What is it about?
My paper highlights the importance of the calendars in the ancient world. Calendars were "by-product" of astronomical knowledge, the only empirical science of that era. Every nation was proud of its own calendar and resentful of others. The battle between early Christianity and Judaism, as well as between different sects within both groups, was held along this intellectual front line.
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Why is it important?
My paper is important in different ways. The 1,600-year old puzzle is solved -- arguably, the oldest historical puzzle solved that far, a solid candidate for the Guinness Book. Besides, the paradigm it proposes and the solution it offers allows to solve other dark episodes related to the murder: the expulsion of the Jews from Alexandria a year earlier and particular circumstances of the murder. From the paper, Hypatia emerges not only as one of the very first female scientists-astronomers but also as a martyr of Science.
Perspectives
https://www.change.org/p/canada-s-parliament-commemorating-the-first-female-astronomer-hypatia-of-alexandria The first female astronomer, Hypatia of Alexandria, lived a saintly life and died as a martyr of Science. In the latter role she precedes Galileo and Giordano Bruno. I propose remembering Hypatia annually on the day of the vernal equinox, since her last days were dedicated to finding the exact time for it. By Alexandria local time, the vernal equinox in the years 2016-2050 falls on the same date as in 415 – March 20 – the ideal date in our era to commemorate the first female astronomer.
Dr Ari Belenkiy
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Novatian ‘Indifferent Canon’ and Pascha in Alexandria in 414: Hypatia’s Murder Case Reopened, Vigiliae Christianae, September 2016, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15700720-12341264.
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