BM 76829: A small astronomical fragment with important implications for the Late Babylonian Astronomy and the Astronomic
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BM 76829: A small astronomical fragment with important implications for the Late Babylonian Astronomy and the Astronomical Book of Enoch Jeanette C. Fincke1
· Wayne Horowitz2 · Eshbal Ratzon3
Received: 3 October 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
Abstract BM 76829, a fragment from the mid-section of a small tablet from Sippar in Late Babylonian script, preserves what remains of two new unparalleled pieces from the cuneiform astronomical repertoire relating to the zodiac. The text on the obverse assigns numerical values to sectors assigned to zodiacal signs, while the text on the reverse seems to relate zodiacal signs with specific days or intervals of days. The system used on the obverse also presents a new way of representing the concept of numerical ‘zero’ in cuneiform, and for the first time in cuneiform, a system for dividing the horizon into six arcs in the east and six arcs in the west akin to that used in the Astronomical Book of Enoch. Both the obverse and the reverse may describe the periodical courses of the sun and moon, in a similar way to what is found in astronomical texts from Qumran, thus adding to our knowledge of the scientific relationship between the two cultures.
Communicated by Alexander Jones.
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Jeanette C. Fincke [email protected] Wayne Horowitz [email protected] Eshbal Ratzon [email protected]
1
Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
2
Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel
3
Ariel University, Kiryat Hamada, Ariel, Israel
123
J. C. Fincke et al.
Abbreviations ACT A.H.
See Neugebauer (1955) Tell Abû H.abbah, modern name of ancient Sippar; abbreviation for the tablets found at Sippar in the British Museum registration books BM Museum number of the British Museum, London BRM IV A. T. Clay, Epics, Hymns, Omens and Other Texts, Babylonian Records in the Library of J. Piermont Morgan, Part 4. Yale University Press, New Haven 1923 LBAT Th. G. Pinches and J. N. Strassmaier, Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts. Brown University Studies 18, Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University Press TU F. Thureau-Dangin, Tablettes d’Uruk à l’usage des prêtres du Temple d’Anu au temps des Séleucides. Musée du Louvre: Textes cuneiforms tome VI (TCL VI), Paris: Paul Geuthner
1 Introduction BM 76829 (A.H. 83-1-18, 2201)1 is a fragment from the middle part of a small, on both sides very curved tablet from Sippar in Late Babylonian cursive script, that now preserves just part of its right edge. Our study of BM 76829 began as part of the search by J. C. Fincke (JCF) and W. Horowitz (WH) for new exemplars of “The Great Star List.”2 We quickly realized that the fragment did not belong to this compendium, but were puzzled by its content, which found no clear parallels in the Babylonian corpus of astronomical text that were known to us. After completing a preliminary edition of the tablet, JCF and WH decided to present the tablet to our informal ancient mathematical-astro
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