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″Day was of sudden turned into night″:1 On the Use of Eclipses for Dating Oral History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

David Henige
David Henige
Affiliation:
The University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Extract

Recently attention has been devoted to the use of apparent eclipse references in African oral traditions for dating at least a few remembered events with some certainty and precision. Unquestionably the few such references in these sources could be invaluable in charting islands of absoluteness in a sea of relativity. In fact their very importance demands that their study should, from the very beginning, be undertaken as carefully as possible, following the example set in refining the paths of African eclipses. One way in which a higher level of critical analysis can be attained is by bringing the rich comparative data to bear on the problems associated with the interpretation of historical eclipse references. This paper attempts to initiate this process by discussing some results of research into eclipse references preserved in oral historical sources and by scontemporaneous chroniclers and observers.

Type
Methods of Comparison
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 1976 , pp. 476 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1976

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References

I wish to express warm thanks to Robert R. Newton of the Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, for providing me with a copy of his paper, “Two Uses of Ancient Astronomy,” for answering several queries, and for criticizing an earlier draft of this paper, thereby saving me from several errors, not all of them minor. My thanks also to Marion Johnson of the Centre of West African Studies, The University of Birmingham, and to Jan Vansina of The University of Wisconsin for their comments.

2 H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines.Google Scholar

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4 Gray's work refined and amplified the data in earlier compilations, particularly Oppolzer, Theodor von, Canon der Finsternisse (Vienna, 1887), and made it easier for historians to use these data and—perhaps a mixed blessing—to draw inferences from them.Google Scholar

5 I have not discussed the extensive eclipse records in the Mesoamerican inscriptions and codices. Recent literature devoted to their identification and interpretation include: Caso, Alfonso, “De la necesidad de la crítica histórica para interpretar los eclipses de sol en los manuscriptos mexicanos,” Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropológicos, 11 (1950), 15–22;Google ScholarBurland, C. A., “Eclipse data from a Mixtec codex,” Boletín de Estudios Oaxaquenos, no. 9 (1958), 1–7;Google ScholarSmiley, C. H., “Solar eclipse intervals in the Dresden Codex,” Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 59 (1965), 127–31;Google ScholarHarber, H., “Five Maya eclipses in 13 years,” Sky and Telescope, 37 (1969), 72–4;Google ScholarBurland, C. A., “Morning star at mid—day—a Mexican solar eclipse,” Akten des XXXVIII Internationalen Amerikanistenkongresses, Stuttgart—Miinchen, 1970, Pt. 2, 151–3;Google ScholarCline, Howard, Christian-native synchronologies in Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Sahagún's manuscripts, and Crónica Mexicayotl (Washington, 1970);Google ScholarHochleitner, Franz J., Semantic deciphering of 70 Mayan hieroglyphs of astronomical meaning (Juiz de Fora, 1970);Google Scholar see also the papers presented at the symposium “Archaeoastronomy in pre-Columbian America” held inMexico City,20–22 June 1973 under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Google Scholar Analysis of North American eclipse references has been rare but at least one interesting example for the Iroquois has been preserved: Canfield, William W., The legends of the Iroquois (New York, 1902), 198–9,Google Scholar based on Hale, Horatio, ed., Iroquois book of rites (Philadelphia, 1883), 178–80,Google Scholar avers that the possible mention of a solar eclipse (“a darkening of the Great Spirit’s smilingface”) in a single variant Seneca tradition alludes to “the eclipse of 28 June 1451” and that it was on this very day that “this wonderful union of republics [i.e., the Iroquois Confederacy] was founded.” Historians and archeologists tend now to date the establishment of the Confederacy shortly before 1600.

6 The Ts'ien Hou Han Shu in Dubs, H. H., ed. and tr., The History of the Former Han Dynasty (3 vols.: Baltimore, 1944–1955), 2:382.Google Scholar

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9 Even so, there existed a certain amount of “literary invention” to which moreattention will be given below.

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11 Newton, , MC, 80.Google Scholar See also idem, AAO, 36–7.Google Scholar Local climatic factors, e.g., humidity, may influence the perception of an annular eclipse (or even of an eclipse as a solar phenomenon at all). In a dry climate people would never look at the sun, whereas in a humid climate it would be possible to do so to a limited extent.

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13 Ibid.,82.

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16 Ibid.,541–2. Many of the earliest eclipse references in the medieval chronicles, i.e., the references to eclipses which occurred before the compilation of a given chronicle began, were borrowed from other chronicles. Schove, D. J., “The earliest British eclipse record (A.D. 400–600),” Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 65 (1954), 39, has characterized this borrowing process as “an international trade in marvels.” Similar exchanges of information may account for some African examples.Google Scholar

17 Extracts from O’Connor, ldquo;Solar eclipses,” 61–72.Google Scholar

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20 For the Thales eclipse see below. I assume here only that Herodotus’ sources did remember an eclipse, although not necessarily in the circumstances he reported.

21 Hsien—tzu, Wen, “A statistical survey of eclipses in Chinese history,” Popular Astronomy, 42 (1934), 136–41.Google Scholar For the desirability of classifying annular eclipses as total see Newton, , MC, 67–8.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., 141, drawing the data from Oppolzer's Canon. I must apologize for the use of averages here. Obviously several factors can affect the application of the average for the entire universe of eclipses to those which may have been visible in China; for instance the tracks of only 98 of the 559 eclipses that occurred during the period of the Former Han dynasty crossed China. Dubs, H. H., “Solar eclipses during the Former Han period,” Osiris, 5 (1938), 499. Even so, it is unlikely that the deviation from the mean would have reached the order indicated.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 lbid., 515–8.

24 Ibid., 518.

25 For more on Chinese eclipses see Needham, Joseph, Science and civilization in China, III, Mathematics and the sciences of the heavens and the earth (Cambridge, 1959), 409–22.Google Scholar

26 Dubs, , “Solar eclipses,” 516. For another factor see below.Google Scholar

27 See, e.g., Gray, , “Eclipse maps,” 255.Google Scholar

28 Personal communication, 26 September 1973.Google Scholar

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30 Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act II.Google Scholar

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32 Needham, , Science and civilization, 3: 171. Newton, personal communication dd 17 October 1973, argues that these honors belong to the Hellenistic astronomers.Google Scholar

33 Hsien—tzu, Wen, “Statistical survey,” 141.Google Scholar See also Dubs, , “Solar eclipses,” 515–22.Google Scholar

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35 Ibid., 141; Wang, Yu-ch’uan, “An outline of the central government of the Former Han dynasty,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 12 (1949), 164–5.Google Scholar

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37 Needham, , Science and civilization, 3: 418.Google Scholar

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50 Cowell, P. H., “On the secular accelerations of the moon’s longitude and node,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 65 (1904/1905), 861. Cowell rejected the eclipse in B.C. 1067 because its magnitude in Babylonia was only 0.65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 See the opinion of S. H. Langdon quoted in Fortheringham, , “Solution,” 105–7.Google Scholar

52 Rowton, M. B., ”The ‘Era of Menophres’ and Mesopotamian chronology,” Iraq, 8 (1946), 106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 Ibid.

54 Odyssey, xx, 356–7, in Murray, A. T., tr., The Odyssey [Loeb Classical Library’ (London, 1919), 2: 301.Google Scholar

55 Macdonald, T. L., “The season of the Odyssey,” Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 77 (1967), 324. One might suppose that an eclipse could have been found to support almost any date advanced for the Trojan war.Google Scholar

56 Bowra, C. H., Pindar (Oxford, 1964), 378.Google Scholar For a discussion of the textual problems with this passage see Farnell, L. R., The works of Pindar translated, with literary and critical commentaries (London, 1932), 412–3.Google Scholar

57 Bowra, , Pindar, 411.Google ScholarFotheringham, , “Solution,” 109, accepted the eclipse of B.C. 462 as the event described by Pindar.Google Scholar

58 Bowra, , Pindar, 378–9.Google Scholar

59 The approximate magnitude of this eclipse at Thebes was provided by R. R. Newton in a personal communication dd 17 October 1973. Vivante, Pedro, “On time in Pindar,” Arethusa, 5 (1972), 107–31, provides helpful insights into this aspect of Pindar's work.Google Scholar

60 See Newton, , AAO, 92–3, 114–7;Google Scholaridem, “Secular accelerations of the earth and moon,” Science, 166 (1969), 826, 828–9.Google Scholar

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62 For a summary of the arguments on this point see Fotheringham, , “Solution,” 108–9;Google ScholarBlanche, L., “L'éclipse de Thalès et ses problèmes,” Revue philosophique de France et de l'étranger, 158 (1968), 188–95;Google ScholarHartner, W., “Eclipse periods and Thales' prediction of a solar eclipse: historical truth and modern myth,” Centaurus, 14 (1969), 65–9;CrossRefGoogle ScholarDicks, D. R., Early Greek astronomy to Aristotle (London, 1970), 43–4, 225 n45;Google ScholarO'Brien, D., “Derived light and elipses in the fifth century,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, 88 (1968), 114–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 Froissart, Jean, Buchon, J. A. C., ed., Les chroniques de Sire Jean Froissart (2 vols.: Paris, 1840), 1: 237.Google Scholar

64 Ibid., 237n. In this one is reminded of the descriptions in many early Arabic sources of the battle of Qadisiyya between the Arabs and the Persians in 636/7.

65 Johnson, Samuel J., Historical and future eclipses (London, 1896), 50–1;Google ScholarLingard, John, The history of England (10 vols.: London, 1854–1855) 3: 157.Google Scholar

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67 Quintus Curtius Rufus, IV, x, 2–7.Google Scholar

68 Demandt, , Verformungstendenzen, 47;Google ScholarBudge, E. A. W., ed. and trans., The history of Alexander the Great; being the Syriac version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes (Cambridge, 1889), 53.Google ScholarWolohojian, A. M., ed. and trans., The romance of Alexander the Great by the pseudo-Calisthenes (New York, 1969), 64–5. The original Romance, a forgery attributed to Calisthenes, a member of Alexander’s army, was composed in Alexandria in the third or fourth century A.D. and enjoyed translations and variants in almost every important European language.Google Scholar

69 These include the seige of Larissa described by Xenophon, the Persian invasion of the Pelopennesus in B.C. 480, Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon (itself probably mythical), the battle of Roncesvalles (later primarily associated with the death of Roland), and the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 in which king (later St.) Olafr Helgi of Norway was slain.

70 See Newton, , AAO, 72–3, 78–86, 97–9;Google ScholarXenophon, , Anabasis, III, iv, 7.Google Scholar The Stiklestad reference in a twelfth-century poem is very much in the nature of the literary allusions discussed earlier. A noted example is the account in the Book of Joshua that the sun “halted in the middle of the sky” and remained there “for a whole day.” Sawyer, J. F. A., “Joshua 10: 12–14 and the solar eclipse of 30 September 1131 B.C.,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 104 (1972), 139–45,CrossRefGoogle Scholar argues that this referred to a solar eclipse that must have been total in the Palestine area. However, the examples used in this paper would suggest that “non-technical and ambiguous” descriptions and the association of eclipses and similar phenomena with epochal events (as in the case of Joshua) render it unlikely that identifying the eclipse of 1131 with the Biblical account makes, in Sawyer’s words, “good sense.” Manfred Weippert, The settlement of the Israelite tribes in Palestine (Naperville, III., 1971), 30n.Google Scholar reviews the recent literature on this subject and concludes appositejy that “the labour which has been expended on astronomical or physical ‘explanations’ of the ‘sun miracle’ is wasted effort.”

71 Livy, , de Sélincourt, Aubrey, trans., The early history of Rome (Baltimore, 1965), 35.Google Scholar

72 Florus, , Roman History [Loeb Classical Library] (London, 1925), 15;Google ScholarSeneca, , Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, cviii, 32 [Loeb Classical Library] (3 vols.: London, 1925), 3: 250–1. Both authors used the standard Latin phrase (defectio solis) for a solar eclipse.Google Scholar

73 Cicero, , De Re Publica, vi, 22 [Loeb Classical Library] (London, 1959), 277. For Plutarch's account of this event see below.Google Scholar

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76 The Peterborough Chronicle, Rositzke, H. A., ed. and trans. (New York, 1951),158.Google Scholar

77 Ibid. There has been controversy over the meaning of this passage. See Bradley, Henry, “Trêson in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,” Modern Language Review, 12 (1917), 72–4,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Ker, N. R., “Some notes on the Peterborough Chronicle,” Medium Aevum, 3 (1934), 136–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

78 Peterborough Chronicle, 6.Google Scholar

79 Candidus, Hugh, C., and Mellows, W. T., trans., The Peterborough Chronicle (Peterborough, 1941), 54.Google Scholar

80 Ibid.

81 For this phenomenon, commonly called the eclipse of Phlegon, see Fotheringham, , “Solution,” 112;Google ScholarNewton, , AAO, 112–3;Google Scholar and Sawyer, J. F. A., “Why is a solar eclipse mentioned in the Passion narrative?”, New Testament Studies, n.s. 23 (1972), 124–8.Google Scholar Sawyer argues that the author of the Gospel of Luke witnessed the total eclipse of 24 November 29 A.D. and associated it with the Crucifixion because “darkness was a conventional concomitant of divine intervention.”

82 Carter, F. W., Dubrovnik(Ragusa): a classic city state (London, 1972), 16,Google Scholar citing Gelcich, G., Istituzioni Maritime e Sanitare della Repubblica di Ragusa(Trieste, 1892), 37.Google Scholar

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86 Gibbs—Smith, C. H., The Bayeux tapestry (London, 1973), 4, 12, plates 26 and 27.Google Scholar The comet appears in the panel between that depicting the coronation of Harold and that showing a ship arriving in Normandy with news of this. Frank Stenton, “The historical background,” in idem, ed., The Bayeux Tapestry: a comprehensive survey (London, 1947), 18–9, argued that the panels in this section are presented in a casual rather than a strictly chronological order, but the argument is weak since the juxtaposition of comet and coronation suited perfectly the tenor and purposes of the tapestry.

87 Torday, Emil, On the trail of the Bushongo (London, 1925), 142, referring to the Kuba tradition of an eclipse discussed below.Google Scholar

88 See fn. 3.

89 Parrinder, E. G., The story of Ketu (Ibadan, 1956), 34–5.Google Scholar

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91 Ibid., 69.

92 Herisse, A. Le, L'ancien royaume du Dahomey: moeurs, religion, histoire (Paris, 1911), 308.Google Scholar

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95 Dalzel, Archibald, The history of Dahomy, an inland kingdom of Africa (London, 1793).Google Scholar

96 Ibid., vi.

97 Ibid., 201–2.

98 Gray, , “Annular eclipse maps,” 156.Google Scholar

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100 Pliny, , Natural History, II, xxxi;Google ScholarNewton, , MC, 739–55.Google Scholar

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102 Henry VI, part 3, act. 2, scene 1.

103 For Fátima see Grande enciclopédia portuguesa e brasileira (40 vols.: Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, [1935’–1960), 10: 992,Google Scholar and Cerbeland-Salagnac, G., Fatima et notre temps (Paris, 1967), 168–82, 279–83.Google Scholar For a similar incident in Mexico in 1953 see Shibutani, T., Improvised news: a sociological study of rumor (Indianapolis, 1966), 114–5.Google Scholar

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105 idem., “Contribution,” Etudes Dahoméennes, 20 (1957), 25.Google ScholarCornevin, R., Histoire du Dahomey (Paris, 1962), 114,Google Scholar is more cautious in his acceptance of the eclipse reference.

106 Hunt, D. R., “An account of the Bapedi,” Bantu Studies, 5 (1931), 284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

107 Cited in Gray, , “Annular eclipse maps,” 150–1, from a translation of a vernacular text.Google Scholar

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109 Kaggwa, Apolo, Ekitabo kya Basekabaka be Buganda (London, 1912), 316.Google Scholar

110 My thanks to Moses Musoke for translating this passage for me.

111 K. W., , “The kings of Bunyoro-Kitara,” Uganda Journal, 4 (1936), 79;Google ScholarNyakatura, J. W., Abakama ba Bunyoro-Kitara (St-Justin, Quebec, 1947).Google Scholar An English version of Nyakatura's work (Uzoigwe, G. N., ed.) entitled Anatomy of an African kingdom (Garden City, N.Y., 1973)Google Scholar is now available. For the argument that much of K. W.'s and Nyakatura's work is derived from early published traditions see my “Reflections on early interlacustrine chronology: an essay in source criticism,” Journal of African History, 15 (1974), 27–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

112 Katate, A. G. and Kamagungunu, L., Abagabe b'Ankole (Kampala, 1955). I have used a typescript translation by John Rowe in the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago.Google Scholar

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114 Henige, , “Reflections,” 33–7 discusses the Biharwe eclipse in more detail.Google Scholar

115 Kaggwa, A., Kiwanuka, M. S. M., trans., The kings of Buganda (Dar es Salaam, 1971), 48–9. This is a translation of Basekabaka but does not include the non-Ganda traditions in the last two editions of the original.Google Scholar

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118 See above, fn. 87.

119 Torday, and Joyce, , Notes ethnographiques, 36;Google ScholarTorday, , Bushong, 141–2.Google ScholarGray, , “Eclipse maps,” 259n. notes this.Google Scholar

120 Torday, and Joyce, , Notes ethnographiques, 36.Google Scholar

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123 Newton, , MC, 78n.Google Scholar

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125 Other miraculous events are associated with Mbakam Mbomancyeel, but Vansina feels that this springs from the fact that an eclipse occurred during his reign, personal communication dd 10 November 1973.

126 Vansina, J., “Kuba chronology revisited,” in Henige, D. P., ed., Essays in African oral chronology, forthcomingGoogle Scholar

127 See the literature cited in fn. 113.

128 In this I exclude the Biharwe eclipse because of the interpretative problems created by its acceptance.

129 Gray, , “Eclipse maps,” 261.Google Scholar

130 The reactions of members of traditional African societies have not often been recorded. Two instances in 1874 and 1875 cited by Cameron, V. L., Across Africa (London, 1885), 210, 430–1, suggest that, even when the effect was perceptible, the reactions were not as profound as traditional accounts sometimes describe. “Awestricken” reactions to eclipses may have been more the concomitants of European expectations of African behavior than of the behavior itself; the eclipses described by Cameron evidently were of greater importance to him than to the people, a point not to be lost on historians working with eclipse references.Google Scholar

131 Plutarch, , Lives, Dryden, John, trans. (3 vols.: London, 1910), 1: 52.Google Scholar

132 Plutarch, , Lives [Loeb Classical Library] (11 vols.: London, 1914–1926), 1: 177.Google Scholar

133 Plutarch, , Lives, J., and Langhorne, W., trans. (6 vols.: London, 1823), 1: 117.Google Scholar

134 Plutarch, , Lives, anonymous trans. (5 vols.: London, 1711), 1: 111.Google Scholar

135 Plutarch, , Vies, , Flaciliére, et al. , trans. (7 vols.: Paris, 1957–1972), 1: 95.Google Scholar

136 Plutarch, , Les vies des hommes illustres (Ricard, , trans.) (4 vols.: Paris, 1862), 1:71.Google Scholar

137 Plutarch, , Vidas paralelas (2 vols.: Mexico City, 1923), 1: 90.Google Scholar

138 Plutarch, , Grosse Griechen und Römer, (6 vols.: Zurich, 1954–1965), 1:112.Google Scholar

139 See above.

140 The following two articles were not able to be used in preparing this paper but are cited here because they are relevant to the discussion: Stephenson, F. R., “Astronomical verification and dating of the Old Testament passages referring to solar eclipses,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1975, 107–20;Google ScholarMuller, P. M. and Stephenson, F.R., “The accelerations of the earth and moon from early astronomical observations” in Rosenberg, G. D. and Runcorn, S. K., eds., Growth rhythms and the history of earth's rotation (London, 1975), 459–534.Google Scholar