Archaeologists have identified evidence of a Jewish-Islamic scientific collaboration having taken place a thousand years ago, thanks to an archaic star chart once thought to be a forgery. It’s a powerful record of scientific exchange between Arabs, Jews and Christians over hundreds of years.”It’s more remarkable, considering the Veronese museum thought the instrument might be a fake, according to Gigante. Credit: Federica GiganteAs it moved to Italy, it collected Hebrew inscriptions, likely thanks to language barriers that existed among Verona’s large Jewish communities. “It may be that a later user of the instrument thought the original Arabic value was wrong and amended it. But the correct, modern value for the latitude of Medinaceli is 41°15′, indicating that the Arabic value was more accurate than either amendment.”Gigante’s analysis is published in the journal Nuncius.
