The Problem of Decipherment the Babylonian ”Astrolabes” M.G

The problem of decipherment the Babylonian ”astrolabes” M.G. Nickiforov1;2 J.B. Tabov3 1Sternberg Astronomy Institute of the Moscow State University, Universitetskiy pr. 13, 119991, Moscow, Russia 2Moscow State Linguistic University, Ostozhenka st. 38, 119034, Moscow, Russia [email protected] 3 Institute of the Mathematic and Informatics, Acad. G. Bonchev Str. Bl. 8, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria [email protected] (Submitted on 04.02.2019. Accepted on 25.03.2019) Abstract. The present work is devoted to the study of the Babylonian ”astrolabes”, which are believed by historians to be one of the earliest species of the star calendar. This calendar represents a list of stars and constellations, which have heliacal rising in a certain month of the year whereas three rising stars belong to different parts of the sky corresponding to each month; therefore, the ”astrolabes” contain a set of 36 objects. Verification the contents of the ”astrolabes” and matching astronomical phenomena to the logic of designing a star calendar leads to two simple alternatives: 1) ”astrolabes” were not used as a calendar, but were cult texts; and 2) the ”astrolabes” were star calendars, but our identification of the Babylonian constellations has a large number of errors. In this case, it is necessary to question the reliability of identification and other Babylonian astronomical texts related to that time. Key words: Babylonian ”astrolabes”, star calendars, archeoastronomy Introduction The most ancient documents of astronomical origin are the so-called Baby- lonian ”astrolabes”, which appeared in Mesopotamia at the end of the II millennium BC. It should be noted that the term ”astrolabe” is not strictly correct and it is not related to the famous medieval astronomical device. It was introduced by British archaeologists in 1874, who referred to some type of discovered cuneiform texts as ”astrolabes”. Although archaeologists had chosen an unfortunate term from an astronomical point of view, it firmly rooted in the literature, with reference to a certain type of ancient Babylonian texts and is now generally accepted. There are two types of ”astrolabes”, round and rectangular. The most ancient species are round ”astrolabes” in the form of a disk, divided by three nested circles and twelve sectors forming 36 fragments (Van der Waerden, 75-77). Only two fragments of round ”astrolabes” from the library of Ashur- banipal have survived up to our time. The latter types of documents are rectangular ”astrolabes”, which represent tables containing three columns and twelve lines. Among them, the earliest text is ”Berlin’s astrolabe” or ”astrolabe B”, which comes from Ashur and dates back to about 1100 BC. The rows of the table match the calendar months, and the columns the sky regions which are called Ea, Anu and Enlil. According to Bezold’s and Schaumberger’s estimates, the stars located in the sector of about ±17◦ from the celestial equator relate to Anu, above this band are the stars of Enlil (ie, the northern stars), and the stars below the band of Anu relate to the stars of Ea (southern stars). Each column contains 12 stars, which cor- respond to certain Babylonian months. Researchers believe that the objects Bulgarian Astronomical Journal 32, 2020 The problem of decipherment the Babylonian ”astrolabes” 13 mentioned in each column are stars or constellations that have heliacal rise during the corresponding month in three sectors of the sky: Ea, Anu and Enlil. If this is true, the Babylonian ”astrolabes” are star calendars. So-called lists of stars of Elam, Akkad and Amurru, are associated with the ”astrolabes”. Each of these lists contains only one column of stars. Ac- cording to the content and order of enumeration, the lists coincide with the individual columns of the astrolabe stars, and their order exactly corresponds to the order of twelve months. There is a suggestion that these lists of stars are the precursors of ”astrolabes”, and the latter are their im- proved form. Whether this suggestion is true or not, the lists of stars and ”astrolabes” represent a related category of texts, which we shall further consider as one. Fig. 1. Fragment of a Round ”Astrolabe” Fig. 2. Fragment of a Round ”Astrolabe” 14 Nickiforov M., Tabov J. Fig. 3. A reconstruction of a Round ”Astrolabe” In Table 1 the Acadian words are written phonetically and marked in italics; the Sumerian words and ideograms are represented by capital letters in accordance to the Gesman dictionary. If ”astrolabes” are indeed star calendars, then they must reflect the real astronomical situation at the time of their creation. That is, the stars should be correctly distributed across the sky sectors (Ea, Anna and Enlil) and have heliacal rising at the right time. To verify this judgment, we need to identify the contents of the ”astrolabe” and after that, evaluate the possibility of using it as a calendar. Identification of the names of objects mentioned in the astrolabes To identify stars and constellations, we used the fundamental study of G.E. Kurtik [2007], and in some cases, we turned to the Russian translation of Van der Waerden’s book [1991]. This translation was made according to the English edition of 1974 and it reflected in the references of G.E. Kurtik as Waerden [1974]. However, we can assume that the Russian edition contains more detailed information because an object in Russian translation is sometimes identified to the accuracy of a particular star, not a group of stars. Therefore, we shall occasionally refer to this publication. 1. The stars of Ea (Southern stars). 1.1 IKU=mulIkû -”Field”, part of the constellations Pegasus and An- dromeda. Van der Waerden identifies IKU as quadrangle [large square] of Pegasus (α, β, γ) and α Andromeda. The declinations of these stars in the 11th century BC are in the range of −1◦ to +13◦ and refer to the Anu stars, but not Ea. The problem of decipherment the Babylonian ”astrolabes” 15 Month Stars of Ea Stars of Anu Stars of Enlil 1 Nisan IKU DIL.BAT APIN 2 Iyar MUL.MUL SHU.GUI A-nu-ni-tum 3 Sivan SIBA.ZI.AN.NA UR.GU.LA MUSH 4 Tammuz KAK.SI.DI MASH.TAB.BA SHUL.PA.E 5 Ab BAN MASH.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL MAR.GID.DA 6 Elul ka-li-tum UGA SHU.PA 7 Tishrei NIN.MAH zi-ba-ni-tum EN.TE.NA.MASH.LUM 8 Cheshvan UR.IDIM GIR.TAB LULGAL 9 Kislev sal-bat-a-nu UD.KA.DUH.A UZA 10 Tebeth GU.LA al-lu-ut-tum Amushen 11 Shebat NU.MUSH.DA SHIM.MAH DA.MU 12 Adar KUA d Marduk KA.A Table 1. The content of an ”Astrolabe”. 1.2 MUL.MUL - Pleiades. The Pleiades declination on the prospective date of the creation of the ”astrolabes” is δ = +10◦, therefore they cannot be attributed to Ea stars either. 1.3 SIBA.ZI.AN.NA=mulSIPA.ZI.AN.NA - ”The Righteous Shepherd Anu”. Identification: the constellation of Orion [Waerden 1949, 1952-53, Weidner 1957-59, Koch 1989]. The declinations of the stars of the contour of the constellation in the 11th century BC were within the range from −17◦ (Rigel) to +1◦ (Betelgeuse), therefore they belong to the Anu region, not Ea. However, the name ”Righteous shepherd Anu” itself suggests that the constellation should be located in the region of Anu, and not somewhere else. mul 1.4 KAK.SI.DI= KAK.SI.SA2=GAG.SI.SA2=ˇsukudu¯ - ”Arrow”. Iden- tification: Sirius+ε + η CMa, Sirius [Weidner 1957-59], Sirius + Procyon [Papke 1978, Waerden 1984], Sirius + Betelgeuse [Koch 1989]. Thus, there are many identification variants of the stars in the constellation. With a degree of certainty, one can only assert that Sirius was a part of the Mesopotamian constellation of the Arrow. This star is in the Ea region in any historical epoch, if the observer was in Mesopotamia. 1.5 BAN=mul/dBAN=mul(gisˇ)PAN=gasˇtu - ”Bow”, Canis Major stars without Sirius + part of the stars of Puppis [Waerden 1949, Weidner 1957- 59, 1974, Hunger, Pingree 1999. There are no disagreements in this identification. 1.6 Ka-li-tum=mulKal¯itu(m)=mulBIR - constellation or star within Pup- pis, although the identification of the object is ambiguous. Variants: Cano- pus(?) [Weidner 1957-59], γ, δ, κ, λ Vela + ε, ι Pupis [Koch 1989], β An- dromeda [Huger, Pingree 1989]. If we exclude the last option, this object can be identified as a star of Puppis, which automatically corresponds to the area of Ea. 1.7 NIN.MAH=muldNIN.MAH=muldNIN.TU -”The Great Lady” - asterism or a star in the constellation of Vela. All identification variants differ 16 Nickiforov M., Tabov J. only in the size of the asterism: Vela(?) [Weidner 1957-59], γ Vela [Reiner, Pingree 1981], part of the Vela, most of the Vela [Hunger, Pingree 1989]. In any case, this asterism refers to the southern stars. 1.8 UR.IDIM=mul/dUR.IDIM - ”The Mad Dog”. Identification is not straightforward. Variants of identification: Head of the Serpens [Waerden, 1949], Serpens or Head of the Serpens [Waerden, 1974], Serpens [Weidner, 1957-59], Lupus [Weidner, 1957-59], Lupus + ζ Scorpius. The Russian edition of Van der Waerden’s book identifies it as the δ Serpens. In the case of identification of UR.IDUM with part of Serpens, it leads to the fact that the asterism belongs to the northern stars, and in case of its identification as a part of the constellation Lupus, to the south. 1.9 Sal-bat-a-nu=mul/dSalbata¯nu is unambiguously the planet Mars. 1.10 GU.LA=mulGU.LA=rabuˆ -”The Great Giant” - part or the entire constellation of Aquarius, [Waerden 1949, 1952-3, 1974, Weidner 1957-59, Reiner, Pingree 1981, Hunger, Pingree 1999].

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