Rehm's papyrus: a station template for Saturn

Greek astronomical papyrus known from Albert Rehm's hand-copy; template for a planet's motion from first station

A Greek papyrus whose present whereabouts are unknown, recorded only in a hand-copy by Albert Rehm. Alexander Jones offers, as one plausible reading, a template for a planet's motion from one of its stations, and comparison with Babylonian texts points to Saturn moving from first station to evening (acronychal) rising, an interval a Babylonian procedure text gives as 52½ days, with about 8 degrees of retrogradation. It is a direct trace of Babylonian station arithmetic in a Greek papyrus.