230 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct., 1904. 



months of the year. With Capella, as the star of the 

 first month, the year would commence, on the average, 

 with the spring equinox about 2000 B.C. ; if Castor 

 aiul I'olhix were originally used for the first month ot 

 the year then the corresponding date would be 

 4000 B.C. 



Now we can see the significance of this threclold 

 symbol, so often seen on votive slabs and boundary 

 stones — the moon " on its back " together with two 

 stars. It is simply a picture of the sunset sky of the 

 first evening of the first month of the year, some 6,000 

 years ago. The crescent is shown on her back, be- 



Fig. (I.— Boundary •stone. No. 90,840, in the British Museum. 

 Date, about I loo B.C. 



{From a I'holoijrapk hij Mv/isrg. W. A. MunselL) 



cause then, on the first e\ening of the month nearest 

 the spring e(|uin(i\, she is more nearly in that attitude 

 than at any other time throughout the year. 



I would suggest th.it these three figures, the simple 

 representation of wh.it .ill the primiti\e observers saw 

 year after year through many centuries in the evening 

 sky at the beginning of the first month, were handed 

 down througii long ti;idili(in .is emphatically the 

 symbols of the year ; but th.il in pidccss of time a cer- 

 tain change took place in the precise significance 

 attached to them. At some time between 40G0 B.C. 

 and 2000 B.C., men must h;ive recognised that the be- 

 ginning of the year was falling too "late. The obvious 



remedy would be to shift that beginning by a single 

 month, where Capella would be ready precisely in the 

 right position to act as index star. Whilst Capella was 

 fulfilling this oflice it is probable that a separation was 

 made in the three symtaols. The crescent " on its 

 back " would be still the appropriate sign for the first 

 month of the year, but Castor and Pollux would now 

 indicate the second. When the months were assigned 

 to various deities the moon-god inevitably presided 

 over the month of which the sign was the crescent ; 

 and the deities of the two great lights, Tammuz and 

 Istar, would as naturally be associated with the pair of 

 stars. Later still, Istar mav ha\e been identified rather 



102 



IL 



90835 

 BOUNDARY STONE. 

 INSCRISED WITH A SERIES OP TEXTS 

 REFERRING TO THE OWNERSHIP OF 

 A CERTAIN ESTATE DURING THE REIGNS 

 OF NABO UKiN'APUl andNINIB KUDURUSUR, 

 KINGS or BABYLON. APOu-r B.C. lOOO. ; 



Fig. 7.— Boundary-stone in the British Museum. 



(From a Photograph by Messrs. »'. A. MamcU.) 



with the planet Venus than with the moon, since the 

 latter was already symbolised in the first month, so 

 that -Signor .Schiaparelli's explanation of the three signs 

 may hold quite good for latter times. That it did not 

 hold go(xi in earlier times we may infer from the well- 

 known triumph.-il stele of Naram .Sin, in which the 

 twin stars are shown exactly similar in design, which 

 could hartlly lia\e been the case if at that time they 

 represented objects so dissimilar as the sun and the 

 planet X'enus. 



[The photograplis of boundary stones from the Louvre pnd the 

 British Museum are reproduced by tlie kind permission of 

 Messrs W, .\. Mansell, of 405, Oxford Street, by whom they 

 were taken] . 



