Additions to Already Edited enūma anu enlil (EAE) Tablets, Part IV: The Lunar Eclipse Omens from Tablets 15-19 Published by Rochberg-Halton in AfO Beih 22 (original) (raw)
2017
The most spectacular celestial event to be observed during the night is the lunar eclipse. Slowly, a dark shadow slides over the full moon, and the nightly source for light gradually ceases. When the moon is completely covered, no more moonlight lightens the night. The moon god has disappeared. All of a sudden, the shadow moves on and eventually leaves the moon uncovered and shining as usual. Because of the impression a lunar eclipse made on people, distinct rituals were performed to make the moon reappear so that the world order would be re-established (e.g. BRM 4, 6, see BRM 4 pp. 12-17). In order to be prepared well ahead for such events, lunar eclipses have also been the subject of predictions in various other divination methods from the Old Babylonian period onwards (Khait 2014, 79-82). And since lunar eclipses can generally be watched twice or thrice during a lifetime, people and especially astronomers began to observe the exact movement of the shadow progressing over the moon's disk as well as the time the eclipse begins and ends. Naturally, just as with every other celestial event, lunar eclipses were considered ominous signs and individual occurrences were connected with specific predictions. Because of the frequency of lunar eclipses omens referred to them are found on the earliest omen texts from the Old Babylonian period (Rochberg 2006; Fincke 2016, 114-115). The omen series enūma ānu enlil (EAE) devoted eight tablets, EAE 15-22, to lunar eclipses. Francesca Rochberg-Halton edited these tablets in 1988. On the basis of this edition more fragments can be identified in the various collections of cuneiform tablets. In this article, more duplicates of EAE lunar eclipse tablets from both the Koujunjik collection and the so-called collection of Babylonian Tablet from the British Museum for the tablets EAE 15-19 will be presented
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KASKAL 16, 95-132, 2019
Each of the five lunar eclipse tablets of the omen series enūma anu enlil (EAE) describes a specific lunar eclipse and interprets it for each of the twelve months.1 Both EAE 21 and 22 part I describe possible lunar eclipses for days 14, 15, 16, 20 and 21 of each month (I-XII), neglecting the intercalary month (XIIa). Since the beginning of the month is defined as the first visibility of the moon sickle after a new moon, a lunar eclipse can occur on days 14, 15 and 16. A lunar eclipse on days 20 or 21, when the third quarter of the moon phase begins, implies that the world order is in chaos, indicating chaos also on earth. The Babylonian Almanac (Livingstone 2013, 5-82) is a tool for identifying the right day for certain activities, but it also gives hints at selected phenomena in the sky that may be observed on that day. Surprisingly, a lunar eclipse is predicted for day 20 of the month tašrītu (VII) in the Middle Babylonian version from Dūr-Kurigalzu as well as in the early Neo-Assyrian one from Kalḫu, while the other copies predict a solar eclipse on that day (Livingstone 2013, 45). Although the understanding of lunar eclipses occurring on days 20 and 21 might go back to a mythological understanding of the lunar phases in the second millennium BCE or to a different calendar, these dates are purely hypothetical in the first millennium BCE. Since a lunar eclipse generally points to a disturbance in the sky and is therefore a potential negative ominous sign, the prediction for lunar eclipses on days 20 and 21 are not specifically more negative than the others. The EAE lunar eclipse tablets have been edited in detail by Francesca Rochberg-Halton in 1988. Based on her text edition, more fragments from Nineveh were identified and listed by Erica Reiner 1998. When examining the collections of tablets of the British Museum from the first millennium, I was able to add a few joins to the sources from Nineveh used by Rochberg-Halton and to identify more fragments among the tablets from Babylonia. The new material for EAE tablets 21 (1.a.–c.) and 22 (2.a. and b.) will be presented here. I shall use the reconstructed text from Rochberg-Halton’s edition as a base into which I incorporate the text of the new texts, with the scores showing only the transliteration of the new texts.
The Solar Eclipse Omen Texts from enūma anu enlil
2013
This article reconsiders the different numbering systems attested for the series of celestial and meteorological omens called enūma anu enlil (EAE) and suggests possible reasons for these differences. The section of this series with the most divergent tablet numbers concerns the solar eclipse omens. An overview on the structure of this section, which generally covers five tablets, is given. In addition evidence is given for correcting the reading of the incipit of the fifth EAE solar eclipse tablet, which has been previously wrongly reconstructed. The solar eclipse section of EAE tablets can then be seen as the basis for distinguishing five different recensions of the series. Three of them are explicitly said to come from Babylon, and they all exhibit a different numbering of the tablets concerned.
KASKAL 14, 55-74, 2017
EAE 20, edited by Rochberg-Halton 1988: 174-229, is the tablet with the most detailed description of lunar eclipse omens of the series and unlike other omen tablets it is thoroughly recorded in two Recensions. The omens most probably drew on sources from the second millennium BCE with only minor revision, since it comprises some peculiarities that are not common in the first millennium BCE. First, it has the intercalary month nisannu (I.a) instead of the intercalary addaru (XII.a). Second, it has the term šurinnu that refers to the appearance of the moon during both one of his phases and his eclipse (see 4. Excursus: The šurinnu (ŠU.NIR) of the moon). The explanations for šurinnu provided by a Late Babylonian commentary from Uruk for the phenomenon that Venus entered “in his šurinnu” inside the moon (horn; the black in the middle of the moon; the ominous radiation of the eclipse) are too vague to define its exact meaning. Since šurinnu is also used as general term for a divine emblem, it most likely refers to a distinctively observable characteristic for the moon, which would be his crescent. The three terms for phases of the waxing moon (crescent, kidney and crown of glory) have no parallel for the waning one. Therefore šurinnu more likely refers to the waning moon, and most likely to the last phase of the cycle, shortly before the moon disappears and before new moon appears, or shortly before the eclipse was completed. The completion of the cycle of lunar phases or the progress of eclipsing might even have symbolised the time when the moon was most powerful as an ominous sign (see the commentary: ominous radiation of the eclipse). In this article three new fragments of EAE 20 are published, two from Nineveh and one from Late Babylonian Babylonia.
The mystery of ancient eclipses
2023
”The calculated location of the ancient solar eclipses could have an error of up to about 10 kilometers.” This statement by the U.S. Space Administration NASA is a scientific outstretching of how ancient eclipses can be found. When numerous eclipses observed in ancient times are applied to that measure set by science, they reveal a very significant secret of ancient history. Another significant factor is the lunar eclipses of the ancient Ur III dynasty. Can they be found? And what does everything have to be considered in order to find them? Why haven’t scientists discovered the double eclipse of Babylon? ISBN: 978-952-65255-5-6 https://www.bod.fi/kirjakauppa/the-mystery-of-ancient-eclipses-pekka-mansikka-9789526525556 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Pekka-Mansikka/dp/9526525558 https://www.amazon.es/Mystery-Ancient-eclipses-Pekka-Mansikka/dp/9526525558 PDF-book: 978-952-65255-2-5 III edition Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=48u\_EAAAQBAJ 400 pages 37 chapters Blog of the Mystery of Ancient eclipses: https://pekkamansikka.blogspot.com/
On the Available Lunar and Solar Eclipses and Babylonian Chronology
2006
The recently shown two premises (Gurzadyan 2000), i.e. the absence of 56/64 year Venus cycle constraints, at the importance of the 8-year cycle in the Venus Tablet, stimulated new studies on the Chronology of the Ancient Near East (2nd millennium BC). The analysis by B.Banjevic using both premises, however, did not provide anchors of strenght similar to those of Ur III eclipses, while available solar eclipses lack unambiguous links to historical events. The Ultra-Low chronology (Gasche et al 1998), therefore, has to be considered as currently the one most reliably based on ancient astronomical records.
The influence of the heterogeneity of the Moon on its secular acceleration and on the paths of eclipses in Antiquity , 2023
Abstract Ever since space probes circled the Moon and photographed its hidden side, we have known that it is very different from its visible side. Geophysicists now believe that this is because the lunar crust on the far side is on average twice as thick as on the visible side. Scientists believe that this could explain the predominance of smooth volcanic surfaces (lunar maria) on its visible side and the reason for the eccentricity of its centre of mass. At first glance, it's not easy to understand why the Moon's heterogeneity had an influence on the paths of ancient solar or lunar eclipses. It even took me several years to discover that the Moon was ... moody! To simplify things, let's start by saying that this is partly due to the resynchronisation of the period of the Moon's rotation in relation to its period of revolution, following its secular acceleration caused by the loss of energy due to the lunar 'tides'. In this document, I explain in more detail how, towards the end of the fifth century BC, I think the Moon changed its secular acceleration, which led historians to a dead end. It was by studying the 'anomalies' concerning the eclipses of the Pharaonic civilisation that, little by little, I came to find the decoding key that would enable them to be detected. This key is the ability to convert Pharaonic dates into Julian dates, to the exact day. To do this, I had to delve into the subtleties of the Pharaonic calendars and the Sothic cycle. In this document, it is the sixteen Babylonian lunar eclipses of the era of Nabonassar, as well as the seven "heliacal rising of the star Sirius" that will serve as a guiding thread to explain how I came to understand that the expression "to see the darkness during the day..." was not the evocation of the real or spiritual blindness of the writer, but the description of a total solar eclipse. By taking account of this change in the Moon's secular acceleration, it is possible, among other things, to find the exact dates of solar eclipses that were poorly dated or not detected. Of all the eclipses I have analysed, the list below shows the most emblematic (all dates are BC, the official dates are given in brackets): - Pharaonic civilisation: • Total solar eclipse of the II Shemu.27 in year 9 of pharaoh Akhenaten: Jun 2, 1348 - (undetected) • Partial solar eclipse of III Akhet.10 in year 3 of pharaoh Ankhkheprure: Oct 7, 1327 - (undetected) - Chinese civilisation: • Solar eclipse during the reign of Emperor Chong-Kang: Oct 11, 2155 - (undetected) • Solar eclipse cited by Confucius: Apr 04, 778 - (776) - Hittite civilisation: • Solar eclipse of the destruction of Babylon by King Mursili I: Jul 20, 1602 - (1595) • Solar eclipse of the year 10 of the Hittite king Mursili II: Apr 02, 1326 - (Jun 24, 1312) - Greek civilisation: • Solar eclipse in Troy during the death of Patroclus: Jun 06, 1172 - (Jun 6, 1218) • Solar eclipse in Ithaca during the massacre of the suitors by Ulysses: Nov 11, 1162 - (Oct 30, 1207) • Solar eclipse in Sparta during a sacrifice by Cleombrote: Oct 02, 480 - (undetected) - Assyrian civilisation: • Solar eclipse of the year 10 of Assur dân III (archived by Bûr-Saggilê): Jun 24, 791 - (Jun 15, 763) - Anatolian civilisation : • Solar eclipse of the battle between the Lydians and the Medes: Dec 14, 587 - (May 28, 585) This list represents only a tiny fraction of the eclipses that more or less influenced or disrupted ancient civilisations.
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