The Astronomical Inscription from Keskintos, Rhodes

Abstract

A Greek astronomical inscription from about 100 B.C. found near Lardos, Rhodes in the late 19th century contains a table of numbers associated with various kinds of periodic behaviour of the planets. The inscription might have accompanied a votive object, perhaps representing the heavenly bodies in some manner. The underlying conception of celestial phenomena is significantly different from the tradition propagated by Ptolemy's Almagest. A long common period is assumed in which all periodicities of all planets are supposed to repeat exactly. This period was constructed as a product of the smallest whole factors,2,3, and 5. The relationships subsisting among many of the numbers in the inscription also reflect an assumption that small whole numbers underly the apparent complexity of planetary motion.