CHAPTER 4 – ENŪMA ANU ENLIL TABLET 63
The Text
The 63rd tablet of the series Enūma Anu Enlil is also known as the ‘Venus Tablet of Am-
mizaduga’ because of the reference in the text to the “year of the golden throne,” a
known eponym for the eighth year of the Old Babylonian ruler Ammizaduga. Ammi-
zaduga was the fourth ruler after Hammurabi, and as such the origins of this text should
probably be dated to around the mid-seventeenth century B.C.E. Nevertheless, the largest
number of copies exist from the first millennium B.C.E. In relation to the rest of the se-
ries Enūma Anu Enlil, the 63rd tablet is unique in its specificity when referring to the con-
junctions of Venus, in contrast to the tablets concerning other astral phenomena.^129
Reiner divides the text of the Venus Tablet into four sections, I-IV.^130 The first section
treats observations of the conjunctions between Venus and the sun in a chronological
progression for the 21 year reign of Ammizaduga with the exception of his eighteenth
year. In the second section 12 omens, apparently unconnected with Ammizaduga, are ar-
ranged in the order of the months. The very regular movements of Venus described in
section II are obviously not based on real observations, but are more likely given as ap-
proximate dates to facilitate actual observations. Section III contains four omens that are
also probably not related to those made during Ammizaduga’s reign. Section IV repeats
most of the omens from the first and third sections reorganised in the order of the months
in which the heliacal setting of Venus was observed.^131
(^129) See A. Aaboe, "Babylonian Mathematics, Astrology and Astronomy," (^) The Cambridge Ancient History
Volume III, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the
Eighth Century to the Sixth Century (eds J. Boardman, I.E.S. Edwards, N.G.L. Hammond, and E. Sollber-
ger; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996 130 2 ) 279-80.
The text divisions, sigla and apparatus in E. Reiner, BPO 1, has been utilised throughout the present
study. 131
See E. Reiner, BPO 1, 7-25.