Who first recorded a solar eclipse?

The oldest eclipse records, in order

1. Around 2134 BCE (legendary)

   China

   The Shujing tells of two court astronomers, Hsi and Ho, punished for failing to predict an eclipse. Its date is an educated guess, and the story may be a legend.

2. 5 March 1223 BCE or 3 May 1375 BCE

   Ugarit, Syria

   A clay tablet found at Ugarit is often called the oldest eclipse record. Astronomers have matched it to two possible dates, and most recent authors favour 1223 BCE.

3. 30 October 1207 BCE (disputed)

   Canaan

   A Cambridge-led study links the Sun that “stood still” in the book of Joshua to an annular eclipse. Most historians remain cautious.

4. 1200s and 1100s BCE

   Shang dynasty China

   Oracle bones used for divination contain the earliest datable eclipse records of any civilisation. One in Cambridge University Library records a lunar eclipse matched to the night of 26 December 1192 BCE.

5. 15 June 763 BCE

   Assyria, modern Iraq

   The eponym list for the year of the official Bur-Sagale notes a revolt in Assur and that “an eclipse of the sun took place”. It anchors the dating of the whole ancient Near East.

6. From about 720 BCE

   State of Lu, China

   The first systematic series of Chinese eclipse records begins, giving dates but no times or descriptions.

7. 28 May 585 BCE

   Anatolia, modern Turkey

   Herodotus says a battle between the Lydians and the Medes stopped when day turned to night, and that Thales of Miletus had predicted it. Historians debate both the date and the prediction.

A legend from ancient China

The most famous early eclipse story comes from the Shujing, one of the classics of Chinese literature. It says that when the Sun and Moon “did not meet harmoniously”, the court astronomers Hsi and Ho had failed to warn the emperor, and they were punished for it. NASA notes that the usual date, around 2134 BCE, is only an educated guess, because several eclipses were visible from China at that time, and some scholars think Hsi and Ho were mythical figures rather than real people.

The tablet from Ugarit

Ugarit was a trading city on the coast of what is now Syria. A clay tablet found there is generally regarded as the oldest surviving record of a solar eclipse. It was found in 1948 and for decades was dated to 3 May 1375 BCE. In 1989 a new reading, based on the season it describes and a mention of Rashap, identified with the planet Mars, pointed instead to 5 March 1223 BCE, and according to the High Altitude Observatory most recent authors now favour the later date.

Joshua and the Sun that stood still

A rival candidate for the oldest record comes from the Bible. In the book of Joshua, the Sun “stood still” and the Moon “stopped” during a battle. Writing in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics, Colin Humphreys of the University of Cambridge and his colleague argued that the passage describes an annular eclipse on 30 October 1207 BCE. If they are right, it would also shift the dates of the reigns of the pharaohs Ramesses II and Merneptah. Many historians remain unconvinced, but it shows how much an eclipse can be worth to a historian.

Oracle bones

The Shang kings of central China, between the 16th and 11th centuries BCE, asked questions of their ancestors by carving them on ox shoulder blades and turtle shells, heating them and reading the cracks. Cambridge University Library describes these oracle bones as containing the earliest datable eclipse records of any civilisation. Eclipses were seen as bad omens that called for offerings to the royal ancestors. About 100,000 oracle bones have been excavated so far.

The first systematic series of records came later, from the state of Lu, the home of Confucius. Its chronicle lists 37 solar eclipses over about 240 years from around 720 BCE, with dates accurate enough for modern astronomers to check.

The Assyrian eclipse of 763 BCE

The Assyrians named each year after an official called the limmu. For the year of Bur-Sagale of Guzana, the list records a revolt in the city of Assur and, in the month of Simanu, an eclipse of the Sun. The entry reads simply: “[Year of] Bur-Sagale of Guzana. Revolt in the city of Assur. In the month Simanu an eclipse of the sun took place.” Henry Rawlinson matched it in 1867 to the eclipse of 15 June 763 BCE. Some scholars think the prophet Amos, who wrote of the Sun going down at noon, may have been remembering the same event. Because the eponym lists run continuously for centuries, that single eclipse lets historians put exact dates on Assyrian history and, through it, much of the ancient Near East.

Thales and the battle of the eclipse

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the Lydians and the Medes had been at war for six years when, in the middle of a battle, day suddenly turned to night. Both sides stopped fighting and made peace. Herodotus added that Thales of Miletus had foretold the eclipse. The eclipse of 28 May 585 BCE is the usual match, but historians debate both the date and whether anyone at the time could have predicted it. Even so, it remains one of the oldest events in history that may be dated to the exact day.

How the Maya predicted eclipses

On the other side of the world, Maya astronomers kept their own eclipse tables. The Dresden Codex, one of only four Maya books to survive, contains a table covering 405 lunar months. In a 2025 study in Science Advances, John Justeson and Justin Lowry showed how resetting the table at the right moment would have let Maya astronomers predict every solar eclipse visible in their territory for centuries, from about 350 to 1150 CE.

Why these records still matter

Ancient eclipse records are not just curiosities. Because an eclipse is visible only along a narrow track, a record saying that one was seen in a particular city tells astronomers exactly how far the Earth had turned at that moment. Comparing hundreds of these records with modern calculations has shown that the Earth’s rotation is slowly getting slower, and that the day has lengthened by about 1.8 milliseconds per century over the last 2,700 years.