A 3405: An Unusual Astronomical Text from Uritk

Archive for History of Exact Sciences

Volumn 55, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 103-135

  Steele, John M ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0011704602     PISSN: 00039519     EISSN: 14320657     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s004070000021     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. This is certain for many of these texts (including A 3405) on account of the colophon. See O. Neugebauer, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts (Lund Humphries, London, 1955), 4.
2. H. Hunger, "A 3456: eine Sammlung von Merkurbeobachtungen", in E. Leichty, M. De Jong Ellis and P. Gerardi (eds.), A Scientific Humanist: Studies in Memory of Abraham Sachs (University Museum, Philadelphia, 1988), 201-223.
3. A. Sachs, "A Classification of the Babylonian Astronomical Tablets of the Seleucid Period", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 2 (1948), 271-290.
4. O. Neugebauer, "The Babylonian Method for the Computation of the Last Visibilities of Mercury", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 95 (1951), 110-116, esp. 111.
5. I follow here the traditional definitions of the planetary phenomena. In the light of P. J. Huber, Astronomical Dating of Babylon I ami Ur III (Undena Publications, Malibu, 1982) E and Q should probably be defined as first disappearance rather than last visibility.
6. Through the omission of the preposition ina. We would normally expect, eg., ina SU iiia ...SU.
7. This abbreviated name for Mercury is also found in A 3456.
8. See A. Sachs, "Classification", 289 for the argument behind this statement.
9. P. J. Huber, "Ueber den Nullpunkt der babylonischen Ekliptik", Centaitriis 5 (1958), 192208.
10. See also the fragmentary star catalogue published by A. Sachs, "A Late Babylonian Star Catalogue", Journal of Cuneiform Similes 6 (1952), 146-150 which gives the longitudes within zodiacal signs of several Normal Stars.
11. H. Hunger, "A 3456".
12. See, for example, O. Neugebauer, ACT, idem, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1975),
13. A. Aaboe, "On Period Relations in Babylonian Astronomy", Centaiiriis 10 (1964), 213-231,
14. and N. M. Swerdlow, The Babylonian Theory of the Planets (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1998).
15. See O. Neugebauer, ACT, 293-295 for a summary of these tables.
16. O. Neugebauer, ACT, 294-295 and 318-321.
17. See figure 7 on p. 78 of O. Neugebauer, "Babylonian Planetary Theory", Pmceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 98 (1954), 60-89.
18. O. Neugebauer, ACT, 298.
19. Eg. Diary -283a, obv. 8: ... GU4-UD ina SÜ SU-sii DIB "Mercury's last appearance in the west, omitted".
20. Eg. LBAT 1174, obv. 3:... GU4-UD NIM UD.DA IGI DIB ... "Mercury's first appearance in the east, omitted".
21. O. Neugebauer,7MAM, 404.
22. ACT400ff, 812, 815, 821 b, and 1050.
23. BM 36301, BM 37151, and BM 33552.
24. 21 H. Hunger, "Kryptographische Astrologische Omina", in M. Dietrich and W. Röllig (eds.), liSan milhiirti: Festschrift Wolfram Freiherr von Soden (Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer, 1969), 133145.
25. F. X. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel l (Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster in Westfalen, 1907), 45-48.
26. Text E in O. Neugebauer and A. Sachs, "Some Atypical Astronomical Cuneiform Texts I", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 21 (1967), 183-218.
27. N. T. Hamilton and A. Aaboe, "A Babylonian Venus Text Computed According to System A: ACT No. 1050", Archive for History of Exact Sciences 53 (1998), 215-221. Note the error in Table 1 of this article: last line of the table: u>,- for H between Capricorn 18D and Cancer 12' should read 215;30°.
28. O. Neugebauer, ACT, 336-339.
29. J. P. Britton and C. B. F. Walker, "A 4th Century Babylonian Model for Venus: BM 33552", Centaiirus 34 (1991), 97-118.
30. A. Aaboe and P. J. Huber, "A Text Concerning Subdivision of the Synodic Motion of Venus from Babylon: BM 37151", in M. De Jong Ellis, Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of Jacob Joel Finkelstein (Archon Books, Hamden, Connecticut, 1977), \-$.
31. Text C in O. Neugebauer and A. Sachs, "Atypical Astronomical Cuneiform Texts 1".
32. See also the further discussion by J. P. Britton and C. B. F. Walker, "A 4th Century Babylonian Model for Venus".
33. See O. Neugebauer, ACT, 305-306
34. and A. Aaboe, "A Late-Babylonian Procedure Text for Mars, and Some Remarks on Retrograde Arcs", in D. A. King and G. Saliba (eds.), From Deferent to Equanl: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient ami Medieval Near East in Honor ofE. S. Kennedy (The New York Academy of Sciences, New York, 1987), 1-14.
35. This was recognised by Peter Huber. See A. Aaboe, "On Babylonian Planetary Theories", Centaiirns 5 (1958), 209-277, esp. 246.
36. O. Ncugebauer, ACT, 306.
37. O. Neugebaucr, HAMA, 459-460.
38. O. Neugebauer, HAMA, 420-421, which is based upon A. Aaboe, "Period Relations", who designated these steps / rather than S.
39. A. Aaboe and A. Sachs, "Some Dateless Computed Lists of Longitudes of Characteristic Planetary Phenomena from the Late-Babylonian Period", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 20 ( 1966), 1-33.
40. See also O. Neugebauer, HAMA, 424-425.
41. J. P. Britton and A. Jones, "A New Babylonian Planetary Model in a Greek Source", Archive for History of Exact Sciences 54 (2000), 349-373.
42. A. Aaboe and A. Sachs, "Dateless Computed Lists".
43. For a detailed discussion of the ACT lunar schemes, see O. Neugebauer, ACT, 41-85,
44. and idem. H AM A, 474-540.
45. ACT 1 (probably), ACT 2, and W 22340a. This last text is published as number 99 in H. Hunger, Spätbabylonische Texte ans Uriik Teil l (Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin, 1976).
46. BM 36599+36941 with duplicates BM 36737 and BM 47912 published a Texts B, C and D in A. Aaboe and A. Sachs, "Two Lunar Texts of the Achaemenid Period from Babylon", Centatmis 14 (1969), 1-22.
47. BM 36737 was joined to BM 36580 and republished as Text S in J. P. Britton, "An Early Function for Eclipse Magnitudes in Babylonian Astronomy", Centaurtis 32 (1989), 1-52,
48. and in A. Aaboe, J. P. Britton, J. A. Henderson, O. Neugebauer, and A. J. Sachs, Sams Cycle Dales and Related Babylonian Astronomical Texts (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1991). BM 36651+36719+37032+37053 (reverse known as Text L) and BM 36400 were published as Texts E and F in this latter work.
49. A. Aaboe and A. Sachs, "Two Lunar Texts of the Achaemenid Period", 18.
50. J. P. Britton, "An Early Function for Eclipse Magnitudes", 33.
51. See J. M. Steele, "Eclipse Prediction in Mesopotamia", Archive for History of Exact Sciences 54(2000),421-454.
52. For details, see O. Neugebauer, "Studies in Ancient Astronomy VII: Magnitudes of Lunar Eclipses in Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy", Isis 36 (1945), 10-15
53. and A. Aaboe and J. A. Hende rson, "The Babylonian Theory of Lunar Latitude and Eclipses According to System A", Arc/lives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 25 (1975), 181-222.
54. Neugebauer reserved Ψ for the function when it was calculated only for eclipse possibilities, and used and Ψ′ for those functions calculated for all syzygies. For simplicity, I call all these functions Ψ since the difference between Ψ and Ψ′ or Ψ″ is irrelevant for the present discussion.
55. O. Neugebauer, ACT, 197-198.
56. See also A. Livingstone, Mystical ami Mythological £vplanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986), 90.
57. O. Neugebauer, ACT, 162.
58. See, e.g., figures 2.2ff in N. M. Swerdlow, Babylonian Theory of the Planets, which compare observed and theoretical synodic times with those from the ACT schemes.
59. A. Aaboe, "On Babylonian Planetary Theories".
60. E. Weidner, Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln (Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., Graz, 1967), text 2.
61. W. R. Mayer, "Seleukidische Rituale aus Warka mit Emesal-Gebeten", Orientalia 47 ( 1978), 431-458.
62. See H. Hunger, Babylonische und assyrische Kolophone (Verlag Butzon & Bercker Kevelaer, Neukirchen-VIuyn, 1968),
63. D. B. Weisberg, The Late Babylonian Texts of the Oriental Institute Collection (Undena Publications, Malibu, 1991), 36-37
64. , and the tablets cited in G. J. P. McEwan, Priest and Temple in Hellenistic Babylonia (Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1981 ), 12,
65. and P.-A. Beaulieu and F. Rochberg, 'The Horoscope of Anu-Bêlsunu", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 48 (1996), 89-94, esp. 93-94 and n. 18-21.
66. O. Neugebauer, ACT, 10.
67. See F. Rochberg, 'The Cultural Locus of Astronomy in Late Babylonia", in H. D. Gaiter (ed.), Die Rolle der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens (Graz, 1993), 3145
68. and idem, "Scribes and Scholars: the tupsar Enuma Ann EH///", in J. Marzahn and H. Neumann (eds.), Assyriologica et Semitica: Festschrift fur Joachim Oelsner anlälich seines 65. Geburtstages am 18. Februar 1997 (Kevelaer, Butzon & Berker, 1999).
69. W 18568, published by K. Kessler, "Eine arsakidenzeitiche Urkunde aus Warka", Baglidader Mitteilungen 15 (1984), 273-281.
70. See also S. Sherwin-White, "Seleucid Babylonia: A Case Study for the Installation and Development of Greek Rule", in A. Kuhrt and S. Shenvin-White, Hellenism in the East (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1987) 1-31.
71. BM 140677, published by A. J. Sachs and H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia Volume III (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, 1996), 406ff.
72. Private archives containing among other things astronomical texts did exist at Uruk. See, for example, the tablets from the library of Iqïsâ collected in E. von Weiher, Spätbabylonische Texte aus Uruk Teil U (Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin, 1983).
73. On archives from Late Babylonian Uruk generally, see O. Pedersen,/lrc/i/Ye.s and Libraries in the Ancient Near East 1500-300 B.C. (CDL Press, Bethesda, Maryland, 1998), 202-213.
74. The only detailed discussion of the relationship between observation and theory in Babylonian astronomy is F. Rochbcrg-Halton, "Between Observation and Theory in Babylonian Astronomical Texts", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 50 (1991), 107-120.
75. Horoscopes are cited by their text number in F. Rochberg, Babylonian Horoscopes (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1998).
76. Or, occasionally, non-zodiacal constellations.
77. A. Sachs, "Babylonian Horoscopes", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 6 (1952), 49-75.
78. F. Rochberg, "Babylonian Horoscopy: The Texts and their Relations", in N. M. Swerdlow (ed.), Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999), 39-59, esp. 48.
79. F. Rochberg-Halton, "Babylonian Horoscopes and their Sources", Orientalia 58 (1989), 102-123.
80. NCBT 1232 has been published by P.-A. Beaulieu and F. Rochberg, "The Horoscope of Anu-Bêlsunu", and as text 9 in F. Rochberg, Babylonian Horoscopes.