Natural Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia 31tupšar Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil, literally, “scribe of Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil.” The mean-
ing of this title may seem to speak for itself, but it has been rendered into
English variously as “astrologer” or “astronomer,” or even, in an attempt
not to differentiate between the two, “expert in celestial matters.”^48 Sur-
prisingly, the colophons of copies of Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil never indicate that
the copyist is a member of this class of scribes. In fact, there are only four
Neo- Assyrian documents in which this title appears, one of which is a
letter mentioning the “reports of the scribes of Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil”^49 and
another of which is an administrative document listing employees of the
court.^50 Another mentions two scribes of Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil who “look day
and night at the sky.”^51 Scribes not holding this title, but who were exor-
cists or priests, could quote celestial omens, as was the case with the priest
Akkulla ̄nu, an “Enterer of the Temple of Assur,” who carried out celestial
observation and research in the Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil series, counseled the king
on this basis, and personally supervised the apotropaic rites necessitated
by celestial omens which he recommended be performed.
The literary activities of the “scribe of Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil” changed in the
Hellenistic period, when the term comes to be associated with scribes who
produced mathematical astronomical texts. As in the Neo- Assyrian cor-
respondence, the evidence from colophons of Seleucid astronomical texts
shows that the scribes who either copied (“hand of so- and- so”) or owned
the tablets (“tablet of so- and- so”) were not always designated “scribe
of Enu ̄ma Anu Enlil,” but were oftentimes identifi ed by the professions
lamentation priest (kalû)^52 or exorcist (a ̄šipu). As was once fashionable, it
would be easy to characterize ancient Mesopotamian knowledge not as
“scientifi c,” but as “religious” or “priestly” by virtue of the fact that the
scribes held “priestly” titles. This merely substitutes one anachronism for
another, since the problem we create in importing the word “science” into
the ancient Mesopotamian milieu applies to the word “priest” as well.
As to the employment of the scholars who dealt with celestial sciences,
from Achaemenid times onward, we may suppose that they were no lon-
ger employed by the king—at least there is no evidence for such a claim.
On the other hand, whether they were all in the service of the major tem-
ples is also diffi cult to pin down, although the available evidence points
in this direction. During the Neo- Babylonian period (sixth century BCE),
for example, it appears that the scholars’ workplace was a separate institu-
tion called the “temple academy.”^53 The scholars producing ephemerides
and procedure texts for which colophons remain appeared to be working
within the temple institution during the Seleucid and Arsacid (Parthian)
periods.^54 In Babylon, scribal scholarship seems to have been attached to
the Marduk (Be ̄l) temple Esagila, and in Uruk to the Anu temple, the so-