THE FIRST RECORDED SOLAR ECLIPSE

Cloaked in myth, eclipses have long played a significant role in history. Ancient civilizations were comprised of people who truly believed that when a solar eclipse occurred, the Sun was being devoured by a celestial monster. For instance, in ancient Siam, during a solar eclipse, they believed that the sun was being eaten by a giant frog, or in Argentina a black jaguar, or a dragon in India, Indonesia and China, or even a vampire in Siberia.

 
There is no doubt that the ancient Chinese were wise astronomers, but in ancient Ireland, at the Stone Age Cairn L at Loughcrewsome, Neolithic astronomer priests carved images of an eclipse on three ancient stone megaliths over 5,000 years ago.

This total solar eclipse of November 30th, 3340 BCE, was observed by the startled holy men and was subsequently etched into the stones, making it the earliest known recorded eclipse in human history.
  

One of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature is the Book of Documents (called the Shujing) or Classic of History, also known as the Shangshu, a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to heroes and villains of ancient China. For over 2,000 years, it served as the foundation of Chinese political philosophy.

Within the Book of Documents, there is an anecdotal reference to Hi and Ho, ancient Chinese Royal Astronomers, who had the responsibility of predicting eclipses for the kingdom, in addition to keeping track of solar, lunar and planetary motions. They also had the duty of explaining what they meant to the ruling emperor, Chun King.

There have been conflicting dates as to when this event took place, anywhere from 2165 BCE to 1948 BCE, though the favored date is October 22nd, in either 2134 or 2137 BCE. In either year, it would make this the second-earliest written record of a total solar eclipse.

According to the legend, Hi and Ho knew that a solar eclipse was imminent, but on the day of the predicted eclipse, they were too drunk to perform the sacred rites that included chanting, beating drums and shooting arrows into the sky at the dragon that was devouring the Sun.


Thus, when the eclipse did take place, the emperor Chun King — also known as the 'Son of the Sky'— was caught completely off guard. He was never given the advance notice that he required, in order to dispatch his royal archers, to fling arrows at the dragon that was consuming the sun.

Because of their failure to inform the 'Son of the Sky' of the impending solar eclipse, Hi and Ho were beheaded for "creating confusion in the celestial chain and leaving their functions unperformed." They were executed in conformity of the decree "whosoever advances the march of time shall be put to death; whosoever retards it shall also be put to death."

Their epitaph would read "Here lie the bodies of Ho and Hi, Whose fate, though sad, is risible; Being slain because they could not spy The eclipse which was invisible."

Throughout history, from this point forward, death and omens of evil would be equated with solar eclipses.

It is believed that Chinese astronomical records prior to 720 BCE were lost after the infamous "burning of the books" in China, circa 213 B.C. That eradication of knowledge was preceded by the live burial of 460 Confucian scholars in 210 BC by the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty.

But we do have other historical references to solar eclipses of antiquity.

Recent research reveals that eclipses were recorded as early as 4,500 years ago in Egypt. Other ancient eclipse records in Babylonia and China are thought to be over 4,000 years old.

Another reference to eclipses appears in the book of Genesis, which involves the journey of Abraham into Canaan: "And when the Sun was going down ... great darkness fell upon him." Through computer calculations, the date of this event has been determined to be May 9, 1533 BCE.

A clay tablet found in Syria, dated back to 1375 BCE, carried inscriptions that described an eclipse.

In the Old Testament, in Amos 8:9, we find:

"And it shall come to pass in day,

Saith the Lord God, that I will cause the

Sun to go down at noon, and I will

Darken the Earth in the clear day"

Many historians believe this is a reference to the eclipse of June 15th, 736 BCE as ancient Assyrian writings (the Eponym Canon) also described this event. In that year, a scribe at Nineveh wrote: "Insurrection in the City of Assur. In the month of Sivan, the Sun was eclipsed." Historians have thus been able to use this eclipse to improve the chronology of early biblical times.

Homer's The Odyssey references a solar eclipse on April 16th, 1178 BCE near Ithaca, which was Odysseus' kingdom. It is the nearest solar eclipse that can be associated with the fall of Troy.

But are these the oldest records of solar eclipses left by our ancestors?


Of course, one could easily surmise that Neanderthal and other primitive humans observed solar eclipses, but lacked the ability to record them. There is a distinct possibility that even older recordings of solar eclipses took place and that either their texts and etchings were destroyed, or they await discovery.

In any Neolithic culture, an unexpected total eclipse would certainly bring chaos and become a defining historical milestone. All of these eclipses that were observed and carefully recorded thousands of years ago, proved that our predecessors, like modern societies, were always looking to the heavens in an effort to understand the celestial world all around them.

copyright 2016 - John Horrigan

SOURCE: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1894Obs....17..361H
SOURCE: http://www.newgrange.com/loughcrew-eclipse.htm
SOURCE: http://sci.esa.int/observational-astronomy/37889-overview/?fbodylongid=1785
SOURCE:  Eclipse:A Celestial Shadow Play, by B.S. Shylaja and H.R. Madhusudan; Universities Press, 1999
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars
SOURCE: http://www.astronomytoday.com/eclipses/ancient-part1.html