List of solar eclipses in antiquity

This is a list of selected solar eclipses from antiquity, in particular those with historical significance. Eclipses on this list were not only recorded, but sometimes would have large effects such as ending a war.

Lists of solar eclipses
Geometry of a total solar eclipse
(not to scale)
Solar eclipses in antiquity
Solar eclipses in the Middle Ages
Modern history
Solar eclipses in the future
Eclipses seen from
See also Lists of lunar eclipses

Historically significant solar eclipses
Date of
eclipse		 Time (UTC) Type Central Duration Eclipse Path Notes
StartMidEnd
June 24, 1312 BC -10:44- total 04m33s Anatolia Known as Mursili's eclipse, could provide an absolute chronology of the ancient Near East[1][2][3]
June 15, 763 BC -08:23- total 04m59s Attested in Assyrian sources and providing an absolute chronology of the ancient Near East [4]
May 28, 585 BC -14:28- total 06m05s Allegedly predicted by Thales; occurred during the Battle of the Eclipse[5][6]
February 17, 478 BC or October 2, 480 BC --- total Greece Eclipse occurring prior to Xerxes' first march against Greece. The exact dating has been debated, as the writings of Herodotus (who chronicled the eclipse) gives a date for which there was no eclipse visible in that area of the world.[7]
August 3, 431 BC --- annular Greece, Mediterranean Sea Recorded by Thucydides;[8] Pericles shows his Greek Army that the eclipse was not much more than a covering of the sun by something bigger than his cloak.[9]
May 6, 319 -16:29- partial 03m56s Georgia Thought by astronomers to be the eclipse preceding the Christianization of Iberia by Mirian III of Iberia[10]

Other recorded eclipses
Year

(BC)

 Date Eclipse

Type

 Saros

Series

 Eclipse

Magnitude

 Gamma Ecliptic

Conjunction

(UT)

 Geatest

Eclipse

(UT)

 Duration

(Min & Sec)

 Description
2137 22 Oct Annular 09 0.9736 0.3842 03:29:45 03:25:29 00:02:52 Ho and Hi, the Drunk Astronomers.
1375 3 May Total 16 1.0295 0.7755 04:42:56 04:51:04 00:02:07 Early Mesopotamian records.
1302 5 June Total 26 1.0805 0.2982 02:07:46 02:10:48 00:06:25 Early Chinese eclipse.
1178 16 Apr Total 39 1.0599 0.5187 10:06:17 10:00:58 00:04:33 Odyssey Eclipse.
899 21 Apr Annular 53 0.9591 0.8964 22:32:15 22:21:56 00:03:04 China's 'Double-Dawn' Eclipse
763 15 Jun Total 44 1.0596 0.2715 08:11:13 08:14:01 00:05:00 Assyrian Eclipse
648 6 Apr Total 38 1.0689 0.6898 08:24:05 08:31:03 00:05:02 Archilochus' Eclipse
557 19 May Total 48 1.0258 0.3145 12:49:02 12:52:26 00:02:22 The Siege of Larisa, firstly recorded by Xenophon.
424 21 Mar Annular 42 0.9430 0.9433 07:43:30 07:54:29 00:04:39 8th Year of Peloponnesian War.

Statistics

Longest total eclipses

Below is a list of the 10 longest total eclipses between the 40th century BC[lower-alpha 1] and the 4th century.

Date of eclipse Central Duration Reference
30 May 2585 BC 07m17s [12]
10 June 2567 BC 07m21s [12]
6 May 2249 BC 07m20s [12]
17 May 2231 BC 07m21s [12]
5 June 762 BC 07m25s [13]
15 June 744 BC 07m28s [13]
26 June 726 BC 07m18s [13]
16 June May 345 07m17s [14]
27 June 363 07m24s [14]
8 July 381 07m22s [14]

Solar eclipses by century
Century No. Eclipse type Longest eclipse[lower-alpha 2] Two-eclipse months[lower-alpha 3] Ref.
Partial (P) Annular (A) Total (T) Hybrid (H) Length Date
20th BC2398471622211m38s28 December 1983 BC March 1958 BC[15]
19th BC2539380631708m57s28 October 1896 BC January 1806 BC[16]
18th BC2549574642111m10s10 November 1710 BC [17]
17th BC2307571602412m07s12 December 1656 BC July 1611 BC[18]
16th BC2257867592110m07s25 January 1583 BC June 1535 BC, May 1524 BC[19]
15th BC2267769621810m00s25 September 1410 BC April 1448 BC[20]
14th BC234768468611m29s18 November 1320 BC [21]
13th BC250938664711m11s9 December 1284 BC December 1210 BC[22]
12th BC252938963710m27s14 December 1108 BC October 1123 BC, September 1112 BC[23]
11th BC238799168010m34s25 December 1090 BC August 1036 BC, July 1025 BC, June 1014 BC[24]
10th BC226847561609m01s24 October 984 BC [25]
9th BC225807566410m21s7 November 817 BC [26]
8th BC234798864311m29s10 December 763 BC [13]
7th BC253968763710m06s22 November 604 BC December 689 BC, November 678 BC, October 602 BC[27]
6th BC255968665810m50s4 January 531 BC September 591 BC, August 515 BC, July 504 BC[28]
5th BC2418478621710m24s26 January 495 BC May 417 BC[29]
4th BC2258363562310m16s7 December 391 BC [30]
3rd BC2268362572411m47s30 November 214 BC [31]
2nd BC2378073632112m08s22 December 178 BC [32]
1st BC2519277651708m51s14 February 87 BC [33]
1st AD2489075582511m18s4 November 96 August 7, July 18, April 97[34]
2nd AD2378077641612m23s[lower-alpha 4]7 December 150 [36]
3rd AD227797469511m09s8 January 205 [37]
4th AD222737666710m44s2 January 363 [14]
  1. The ten-century period between the 30th and 40th centuries BC is not listed in the table because the longest total eclipse in that period was only 07m12s long, occurring on 7 April 3736 BC.[11]
  2. All eclipses listed are annular. See § Longest total eclipses above for longest total eclipses
  3. Months listed in this column had two eclipses occur during that time period
  4. This is the longest annular eclipse in the five-millennium period between the 20th century BC and 30th century.[35]

References
  1. KUB XIV 4.24: [ma-a-an I-NA KUR A]zi-ma i-ia-ah-at nu dUTU-us sa-ki-ya-ah-ta "[When] I marched [to the land of A]zzi, the Sungod gave a sign." Theo P. J. Van Den Hout, The Purity of Kingship: An Edition of CTH 569 and Related Hittite Oracle Inquiries of Tutẖaliya (1998), 42f.
  2. Trevor R. Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, Clarendon Oxford University Press, (1998)
  3. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas-2/SEatlas-1319.GIF
  4. Rawlinson, Henry Creswicke, "The Assyrian Canon Verified by the Record of a Solar Eclipse, B.C. 763", The Athenaeum: Journal of Literature, Science and the Fine Arts, nr. 2064, 660-661 [18 May 1867].
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