Astrology
Another outstanding achievement of Mesopotamia is astrology. Astrology is a set of divinatory methods that, since the 18th century, have been acknowledged as pseudoscientific, claiming to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by observing the apparent locations of celestial objects. Since at least the second millennium BCE, several societies have used variations of astrology, which began in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and interpret celestial cycles as indications of divine communications.
Western astrology, one of the oldest currently in use, may be traced back to Mesopotamia in the 19th-17th centuries BCE, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamicate world, and eventually Central and Western Europe. In Babylon, as well as Assyria, which is a direct offshoot of Babylonian culture, astrology is one of the two chiefs' means at the disposal of the priests (who were called bare or "inspectors") for ascertaining the will and intention of the gods, the other being the inspection of the livers of sacrificial animals.
The development of astronomical knowledge within the context of divination can be seen in the history of Babylonian astrology. The oldest known detailed texts of Babylonian divination are a set of 32 tablets with inscribed liver models originating from around 1875 BC, and these reflect the same interpretational framework as that used in celestial omen analysis. Blemishes and marks observed on the sacrificial animal's liver were understood as symbolic signals conveying messages from the gods to the king. The gods were also thought to manifest as heavenly pictures of the planets or stars with which they were linked. Evil celestial omens associated with any given planet were thus interpreted as signs of unhappiness or unrest with the god that planet represented. Such signs were met with attempts to satisfy the god and find workable means for the god's expression to be realized without causing considerable harm to the king and his nation.
