing from Midnight Poem written by Sappho hundreds of centuries ago.
Through Starry Night version 7.3 and Digistar 5, coupled with the information provided in the poem, scientists were not only able to recreate and study the night sky over the island of Lesvos, where the piece was written, but also attempt to identify the precise date it was written in 570BC.
“Estimations had been made for the timing of this poem in the past, but we were able to scientifically confirm the season that corresponds to her specific descriptions of the night sky in the year 570BC,” said the lead author and physics professor at Arlington, Manfred Cuntz.
In Midnight Poem, the poet mentions the star cluster Pleiades, used by sailors at times for navigation.
This reference led Cuntz and his team to look into the earliest and latest days that the cluster would have been visible in 570BC.
“From there, we were able to accurately seasonally date this poem to mid-winter and early spring, scientifically confirming earlier estimations by other scholars,” he said. “The timing question is complex, as at that time they did not have accurate mechanical clocks as we do, only perhaps water clocks.
For that reason, we also identified the latest date on which the Pleiades would have been visible to Sappho from that location on different dates some time during the evening.”
So far they have identified the earliest date the poem could have been written as January 25, and the latest March 31 in the year 570BC.