Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia

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Astronomy and astrology, or the astral sciences, played an enormous, if not a key role in the political and religious life of the Ancient Near East, and, later, of the Greek and Roman world. This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the origins of the astral sciences in the Ancient Near East.
Every type of Sumerian or Akkadian text dealing with descriptive or mathematical astronomy, including many individual tablets are thoroughly dealt with. All aspects, such as...

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Overview

Astronomy and astrology, or the astral sciences, played an enormous, if not a key role in the political and religious life of the Ancient Near East, and, later, of the Greek and Roman world. This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the origins of the astral sciences in the Ancient Near East.
Every type of Sumerian or Akkadian text dealing with descriptive or mathematical astronomy, including many individual tablets are thoroughly dealt with. All aspects, such as the history of discovery, reconstruction, and interpretation come to the fore, accompanied by a full bibliography. At that the reader will find descriptions of astronomical contents, an explanation of their scientific meaning and the place a given genre or tablet has in the development of astronomy both within the Mesopotamian culture and outside of it. Because celestial omens are intimately related to astronomy in Mesopotamian science, these are also discussed extensively.
The material is arranged both chronologically and thematically, so as to help make Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia a reference work on the subject in its truest sense.

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Editorial Reviews

Booknews
Offers a comprehensive account of the origins of astronomy and astrology in the Ancient Near East. Presents Sumerian and Akkadian texts dealing with descriptive or mathematical astronomy, describing astronomical contents, their scientific meaning, and the place a given genre or tablet has in the development of astronomy both within Mesopotamian culture and outside of it. Celestial omens are also discussed extensively. Hunger teaches Assyriology at the Institut f<:u>r Orientalistik of the University of Vienna. Pingree teaches history of mathematics at Brown University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Product Details

Meet the Author

David Pingree, Ph.D. (1960), Harvard University, is Professor of the History of Mathematics at Brown University. He has edited numerous scientific texts in Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, and has collaborated for many years with Assyriologists in publishing cuneiform texts on astronomy and astral omens.
Hermann Hunger, Ph.D. (1966) in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, University of Münster (Germany), is Professor of Assyriology at the Institut für Orientalistik of the University of Vienna. He has published widely on Babylonian astronomy, e.g., Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings (Helsinki 1992).

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Table of Contents

Preliminaries ix
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
I. Omens 5
A. Second Millennium B.C. 7
1. Old Babylonian 7
2. Areas outside Babylonia 8
3. Middle-Babylonian and Middle-Assyrian 12
B. First Half of the First Millennium B.C. 12
1. Enuma Anu Enlil 12
2. Non-canonical 20
3. Commentaries and explanatory texts 21
4. Diviner's Manual 22
5. Letters and Reports 23
C. Second Half of the First Millennium B.C. 26
1. Proto-horoscopes 26
2. Hypsomata 28
3. Innovations 29
4. Genethlialogy 30
5. Egyptian borrowings 31
6. Indian borrowings 31
II. Astronomy 32
A. The Early Period 32
1. Astronomy in Enuma Anu Enlil 32
1. The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa 32
2. Planetary theory in Enuma Anu Enlil 40
3. Lunar and solar theory 41
4. Tablet 14 and related texts 44
2. "Astrolabes" or "Three Stars Each" Texts 50
3. MUL.APIN 57
1. Stars 58
2. Planets 73
3. Intercalation Schemes 75
4. Shadow Table and Water Clock 79
4. I.NAM.GIS.HUR.AN.KI.A 83
5. Ziqpu star texts 84
6. The GU Text 90
7. The DAL.BA.AN.NA Text 100
8. Time-keeping texts 112
B. First millennium: Observations and Predictions 116
1. Sargonid Period 116
1. Observations and Predictions in Letters and Reports 116
2. Other Contemporary Observations 138
2. The Diaries 139
1. Planets 145
2. The Moon 147
3. The Normal Stars 148
4. The Sun 151
5. Eclipses 154
6. Excerpts from the Diaries 156
7. Ptolemy's Use of the Diaries 156
3. Normal Star Almanacs 159
4. Almanacs 162
5. Goal-Year texts 167
6. Planets 173
7. Eclipses 181
C. Theoretical Texts 183
1. Early Theoretical Texts, Solar and Lunar 183
1. The "Saros" Cycle 183
2. The Nineteen-year Cycle 199
3. Solstices, Equinoxes, and Phases of Sirius 200
2. Early Theoretical Texts, Planetary 203
1. Period Relations 203
2. Planetary Latitudes 205
3. Subdivisions of Synodic Arcs 206
3. Proto-procedure Texts 210
4. Mathematical Astronomy of the ACT Type 212
1. A Survey of the Literature before ACT 212
2. ACT and After 220
a. The Moon 221
b. The Planets 242
III. Appendix 271
IV. Bibliography 278
V. Index 293
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