Babylon’s Zodiac Drifted Off-Script

More than 3,000 years ago, Babylonian astronomers helped shape the familiar zodiac signs by tracking the Sun’s path through constellations across the year. Over time, Earth’s axis slowly precessed, which made the Sun’s modern position against the stars drift away from those ancient sign dates. That means a person’s traditional Western zodiac sign may not match the constellation the Sun actually appeared in at birth. The mismatch became even messier because the Sun also passes through Ophiuchus, a 13th constellation that the old 12-sign system left out.

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