Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa
Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa | |
---|---|
Material | Clay |
Size | Length: 17.14 cm (6.75 in) Width: 9.2 cm (3.6 in) Thickness: 2.22 cm (0.87 in) |
Writing | Cuneiform |
Period/culture | Neo-Assyrian |
Place | Kouyunjik (Nineveh) |
Present location | Room 55, British Museum, London |
Registration | K.160 |
The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (
The tablet gives the rise times of
Sources
This Venus tablet is part of Enuma Anu Enlil ("In the days of Anu and Enlil"), a long text dealing with Babylonian astrology, which mostly consists of omens in the form of celestial phenomena.
The earliest copy of this tablet to be published, a 7th-century BC
As many as 20 copies of this text are currently on record, many of them fragmentary, falling into 6 groups.[3] The oldest of these copies is believed to be Source "B", found at Kish in 1924. It was copied from a tablet written at Babylon while Sargon II was King of Assyria between 720 and 704 BC.[4]
Interpretation
Several dates for the original omens, as contained in the tablet, were proposed early in the 20th century. The following dates, corresponding to the High,
The tablet's significance for corroborating Babylonian chronology was first recognised by Franz Xaver Kugler in 1912, when he succeeded in identifying the enigmatic "Year of the Golden Throne" ("Venus" tablet K.160) as potentially the 8th year of the reign of Ammisaduqa, based on one of his year names.[5] Since then, this 7th-century BC copy has been variously interpreted to support
Many uncertainties remain about the interpretation of the record of astronomical positions of Venus, as preserved in these surviving tablets.[7] Some copying corruptions are probable. Problems of atmospheric refraction were addressed by Vahe Gurzadyan in a 2003 publication.[8] The entry for some years, notably 13 and 21 are not physically possible and are considered in error. Also, the tables used to calculate the heliacal rising of Venus assume a rate at which the earth is slowing, a rate which is not certain, causing "clock-time errors".[9]
See also
- Babylonian astronomy
- Chronology of the ancient Near East
- Short chronology
References
- ^ Hobson, Russell (2009). The Exact Transmission of Texts in the First Millennium B.C. (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Sydney.
- ISBN 978-0-226-59441-5.
- ISBN 90-5693-011-7.
- ISBN 90-04-10127-6.
- ^ Franz Xaver Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel - II. Buch: Natur, Mythus und Geschichte als Grundlagen babylonischer Zeitordnung, nebst eingehenden Untersuchungen der älteren Sternkunde und Meteorologie, 2. Teil. Heft 1, Aschendorff, 1912
- ^ [1] Weir, J. D, "The Venus Tablets - a Fresh Approach", Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. 13, pp. 23, 1982
- Bibcode:2003physics..11035G.
We then discuss why the 56/64 year Venus cycle cannot be traced in the Venus Tablet and therefore cannot serve as an anchor for the fixing of chronologies.
- Bibcode:2003physics..11036G.
- ^ John D. Weir, The Pattern of Venus Tablet Solutions, JACF, vol. 7, pp.70-76, 1998
Further reading
- [2] H. Gasche, J. A. Armstrong, S. W. Cole, and V. G. Gurzadyan, Dating the Fall of Babylon: A Reappraisal of Second-Millennium Chronology, Mesopotamian History and Environment Series 2, Memoirs 4, Chicago: The Oriental Institute; Ghent: The University of Ghent, 1998
- V.G.Gurzadyan and D.A.Warburton, Akkadica, vol. 126, p. 195-197, 2005 arXiv:physics/0607137
- V.G.Gurzadyan, Astronomy and the Fall of Babylon, Sky & Telescope, vol. 100, no.1 (July), pp. 40–45, 2000 arXiv:physics/0311114
- [3]Huber, Peter J.; Sachs, Abraham (1982), Astronomical dating of Babylon I and Ur III, Undena Publications, ISBN 978-0-89003-045-5
- [4] Stephen Langdon and John Knight Fotheringham, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga, University Press, 1928
- ISBN 0-89003-010-3. The "fundamental edition", superseding Langdon et al. 1928 (Walker 1984).
- Mitchell, Wayne A., “Ancient Astronomical Observations and Near Eastern Chronology”, Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum, vol. 3, pp. 7–26, 1990
- Walker, C. B. F. (1984), "Notes on the Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa", S2CID 164022588