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and constellation names are in Sumerian, which ceased to be
a living language soon after 2000 BCE.
The most ancient zodiac constellations are probably the
Bull, the Lion and the Scorpion. Neolithic art and religious
iconography are rich in images of those creatures, though
it’s difficult to discern which of these, if any, were meant
to be explicitly astronomical. In any case, the star patterns
of Taurus and Scorpius are sufficiently similar to actual
bulls’ heads and scorpions that it is a safe bet that those
constellations were conceived of during the Neolithic.
Around 7000 BCE, numerous bulls’-heads and bulls’-
horns were sculpted of clay plaster on walls and benches
(altars?) in what seem to have been ceremonial rooms in
the Neolithic town excavated at Çatal Hüyük in modern
southern Turkey. Whether or not these objects were thought
to have astronomical relevance is impossible to say; but such
a culture would have had a natural inclination to see the star
pattern of our Taurus as representing a bull’s head.The northern zodiac
The presence in MUL.APIN of Sipa-zi-an-na (Orion) and Šu-gi
(Perseus), groups that are not on the ecliptic, is at first sight
something of a puzzle. However, the Moon’s path among the
stars is inclined 5° to the Sun’s path, so the Moon sometimes
does approach southern Perseus and northern Orion.
Though it’s a northern constellation, Maš-tab-ba gal-gal,
the Great Twins (Gemini), was associated with the patron
deity of the southern skies, Enki, the water-god of the archaic
Sumerian city of Eridu. This association might hearken back
to the early 4th millennium BCE, when Eridu was the cultural
centre of Mesopotamia, and its patron deity presumably
held sway over most of the heavens. The Great Twins were
envisioned as the Gatepost-Holders of Enki and shown as such
on numerous cylinder seals carved during the 3rd millennium
BCE. These seals display the god enthroned, holding his
sacred Streaming Water-Jar, flanked by two nude, wild-haired,
frontally faced figures grasping buckled gateposts.
The same kind of nude, wild-haired figure is shown on
other cylinder seal designs that include Enki’s Streaming
Water-Jar and was the prototype of the classical Aquarius.
Later Mesopotamian texts recommended that terracotta
plaques of these Gatepost-Holders, which they called talim
(‘Twins’), be buried in the corners of courtyards as protection
against evil influences and demonic intruders.Virgo and her ear of grain
As its appearance on the ‘In the Path of the Moon’ list
suggests, the celestial Ear of Grain, the classical Spica, also
has Mesopotamian roots. The original meaning of the
Sumerian word ab-sín was ‘furrow’: The Sumerians thought
of the ecliptic as a celestial plough-furrow and our Alpha
Virginis as a seed-grain planted in in it. Planting scenes,
some of them clearly astronomical, were quite frequent
in Mesopotamian cylinder seal designs of the mid-3rdmillennium BCE, so it’s reasonably certain that the celestial
Ear of Grain was in the sky by that time.
Though not explicitly included in the table of
constellations ‘In the Path of the Moon,’ other sections of
MUL.APIN refer to a celestial ‘Great Lady,’ Nin-mah, and
locate her in the same area of the sky as the Ear of Grain.
Nin-mah was one of the Sumerian epithets for the famous
fertility goddess Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna), forerunner of the
Greek Aphrodite. Thus the constellation Nin-mah was almost
certainly the predecessor of the classical Virgo.
As a fertility goddess, Nin-mah was accompanied in the
sky by two of her icons: the Ear of Grain, represented by
Alpha Virginis; and a Date Cluster represented by the Coma
Berenices Star Cluster. A mid-3rd millennium BCE cylinder
seal design shows a winged Inanna/Ishtar holding her Date
Cluster and standing on a mountain range from behind
which the sun-god Utu is rising. To the right is Enki, patron
deity of the southern heavens, holding Corvus, the celestial
Raven, in one hand; and to the left is Leo, the Lion (the
constellation west of Coma Berenices), as well as Enlil, patron
god of the northern skies. This cylinder seal design shows the
heavens as they would have appeared in the third millennium
BCE at sunrise in early September, the time of year the highly
important date harvest began.
By the time the ‘rising Sun’ cylinder seal was carved, the
balance-beam Scales that would become Libra were also in
the sky. The remains of such scales have been found during
excavations at Sumero-Babylonian sites, and at least three
mid-3rd millennium seal designs are known which show a
balance-beam scale with trays. One of these designs depicts
the scale being held over an altar in front of the enthroned
Sun-god, Utu. This could be interpreted as a reference to the
Sumerian god of Justice, Utu (Akkadian Shamash).The archaic archer
The deity name Pa-bil-sag, which MUL.APIN applies to the
stars of the classical Sagittarius, was a throwback. During
the early 3rd millennium BCE, Pa-bil-sag was the war-god
of the archaic Sumerian city of Larak. But by the end of the
millennium he’d been absorbed by Ninurta, the war-god of
the great Sumerian religious capital of Nippur, sacred city ofSEVOLVING TWINS This seal impression shows the enthroned water
god Enki receiving his double-faced vizier, Isimud. The pair is flanked
by the Twin Gatepost-Holders, the prototype(s) of Gemini. Enki holds
his Streaming Water-Jar, which eventually would evolve into Aquarius.