Enūma Anu Enlil Research Articles

Astronomy in the Ancient near East

ASTRONOMY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East: The Reflexes of Celestial Science in Ancient Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite Narrative. Jeffrey L. Cooley (Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana, 2013). Pp. x + 396. $54.50. ISBN 978-157506-262-4.It is perhaps difficult to imagine the impact the recovery of ancient Mesopotamian culture had on the Western world in the late nineteenth century. In 1872 when George Smith, then an assistant in the British Museum, discovered the Assyrian version of the biblical flood story, it is said he jumped up and rushed about the room in a great state of excitement, and, to the astonishment of those present, began to undress himself.1 Equally momentous was the discovery of Babylonian astronomy, first made public in 1881 by the Jesuits Joseph Epping and J. N. Strassmaier.2 Each of these discoveries fuelled cultural diffusionist ideas about Babylonian origins, not only of stories in the Bible, but of world mythology, astronomy and astrology. Such ideas had a temporary but widespread influence through the school of Pan-Babylonism, a short-lived sport (in the botanical sense) of mostly German nineteenth-century Orientalism.Jeffrey Cooley's Poetic astronomy in the ancient Near East begins and ends with discussion and critique of the Pan-Babylonists, who read Near Eastern mythology as astronomical allegory and anachronistically attributed to those stories great astronomical knowledge, supposedly dating to c. 3000 b.c., but in fact only emerging either in the latter half of the first millennium b.c (the zodiac) or not at all (precession). Some participants in the school (Hugo Winckler) were also involved in the so-called Bibel-Babel controversy which inflamed scholarly opinion and found a formidable opponent in F. X. Kugler, s.j., one of the founding fathers of Babylonian mathematical astronomy. Kugler published an article entitled the ruins of Panbabylonism,3 a clever pun on Claudius James Rich's important memoir On the ruins of Babylon (1818), and followed it up with a monograph, Im Bannkreis Babels: Panbabylonistische Konstrucktionen und religionsgeschicltliche Tatsachen (1910), which demolished all credibility of the pan-Babylonists regarding the history of astronomy.One of the detrimental effects of Pan-Babylonism, besides the dissemination of highly fanciful and erroneous interpretations of natureand star-mythology and claims of the diffusion of such ideas from Babylonia to the rest of the world, was to drive a long-lasting wedge between scholars of Babylonian astral science and those of cuneiform literary texts. After Kugler's demolition of pan-Babylonist claims, the very idea that mythology and astral science might have some intertextual resonance became virtually anathema and no Assyriologist in his or her right mind would touch the subject for nearly one hundred years. This division has been slowly eroding in the last generation, and Cooley's study can be viewed as a culmination of this change in attitude. Poetic astronomy in the ancient Near East removes that wedge, provides a corrective to Pan-Babylonism (p. 87), and considers the cultural continuities between narrative and technical literatures, not only of the cuneiform world, but those of ancient Ugarit and Israel as well. The book's thesis is that contemporary knowledge concerning the heavens is indeed found in ancient Near Eastern literature, thus reflecting a cultural matrix in which science and literature are not separate.Taking up Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite traditions in turn, as is laid out methodologically in the first chapter, Cooley surveys each and discusses what is now known about celestial science in these distinct yet not unrelated cultures, and analyses their narrative texts in the light of their particular intellectual backgrounds. Chapter 2 usefully surveys the various classes of astronomical/astrological cuneiform sources, from divinatory to astronomical texts, making critical use of David Brown's PCP (prediction of celestial phenomena) paradigm and EAE (Enuma Anu Enlil) paradigm to bring historiographic structure to the long chronological span of the sources. …

Book Review: The Chronology of Old Babylon, Die Venustafeln des Ammī-⋅aduqa und ihre Bedeutung für die astronomische Datierung der altbabylonischen Zeit

THE CHRONOLOGY OF OLD BABYLON Die Venustafeln des Ammi-saduqa und ihre Bedeutung fur die astronomische Datierung der altbabylonischen Zeit. Joachim Mebert (Archiv fur Orientforschung Beiheft, xxxi; Berger & Sohne, Horn, 2010). Pp. 179. 38 (paperback). ISBN 3-900345-10-4.In 1912 F. X. Kugler discovered among omens on sixty-third tablet of Babylonian celestial omen series Enuma Anu Enlil a reference to Year of Golden Throne which he identified with eighth year of Old Babylonian king Ammi-saduqa. Tablet 63 of Enuma Anu Enlil contains a series of omens referring to dates of Venus's first visibility and first invisibility in morning and evening. Kugler suggested that, contrary to other tablets of Enuma Anu Enlil which contain pure omens, tablet 63 contains reports of observations which had been codified as omens. If this suggestion is correct, then Venus data on Enuma Anu Enlil tablet 63 (commonly referred to as the Venus Tablet of Ammi-saduqa) potentially provides means to establish date of reign of Ammi-saduqa and hence to provide a fixed point to pin floating, relative chronology of early second millennium b.c. known from king lists and other historical documents.Many attempts to date Venus Tablet of Ammi-saduqa have been made in hundred years since Kugler' s discovery. By middle of twentieth century, three possible chronologies had emerged: a high chronology in which Ammi-saduqa year 1 = -1710, a middle chronology with Ammi-saduqa year 1 = -1645, and a low chronology with Ammi-saduqa year 1 = -1581. Most Assyriologists and historians of ancient Near East have adopted middle chronology, but on no other grounds than that it is a convenient compromise and appears in all standard reference works. In recent years, several scientifically-trained scholars have argued in favour of other chronologies: P. J. Huber has made a forceful case for long chronology by combining evidence from Venus Tablet with eclipse omens from Enuma Anu Enlil tablets 20 and 21 which he believes refer to specific observations as well as month-length data taken from economic documents.1 V. G. Gurzadyan in a much criticized analysis has argued for a super-short chronology with Ammi-saduqa year 1 = -1549. 2 And most recently, T de Jong and V Foertmeyer have argued for Ammisaduqa year 1 = -1637 on basis of a possible connection with eruption of volcano on Thera.3The book under review presents a new and detailed study of Venus Tablet of Ammi-saduqa and its use in determining Old Babylonian chronology. Mebert begins by discussing Venus Tablet itself. It has long been recognized that tablet as it may be reconstructed from preserved copies is corrupt in various ways. Mebert provides a useful study of structure of tablet in order to extract a subset of omens which he believes are reliable. In order to investigate dates of Venus's visibility phenomena found in these omens, Mebert first investigates Late Babylonian observations of Venus in order to establish values for arcus visionis of phenomena of Venus for Babylon. He then uses these values to calculate dates of Venus's visibility during early second millennium b.c. which can then be compared with dates extracted from Venus Tablet. Next, Mebert compares preserved mo nth -length data from Old Babylonian period with calculated month lengths. By combining results from these two types of evidence, he concludes that most likely date for first year of Ammi-saduqa is -1573. Finally, Mebert investigates other evidence - most of it historical rather than astronomical - to see whether there are any contradictions with his proposed chronology and to provide supporting evidence of his proposed chronological equation. …

Personifications and Metaphors in Babylonian Celestial Omina

Within the protases of the Babylonian celestial omen series Enuma Anu Enlil, a number of celestial phenomena are referred to by means of anthropomorphic tropes whose referents are the gods associated with the celestial body in question. For example, a lunar eclipse is referred to as the moon god in mourning. Metaphor and its implications for abstract relational thought in the language of Babylonian divination can be established on the basis of the function of the attested metaphorical expressions, which was to represent a physical phenomenon deemed ominous. This evidence sheds light on the conception of natural phenomena and the relation between nature and the gods in ancient Mesopotamia, underscoring the religious component of Mesopotamian science. A culture's capacity or incapacity for the use of metaphor has been used as a criterion for differentiating ancient/traditional from modern/scientific thought in a substantial literature that includes studies in the history of Greek and Renaissance science and magic as well as in anthropology. Establishing the existence and identifying the function of metaphorical language in Mesopotamian celestial divination introduces evidence which tempers such dichotomous schemes of culture and thought.

An attempt to date text 3 of Enuma Anu Enlil, tablets 50?51 ?tentative date December 2, ? 1878?

astrological interpretations. A special section of Enuma Anu Enlil that deals with lunar and solar eclipses is a most fruitful source for the determination of ancient chronology, assuming that the eclipses described are based on actual observations. In 1921 Morris Jastrow [1] translated the well-preserved Tablet 21. Ever since, a number of investigators, including Langdon & Fotheringham 1928 [2], Weidner 1954 [3], Schaumberger 1956 [4], and Reiner. & Pingree 1981 [5] have worked on these tablets. In 1982 Peter J. Huber [6] refined the eclipse calculations using modern digital computers. He has calculated a lunar eclipse of 2093 for the patricide eclipse; it refers to the assassination of Shulgi, the king of Ur, by one of his sons. In this paper it will be shown that the omen in Text 3 of tablets 50-51 of Enuma Anu Enlil uses the Mul-Apin principles of naked-eye astronomy. The principles of the simultaneously rising and setting constellations, and occasionally the heliacal rising of planet Jupiter compared to the setting of some constellations are used (28a, 28b). Text 3 seems to describe an event in which a lunar eclipse is taking place when Mars enters the constellation of Scorpius. The statement in text 3 points out that the planet Saturn is quite likely to be in the constellation of Corvus. The planet Jupiter is near the bright star Capella, (Mul-Gam), the planet Mercury is in Sagittarius, the planet Mars stands in Scorpius, and the Moon has the same longitude as Orion. Based on the interpretation of data in Text 3 for planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Moon, a search is made between -2500 and -501. This resulted in a unique solution of the Lunar Eclipse Dec. 2, 1878. Accepting the date of the lunar eclipse, we may conclude that: