were transmitted from astrologers to the king and on the basis of which
calendrical decisions were often made suggests that the Diaries were dated
according to the calendar in use in society at large. Consideration must also be
given to the close involvement of astrologers in the temple cults and in the
economic administration of the temples—to which they were officially at-
tached, at least in Babylonia—and to the fact that astronomical observations,
astrological omens, the dates of festivals, and the dating of administrative
temple documents, were all closely intertwined: it is quite unlikely that
different calendars were used for these related activities.^10 Our use of
astronomical sources (at least of the non-predictive, observational kind) as
evidence of how the Babylonian calendar was reckoned seems therefore
reasonably secure. But whether we should expect the Babylonian calendar to
have been reckoned accurately and uniformly across the vast expanses of the
Achaemenid and Seleucid Empires is another question altogether, which will
be addressed more fully in Chapter 5.
The months of the Babylonian calendar were named as follows:^11
I Nisannu
II Aiaru
III Simanu
IV Duzu
V Abu
VI Ululu
VII Tashritu
VIII Arah:samnu
IX Kislimu
XT:ebetu
XI Shabat:u
XII AddaruThese names survived, with slight variations, in the post-Babylonian calendars
of Nabataea, Judaea (hence in the Jewish calendar), and late antique Syria
(hence in the Syriac calendar), as will be seen in Chapter 5.
This chapter will examine separately the two main features of the Babylo-
nian calendar: the beginning of the month, and the intercalation.
(^10) See further below, n. 73.
(^11) In cuneiform sources the months are usually represented by Sumerian ideograms; their
Akkadian names (of which this list is an adaptation) are spelt out in full in a Sumerian–Akkadian
lexicon as follows: ni-sa-an-nu, a-a-ru, si-ma-nu, du-ú-zu, a-bu, ú-lu-lu, taš-ri-tú, a-ra-ah:-sam-
na, ki-si-li-mu, t:e-bi-tum,šá-ba-t:u, ad-da-ru (Landsberger 1957: 25–6; cited in Schürer 1973–87:
i. 587; I am grateful to Mark Geller for the information and reference).
The Babylonian Calendar 75