4. Synchronos

The Ch'un-ch'iu, the Almagest and Babylonian cuneiform tablets all record observations dated to the 8th century BC. The synchronism has stimulated much scholarly speculation.

Some historians seek a noteworthy historical or astronomical event that sets this century apart. Others argue there is nothing special about the epoch. They doubt the reliability of ancient observations and maintain chronology prior to Hellenistic times cannot be astronomically confirmed. Undeterred, optimistic chronologists routinely extrapolate beyond the 8th century, using astronomy to fix dates in the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC.