Scientific Knowledge

Babylonian civilization has in recent decades become renowned for its scientific achievements, as study of the cuneiform records has revealed how much had been known and passed on to Europe during the Hellenistic era and not, as believed earlier, discovered first by the Egyptians or Greeks. Recognition of Babylonian scientific knowledge has been hampered by the fact that much of it involved the practice of divination and it is not always possible to draw a line between observed fact and logical deduction on the one hand and religious belief on the other.