Ugarit solar eclipse

The oldest securely dated solar eclipse record is on a Ugaritic clay tablet from Syria, describing an event on March 5, 1223 BC.
Ugaritic culture viewed celestial events as omens tied to kingship and divine order, especially in the cult of Baal, whose myths emphasize cosmic struggle and balance.

Earlier eclipse references exist in ancient texts from Mesopotamia and China, but they are ambiguous or symbolic. The Ugaritic tablet is the first that contains exact observational language and that aligns precisely with a calculated solar eclipse. By combining the text with orbital models of the Earth–Moon system, astronomers and historians were able to match the description to a real, observable eclipse visible from northern Syria on that exact date.