In anticipation of tomorrow's total eclipse of the sun...

[L. Coyote]

5. Brace yourself for all the racist bullshit about superstitious ancient cultures (people of color)

Fearing and worshiping the sun and moon, ignorant and superstitious, thinking the moon was eating the sun, etc.

Ancient scientists employed eclipses to keep calendars and to determine astronomy constants, a feat still not understood and acknowledged by most scientists and persons who label themselves archaeoastronomers, students of ancient astronomy.

Here is some info to push back that ignorance.

Eclipses, Cosmic Clockwork of the Ancients

Eclipses have long held a special fascination for humanity. Observing and recording eclipses had a role in early advancement of human knowledge. Eclipses reveal the geometry of the solar system. Eclipse knowledge facilitates contemporary understanding of the cosmos as well as of prehistory and of the history of science. Eclipses function as temporal and spatial references for naked-eye astronomers, presenting an accurate, readily-apparent cosmic clock.

Eclipses are accurately documented in early history and archaeological studies demonstrate knowledge of eclipses in ancient cultures. Today, eclipse records made by ancient astronomers are important to science. The very oldest available eclipse records are used to determine values for temporal changes in the length of day and how fast the earth rotates. Better understandings of and finding additional ancient eclipse records would further assist modern astronomy and archaeology. Eclipse records also aid historians in fixing exact dates of past events.

..................

Link to tweet