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Ancient Chinese Eclipse Reinterpreted After Qufu's True Location Identified, Refining Earth Rotation and Solar Activity Records

Archaeology resolved a visibility mismatch that had long puzzled eclipse simulations.

Total solar eclipses, like this one captured from France in 1999, have been recorded in ancient Chinese records (Credit : Luc Viatour)
Kano Okada, Nagoya University (Based on an image by Phil Hart: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240402.html)

Overview

  • The research team relocated the Lu Court site about eight kilometers from the previously assumed spot, reconciling visibility for the July 17, 709 BCE total solar eclipse.
  • With corrected coordinates, the study tightened constraints on Earth’s rotation (Delta T) around 2,700 years ago, indicating the planet was spinning slightly faster than today.
  • A later Han-era addendum describing the eclipsed Sun as "completely yellow above and below" is interpreted as a corona observation, though its direct eyewitness provenance is uncertain.
  • That interpretation aligns with tree-ring radiocarbon evidence showing the Sun was exiting the Neo-Assyrian (Homer) Grand Minimum by 709 BCE.
  • The peer-reviewed paper, published December 2 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, supplies a precise spot reference that improves long-term models of Earth’s rotation and solar activity.