This is both a list of references and an annotated bibliography. Important sources are in bold.
BOOKS AND CHAPTERS
Boardman, John. (1999). The Greeks Overseas, 4th edition. London.
Couprie, Dirk (2004). 'How Thales was able to "predict" a solar eclipse without the help of alleged Mesopotamian wisdom'. Early Science and Medicine 9(4), 321‒337.
Dicks, D. R. (1960). The Geographical Fragments of Hipparchus. London. A thorough edition of the known fragments of Hipparchos' book Against the 'Geography' of Eratosthenes including translations and commentary.
Dicks, D. R. (1970). Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle. London. Noted for its rather critical approach to evidence, this is still the best book on the subject.
Diels, Hermann & Kranz, Walther (1952). Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 6th edition (3 volumes) plus later reprints. Berlin. Confusingly arranged, but this remains the standard and most comprehensive collection of sources on the subject. Every philosopher is given a number, and in the longer entries the sources are divided into testimonials (designated A), quotations (designated B) and sometimes imitations (designated C). Thus, DK 12B2, refers to the fragment 2 (from the theologian Hippolytus) in the quotation section (B) of philosopher 12 (Anaximander). The fragments are given in the original Greek or Latin together with a German translation. Necessarily, they are often brief and without context, and so sometimes it is better to refer to the ancient source in question directly through a modern edition of the appropriate author. [DK]
Fraser, P. M. (1972). Ptolemaic Alexandria. 2 Volumes (Oxford).
Graham, Daniel W (2010). The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy. Two volumes. Cambridge. The most up to date and comprehensive guide in English to the presocratic philosophers, including material from the sophists who are excluded from PP. [TEGP]
Guthrie, W. K. C. (1962‒81). A History of Greek Philosophy. Six volumes. Cambridge. Dated, but very comprehensive guide in English to Greek philosophy from the Presocratics to Aristotle.
Heath, Sir Thomas (1913). Aristarchus of Samos. Oxford. (republished by Dover, 1981). Despite its title this is actually a history of Greek astronomy from earliest times to Aristarchos (C3rd BCE). Although it is dated and contains many interpretations that today are regarded as uncritical, it is well structured and written, and is generous with sources.
Heath, Sir Thomas (1921). A History of Greek Mathematics. Two volumes. Oxford (republished by Dover, 1981). Dated and somewhat uncritical, it nevertheless contains a wealth of information and remains a good read.
Heath, Sir Thomas (1932). Greek Astronomy. Oxford (republished by Dover, 1991). A source book of extracts from Greek astronomers containing predominantly Heath's own translations.
Kirk, G S, Raven, J E & Schofield, M (1983). The Presocratic Philosophers 2nd ed. Cambridge. Somewhat dated, but still the most readable guide in English. TEGP is in some ways better and more recent, but less discursive. [PP]
Mallory, J.P.; Adams, D.Q. (2006). 'Chapter 8.5: The Physical Landscape of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' in Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford.
Neugebauer, O. (1957). The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, 2nd edition. (republished by Dover in 1969).
Neugebauer, Otto (1975). A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy. 3 Volumes, 1975. Berlin. The fruit of a lifetime's work, this is an essential resource for the more technical aspects of primarily neo-Babylonian and ancient Greek astronomy. [HAMA]
Reiner, Erica (1975). Enuma Anu Enlil Tablet 63: The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa. Malibu.
Steele, John M. (2008). A Brief Introduction to Astronomy in the Middle East. London (republished 2019).
Toomer, G. J. (1998). Ptolemy's Almagest. Princeton (original edition, London, 1984).
PAPERS
Bowen, Alan C (2006). 'Geminus and the Length of the Month: the Authenticity of Intro. Ast. 8.43−45'. JHA 37.193–202.
Gurzadyan, V. G. (2003). 'The Venus Tablet and Refraction'. Akkadica, 124, 13‒17.
Rogers, John H. (1998-I). ‘Origins of the ancient constellations: The Mesopotamian traditions’, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 108.1, 9‒28.
Rogers, John H. (1998-II). ‘Origins of the ancient constellations: The Mediterranean traditions’, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 108.2, 79‒89.
Schaefer, Bradley E. (2006). 'The Origin of the Greek Constellations'. Scientific American, November 2006.
Vondrák, J. Capitaine, N. and Wallace, P. (2011). 'New precession expressions, valid for long time intervals'. Astronomy & Astrophysics. 534, A22, 1 A presentation of the latest thinking on, and analysis of, the Earth's axial precession. The paper discusses various alternative models for the prediction and retrodiction of star positions over long periods of time (±100,000 years). In my own analysis of ancient star positions I use submodel 5.2. [VCW].
SOFTWARE AND DATA
JPL DE 430 (2013). Jet Propulsion Laboratory Development Ephemeris, version 430. Used for high accuracy work over the date range 1550 ‒ 2650 CE. Can be used with Stellarium.
JPL DE 431 (2013). Jet Propulsion Laboratory Development Ephemeris, version 431. Used for lower accuracy work over the date range 13201 BCE ‒ 17191 CE. Can be used with Stellarium and likely to give more accurate results than the supplied VSOP-87.
JPL DE 438 (2018). Jet Propulsion Laboratory Development Ephemeris, version 438. Updates version of DE 430. Not yet available for use with Stellarium.
Stellarium (2019, v 0.19.3). Available from www.stellarium.org. It uses the VCW precession model and may be used in conjunction with either the supplied analytical ephemeris VSOP-87 or numerical ephemerides JPL DE430 and JPL DE431. This is the most usable planetarium software available. For ancient Greece, I use ephemeris DE 431.
