NATURE 



489 



THE ASTRONOMY OF THE BABYLONIANS 



THE astronomical science of the ancient Babylonians 

 and their pupils, the Assyrians, was neither so 

 profound nor so contemptible as has often been main- 

 tained. Now that we are able to read the native 

 records written in the cuneiform or wedge-shaped cha- 

 racter, we find that the progress made at a very early 

 period in mapping out the sky, in compiling a calendar, 

 and above all in observing the phenomena of the heavens, 

 was really wonderful, considering the scanty means they 

 possessed of effecting it. Certainly their astronomy was 

 mixed up with all kinds of astrological absurdities, but 

 this did not prevent them from being persistent and keen 

 observers, whose energy in the cause of knowledge is not 

 undeserving of imitation even in the present day. 



The originators of astronomy in Chaldea, as indeed of 

 all other science, art, and culture there, were not the 

 Semitic Babylonians, but a people who are now generally 

 termed Accadians, and who spoke an agglutinative lan- 

 guage. They had come from the mountains of Elam or 

 Susiana, on the east, bringing with them the rudiments 

 of writing and civilisation. They found a cognate race 

 already settled in Chaldea, and in conjunction with the 

 latter^they built'the great.cities of Babylonia, whose ruins 

 still attest their power and antiquity. Somewhere be- 

 tween 3000 and 4000 B.C. the Semites entered the 

 country from the east, and gi-adually contrived to con- 

 quer the whole of it. It is probable the conquest was 

 completed about 2000 B.C. At all events, Accadian be- 

 came a dead language two or three centuries later, but 

 as the Semitic invaders owed almost all the civilisation 

 they possessed to their more polished predecessors, it 

 remained the language of literature, like Latin in the 

 Middle Ages, down to the last days of the] Assyrian 

 Empire. 



Astronomy was^includcd in the branches of science bor- 

 rowed by the Semitic Babylonians from the Accadians. 

 Consequently their astronomical records contain many 

 words which belong to the old language, while most of the 

 stars bear Accadian and not Semitic names. Even where 

 the Assyro-Babylonians had a technical term of their own^ 

 like kasritu, "conjunction," they continued to write the old 

 Accadian word ribatma, of which kastiiu was a transla- 

 tion, though they ^rohzhXy pronounced it /casriiu, just as 

 we pronounce viz. " namely." 



The oldest Chaldean astronomical records of which we 

 know are contained in a great work called " The Observa- 

 tions of Bel," in 70 books, compiled for a certain Kinj 

 Sargon of Agand, in Babylonia, before 1700 B.C., and of 

 which we possess later copies or editions, made for the 

 Library of Sardanapalus at Nineveh. The catalogue of 

 this work shows that a great part of it was purely astro- 

 logical ; other books, however, were more scientific. Tiius 

 there was one on the conjunction of the sun and moon, 

 another on comets, or, as they are called, " stars with a 

 corona in front and a tail behind," a third on the move- 

 ments of Mars, a fourth on the movements of Venus, and 

 a fifth on the Pole-star.* The catalogue concludes with a 



* That is, (t Draconis. 



Vol. xn.— No, 310 



curious intimation to the student, who is told to write down 

 the number of the tablet or book he wishes to consult, 

 and the librarian will thereupon hand it to him. The 

 larger portion of the work itself has been recovered, 

 though some of the tablets belonging to it still lie under 

 the soil of Kouyunjik, and a good part of the details 

 which follow is extracted from this primitive Babylonian 

 treatise. 



The Accadians seem to have begun their astronomical 

 observations before they left Elam, since the meridian 

 was placed in that country, while the old mythology made 

 "the mountain of the East" the pivot on which the sky 

 rested. This will account for the large number of eclipses 

 recorded in the " Observations of Bel," which imply a 

 corresponding antiquity for the commencement of such 

 records. These records were carefully kept, as there 

 were State Observatories in most of the Babylonian and 

 Assyrian towns— at Ur, Agane, Nineveh, and Arbela, for 

 instance — and (at all events in later times) the astro- 

 nomers royal had to send fortnightly reports to the King. 



It is to the Accadians that we owe both the signs of 

 the Zodiac and the days of the week. The heaven was 

 divided into four parts, and the passage of the'sun through 

 these marked the four seasons of the year. A tablet 

 brought home by Mr. Smith informs us that the spring 

 quarter lasted from the ist of the month Adar to the 

 30th of the month lyyar (that is, from the ist degree of 

 Pisces to the 30th degree of Taurus), the summer quarter 

 from the ist of Sivan to the 30th of Ab (the ist degree of 

 Gemini to the 30th of Leo), the autumn quarter from the 

 1st of Ebal to the 30th of Marchcsvan (the ist degree of 

 Virgo to the 30th of Scorpio), and the winter quarter from 

 the 1st of Chisleu to the 30th of Sebat (the ist degree of 

 Sagittarius to the 30th of Aquarius). The fact that the 

 spring quarter^did not commence with the beginning of 

 the year in Nisan or March, shows that the scheme 

 was subsequent to the formation of the calendar. 



The year was divided into twelve lunar months and 

 360 days, an intercalary month being added whenever a 

 certain star, called " the star of stars," or Icit* which was 

 just in advance of the sun when it crossed the vernal 

 equinox, was not parallel with the moon until the 3rd of 

 Nisan, that is, two days after the equinox. This, how- 

 ever, did not always suffice tokeep the seasons in order, 

 and the calendar had more than once to be rectified by 

 the intercalation of other so-called months, consisting of 

 a few days each. Cycles of twelve solar years were also 

 in use, during which the same weather was expected to 

 recur. The day was divided into twelve casbtimi, or 

 " double hours," each of these being further subdivided 

 into sixty minutes and sixty seconds. The month, too, was 

 cut into two halves of fifteen days, each subdivided into 

 periods of five days, though a week of seven days was 

 also employed from the earliest times. The days of the 

 week were named after the sun, moon, and five planets ; 

 and since the 7th, 14th, igtb, 21st, and 28th of the month 

 were termed " days of rest " on which certain works were 

 forbidden to be done, it is clear that the origin of 

 our modern week must be referred to the ancient Chal- 

 deans. The names of the months were taken from the 

 corresponding signs of the Zodiac, and as the Zodiac 



* Called Dil-gan, or " messengejfof light," in Accadian. It must be identi- 

 fied with T Arietis, and at a later time with a Arietis. 



