In the Histories by Herodotus (484BC to 425BC), Herodotus recounts the story of Phoenician sailors who were dispatched by King Neco II ofEgypt (about 600BC), to sail clockwise around continental Africa, starting in the Red Sea.
The voyage took years. As they rounded the southern tip of Africa, and following a westerly course, the sailors observed the Sun as being on their right-hand side, above the northern horizon. Because they still thought the Earth was flat, the observation did not make sense at the time.

Strange discovery from early history

History

Self Improvement

The earliest known heliocentric theory of the solar system came from Aristarchus of Samos (310BC to 230BC). He argued that the Sun was central. He also placed all the then known planets is their correct order of distance around the Sun. His original text was unfortunately lost to history.
Nicolaus Copernicus rediscovered the theory in the 16th century. He acknowledged Aristarchus during the development of his own work.

The planets orbit the Sun

In one of Aristarchus' books that did survive, he laid out the earliest known attempted calculations of the sizes and distances to the Sun and Moon.
From solar eclipses, where the Moon passes in front of the Sun, they realised that the Sun was further away. Aristarchus estimated that the size of the Moon was approximately one-third that of the Earth, based on the careful timing of lunar eclipses. He was surprisingly accurate in determining the ratio of the size of the Earth to the Moon. (the Moon has a diameter 0.27 times that of Earth).

The size of the Moon

<ul>
<li>Eratosthenes (276BC to 195BC) relied on measuring the different lengths of shadows cast by poles stuck vertically into the ground, at midday on the summer solstice, at different latitudes. The difference in the shadows demonstrated how much the Earth's surface curved. Eratosthenes estimated the Earth's circumference as approximately 40,000km.</li>
<li>Another scientist called Posidonius (135BC to 51BC) who lived on the island of Rhodes, arrived at almost exactly the same answer. He observed the bright star Canopus would lie very close to the horizon, but when in Alexandria, in Egypt, Canopus would ascend to some 7.5 degrees above the horizon. 7.5 degrees is 1/48th of a circle, and multiplying the distance from Rhodes to Alexandria by 48, arrived at approximately 40,000km.</li>
</ul>

The Earth’s circumference

The Antikythera Mechanism is the word's oldest surviving mechanical calculator. The device was discovered in an ancient shipwreck in 1900 and dates between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC.
When manually rotated by a handle, the gears span dials on the exterior showing the Moon's phases, the timing of lunar eclipses, and the positions of the five planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) at different times of the year.

The first astronomical calculator

<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330346/original/file-20200424-163122-1bl5b7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" width="496" height="498"><figcaption dir="auto">Earth and Moon as seen by the Galileo spacecraft. NASA</figcaption></figure>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-histories-by-herodotus-53748" dir="ltr">Histories</a> by <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/herodotus" dir="ltr">Herodotus</a> (484BC to 425BC) offers a remarkable window into the world as it was known to the ancient Greeks in the mid fifth century BC. Almost as interesting as what they knew, however, is what they did not know. This sets the baseline for the remarkable advances in their understanding over the next few centuries – simply relying on what they could observe with their own eyes. Herodotus claimed that Africa was surrounded almost entirely by sea. How did he know this? He recounts the story of Phoenician sailors who were dispatched by King Neco II of Egypt (about 600BC), to sail around continental Africa, in a clockwise fashion, starting in the Red Sea. This story, if true, recounts the earliest known circumnavigation of Africa, but also contains an interesting insight into the astronomical knowledge of the ancient world.The voyage took several years. Having rounded the southern tip of Africa, and following a westerly course, the sailors observed the Sun as being on their right hand side, above the northern horizon. This observation simply did not make sense at the time because they didn’t yet know that the Earth has a spherical shape, and that there is a southern hemisphere.<h2>1. The planets orbit the Sun</h2>A few centuries later, there had been a lot of progress. <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Aristarchus_of_Samos/" dir="ltr">Aristarchus of Samos</a> (310BC to 230BC) argued that the Sun was the “central fire” of the cosmos and he placed all of the then known planets in their correct order of distance around it. This is the earliest known heliocentric theory of the solar system. Unfortunately, the original text in which he makes this argument has been lost to history, so we cannot know for certain how he worked it out. Aristarchus knew the Sun was much bigger than the Earth or the Moon, and he may have surmised that it should therefore have the central position in the solar system.Nevertheless it is a jawdropping finding, especially when you consider that it wasn’t rediscovered until the 16th century, <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/33113/heliocentric-model/" dir="ltr">by Nicolaus Copernicus</a>, who even acknowledged Aristarchus during the development of his own work.<h2>2. The size of the Moon</h2>One of Aristarchus’ books that did survive is about the <a href="https://galileo.ou.edu/exhibits/sizes-and-distances-sun-and-moon" dir="ltr">sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon</a>. In this remarkable treatise, Aristarchus laid out the earliest known attempted calculations of the relative sizes and distances to the Sun and Moon. It had long been observed that the Sun and Moon appeared to be of the same apparent size in the sky, and that the Sun was further away. They realised this from <a href="https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/eclipses-in-2020/" dir="ltr">solar eclipses</a>, caused by the Moon passing in front of the Sun at a certain distance from Earth. Also, at the instant when the Moon is at <a href="https://moonphases.co.uk/moon-calendar" dir="ltr">first or third quarter</a>, Aristarchus reasoned that the Sun, Earth, and Moon would form a right-angled triangle.<a href="http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Pythagoras.html" dir="ltr">As Pythagoras</a> had determined how the lengths of triangle’s sides were related a couple of centuries earlier, Aristarchus used the triangle to estimate that the distance to the Sun was between 18 and 20 times the distance to the Moon. He also estimated that the size of the Moon was approximately one-third that of Earth, based on <a href="https://www.eg.bucknell.edu/physics/astronomy/astr101/specials/aristarchus.html" dir="ltr">careful timing of lunar eclipses</a>. <figure><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330340/original/file-20200424-163062-1cptcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330340/original/file-20200424-163062-1cptcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330340/original/file-20200424-163062-1cptcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330340/original/file-20200424-163062-1cptcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330340/original/file-20200424-163062-1cptcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330340/original/file-20200424-163062-1cptcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330340/original/file-20200424-163062-1cptcru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" width="600" height="399"><figcaption dir="ltr">
 A 10th century reproduction of a diagram by Aristarchus showing some of the geometry he used in his calculations.
 wikipedia, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" dir="ltr">CC BY-SA</a>
 </figcaption></figure>While his estimated distance to the Sun was too low (the actual ratio is 390), on account of the lack of telescopic precision available at the time, the value for the ratio of the size of the Earth to the Moon is surprisingly accurate (the Moon has a diameter 0.27 times that of Earth). Today, we know the size and distance to the moon accurately by a variety of means, including precise telescopes, <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets/online/tools/earth-based.cfm" dir="ltr">radar observations</a> and <a href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/experiments/lrr/" dir="ltr">laser reflectors</a> left on the surface by Apollo astronauts.<h2>3. The Earth’s circumference</h2><a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200606/history.cfm" dir="ltr">Eratosthenes</a> (276BC to 195 BC) was chief librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria, and a keen experimentalist. Among his many achievements was the earliest known calculation of the circumference of the Earth. Pythagoras is generally regarded as the <a href="https://mapstor.com/articles/history-of-cartography/pythagoras-and-first-hypothesis-about-earths-size.html" dir="ltr">earliest proponent</a> of a spherical Earth, although apparently not its size. Eratosthenes’ famous and yet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#/media/File:Eratosthenes_measure_of_Earth_circumference.svg" dir="ltr">simple method</a> relied on measuring the different lengths of shadows cast by poles stuck vertically into the ground, at midday on the summer solstice, at different latitudes. The Sun is sufficiently far away that, wherever its rays arrive at Earth, they are effectively parallel, as had previously been shown by Aristarchus. So the difference in the shadows demonstrated how much the Earth’s surface curved. Eratosthenes used this to estimate the Earth’s circumference as approximately 40,000km. This is within a couple of percent of the actual value, as established by <a href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11010" dir="ltr">modern geodesy</a> (the science of the Earth’s shape). Later, another scientist called Posidonius (135BC to 51BC) used a slightly different method and arrived at almost exactly the same answer. Posidonius lived on the island of Rhodes for much of his life. There he observed the bright star Canopus would lie very close to the horizon. However, when in Alexandria, in Egypt, he noted Canopus would ascend to some 7.5 degrees above the horizon. Given that 7.5 degrees is 1/48th of a circle, he multiplied the distance from Rhodes to Alexandria by 48, and arrived at a value also of approximately 40,000km. <h2>4. The first astronomical calculator</h2>The world’s oldest surviving mechanical calculator is the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/decoding-antikythera-mechanism-first-computer-180953979/" dir="ltr">Antikythera Mechanism</a>. The amazing device was discovered in an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900.The device is now fragmented by the passage of time, but when intact it would have appeared as a box housing dozens of finely machined bronze gear wheels. When manually rotated by a handle, the gears span dials on the exterior showing the phases of the Moon, the timing of lunar eclipses, and the positions of the five planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) at different times of the year. This even accounted for their <a href="https://earthsky.org/space/what-is-retrograde-motion" dir="ltr">retrograde motion</a> – an illusionary change in the movement of planets through the sky. We don’t know who built it, but it dates to some time between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, and may even have been the work of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Archimedes" dir="ltr">Archimedes</a>. Gearing technology with the sophistication of the Antikythera mechanism was not seen again for a thousand years.<div class="embed-placeholder" data-type="youtube" data-id="6Wp3wL8g2Eg"></div>Sadly, the vast majority of these works were lost to history and our scientific awakening was delayed by millennia. As a tool for introducing scientific measurement, the techniques of Eratosthenes are relatively easy to perform and require no special equipment, allowing those just beginning their interest in science to understand by <a href="https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/gallery" dir="ltr">doing, experimenting</a> and, ultimately, following in the foot steps some of the first scientists.One can but speculate where our civilisation might be now if this ancient science had continued unabated.

From the Moon's size to the first calculator, the ancients made some jawdropping discoveries without modern technology.

The <a dir="ltr" href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-histories-by-herodotus-53748">Histories </a>by <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/herodotus">Herodotus </a>(484BC to 425BC) offers a remarkable window into the world as it was known to the ancient Greeks in the mid fifth century BC. Almost as interesting as what they knew, however, is what they did not know. This sets the baseline for the remarkable advances in their understanding over the next few centuries – simply relying on what they could observe with their own eyes.

Herodotus claimed that Africa was surrounded almost entirely by sea. How did he know this? He recounts the story of Phoenician sailors who were dispatched by King Neco II of Egypt (about 600BC), to sail around continental Africa, in a clockwise fashion, starting in the Red Sea. This story, if true, recounts the earliest known circumnavigation of Africa, but also contains an interesting insight into the astronomical knowledge of the ancient world.

The voyage took several years. Having rounded the southern tip of Africa, and following a westerly course, the sailors observed the Sun as being on their right hand side, above the northern horizon. This observation simply did not make sense at the time because they didn’t yet know that the Earth has a spherical shape, and that there is a southern hemisphere.

A few centuries later, there had been a lot of progress. <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.ancient.eu/Aristarchus_of_Samos/">Aristarchus of Samos </a>(310BC to 230BC) argued that the Sun was the “central fire” of the cosmos and he placed all of the then known planets in their correct order of distance around it. This is the earliest known heliocentric theory of the solar system.

Unfortunately, the original text in which he makes this argument has been lost to history, so we cannot know for certain how he worked it out. Aristarchus knew the Sun was much bigger than the Earth or the Moon, and he may have surmised that it should therefore have the central position in the solar system.

Nevertheless it is a jawdropping finding, especially when you consider that it wasn’t rediscovered until the 16th century, <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.universetoday.com/33113/heliocentric-model/">by Nicolaus Copernicus </a>, who even acknowledged Aristarchus during the development of his own work. One of Aristarchus’ books that did survive is about the <a dir="ltr" href="https://galileo.ou.edu/exhibits/sizes-and-distances-sun-and-moon">sizes and distances of the Sun and Moon </a>. In this remarkable treatise, Aristarchus laid out the earliest known attempted calculations of the relative sizes and distances to the Sun and Moon. It had long been observed that the Sun and Moon appeared to be of the same apparent size in the sky, and that the Sun was further away. They realised this from <a dir="ltr" href="https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/eclipses-in-2020/">solar eclipses </a>, caused by the Moon passing in front of the Sun at a certain distance from Earth.

Also, at the instant when the Moon is at <a dir="ltr" href="https://moonphases.co.uk/moon-calendar">first or third quarter </a>, Aristarchus reasoned that the Sun, Earth, and Moon would form a right-angled triangle. <a dir="ltr" href="http://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Pythagoras.html">As Pythagoras </a>had determined how the lengths of triangle’s sides were related a couple of centuries earlier, Aristarchus used the triangle to estimate that the distance to the Sun was between 18 and 20 times the distance to the Moon. He also estimated that the size of the Moon was approximately one-third that of Earth, based on <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.eg.bucknell.edu/physics/astronomy/astr101/specials/aristarchus.html">careful timing of lunar eclipses </a>.

While his estimated distance to the Sun was too low (the actual ratio is 390), on account of the lack of telescopic precision available at the time, the value for the ratio of the size of the Earth to the Moon is surprisingly accurate (the Moon has a diameter 0.27 times that of Earth).

Today, we know the size and distance to the moon accurately by a variety of means, including precise telescopes, <a dir="ltr" href="https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets/online/tools/earth-based.cfm">radar observations </a>and <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/experiments/lrr/">laser reflectors </a>left on the surface by Apollo astronauts. <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200606/history.cfm">Eratosthenes </a>(276BC to 195 BC) was chief librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria, and a keen experimentalist. Among his many achievements was the earliest known calculation of the circumference of the Earth. Pythagoras is generally regarded as the <a dir="ltr" href="https://mapstor.com/articles/history-of-cartography/pythagoras-and-first-hypothesis-about-earths-size.html">earliest proponent </a>of a spherical Earth, although apparently not its size. Eratosthenes’ famous and yet <a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#/media/File:Eratosthenes_measure_of_Earth_circumference.svg">simple method </a>relied on measuring the different lengths of shadows cast by poles stuck vertically into the ground, at midday on the summer solstice, at different latitudes.

The Sun is sufficiently far away that, wherever its rays arrive at Earth, they are effectively parallel, as had previously been shown by Aristarchus. So the difference in the shadows demonstrated how much the Earth’s surface curved. Eratosthenes used this to estimate the Earth’s circumference as approximately 40,000km. This is within a couple of percent of the actual value, as established by <a dir="ltr" href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11010">modern geodesy </a>(the science of the Earth’s shape).

Later, another scientist called Posidonius (135BC to 51BC) used a slightly different method and arrived at almost exactly the same answer. Posidonius lived on the island of Rhodes for much of his life. There he observed the bright star Canopus would lie very close to the horizon. However, when in Alexandria, in Egypt, he noted Canopus would ascend to some 7.5 degrees above the horizon.

Given that 7.5 degrees is 1/48th of a circle, he multiplied the distance from Rhodes to Alexandria by 48, and arrived at a value also of approximately 40,000km. The world’s oldest surviving mechanical calculator is the <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/decoding-antikythera-mechanism-first-computer-180953979/">Antikythera Mechanism </a>. The amazing device was discovered in an ancient shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900. The device is now fragmented by the passage of time, but when intact it would have appeared as a box housing dozens of finely machined bronze gear wheels. When manually rotated by a handle, the gears span dials on the exterior showing the phases of the Moon, the timing of lunar eclipses, and the positions of the five planets then known (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) at different times of the year. This even accounted for their <a dir="ltr" href="https://earthsky.org/space/what-is-retrograde-motion">retrograde motion </a>– an illusionary change in the movement of planets through the sky.

We don’t know who built it, but it dates to some time between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, and may even have been the work of <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Archimedes">Archimedes </a>. Gearing technology with the sophistication of the Antikythera mechanism was not seen again for a thousand years. Sadly, the vast majority of these works were lost to history and our scientific awakening was delayed by millennia. As a tool for introducing scientific measurement, the techniques of Eratosthenes are relatively easy to perform and require no special equipment, allowing those just beginning their interest in science to understand by <a dir="ltr" href="https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/gallery">doing, experimenting </a>and, ultimately, following in the foot steps some of the first scientists.

Bite‑sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

Four amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece

Strange discovery from early history

The planets orbit the Sun

The size of the Moon

The Earth’s circumference

The first astronomical calculator

Eratosthenes - Wikipedia

How Does Ancient Mayan Astronomy Portray the Sun, Moon and Planets?

What is rocket science?

Bite‑sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

Four amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece

Strange discovery from early history

The planets orbit the Sun

The size of the Moon

The Earth’s circumference

The first astronomical calculator

Eratosthenes - Wikipedia

How Does Ancient Mayan Astronomy Portray the Sun, Moon and Planets?

What is rocket science?

Bite‑sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career