July 1 8, 1889] 



NATURE 



285 



Venus in conjunction with and 0° 41' south 



of the Moon. 

 Mercury in conjunction with and 0° 19' south 



of the Moon. 

 Mars in conjunction with and 0° i' south 



of the Moon. 



BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMY} 



III. 



'\]\7'HEN names had to be given to stars, the Babylonians 

 naturally took them from the objects around themselves. 

 The heavenly host was compared to an immense flock, and 

 several stars were grouped together to form the imaginary figure 

 of either a bull, or a ram, or a goat, &c. It is too often taken 

 for granted that the constellations have received certain names, 

 and that the march of the sun through these signs has given 

 birth to various legends, but those who see everywhere solar 

 myths do not say why the constellations were so named. 

 The names given to them must have some connection with what 

 took place at their appearance, mark the seasons, or indicate the 

 work, agricultural or other, of the seasons. The stars of the 

 ecliptic, placed on the path of the planets, were associated with 

 the monthly motion of the moon, and divided accordingly into 

 thirty groups. Each of these constellations was one of the houses 

 of the moon, and marked in the sky the course followed by it 

 in one day. 



The constellations were but indirectly connected with the 

 sun's journey through the ecliptic. The acronic, not the heliac, 

 rising of the stars and signs was especially observed, for those 

 which were shining all through the nights of a certain period 

 were considered as the protecting gods of that period. 



Many of the allegorical figures representing the constellations 

 were engraved on the boundary stones as images of protecting 

 divinities, and they show the process by which the Babylonian 

 artists arrived at the creation of the composite animals that 

 still adorn our celestial globes. For instance, the Goat coming 

 after Aquarius was represented as coming out of the water, and 

 the hind part of its body changed into that of a fish. Sometimes 

 three or more constellations were combined to form one figure : 

 the horse, the scorpion, and the bow gave birth to a Centaur, 

 holding a bow, and having a scorpion's tail — our Sagittarius. 



"When the zodiac was borrowed from Babylonia by the 

 Egyptians, they adopted these very un-Egyptian images. There 

 is still some uncertainty as to the date at which the borrowing 

 took place, for all the Egyptian zodiacal representations are pos- 

 terior to Alexander, but the idea may have been imported about 

 1600 or 1500 B.C. The Egyptians did not borrow bodily, 

 however, the Babylonian zodiac of thirty signs, but adapted it 

 to their solar year, and according to their sun-worship ideas, so 

 the thirty signs were reduced to twelve, and were connected 

 with the sun's march through the ecliptic. The thirty-six 

 decans were in the same way connected with the sun's march, 

 and three given to every month or ecliptic constellation, one 

 therefore marking the space covered by the sun in ten days. 



All attempts made as yet to identify the Babylonian names of 

 stars have failed, because there was no base or starting-point. 

 But now, with the list of the thirty constellations answering to 

 the thirty divisions of the sky, identification is practically easy. 

 In this work we are also helped by the classifications made by 

 the augurs of Babylon for omen-taking ; for instance, the twelve 

 stars of the south must be stars of the austral hemisphere. We 

 must at the same time take into account any mention made 

 of stars in the inscriptions, and not forget that the acronic 

 rising was the one observed and noticed by the Babylonians. By 

 this comparative method it can be determined, for instance, that 

 the star Sukudu or Kak-'si-di was Sirius, for we are told that it 

 was one of the seven most brilliant stars, and a star of the 

 south ; as it does not appear in the list of the thirty groups of 



' Abstract of the third lecture delivered by Mr. G. Berlin, at the 

 British Museum. Continued from p. 261. 



stars, marking the path of the moon, it must be at a certain 

 distance from the ecliptic. In several inscriptions the appearance 

 of this star is used to determine a date ; it must therefore appear 

 only for a very short period. This .'^ame star is also called 

 "directing star," because connected with the beginning of the 

 year. 



By a similar process we can determine that the star Su-gi was 

 Canopus ; the star Ikii (or Dil-gan), Fomalhaut ; the star Sib- 

 zi-an-na, a Centauri ; the star Jd-khti, Altair ; &c. 



The thirty constellations dividing the ecliptic are not, how- 

 ever, all exactly on this line ; for instance, one of them is Sar 

 or Merodach (Orion), another is "the Sceptre of Bel " (Procyon). 

 Having once identified several of these thirty constellations or 

 stars, it is easy to identify the others, as the list is given in the 

 tablet according to their order. We are also helped in our work 

 of identification by the Egyptian zodiac, and the names pre- 

 served by Ptolemy. In Egypt, Merodach has become Horus, 

 and the " Sceptre of Bel " that of Osiris. In some cases we 

 can even identify the name of a constellation, though we are not 

 able to pronounce it on account of its being written with a group 

 of ideograms. 



The Babylonians often, in star nomenclature, confounded a 

 star with the constellation it belonged to, and substituted for 

 the name of a star that of the god associated with it. We must 

 also take into account the two different points of view adopted 

 by the Babylonian astronomers and their Egyptian imitators. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Revue d' Atithropologie, troisieme serie, tome iv., troisieme fasc. 

 (Paris, 1889). — Examination of human bones found by M. 

 Piette in the walled-in cave at Gourdon, by Dr. Hamy. The 

 results of M. Piette's explorations, although of some interest, 

 have not contributed very largely to our acquaintance with 

 human fossil bones, owing to the fractured and mutilated con- 

 dition of these finds, which, as is often the case in cave-deposits, 

 were limited to cranial bones, the maxillaries, and one or two of 

 the upper cervical vertebrae. The most perfect of these were 

 found in the middle of the walled cave in debris of reindeer and 

 other animal bones, together with carved reindeer horns, cut 

 flints and stones, and numerous stone hatchets, chisels, scrapers, 

 &c., these remains being similar to objects found in other pre- 

 historic stations in the south of France belonging to the reindeer 

 period in Central Europe. At a more remote part of the cave 

 M. Piette discovered a deposit, containing implements of a 

 more ancient type, intermingled with the bones of the mammoth 

 and bear, as well as of the reindeer. The human lower-jaw, 

 found here at a depth of 15 feet, has the special character of 

 analogous cranial remains derived from the Naulette and Spy 

 caves, and belonging to the most ancient type of primaeval man, 

 whom MM. De Quatrefages and Hamy include under the name 

 of the Canstadt race. — On the gold of ancient Gaul, by M. 

 Cartailhac. The writer gives a detailed account, with numerous 

 illustrations, of the various gold ornaments found in France, and 

 shows how numerous are the instances in which large and splen- 

 did treasures of older art have been irreparably lost in con- 

 sequence of the finders having consigned them to the melting-pot 

 of the local goldsmith, a practice which can only be stopped 

 by an alteration in the state of the law regarding treasure- 

 trove. The extreme beauty of some of the bracelets, neck- 

 lets, &c., and the unique character of their ornamentation, 

 are unsurpassed by other objects of the same kind found in 

 different parts of Europe. — Notes on the colour of the eyes and 

 hair in Norway, by Drs. Abbo and Faye, with tables and 

 annotations, by M. Topinard. From these reports it appears 

 that the population of Norway exhibits a higher percentage 

 (97 '25) of light eyes than any other country in Europe. Flaxen 

 hair occurs in 57-5 per cent, of the people of the northern 

 provinces, and while absolutely black hair is found only in the 

 ratio of 2 per cent., red hair does not rise higher than I '5 per 

 cent, in the scale of hair-coloration. — Kashgaria, by Dr. Seeland. 

 In this notice the writer records the incidents of his journey from 

 Kashgar to Ak-Sou, over a distance of more than 350 miles 

 along the sandy ill-kept track that constitut«s the principal 

 military Chinese post road. The narrative lacks the interest of 

 the previous numbers already referred to in this journal. — On 

 the cephalic index of the Provencal population, by M. Fallot, 

 with tables referring to the several departments, which give the 

 varying maxima and minima in accordance with special cranial 



