Australian Sky & Telescope - April 2018

38 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE April 2018

TABLET:©THETRUSTEESOFTHEBRITISHMUSEUM;TRANSCRIPT:E.A.WALLISBUDGE,

CUNEIFORM TEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &C., IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

(1912); DRAWING: DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY / GETTY IMAGES

Given the importance of the lunar calendar to the ancient

Mesopotamians, it isn’t surprising that MUL.APIN doesn’t

itemise the stars and constellations along the path of the Sun,

but rather catalogues those ‘In the Path of the Moon’ (see the

table on page e7). This list includes 18 stars and star-groups,

or six more than we find in the modern solar zodiac, and

none are associated with specific, individual months. Virtually

all of the 12 Graeco-Roman zodiacal constellations appear

in this catalogue in some form, seven explicitly so. Two of

the star groups, Pa-bil-sag and GU-LA, served as prototypes

for the classical conceptions: Pa-bil-sag was envisioned as

an Archer-Centaur and GU-LA as a Water-Pourer holding a

Streaming Water-Jar. It would seem, then, that the Graeco-

Roman 12-constellation solar zodiac resulted from a process

of selection from this Mesopotamian ur-catalogue of an

18-constellation lunar zodiac. That winnowing, as mentioned

above, was done by Babylonian astronomers and astrologers

during the 5th century BCE, when Babylonia was under

control of the Sun-worshipping Persians.

Earliest ecliptic constellations

The antiquity of the list of constellations ‘In the Path of

the Moon’ is indicated by its lead star-group, MUL.MUL,

the Greek Pleiades. At the time the surviving tablets of

MUL.APIN were inscribed, around 700 BCE, the vernal

equinox was in the middle of the classical constellation of

Aries. Given the importance of the vernal equinox for the

Mesopotamian lunar calendar, had the constellation list

actually been compiled around the time it was inscribed, it

undoubtedly would have started with lúHun-gá, predecessor of

the modern constellation Aries. The Pleiades were just west-

northwest of the vernal equinox during the 3rd millennium

BCE and would have risen in the morning twilight around

the time of the equinox. That they head the list suggests

that it was first compiled in the 3rd millennium BCE. This is

consistent with the fact that the vast majority of the list’s star

SANCIENT ASTRONOMICAL TEXT Left: Unearthed from the ruins of an Assyrian palace in southern Iraq, this clay tablet, composed in the

Akkadian language and inscribed in cuneiform, displays the opening lines of MUL.APIN. The full text of MUL.APIN, known from several larger

tablets, contains a wealth of astronomical information, including the names of the major stars and constellations; the heliacal rising dates of

important stars; lists of stars and constellations that rise, culminate or set at the same time; and methods for determining the positions and

movements of the Sun, Moon and planets. Right: Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge of the British Museum published this transcription of the reverse

side of the MUL.APIN tablet in 1912. Though broken, enough of this and other tablets remain to enable archaeologists like Budge to decipher the

names of the important stars ‘In the Path of the Moon’. The relevant section is highlighted on the transcription above.

SNEOLITHIC CATTLE The settlement of Çatal Hüyük, which dates

to c. 7500–5700 BCE, consisted of rectangular mud-brick houses,

arranged such that access was available only through roof openings.

Inside many of these single-story dwellings were rooms ornamented with

colourful pigments, animal heads, bucrania (bovine skulls), and horns

embedded in stylized bulls’ heads or attached to benches and pillars.

ZODIAC HISTORY