120 



taiuing'^ when complete, a calendar of the year with various 

 notes appended to each day as to its being lucky or unlucky, 

 or a fast or feast day. I published a resume of this 

 important inscription some years ago in the Academy. I 

 have since made a second copy of the tablet, which 

 I have compared with fragments of other tablets of the same 



class. The calendar of the month Duzu, ^^T S^Tiyj^ ■*"'^|T 

 or Tammuz of the Chaldeo-Aramean calendar, the month in 

 which Babylon was taken, is, fortunately, complete, and we are 

 thus able to obtain the festivals celebrated in it. The month 

 Duzu or Tammuz, corresponding to our June or July, was the 

 midsummer month, and, as such, was called " the month of 

 the benefit of the seed.''' It derived its name from the god 

 Duzu, or Tammuz, the Adonis of the Babylonian and Phoenician 

 pantheon, whose worship was adopted by the idolatrous Jews, 

 as we learn from the prophet Ezekiel : " He brought me to the 

 door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was towards the 

 noi'th ; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz " 

 (Ezek. viii. 14). This worship of Tammuz, whose Babylonian 

 name Duzu or Tamzi means the '' Sun of Life," was a very 

 ftwourite one with the Babylonians, and the festivals were 

 celebrated with great ceremony, the chief of them falling in 

 the month Avhich derived its name from the god. The army 

 of Cyrus, commanded by Gobyras, entered the city " without 

 fighting'' on the 16th of the month Tammuz, or, most 

 probably, on the night of the 15th. We now will examine the 

 calendars so far as they relate to this important month up to 

 the day of the capture of Babylon. 



1- «<'t "e! ^T T ^^ ^ ^TT --!< -+ ^T <T- 



ARKHU DUZU YUM I. KT - IS - TI D. SAM - SI 



Month Tmmnuz \sf day the tree of tlie sun-ijod 



2- [^T] IT c^ :^ ^J 



YUMU II. BI - KI - TUV 

 Ind day of Lamentation 



3- i^W TTT -T<I ^T ET ^£ ^U + tx^) <y^\ 



YUMU III. KHU-BA- BA I - LI NU RA U 



■ET - ^ 



MA TAP - SE 



