A 3405: An Unusual Astronomical Text from Uruk

Author(s): John M. Steele

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Vol. 55, No. 2 (December 2000), pp. 103-135
Published by: Springer
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 Arch.Hist.ExactSci. 55 (2000) 103-135.© Springer-
Verlag2000

A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical
Text
fromUruk
JohnM. Steele
Communicatedby A. JONES

Introduction

The Tablet Collection of the Oriental Instituteof the Universityof Chicago con-
tainsseveralastronomicaltextsamong theseriesbearingregistration numbersA 3400ff.
These tablets,all boughtfromdealers,apparentlycome fromUruk.1The majorityof the
textscontainmathematicalastronomyand have been published by Otto Neugebauer in
his AstronomicalCuneiformTexts(Lund Humphries,London, 1955). One (A 3456) is
a collectionof observationsof Mercuryand the dates of solstices,equinoxes and Sinus
phenomenaforthe years SE 116 to 132.2 A 3405, the textdiscussed here, contains a
collectionof thedates and longitudesof planetaryphenomenaand lunareclipses forthe
period SE 60 to 70.
In answer to a query by Neugebauer,A 3405 was identifiedby J. Schaumbergeras
containingplanetaryobservationsfromthe same period as those cited by Ptolemy in
his Almagest.Workingfroma photograph,Neugebauer and Abraham Sachs studied A
3405, and in his 1948 classificationarticleSachs describedit as follows:

[A 3405] coversastronomical phenomena fortheyears60-70 SE, thoughitseemslikely

fromwhatcan be readofthecolophonthatthetextwas written about50 yearslater.The
sectionsare arranged by year,subsectionsmonthby month.Withinthisframework, on
therelevantdaysofthemonth, entries:a. The Planetary
thereappearthefollowing Phe-
nomena[i.e.,thecharacteristicGreekLetterphenomena]... but- in contrast to similar
informationinall fourofthemaincategoriesofnon-tabular texts[i.e.,Diaries,Almancs,
NormalStarAlmanacs,and Goal YearTexts]... - theyare accompaniedby themen-
tionof theexactdegreewithinthezodiacal sign.b. Lunareclipseswithindicationsof
themoment ofopposition,thelongitude,theeclipsemagnitude, andthetypeofnode.In
mentioning thetypeofnodeandingivingtheexactdegreewithin thezodiacalsignforthe
longitude,theeclipseitemsdeviatefromthosefoundinthefourmaintypesofnon-tabular
astronomical documents. No otherinformation whatsoeveris given.The logogramsfor

1 Thisis certainfor
manyofthesetexts(includingA 3405) on accountofthecolophon.See
O. Neugebauer,Astronomical Cuneiform Texts(LundHumphries, London,1955),4.
2 H.
Hunger,"A 3456: eine Sammlungvon Merkurbeobachtungen", in E. Leichty,M. De
JongEllis and P. Gerardi(eds.), A Scientific
Humanist:Studiesin MemoryofAbrahamSachs
(UniversityMuseum,Philadelphia, 1988),201-223.
104 J.M.Steele

forms
aregivenintheabbreviated
andJupiter
Mercury GLUandBABBAR,whichare
otherwise rare.3
exceedingly
Nothingfurther was written aboutthetextbar a briefcommentby Neugebauerin
1951 thatit "provedexceedinglyinteresting in manyrespects".4It was cataloguedby
Sachs in hisLate BabylonianAstronomical and RelatedTexts(BrownUniversity Press,
Providence,1955) as number*1479. In theirbook AstralSciences in Mesopotamia
(Brill,Leiden,1999),p. 178,HermannHungerand David Pingreesummarise Sachs's
of A
description 3405, and remark, although without detailingtheirreasons, that"itis
highlylikely that thelongitudes were computedby meansof A
ACT-typesystems". full
editionofA 3405 hasnowbeenpreparedbyHermann Hungerforpublication involume
5 ofA. J.SachsandH. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries andRelatedTexts fromBabylonia
(Österreichische AkademiederWissenschaften, Wien).Whatfollowsis baseduponhis
transliterationof thetext,generously made availableto me in advanceof publication.
Any errors
of interpretation are, course,myown.
etc. of
As Neugebauerremarked, A 3405 is indeed"exceedingly Its contents
interesting".
areunique:no othertextcontainsa mixedcollectionofdatafortheplanetswithdegrees
of longitudegivenforthephenomena.In theACT ephemerides, planetarylongitudes
areneverroundedtothenearestdegree,whilsttheNMATtextssuchas theDiariesnever
givedegreeswithinzodiacal signs.Furthermore, datafromdifferent planetsare never
combinedin theACT ephemerides.
A 3405 is made additionally interestingby itscolophon.This revealsthatthetext
was written morethan50 yearsafteritscontents, unusualinitself,andthatitwas owned
by Anu-bël-sunu, son of Nidinti-Ani, who is well knownfromtheACT materialand
fromhishoroscope.
I offerbelowan astronomical interpretationofthedatarecordedon A 3405. In do-
ing so, however, I must acknowledge thatseveral (perhapsunsurmountable) problems
remain,in particular withthedatesof theMercuryphenomenaand thelunareclipse
data.In thefinalsectionofthispaperI discusstheimportance ofthistextin thebroader
contextof Mesopotamianastronomy and astrologyof theSeleucidperiod,and offer
somesuggestions forwhyitwas compiled.

The text

WhencompleteA 3405 contained4 columnson each of theobverseand reverse.

ColumnsIV (obverse)and V (reverse)arenowdestroyed, andlittleremainsofcolumn
III (obverse).Withineachcolumn,eachlineis devotedtoa singleastronomical
phenom-
enon,withtheexceptionoftheeclipsedatawhicharespreadover2 lines.Thebeginning
ofeach yearis separatedfromthelastbya horizontal ruling,andthenewyearnumber
beginsthenextentry. Whena newmonthstarts, themonthnameis givenbeforetheday

3 A. Sachs,"A Classification TabletsoftheSeleucidPeriod",

oftheBabylonianAstronomical
JournalofCuneiform Studies2 (1948), 271-290.
4 O. of theLast Visibilitiesof
Neugebauer,'The BabylonianMethodfortheComputation
Mercury",ProceedingsoftheAmericanPhilosophicalSociety95 (1951), 110-1 16, esp. 111.
 A 3405:AnUnusual
Astronomical
Textfrom
Uruk 105

number; thedaynumberwas consideredsufficient.

otherwise Monthnamesfollowthe
usualUrukconventionswithMonthXII2 written DIRI ratherthantheBabylonnorm
DIR-ŠE.
data compriseslunareclipsepossibilitiesand theusual "Greek
The astronomical
Letter"phenomenafortheplanets.5Fortheinnerplanetsthatis:
V: first in theeast(KUR . . . IGI)
visibility
in theeast(KUR . . . ŠÚ)
E: lastvisibility
3: first
visibilityin thewest(SÚ . . . IGI)
in thewest(ŠÚ . . . ŠÚ)
Œ: lastvisibility
andfortheouterplanets:
T: first in theeast(. . . IGI)
visibility
O: stationarypointin theeast(. . . US)
0: acronychal rising(. . . ana ME a)
ty:stationarypointin thewest(. . . US)
in thewest(. . . ŠÚ)
Q: lastvisibility
where". . ." is thelongitudeof thephenomena.In additionto beinghighlyabbreviat-
ed,6thereis somedifference betweentheterminology used forthesephenomenaand
theusualBabylonconventions. In particular,
thelogogramKUR is usedforeast/morn-
ing,whereastextsfromBabylonusuallyhaveNIM. Longitudesaregiventothedegree
within thezodiacalsigns.The logogramsusedforthesignsaretheusualonesforUruk
(eg., LU forAries,GÍR-TAB forScorpio,zib forPisces). The namesof theplanets
and
Mercury Jupiter areabbreviated to GU4 andBABBAR respectively (insteadofthe
normalGU4-UD andMÚL-BABBAR).7
A schematic translation inTable1. Notethathorizontal
ofA 3405 is presented align-
mentis notpreserved in thistranslation. textualdetails,see thefulledition
Forfurther
in Sachs-Hunger. Severalscribalerrorsare evidentin thetext.I have markedlikely
corrections to thetextin themargin.Mostofthesearetheadditionor subtraction ofan
extrasignfor10.The reasonsfortheseproposedcorrections aregiveninthediscussion
below.In thisdiscussion,I havehighlighted thosenumbers I correctbyunderlining the
(uncorrected) number in thetext.

Astronomicalcommentary

datarecordedon A 3405,namelythedatesandlongitudes
The astronomical ofthe
GreekLetterphenomenaoftheplanetsandseverallunareclipsepossibilities,
musthave

5 I followherethetraditional
definitions of theplanetaryphenomena.In thelightof P. J.
Huber,Astronomical DatingofBabylonI and UrIII (UndenaPublications, Malibu,1982) E and
Q shouldprobablybe definedas first disappearance rather
thanlastvisibility.
6
Throughtheomissionofthepreposition ina. We wouldnormally expect,eg.,ina ŠÚ ina
. . . ŠÚ.
7 Thisabbreviated
nameforMercury is also foundin A 3456.
106 J.M.Steele
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 TextfromUruk
A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical 107

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108 J.M.Steele

come fromone of threesources:(i) observation, (ii) non-mathematical

astronomical
textssuchas Almanacsor NormalStarAlmanacs,or (iii) mathematical astronomical
textssuchas theACT ephemerides.
Severalconsiderationscountagainstoption(i). Whencompletethetextcontained
a completerunofplanetary phenomenaoveran elevenyearperiod,withno indication
of bad weatherpreventing observationof any of theevents.Furthermore, theobser-
vationsrecordedin theAstronomical Diaries and theplanetarycompilations at most
onlygive thelocationof thecelestialbodyat thetimeof theobservation to thesign
of thezodiac in whichit occurred,occasionallywitha statement thatit was "at the
beginning" (SAG) or "at theend"(TIL) ofthatsign.Neveris thepositionoftheplanet
givento thedegreewithina sign,as in A 3405. In anycase, it is quitepossiblethat
thezodiacal signsin whichtheplanetary phenomenaare said to have occurredwere
notobservedbutcalculated.8The onlypreciseobservations ofthepositionsoftheplan-
ets in theDiariesare givenwithrespectto theNormalStarsand,althoughHuberhas
shownthattheBabylonianzodiac was siderealandrelatedtotheseNormalStars,9only
infrequentlyareNormalStarobservations reported on thesamenightsas theplanetary
phenomena.
We havea smallnumberof occasionswhenthereis overlapbetweenA 3405 and a
preserved Diaryfragment:

Diary A 3405

SE 60,VII, 11: MercuryS omitted SE 60,VII,9: Mercury S atSeo 8 omitted

SE 60,VII,-26: Mercury Q omitted
SE 60,VII,27?:MarsV inLib
Q atbeginning
SE 60,Vili,6: Saturn ofSag
SE 60,VIII,13:Mercury S inSco
SE 60,Vili,17:Jupiter$ inLeo
vl>inLeo
SE 60,XII,21: Jupiter
SE 62,IV,-29: Saturnd>
SE 60,VII,26: Mercury Q atSeo 21
SE 60,Vili,7 MarsF atSeo 7
SE 60,VIII,9: SaturnQ atSag5
SE 60,VII, 12:Mercury E atSeo 14
SE 60,Vili,29:Jupiter<DatLeo 17
SE 60,XII,27?:Jupitervj/
atLeo 8
SE 62,IV,29: Saturn<PatSag 19

Clearlythereis verylittleagreementbetweentheobservations in theDiariesand

thedata on A 3405. Indeed,thereare discrepanciesof up to 12 days in thedate of
thephenomena, whichimmediately suggeststhatthedataon A 3405 cannothavebeen
observed.Even thoughA 3405 comes fromUrukand theDiariesfromBabylon,we
wouldnotexpectobserverslocatedat thesetwocitiesto be in suchdisagreement. We
haveanotherUruktext(A 3456) whichcontainsobservations of Mercuryphenomena
forSE 116 to 132.10Here thereare onlydiscrepanciesof a couple of days withob-

8 See A. Sachs,"Classification",
289 fortheargument behindthisstatement.
9 P. J.Huber,"Ueberden der Ekliptik",Centaurus5 (1958), 192-
Nullpunkt babylonischen
208. See also thefragmentarystarcataloguepublishedby A. Sachs, "A Late BabylonianStar
Catalogue",Journalof Cuneiform Studies6 (1952), 146-150 whichgivesthelongitudes within
zodiacalsignsofseveralNormalStars.
10 H.
Hunger,"A 3456".
 A 3405:AnUnusual
Astronomical
Textfrom
Uruk 109

servations in theBabylonianDiaries,whichis whatwe wouldexpectfromobservers

locatedinthesetwocities.Thus,itseemshighlylikelythatthedataon A 3405 werenot
observed.
Option(ii) also seemsan unlikely sourcefortheastronomical dataon A 3405. Both
NormalStarAlmanacsandAlmanacscontainthedatesandzodiacalsignsoftheGreek
Letterphenomenaof theplanets.However,as withtheplanetary data in theDiaries,
preciselongitudes withinthezodiacalsignsarenevergiven.Theoretically, itwouldbe
possibleto obtainplanetary longitudeseitherfromthedistancesto theNormalStars
givenin theNormalStarAlmanacs,or fromthedatesof theentrances of theplanets
intozodiacalsignsgivenin theAlmanacs.However,thisseemsto me to be unlikely,
especiallygiventherelatively smallnumberof non-mathematical astronomicaltexts
recovered fromUruk.
Thisleavesus withoption(iii),namelythattheplanetary datain A 3405 camefrom
thetextsofmathematical astronomy. As we shallsee below,thisis almostcertainly the
correct option.Babylonianplanetary theory hasas itsprincipal goal thepredictionofall
future datesandlongitudes ofa particular
GreekLetterphenomenon ofa planetgivenan
initialdate-longitude pair.Twogeneralsystemsweredevelopedto obtaintheseresults,
whichforconvenience we call SystemsA andB. In SystemA, thesynodicarc Ak be-
tweentwoconsecutive phenomena ofthesamekindis functionally dependent uponthe
longitude A.,whereasin SystemB itis functionally dependent uponthepreviousvalue.
The synodictimeAt is usuallygivenby addinga constantto AÀ. Two lunartheories
areknown,also called SystemA and B becausetheytreatthelongitudeof successive
syzygiesin a wayanalogousto therespective planetarytheories. Fora fulltreatment of
Babylonianmathematical astronomy, I referto readerto theworksofNeugebauerand
others.11
To testwhether thedatain A 3405 comesfromtheACT textsitwillbe necessaryto
discusseachplanetin turn.Unfortunately, thelongitudes in A 3405 areonlyexpressed
tointeger degreesandforsomephasesofparticular planetsthereis onlya smallamount
ofdatapreserved. It maynotalwaysbe possible,therefore, to assigna uniquemodelto
all thedata.Furthermore, itmaybe thatsomeofthedatawas calculatedbymodelsthat
arecurrently unknown. Due to thecomparatively smallamountofdatapreserved itis,
however, notpossibletouncoverthedetailsofanynewmodelsfromthistext.It willbe
usefulto notethattheyearsSE 61, 64, 66, and 69 all containedan intercalary Month
xn2.
(i) Mercury

Due to therelativelyshortmean synodicperiodof Mercury(c. 116 days) more

GreekLetterphenomena arepreservedin A 3405 forthisplanetthanfortheotherfour

11 See, for
example,O. Neugebauer, ACT,idem,A HistoryofAncientMathematical Astrono-
my(Springer-Verlag,Berlin,1975),A. Aaboe,"On PeriodRelationsin BabylonianAstronomy",
Centaurus10 (1964), 213-231, and N. M. Swerdlow,The BabylonianTheoryof thePlanets
(Princeton Press,Princeton,
University 1998).
110 J.M.Steele

combined.Thisgivesus a good chanceofidentifying themodelbywhichthedatawas

calculated.Two systemsforMercury, A] and A2, are known.In SystemA', onlyF
and S arecalculatedindependently;E and Q aredetermined byadding'pushes'whose
lengthis dependent uponthelongitudeof theprecedingphase.Let us recompute the
datesand longitudesof F and 3 overtheperiodcoveredby A 3405. For F theinitial
longitudeis takenas Cancer28 andthedateas SE 60, IV,26. For S, theinitiallongitude
as Scorpio8;30 andthedateas SE 60, VII, 9.

MercuryT

SystemA] Longitude SystemA] Date TextLongitude TextDate

Can 28 60, IV,26 Can 28 60, IV,26

Sco 13;37,30 60, VIII, 15;8,9 Sco 14 60, VIII, 12
Pis 14;10 60, XII, 19;11,18 Pis 13 60, XII, 17
Canl3;40 61, IV,22; 11,57
Lib27;30 61, VIII, 9;32,36
Aqu22;40 61, XII, 8;13,15 Aqu 23 61, XII, 6
Gem 29;20 62, HI, 18;23,51 Gem 28 62, HI, 19
Libll;22,30 62, VII, 3;57
Aqul;10 62,X,27;15,9
Gem 15 63, III, 14;35,48
Vir25;15 63, VI, 28;21,27
Capll;15 63, X, 17;52,6 63, X, 15
Gem0;40 64,111,10;47,45
Vir9;7,30 64, VI, 22;45,54
Sag25;7,30 64, X, 12;16,33
Tau 9;30 65, II, 0;9,42
Leo 23 65, V, 17;10,21
Sag 9 65, IX, 6;41
Ari 18 66,1, 19;12,39
Can26;52,30 66, V, 1;35,48
Sco23;52,30 66, IX, 1;6,27
Pis26;30 66,XII2,8;14,36
Can21;53,20 67, IV, 7;8,35
Lib26;45 67, VII, 15;30,54
Pis 5 67, XI, 27;16,33 67, XI, 24
Can 7;33,20 68, IV,3;20,33 68, IV,3
Lib 20;37,30 68, VII, 19;55,22 68, VII, 18
Aqu 13;30 68, XI, 16,18,31
Gem23;13,20 69, III, 29;32,30
Lib 4;30 69, VII, 14; 19,49 Lib 4 69, VII, 11
Cap 22 69, XI, 5;20,28 Cap 22 69, XI, 2
Gem 8;53,20 70, II, 25;44,27
Virl8;22,30 70, VI, 8;44,16
Cap 4;22,30 70, IX, 28;14,55 Cap 4
 Textfrom
Astronomical
A 3405:AnUnusual Uruk 111

S
Mercury
Aj Date
Ai Longitude System
System TextLongitude TextDate

Sco8;30 60,VII,9 Seo 8 DIB 60,VII,9

Aqu25;10 60,X,29;10,39 Aqu25 60,X,29
Gem2;39 61,11,10;10,18
Lib20;25 61,VII, 1;26,57
Aqu8;56,40 61,X,23;29,16 Aqu8 61,X,24
Tau18;3 62,1,6;6,15 Tau18 62,1,9
Vir26;5 62,V,17;38,51
Cap22;43,20 62,IX, 17;47,47
Tau3;27 63,1,2;2,6
Virl;45 63,V,3;50,45
Cap6;30 63,IX, 12;6,24
Aril8;51 63,XII,27;58,3
Leo 7;25 64,IV,20;2,42
Sag20;16,40 64,IX,6;25,1
Ari4;15 64,XII,23;54
Canl3;5 65,III,6;14,39
Sag4;3,20 65,VIII,0;43,38
Pis19;39 65,XI, 19;49,57
Gem25;39 66,II,29;20,36
Scol7;50 66,VII,25;2,15
Pis4;30 66,XI, 15;12,54
Gemll;3 67,1,25;16,33
Scol;36,40 67,VI, 19;20,52
Aqu18;16,40 67,X,9;31,31
Tau26;27 68,1,21; 12,30 68,1,25
LiblO;5 68,VI,8;21,9 68,VI, 12
Aqu2;3,20 68,X,3;50,8
Taull;51 69,1,17;8,27
Vir16;45 69,V,24;33,6 Vir16 DIB 69,V,29
Cap 15;50 69,IX,28;8,45 Cap 16 69,IX,29
Ari27;15 69,XII2,13;4,24 Ari27 69,XII2,14
Leo21;25 70,IV,10;45,3
Sag29;36,40 70,VIII,22;27,22 Sag29
Aril2;39 70,XII,9;0,21 Ari12

The longitudes of F and S computedby systemAj are in good,butnotperfect,

agreement withthosefoundinA 3405: all arewithinIo oftheSystemA] values.How-
ever,thedatesarein verypooragreement withthosegivenby SystemAi . For F, only
onedate,SE 68,IV,3 is exactlyas expected;theothersgenerally
beingtwoorthreedays
earlier.Similarly,
forS, onlythedateSE 60, X, 29 is in agreement
withthecomputed
date;theothersbeingup to fivedayslate.
In SystemAi E and £2are calculatedusingpushesfromthelongitudes and dates
of F and S respectively.Thesepushesaredependent uponthepositionoftheplanetin
theeclipticat F and S. Severaltablesforcomputingthepushesarepreserved.Theyare
112 J.M.Steele

publishedas ACT 800a to 800e.12Below I givethelongitudesand datesof £ and Œ

pairofcolumnsthepusheshavebeenappliedtothe
calculatedusingpushes.In thefirst
longitudesand datescalculatedusingSystemAi above.In thesecondpairthepushes
havebeenappliedto theF and 3 datapreserved on A 3405 (datesin parenthesis were
calculatedby applyingpushesto therecordeddates,butusinglongitudestakenfrom
SystemA' sincetheyarenotpreserved inthetext).The finalpaircontainsthepreserved
E and Q,dataon A 3405.

E
Mercury
A] + Pushes A] + PushesDate F + Pushes F + Pushes Text TextDate
Longitude Longitude Date Longitude

Leo21;44 60, V, 21;18 Leo21;44 60, V, 21;18 Leo 18 60, V, 18

Sag27;10 60, X, 1;8,9 Sag 27;40 60, IX, 27;40 Sag 28 60, IX, 28
Ari8;26,40 61, 1, 13;27,58 Ari7;40 61,1, ll;40
Leo5;26,40 61, V, 15;58,37
Sag5;40 61, IX, 19;42,36 Sag... 61, IX, 28
Pis24;6,40 61, XII2, 9;39,55 Pis 24;20 61,XII2,7;20 Pis 23 61,XII2, 10
Can 19;14,40 62, IV,9;47,11 Can 17;44 62, IV, 10;10 Can 17 62, IV,8
Sco 14;53,30 62, VII, 8;13,30
Pis 8;5 1,20 62, XII, 5;5 1,49
Can 3 63, IV,3;35,48
Lib 26;37 63, VIII, 0;24,27
Aqu 16;15 63, XII, 2;7,6 (63, XI, 29;15)
Gem 16;45,20 64, III, 28;21,45
Lib7;0,30 64, VII, 22; 10,39
Aqu 8;7 64, XI, 27;36,3
Tau22;28 65,11,15;47,42
Vir20;4 65, VI, 14;58,21
Cap 23 65, X, 22;41
Tau 0; 12 66, II, 3;24,39
Leo 20;27,30 66, V,26;47,3
Cap7;52,30 66, X, 17;6,27
Ari 15;54 66, XII2, 28;24,36
Leo 14;48,26,40 67, V, 1;49,55
Sag4;40 67, VIII, 25;25,54
Ari2;20 67, XIIj , 24;36,33 (67, XII, 21;20) 67, XII, 23
Can 28;33,46,40 68, IV, 26;6,6,20 (68, IV, 25;45,33,20) 68, IV,26
Sco 26;30 68, VIII, 27;47,52 (68, VII, 25;52,30)
Pisl7;54 68,XII,20;48,31
Can 12;19,4,40 69, IV, 19;54,43,20 Can 11 69, IV, 19
Sco 7;6 69, VIII, 18;13,46 Sco 6;32 69, VIII, 14;13,49 Sco 8 69, VIII, 16
Pis 2;8 69, XII, 17;0,28 Pis 2;8 69, XI, 13;40 Pis 4 69, XII, 16
Gem 26;4,26,40 70, III, 18;43,20,20
Lib 18;49,30 70, VII, 9;24,46
Aqu 17;5 70, XI, 12;57,25 Aqu 16;44 Aqu 16

12 See O. ofthesetables.
ACT,293-295 fora summary
Neugebauer,
 TextfromUruk
A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical 113

il
Mercury
Ai + Pushes A] + PushesDate E + Pushes S + Pushes Text TextDate
Longitude Longitude Date Longitude

Leo 2;57 60, IV, 1;56,21 Leo 3 60, IV,6

Sco22;30 60, VIII, 24 Sco 22 60,VIII,24 Sco21 60, VII, 26
Pis 17;10 60, XI, 23;10,39 Pis 17 60, XI, 23 Pis 16 60, XI, 24
Can 17;0,12 61, III, 25;42,6
Vir4;25 61, VII, 16;26,57
Pis 0;32,36,40 61, XI, 17;52,40 Aqu 29;32 61, XI, 17;32 Aqu 30 61, XI, 18
Can 0;27,24 62, II, 18;42,15 Can 0;24 62, II, 21;36 Gem30 62, II, 24
Libl5;7,40 62,VI,5;48,1
Aqu 13;14,13,20 62, X, 10;18,40,20
Gem 14;27,36 63,11,ll;43,30
Libl3;49 63, V, 1;47,45
Cap25;22 63, X, 2;24,24 63, X, 5
Tau25;37,12 64, II, 4;44,15
Leo21;25 64, V,29;33,42
Sco 6;58,53,20 64, IX, 23;28,21
Ari5;14 64, XII2,25;36
Leol9;28 65, IV,20;29,59
Sag 22;35,46,40 65, VIII, 19;46,58
Ari 13;49,12 65, XII, 15;41,33
LeolO;13,48 66, IV, 15;55,24
Sag 2; 1,20 66, VIII, 10;7,55
Pis26;30 66, XII, 9; 12,54
Can 26;31,24 67,111,12;29,9
Sco 16;43,6,40 67, VII, 4;20,52
Pis 10; 16,40 67, XI, 3;31,31 67, XI, 6
Can 9;58,36 68, III, 5;29,54 (68, III, 9;17,24) 68, III, 9
Lib25;23,40 68, VI, 24;20,9 (68, VI, 27;49,10) 10 + x 68, VI, 29
Aqu 2 1;8,13,20 68, X, 26;58,21,20
Gem23;13,12 69, II, 28;30,39
Lib 8;17 69, VI, 14;15,36 Lib 7;44 69, VI, 18;50 Lib 8 DIB 69, VI, 23
Aqu5;53,20 69,X,20;12,5 Aqu 6;4 69, X, 21;4 Aqu 6 69, X, 22
Gem5;42 70, 1,21;31,24 Gem 5;24 70, 1,22;24
Vir24;25,20 70, V, 14;54,3
Cap 17;33,33,20 70, IX, 11;22,42 Cap 16;52 Cap 16

The longitudesare on thewholein fairlygood agreement withthosegivenby ap-

plyingpushestothelongitude ofF and S. For£, discrepanciesofupto3 degreesexist,
butforQ, discrepanciesneverexceed 1 degree.The cause ofthesediscrepancies
is not
known;sometimes theyarereducedwhenwe applythepushesto thelongitudes of F
and S whichwererecomputed usingSystemAi rather thanthelongitudesrecordedon
A 3405. However,in aboutas manycases theoppositeis true.The datesobtainedfrom
thepushes,however, oftendeviateconsiderably fromthoserecordedon thetext.Once
more,sometimes itis possibleto reducethediscrepancybyusingtherecomputed Sys-
temAi dates,ratherthanthosepreserved inthetext,butsometimesthishastheopposite
effect.
Anotherpossibleexplanation forthediscrepancies
maybe thatthepusheswere
notappliedaccurately,whichis quitecommonamongthepreserved ACT material.For
114 J.M.Steele

example,in ACT 301,thelengthofthepushesare assumedto be constantwithineach

sign.13The dateSE 61, IX, 18 forE is mostlikelya scribalerrorforSE 61, IX, 28.
Althoughtheagreement betweenthepreservedlongitudesof Mercuryon A 3405
and thosecalculatedby SystemAj is notperfect, theyare clearlytoo close to result
frommerecoincidences. The onlyotherwellknownACT schemeforMercury, System
A2, onlyroughlyfitsthepreserved data,withmanyseriousdiscrepancies. Thisis only
to be expected,of course,sincethesynodicarcs whichresultfromapplyingSystems
Ai andA2 differ byup to 10° in somepartsofthezodiac.14Therefore, I concludethat
thelongitudesof Mercurywereindeedcomputedby SystemAj . The discrepancies in
longitudemay simplybe due to scribalerrorsresultingfromcopyingfroma longer
ephemeris, whichmayitselfhavecontainederrors.However,thediscrepancies between
theSystemAi datesandthosepreserved in ourtextaremoreserious,andareless like-
ly to be theresultof simplescribalerrors.It is worthnotinghere,therefore, thatfor
thepreservedSystemA2 ephemerides thestandardrelationbetweensynodictimeand
synodicarcwas notused.15Insteadthedifference betweenthesetwoquantities varied,
possibly depending upon thelongitude. Perhapssome similar correctionwas applied to
theSystemAi datesin thistext.
Finally,letme remarkon theuse of thetermDIB "omitted"afterthelongitudeon
threeoccasions.BecauseMercury's orbitresultsina variationofbothlongitude andlati-
tude,certainphasesofitsvisibility areoccasionallymissed.Ptolemy(Almagest, XIII, 3)
writesthataroundthebeginning ofScorpio,Mercury doesnotappearas anevening-star,
and at thebeginning ofTaurus,itdoes notappearas a morning-star. He thencorrectly
explains thatthisis causedby the highly latitude
negative ofthe planetinthesesections
ofthezodiac,andthefactthattheeclipticis onlyslightly inclinedto thehorizon.Even
atgreatestelongation fromthesun,then,theplanetdoes notrisehighenoughabovethe
horizontobecomevisible.Although notexplainedintheseterms, thefactthatphasesof
Mercury'svisibility do notoccurwhentheplanetis incertainsectionsofthezodiacwas
knowntotheBabylonians. SeveralexamplesarefoundintheDiarieswherea dateoffirst
appearance (and the subsequentlastappearance)is followedbyDIB, indicating thatthe
phenomena did not occur.16The date and rough positionof the phenomena must then
have been calculated,as was also thecase whenbad weatherprevented observation.
In theAlmanacsalso, some of thepredictedphenomenaare markedDIB, indicating
thattheywerenotexpectedtoprovevisible.17Obviouslysomecriterion was appliedto
thepredicteddatesor positionsof Mercury'sphasesto determine whether theywould
be omitted, butwe do notyetknowwhatthatcriterion was. In theephemerides, some
phases of Mercury are marked DIB. Again, we do notknow the exactbasis upon which

13 O. ACT, 294-295 and318-321.

Neugebauer,
14 See ofthe
figure p. 78 ofO. Neugebauer,
7 on Theory",Proceedings
''BabylonianPlanetary
AmericanPhilosophicalSociety,98 (1954), 60-89.
15 O. ACT, 298.
Neugebauer,
16
Eg. Diary -283a, obv.8: ... GU4-UD ina SU SU-šmDIB "Mercury'slastappearancein
thewest,omitted".
17 first
Eg. LBAT 1174,obv.3: ... GU4-UD NIM UD.DA IGI DIB . . . "Mercury's appearance
in theeast,omitted".
 A 3405:AnUnusual
Astronomical
Textfrom
Uruk 115

thiswas done,butNeugebauerestimates thatwithinreasonablysmallerrors, F is omit-

tedbetweenAries10° and Taurus20° (hence E also omittedbetweenAries24° and
Gemini5°), and S is omitted betweenLibra0° and Scorpio5° (henceŒ also omitted
betweenLibra 18° and Scorpio30°).18In A 3405, 3 is said to be omittedon SE 60,
Vn, 9 at Scorpio8° and on SE 69, V, 29 at Virgo16°, and Q is omittedon SE 69, VI,
23 at Libra8° and,althoughit is notmarked,also on SE 60, VII, 26 at Scorpio22°
sincethepreceding3 was omitted. Thisseemsto suggestthattheregionofthezodiac
in whichMercurydoes notappearas an evening-star was consideredto be somewhat
longerthanintheusualephemerides. Noneofthepreserved appearancesofMercury as
a morning-stararemarkedwithDIB, as is tobe expectedsincetheydo nottakeplacein
AriesorTaurus.

(ii) Venus

Our knowledgeof ACT typeschemesforVenusis hamperedby thesmallnum-

beroftextspreserved: 9 ephemerides, 1 (at thattimeunidentified) templatetext,and 3
procedure textswere in
published ACT,19 and a further 3 texts
have been publishedsub-
sequently.20At the heart of all ofthese Venus texts is the periodrelation
that5 synodic
are
periods very close to 8 years. More precisely, after 5 synodicperiods,thelongitude
ofa phenomenon decreasesby2;30°, andthedateby4; 10 tithis.The equivalenceof 8
yearswith5 synodicperiodsis used in theGoal-Yeartexts,and was probablyknown
muchearlier.It is impliedin a unusualomentextfromthetimeof theAssyrianking
Assurbanipal (7thcentury BC),21andis statedexplicitly on BM 45728 whichprobably
datesto beforethe4thcentury BC,22BM 41004,probablyfromthe4thor5thcentury
BC,23andLBAT 1515,obv.8. Furthermore, theselastthreetextsalso statethatafter8
yearsthe Venus phenomena will recur4 daysearlier,and (in BM 41004 only)4° back
tothewest.
The 8 yearperiodofVenusis used directly in all of theephemerides. Thus,ifone
knowsthedateandlongitude ofonephenomenon, thedateandlocationofthephenom-
enon8 yearshencecanbe determined simplybyreducingthedateby4; 10 tithis andthe
longitudeby 2;30°. This is just what is done in SystemAo, although in thepreserved
ephemerides, 4; 10 tithisis approximated by4;5 days;in SystemsAi andA2,however,
thechangein dateis approximated by 4 days,and forSystemA2, thelongitudes are
decreasedby 2;40° ratherthantheexpected2;30°. In orderto use this8 yearruleto

18 O.
Neugebauer,HAMA,404.
19
ACT400ff,812, 815,821b,and 1050.
20 BM
36301,BM 37151,andBM 33552.
21 H. seheAstrologische
Hunger,"Kryptographi Omina",in M. DietrichandW. Röllig(eds.),
Usanmithurti:Festschrift
Wolfram FreiherrvonSoden(Butzon& Bercker, Kevelaer,1969),133-
145.
22 F.X. SternkundeundSterndienst inBabelI (Aschendorffsche
Kugler, Verlagsbuchhandlung,
Münster in Westfalen,
1907),45-48.
23 TextE inO.
NeugebauerandA. Sachs,"Some AtypicalAstronomical CuneiformTextsI",
JournalofCuneiform Studies21 (1967), 183-218.
116 J.M.Steele

calculate all futureevents,however,one needs to know the dates and positions of the
fivephenomena withinthe first8 year period. Several systemsare known to obtainthis
information.The simplest,knownas Ao, just uses themean synodic arc fortheplanet.In
Systems A' and A2 the synodicarcs and times are determinedby the sign of the zodiac
in which the precedingphenomena took place. Due to the small amount of preserved
material,the synodic arc used in Systems Ai and A2 are not known for all signs of
the zodiac. Because these synodic arcs are not modifiedwhen theyresultin a crossing
between zones, these systemsare not trueSystemA schemes. A trueSystemA scheme
does exist,however.It was used in calculating the templatetextACT 1050.
A 3405 contains only 7 Greek letterphenomena forVenus: 4 firstvisibilitiesin the
west, 2 last visibilitiesin the east, and 1 firstvisibilityin the east. They are:

SE 60, IV,4 S Cancer28

[SE 60, ...] r Aries12
SE 6 1, IX, 28 E 25
Sagittarius
SE 61, XI, 29 S Pisces 1
SE 68, III, 30 2 [. . .]
SE 69, IX, 24 E Y2
Sagittarius
SE 69, XI, 15 S Aquarius28

Firstlet me remarkthatapartfromtwo obvious scribal errors(on SE 69, IX, 24, E must

be at Sagittarius22, and S musttakenplace on SE 69, XI, 25 not SE 69, XI, 15), all of
the data are consistentwiththe 8 year rule where we can make the followingpairs (At
and AÀ are given as an excess of integermonthsand signs):

SE 60, IV,4: 2 Can 28 -> SE 68, III, 30: S [. . .] At = -4 days,AÀ= ?

SE 61, IX, 28: S Sag 25 -* SE 69, IX, 24: E Sag 22 At = -4 days,AÀ= -3°
SE 61, XI, 29: S Pis 1 -* SE 69, XI, 25: S Aqu 28 At = -4 days,AÀ= -3C

Because the longitudes are not given more precisely it is not possible to say whether
AÀ = -3° reflectsa roundingof -2; 30° or some otherclose value.
The methodby whichtheintermediatephases were calculated is notfullydetermined
by the preserveddata. However,the followinginformationmay be drawnfromthe text
(At and A A.are given as an excess over integeryears and complete revolutionsof the
zodiac):

SE 60, IV,4: S Can 28
SE 68, III, 30: S [. . .]
SE 60, IV,4: S Can 28
[SE 61,... ]: r Ari 12
[SE61,...]:TAril2
SE 60, IV,4: S Can 28
SE 68, III, 30: S [. . .]
SE 61, IX, 28: £ Sag 25
SE 69, IX, 24: E Sag 22
-> SE 61, XI, 29: S Pis 1 At = 235 tithis,AÀ = 213e
-* SE 69, XI, 25: 3 Aqu 28 At = 235 tithis,AÀ= ?
-* [SE 10, ...]: T Ari 12 At = ?, AÀ = 254°
-+ SE 61, IX, 28: S Sag 25 At = ?, AÀ = 253°
-+ SE 61, XI, 29: S Pis 1 At = ?, AÀ = 319°
-* SE 61, IX, 28: E Sag 25 At = 174 tithis,AÀ = 147°
-> SE 69, IX, 24: E Sag 22 At = 174 tithis,AÀ= ?
-► SE 61, XI, 29: S Pis 1 At = 61 tithis,AÀ = 66°
-+ SE 69, XI, 25: 2 Aqu 28 At = 61 tithis,AÀ = 66°
 A 3405:AnUnusual
Astronomical
Textfrom
Uruk 117

Thisallowsus tonarrowdownthepossiblemeansbywhichthetextwas computed. The

first pairof data showsthatforS thesynodicarc is about213° and thesynodictime
about235 tithiswhenVenusis neartheendofCancer.Thus,thedatacannothavebeen
calculatedusingSystemAo,sincethenthesynodicarcwouldbe 215;30° andthesynodic
time233;10,irrespective oftheinitiallongitude.
Thisis also thecase forthesecondpair
of data,as it shouldbe sincethispairis 8 yearsafterthefirstpair.The synodicarcs
andtimesforS in CancerarenotknownforSystemsAi orA2. The SystemA scheme
uncovered by Hamilton,24 wouldalso notquitegivetherequiredsynodicarcs,and in
anycase itis notknownhowthisschemewouldbe usedto obtainsynodictimes.
It is knownfromproceduretextsand elsewherethatseveralschemesexistedfor
subdividing thesynodicperiodofVenus,sometimes intoas manyas 11 sections.Using
one of theseschemes,itis possibleto obtainlongitudes and datesforall oftheGreek
Letterphenomenafroman initialdate-longitude pair.However,noneof thecurrently
attested schemesfitthedataonA 3405 verywell.Sections11 to 16 oftheprocedure text
ACT 812 statesthatV and S areseparated by331;30° whenF is inAries,whereourtext
has319°. Sections17to24 ofthatsametabletstatethattheE and S areseparated by60
tithis, BM 33552has E and S separated
whereourtexthas61 tithis.25 by60 days(rather
thantithis), witha meanvelocityof1; 15°/day.26
BM 37151also impliesthatthevelocity
is l;157day,butthistimelastingeither62 (?) days(or tithis?)or 56 days(or tithis?).21
In A 3405 E and S areseparated by61 tithisand66°. Finally,BM 36301impliesthatE
to S lasts70 tithiswitha velocityofl;12°/tithi.2*Noneoftheseschemesdividingthe
synodicarcagreeperfectly withthematerialpreserved on A 3405; however, itis quite
possiblethatotherschemeswerealso known.Unfortunately, we are unableto deduce
manydetailsfromthesmallamountofVenusdatapreserved on A 3405.

( Hi) Mars

Two ACT systemsareknownforMars:SystemA and SystemB. In SystemA, the

phases F, O and Πare treatedindependentlyand calculatedby theusual systemA
rules.Thetworetrogradephases, 0 and ^, however,aretreatedas satellitesof Q>.Four
schemesforcalculating
theseretrogradearcsarecurrently
known(calledbyNeugebauer

24 N. T. HamiltonandA.
Aaboe,"A BabylonianVenusTextComputedAccordingto System
A: ACT No. 1050",Archive forHistoryof ExactSciences53 (1998), 215-221. Notetheerror
in Table 1 ofthisarticle:lastlineofthetable:w¡ for2 betweenCapricorn18° andCancer12°
shouldread2 15;30c.
25 O.
Neugebauer, ACT, 336-339.
26 J.P. Britton
andC. B. F. Walker,"A 4thCentury BabylonianModelforVenus:BM 33552",
Centaurus34 (1991), 97-1 18.
27 A. Aaboe andP.J.
Huber,"A TextConcerning SubdivisionoftheSynodicMotionofVenus
fromBabylon:BM 37151",in M. De JongEllis,Essayson theAncientNear East inMemoryof
JacobJoelFinkelstein (ArchonBooks,Hamden,Connecticut, 1977), '-A.
28 TextC in O.
Neugebauerand A. Sachs,"AtypicalAstronomical Cuneiform
TextsI". See
also thefurtherdiscussionbyJ.P. BrittonandC. B. F. Walker,"A 4thCentury BabylonianModel
forVenus".
118 J.M.Steele

R, S, T, and U),29butothersmaywell haveexisted.SystemB is onlyattestedon one

smallfragment, ACT 510.30
The following forMarson A 3405:
datais preserved

SE 60,IV,4 fí Leo 23
SE 60,Vili,11 r Sco 7
SE 61,X, 12 vp [...]259
SE 62,V,25 fì Lib 1
SE 63,XI,5 vp [. . .]
SE 67, XI, 22 0 [. . .]
SE 68, 1,1 vp [. . .]
SE 69, IV, 15 r Can 7
SE 69,XII,8 <D Sco3
SE 69,XII2,27 0 Lib27

it is possibleto say at leastthatF

Althoughthisis nota greatamountof information,
withSystemA, as is shownbelow:
and £2areconsistent

MarsF
A Date
A Longitude System
System TextLongitude TextDate

Sco 7;30 SE 60,VIII,11 Sco 7 SE 60,VIII,11

Capll;15 SE 62,X,8;22,52
Ari0;56,15 SE 64,XII2,21;41,59
Tau25;37,30 SE 67,II, 10;1,6
Can7;5 SE 69,IV,15;6,28 Can7 SE 69,IV,15

MarsH
A Date
A Longitude System
System TextLongitude TextDate

Leo23;40 SE 60,IV,24 Leo 23 SE 60,IV,24

Lib 1;20 SE 62,V,25;27,52 Lib 1 SE 62,V,25
Sco 17 SE 64,Vili,4;45,44
Cap25;30 SE 66,X,6;53,36
Ari11;37,20 SE 69,1,16;38,58

The retrograde phasesare determined fromthedate and locationof <i>.To check

whether theyare with
consistent System therefore,
A, itis necessaryto first
recompute
a runof Os overtheperiodofthetext,as I havedonebelow:

29 See O. ACT,305-306andA. Aaboe,'A Late-Babylonian ProcedureTextfor

Neugebauer,
Mars,andSomeRemarks onRetrograde inD. A. KingandG. Saliba(eds.),From
Arcs", Deferent
toEquant:A Volume ofStudies ofScienceintheAncient
intheHistory andMedieval NearEast
inHonorofE.S. Kennedy (TheNewYorkAcademy NewYork,1987),1-14.
ofSciences,
30Thiswas byPeterHuber.See A. Aaboe,"OnBabylonian PlanetaryTheories",
recognised
Centaurus 5 (1958),209-277,esp.246.
 A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical
TextfromUruk 119

MarsO
A Date
A Longitude System
System TextLongitude TextDate

Gem9;45 SE 61,VII,10;45,32
Canl6;30 SE 63,VIII,11;8,24
Leol6;30 SE 65,IX,4;46,16
Vir22 SE 67,X,3;52,8
Seo 3 SE 69,XII,8;30 Seo 3 SE 69,XII,8

Itis nowpossibletoextract
thelengths arcsfrom<ř>
oftheretrograde ofthepreserved
^and0:

SE 61,VII,10:cDGem9 -+ SE 61,X, 12:vj/[Tau]25? At= 92 tithis,

AX= -14C?
SE 63,VIII,11: O Can16 -> SE 63,XI,5: vl>[. . .] At= 84 tithis,
AÀ= ?
SE 67,X,3: O Vir22 -► SE 67,XI,22: 0 [. . .] At= 49 tithis,
AÀ= ?
SE 67,X,3: O Vir22 -> SE 68,1,1: 4>[. . .] At= 88 tithis,
AÀ= ?
SE 69,XII,8: O Seo 3 -+ SE 69,XII2,27: 0 Lib27 At= 49 tithis,
AX= -6°

In all oftheknownrétrogradation schemes,thelengthoftheretrograde arcis dependent

uponthelongitude ofO. For$ to 0, itmayvarybetween6° and7;30°. It is onlypossi-
bletoextract oneretrograde arcfor<ř> to0 fromA 3405: whenO is 8° in Scorpius,then
0 is 6° behind<ř>.The4 currently attested
rétrogradation schemesgivethisarcas 6;24°
(R and S), 6;30° (T) and 6;43,30° (U). Sincethe6° impliedin A 3405 is theresultof
roundedlongitudes, we can onlysaythatitis consistent withall ofthecurrentlyknown
rétrogradation schemes.Accordingto ACT 500 thelengthoftimebetweenO and 0 is
47;55,4tithis.Thetwopreserved timedintervalsinA 3405 are49 tithis,whichmaysim-
plybe a consequenceoftherounding ofthedaynumbers. Theretrograde arcbetweenO
and*I>is also preservedonceon A 3405: when<ř> is 9° in Gemini,then^ is 14° behind
<$>.
Fromknownrétrogradation schemes,we wouldexpectabout17°; however, thelon-
gitudeof^ is damagedandso we shouldnotreadtoomuchintothis.The lengthofthe
interval betweenO and^ is notknownfortherétrogradation schemes.Sincetheretro-
gradearc<$>-► vj/= 5/2(4>-> 0), Neugebauer postulated thatthecorresponding time
intervals mayfollowthesamerule.31This wouldmeanthatthetwostationary points
areseparated by 119;47,40tithis.However,as he laternoted,thisamountconsiderably
exceedsthetruetimeinterval.32 In A 3405 thistimeintervalappearsto be dependent
uponthelongitude of <P,butis about90 tithis,
whichis nottoo farwrong.
Forthepartsof directmotion,it is knownthatthereexistedforMars at leasttwo
methodsforsubdividingthe synodicarc (and presumablyalso the synodictime).
These are based upon the conceptof "steps",definedas S¡ - wi/Z.33 Fromthe
proceduretextACT 811a we knowthatwhenwe are dealingonlywithmean mo-

31 O. ACT, 306.
Neugebauer,
32 O.
HAMA,459^60.
Neugebauer,
33 O.
HAMA,420-421,whichis baseduponA. Aaboe,"PeriodRelations",who
Neugebauer,
thesesteps/ rather
designated than8.
120 J.M.Steele

tion, £2 -* r = 335, r -* <í> = 605, and <I> -> £2 = 585. This text does not
discuss the case of true motion as System A attemptsto model but fromsome date-
less lists of longitudesof the phenomena of Mars, Aaboe-Sachs extractedthe rule that
£2-* r = 335/,r -> <J>= 635/,and 4> -► £2= 555/.34 Unfortunately, no standard
ephemerides for Mars thatgive (in differentcolumns) longitudes for the consecutive
phases are known at this time and so it is impossible to tell whetherthis method of
dividing the synodic arc was used rigorouslyin practice. On A 3405, the differencein
longitudebetween £2on SE 60, IV, 4 and T on SE 60, VIII, 11 is 74°, and 335/ = 73°,
which is nearly the same. However, the differencein longitude between F on SE 69,
IV, 15 and <î>on SE 69, XII, 8 is 116°, whereas 665/= 127°. Unless othertextscome to
light,however,it is impossible to say whetherthis is evidence fora variantscheme for
subdividingthe synodic arc, orjust a discrepancyin thistext.

(iv) Jupiter

Jupiteris betterrepresentedamong the preserved ACT material than any other

planet. We know of two main System A type schemes (plus variants), and two
SystemB schemes. A further scheme of theSystemA typehas been identifiedin a Greek
35 and also be of
source, may Babylonian origin.
The followingJupiterdata is preservedon A 3405:

SE 60, III, 25 £2 Can 26

SE 60, IV,24 r Can 30
SE 60, VIII, 29 <ï> Leo 17
SE 60, X, 27 e Leo 13
SE 60, XII, 27 v]/ Leo 8
SE 61, X, 10 d> Virl0 + x
SE 61, XII, 7 0 Viril
SE 62, 1,10 vi/ Vir7
SE 62, V, 17 £2 Vir22
SE 67, XI, 9 £2 [. . .]
SE 67, XII, 8 r [. . .]
SE 68, IV, 17 <J> [...]10 + x
SE 68, VI, 14 0 [. . .] 6
SE 69, VI, 5 d> Tau 6
SE 69, Vili, 2 0 Tau 12
SE 69, X, 3 vi/ Tau 6
SE70[. ..] 0 Gem 15
SE70[. ..x] + 10 vj/ Gem 10

34 A. Aaboe and A. Sachs, "Some DatelessComputedLists of Longitudesof Characteristic

PlanetaryPhenomena fromtheLate-Babylonian Studies20 (1966),
Period",JournalofCuneiform
HAMA,424^25.
1-33. See also O. Neugebauer,
35 J.P.Britton Modelina GreekSource ,Archive
andA. Jones,"A NewBabylonianPlanetary
forHistoryofExactSciences54 (2000), 349-373.
 A 3405:AnUnusual
Astronomical
Textfrom
Uruk 121

possibletorejectall oftheSystemA schemesas themethodofcal-

Itis immediately
culation.Intheseschemesthesynodicarcbetweenconsecutive phenomena canneverbe
less than30°, butwe haveseveralinstancesin thistextwherethisoccurs.Forexample,
thesynodicarcbetween0 on SE 60, X, 27 andSE 61, XII, 7 is 28° andbetweenV on
SE 60,XII, 27 andSE 62,1,10itis 29°. Ittherefore seemslikelythatone oftheSystem
B schemeswas usedto calculatethisdata.Below I givecalculatedrunsof <t>, 0 and ^
bymeansofSystemB, in eachcase starting at theminimum ofthezigzagfunction.
JupiterO
SystemB Longitude SystemB Date TextLongitude TextDate

Leo 17 SE 60, VIII, 29;40 Leo 17 SE 60, VIII, 29

Virl5;15,30 SE 61, X, 10;0,45 Virl0 + x SE 61, X, 10
Lib 15;19 SE 62, X, 22;9,30
Scol7;10,30 SE 63, XII, 6;6,15
Sag20;50 SE 64, XII2,21;51
Cap 26;17,30 SE 66, II, 8;23,45
Pis 3;33 SE 67, III, 28;44,30
Ari 10 SE 68, IV, 17;50,15 [Ari]10 [+x] SE 68, IV, 17
Taul5;46 SE 69, VI, 5;8 Tau 6 SE 69, VI, 5
Gem 19;10,30 SE 70, VI, 20;2,45
0
Jupiter
SystemB Longitude SystemB Date TextLongitude TextDate

Leol3;25 SE 60, X, 27 Leo 13 SE 60, X, 27

Virll;40,30 SE 61, XII, 7;20,45 Viril SE 61, XII, 7
Libll;44 SE 62, XII, 19;29,30
Sco 13;35,30 SE 64, II, 3;26,15
Sagl7;15 SE 65, II, 19;11
Cap 22;42,34 SE 66, IV,6;43,15
Aqu 29;58 SE 67, IV,26;4,30
Ari6;58,30 SE 68, VI, 15;10,15 [Ari]6 SE 68, VI, 14
Tau 12; 11 SE 69, Vili, 2;28 Tau 12 SE 69, Vili, 2
Gem 15;35,30 SE 70, Vili, 17;57,45 Gem 15 [. . .]
¥
Jupiter
SystemB Longitude SystemB Date TextLongitude TextDate

Leo 8 SE 60, XII, 29;40 Leo 8 SE 60, XII, 27

Virgo6; 15,30 SE 62, 1, 10;0,45 Vir7 SE 62, 1,10
Lib 6; 19 SE 63, II, 22; 11,35
Sco8;10,30 SE 64, IV,6;9,10
Sagll;50 SE 65, IV,21;52,49
Cap 17; 17,30 SE 66, VI, 9;24,20
Aqu 24;30 SE 67, VII, 28;41,55
Ari 1;33,30 SE 68, VIII, 17;44,52
Tau6;46 SE 69, X, 5;0,49 Tau 6 SE 69, X, 3
Gem 10;10,30 SE 70, X, 20;30,16 Gem 10 [. . . x+] 10
122 J.M.Steele

Unfortunatelynot enough Fand £2data are preservedto make an attemptat recal-

culating by System B worthwhile.Nevertheless,it is clear that the <$>,© and *I>data
are in verygood agreementwiththereconstructedSystemB data. There are occasional
discrepancies,but these are verysmall, except foran obvious scribal error(SE 69, VI,
5 O at Taurus 16 not Taurus 6). Indeed it may be possible to eliminate some of these
by furtherrefiningthe chosen initialvalues of the longitude,date and zigzag function.
Since all the data are rounded to integerdegrees and days, however,thereis probably
littleto be gained by attemptingthis.Furthermore,theroundeddata also preventus from
choosing between SystemB and SystemB' (whose parametersvaryonly slightly)as the
methodof computation.

(v) Saturn

We know of two main schemes forSaturn.System A, which is attestedon two pro-

cedure textsand threetemplatetexts(althoughwithvariations),36and System B which
is known fromseveral ephemeridesand proceduretexts.
The followingSaturndata is foundon A 3405:

SE 60, IV, 12 V Seo 26

SE 60, Vili, 9 Q Sag 5
SE 60, IX, 11 r Sag 7
SE61J...] 4> Sag 15
SE 61, X, 4 r Sagl9?
SE 62, 1,3 <ï> Sag 26
SE 62, II, 28 0 Sag 23
SE 62, IV,29 vj/ Sag 19
SE 63, X, 21 r [. . .]
SE 67, X, 26 a [. . .]
SE 67, XI, 28 r [. . .]
SE 68, m, 28 <!>[.. •]
SE 68, V,22 0 [. . .]
SE 69, IV,23 <t> Pis 24
SE 69, VI, 17 0 Pis 20
SE 69, VIII, 17 *I> Pis 15
SE 69, XII, 16 Q Pis 28
SE69,XII2, 17 r Pis 29
SE 70, [. . .] Q Ari9

Recalculating by System B we findexcellent agreementwith this data. For F, we

begin with 11;42° increasingand 23 ;9 tithisincreasingforthelongitudeand date zigzag
functionsrespectively.For <ř>,11;42° and 23;45 tithis,both increasing; for 0, ll;30°

36 A. Aaboe and A. Sachs,"DatelessComputedLists".

 A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical
TextfromUruk 123

and 23;9 tithis,both increasing;for *I>,11;18° and 23;7 tithis,both increasing; for Q,
ll;30° and 23;21 tithis,bothincreasing.

SaturnY

SystemB Longitude SystemB Date TextLongitude TextDate

Sag 7;20 SE 60, IX, 11;50 Sag 7 SE 60, IX, 11

Sagl9;12 SE61,X,4;59 Sag 19 SE 61, X, 4
Cap 0;56 SE 62, IX, 28;20
Capl3;2 SE63,X, 22;51 [. . .] SE 63, X, 21
Cap25;20 SE 64, XI, 15;38
Aqu 7;50 SE 65, XI, 9;35
Aqu20;32 SE 66, XII, 3;54
Pis3;26 SE67,XI,28;15 [. . .] SE 67, XI, 28
Pisl6;32 SE 68, XII, 22;38
Pis 29;50 SE 69, XII2, 17;23 Pis 29 SE 69, XII2, 17

Saturn<I>

SystemB Longitude SystemB Date TextLongitude TextDate

Sag 15 SE61,I,9;27 Sag 15 [. . .]

Sag26;36 SE 62, 1,3 Sag 26 SE 62, 1,3
Cap 8;36 SE 63, 1,26;45
Cap 20;42 SE 64, II, 20;42
Aqu 3 SE 65, II, 24;9
Aqu 15;30 SE 66, III, 9; 12
Aqu 28;12 SE 67, IV,3;45
Pis 11;6 SE 68, III, 28;30 [. . .] SE 68, III, 28
Pis 24;12 SE 69, IV,23;27 Pis 24 SE 69, IV,23
Ari7;30 SE 70, IV, 18;36

Saturn0
SystemB Longitude SystemB Date TextLongitude TextDate

Sco29;48 SE 60,II, ll;30

Sag 11;18 SE61,III,4;39
Sag 23 SE 62, II, 28 Sag 23 SE 62, II, 28
Cap4;54 SE 63, III, 21;33
Cap 17 SE64, IV, 15;18
Cap 28;18 SE 65, IV,9; 15
Aqull;48 SE 66, V,3;24
Aqu 24;30 SE 67, V,27;45
Pis7;24 SE 68, V,22;18 [. . .] SE 68, V,22
Pis 20;30 SE 69, VI, 17;3 Pis 20 SE 69, VI, 17
Ari3;48 SE 70, VI, 12
124 J.M.Steele

Saturn*F

SystemB Longitude SystemB Date TextLongitude TextDate

Seo 26;30 SE 60, IV, 12;40 Sco 26 SE 60, IV, 12

Sag7;48 SE61,V,5;47
Sag 19; 18 SE 62, IV,29;6 Sag 19 SE 62, IV,29
Cap 1 SE 63, V,22;37
Cap 12;54 SE 64, VI, 16;20
Cap 25 SE 65, VI, 10;15
Aqu7;18 SE 66, VII, 4;22
Aqu 19;48 SE 67, VI, 28;41
Pis2;30 SE 68, VII, 23;12
Pis 15;24 SE 69, VIU, 17;33 Pis 15 SE 69, VIII, 17
Pis28;30 SE 70, VIII, 12;30

Saturníl
B Longitude System
System B Date TextLongitude TextDate

Sag 5 SE 60,Vili,9 Sag5 SE 60,Vili,9

Sag 16;30 SE61,IX,2;21
Sag 28;12 SE 62,Vili,27;48
CaplO;6 SE 63,IX, 19;39
Cap22;12 SE 64,X, 13;36
Aqu4;30 SE 65,X,7;45
Aqu 17 SE66,XI,2;6
Aqu29;42 SE 67,X,26;39 [. . .] SE 67,X,26
Pis22;36 SE 68,XI,21;24
Pis25;42 SE 69,XII,16;21 Pis28 SE 69,XII,16
Ari9 SE 70,XII,11;30 Ari9 [. . .]

Therearetwoinstanceswherethetextdoes notagreewiththisrecomputation. The

dateof firstappearance(T) in SE 63 is givenas day 21 of MonthX, whereasourre-
computeddateis day22. It maybe possibleto changetherecomputed in
datesslightly
The daynumberin
orderto correctthis,butI see littleto be gainedbysuchan attempt.
thetextmaysimplybe a scribalerror.Saturn'slastappearance(£2)in SE 69 is said to
be at 28° in Pisces,butthisis mostlikelya scribalerrorfor25°.

(vi) Lunareclipses

Informationis preserved In additionto

in A 3405 about7 lunareclipsepossibilities.
thedateof theeclipse,themoon'slongitudeis givento thenearestdegree,thetimeof
theeclipserelativeto sunriseorsunset,anda number followedbyHAB andeitherLAL
or SIG, whichI willcall '¡/.The preserveddatais summarised below:
 A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical
TextfromUruk 125

Date Time Longitude V

SE 60, IX, 14 20^ beforesunset Gem26 11,40 HAB LAL
SE 61, IX, 13 [...] [...] 22,[x]0HABLAL
SE 62, 11,15 1 aftersunset Sag 11 30,20HAB SIG
SE 68, IV, 14 50 [...] [...] 10,20°~[...]
SE 69, IV, [. . .] 3 ? aftersunrise Cap 21 6,10 HAB LAL
SE 69, X, 13 24 aftersunrise Can 16 35,10HAB SIG
SE 70, [VIII, . . .] 5C?[...] [...] [x],20HABSIG

Two systemsforcalculatinglongitudesof syzygies(and muchmorebesides)are

knownfromtheACT material.37 In one,thelongitude is calculatedbymeansofa two
zone stepfunction; in theothera zigzagfunction is used. Thusthesetwosystemsare
similarto SystemsA and B of theplanetary theory, and indeedit is customary call
thembythesenames.AlthoughSystemA is foundpredominantly on textsfromBab-
ylon,at leasttwo(probablythree)ephemerides calculatedusingthissystemare from
Uruk.38 Conversely, B
System is foundfairly evenlyat bothsites,although mostofthe
oldertextsarefromUruk.
The longitude functionofa SystemA fullmoonephemeris, knownas columnB, is
calculatedbya stepfunction withtwozones:a fastarcstretching from13° in Piscesto
27° in Virgowitha characteristic velocityw' = 30° permonth,and a slow arc from
27° in Virgoto 13° in Pisces witha characteristicvelocityu>2= 28;7,30° permonth.
System A has such a theoretical
tight structure
that,withonlyveryoccasionalminor
all
variations, of theephereridesareconnectable.It is possible,therefore,
to recompute
a completeSystemA lunarephemeris overanyperiod.Below I comparetheresultsof
theserecomputed SystemA longitudes withthelongitudes on A 3405:

Date A Longitude TextLongitude

System
SE 60,IX, 14 Gem24;52 Gem26
SE 62,II, 15 Sag9 Sag 11
SE 69,IV,[. . .] Capl8;52,30 Cap21
SE 69,X, 13 Canl5;16 Can 16

The poor agreement betweenSystemA and A 3405 indicatesimmediately

thatthe
eclipseswerenotcalculatedbymeansofthisSystem.

37 Fora detaileddiscussionoftheACT lunar

schemes,see O. Neugebauer, ACT,41-85, and
idem,HAMA,474-540.
38 ACT 1
(probably),ACT 2, and W 22340a. This last textis publishedas number99 in
H. Hunger,Spätbabylonische Texteaus UrukTeilI (Gebr.MannVerlag,Berlin,1976).
126 J.M.Steele

In theotherACT lunartheory, SystemB, thelongitudesof syzygiesare calculated

usinga zigzag function witha maximumvalue forthesolarvelocityof 30;1,59° per
month, a minimum of 28;10,39,40°permonth, and a monthly difference
of 0;18. The
periodof thiszigzag function, 12;22,8,53,20,givesthenumberof lunarmonthsafter
whichthereis a precisereturnof solarvelocity(in otherwords,thenumberof mean
synodicmonthsin an anomalisticyear).UnlikeSystemA, SystemB ephemerides are
notnecessarilyconnectable, and so we cannotreconstructa SystemB lunarephemeris
date.As only4 longitudes
foran arbitrary arepreserved on A 3405,itis notpossibleto
perform a rigoroustestofwhether theywerecomputedbySystemB. However,we can
atleastsaythattheycouldhavebeen.Forexample,computing accordingtotheSystem
B rulesbeginningwitha velocityof30° permonthon thedescendingbranchwe get:

Date B Longitude TextLongitude

System
SE 60,IX, 14 Gem26;1 Gem26
SE 62,II, 15 Sag 11;0,9,20 Sag 11
SE 69,IV,[. . .] Cap21;26,36,40 Cap21
SE 69,X, 13 Can 16;45,33,40 Can 16

OutsideoftheACT corpus,we knowofa handfuloftextsdealingwitheclipsepos-

sibilitieswhichuse a moreprimitive longitudescheme.39These assumethatafter12
months, thelongitudeof thesyzygyincreasesby 1 rotationless 10;30°, and after11
monthsthelongitudeincreasesby 1 rotation less 10;30° and 1 sign.Since thereare33
sixmonthintervals and5 fivemonthintervals betweeneclipsepossibilities inone Saros
of 223 months, thisimpliesa solarprogressin one Saros of 18 rotations + 10;30°,in
turnimplying a yearlengthwhichis verynearlycorrect.40 Addingonanother12 months
we obtain235 months=19 completerotations, whichis simplytheMetoniccycle,and
maywell havebeen thebasis fortheseschemes.41 Dividingtheprogressin longitude
over12 monthsby twoto yieldtheprogressin six monthsgives 174;45°. In thetexts,
however,thesix monthprogressin longitudealternates betweentwovalueswiththis
as themean.In all probabilitythiswas donesimplyto avoidfractions of0;45. Attested
pairs are 175° and 174;30°, 176° and 173;30°,and 175;30° and 174°. In each case the
higher value is forthe progressin longitude from ascending to descending node,the
lowerfromdescendingto ascendingnode.

39 BM 36599+36941 with
duplicatesBM 36737 and BM 47912 publisheda TextsB, C and
D in A. Aaboe andA. Sachs,'Two LunarTextsoftheAchaemenidPeriodfromBabylon",Cen-
taurus14 (1969), 1-22. BM 36737 was joined to BM 36580 and republished as TextS in J.P.
Britton,"An EarlyFunctionforEclipse Magnitudesin BabylonianAstronomy", Centaurus32
(1989), 1-52, and in A. Aaboe, J. P. J.
Britton, A. Henderson, Neugebauer, A. J.Sachs,
O. and
Saros CycleDates and RelatedBabylonianAstronomical Texts(AmericanPhilosophicalSociety,
Philadelphia, 1991). BM 36651+36719+37032+37053(reverseknownas TextL) andBM 36400
werepublishedas TextsE andF in thislatterwork.
40 A. Aaboe andA. Sachs,"Two LunarTextsoftheAchaemenidPeriod",18.
41 J.P. Britton,
"AnEarlyFunctionforEclipseMagnitudes", 33.
 A 3405:AnUnusual
Astronomical
Textfrom
Uruk 127

We can see straight awaythata longitudeschemeofthiskindcouldnothavebeen

usedtogivethelongitudes in A 3405. BetweenSE 62, II, 15
oftheeclipsepossibilities
and SE 69, X, 13 thereare 6 twelvemonthintervals and 2 elevenmonthintervals. In
theseschemes,thiscorresponds to a decreasein longitudeoverfullrotations of 144°.
However, inthetextwe havea decreaseof 145°.
The situation
regarding thetimesoftheeclipsesis particularlyunclear.In bothSys-
temA andSystemB ephemerides, thetimeofsyzygyis givenin a columnknownas M.
In SystemA thesearerecordedwithrespectto sunset,whichwouldseemto preclude
SystemA as thesourceof thetimingsgivenin A 3405. However,in SystemB they
are quotedrelativeto thenearerof sunriseor sunset,as we have in thistext.In the
non-mathematical astronomical textssuchas theDiaries,predicted eclipsetimesrelate
notto themomentof syzygybutinsteadto themomentthattheeclipsewas expected
to begin.These werecalculatedeitherby applyingtheSaros periodto earliereclipse
records,orbyestimating thetimefromobservations ofthelunarsix.42Itis worthnoting
thatthetimesoftheeclipsesgiveninA 3405 agreebetter withmoderncomputations of
thetimetheseeclipsesbeganthanthetimeofsyzygy. However,we shouldnotdrawtoo
muchfromthissinceonly4 timings arefullypreserved.
The numbers I havecalled ý mustrelateto eitherthemagnitude of theeclipseor
thelatitudeof themoonat thattime.Below I compare'¡/withmoderncomputations
of themagnitudes (f and X indicateascendingand descendinglatitude
and latitudes,
respectively.)

Date V Computed Latitude

Magnitude Computed
SE 60,IX,14 11,40HABLAL 1.03 -0.8 f
SE 61,IX,13 22,[x]0HABLAL 1.46 0.1 t
SE 62,II, 15 30,20HABSIG 0.51 -1.3 '
SE 68,IV,14 10,20[...] 1.32 -0.9 f
SE 69,IV,[. . .] 6,10HABLAL 1.12 0.3 t
SE 69,X, 13 35,10HABSIG Penumbral -1.6 |
SE 70,[VIII,. . .] [x],20HABSIG Penumbral 1.0 i

It is mybeliefthatý representsthemagnitude oftheeclipse.In theACT material,

magnitudes of eclipsesare givenin tyand relatedcolumns(*!>'and *I>").Takingthe
maximum magnitude ofan eclipseas c, as one wouldexpectmagnitudes increasefrom
0 to c. However,because of thewaycolumn^ is defined,magnitudes thendecrease
againfromc to 2c.43Thisis becauseitis usefulto make*I>a continuous functionthat

42 See J.M. inMesopotamia",

Steele,"EclipsePrediction Archive forHistoryofExactSciences
54 (2000),421-454.
43 Fordetails,see O. "Studiesin AncientAstronomy VII: MagnitudesofLunar
Neugebauer,
EclipsesinBabylonianMathematical Astronomy", Isis 36 (1945), 10-15 andA. Aaboe andJ.A.
128 J.M.Steele

can be calculatednotonlywhenan eclipseis possible,butforall syzygies.When^ is

greater than2c itsimplyactsas a mathematical functionwithout anydirectastronomical
significance.44 In SystemA, ^ is determined fromcolumnE whichcharacterises the
latitudeof themoon.It has theunitsSI "fingers", and themaximummagnitudec =
17;24 fingers. In SystemB, ^ is calculateddirectly andis measuredeitherin fingers or
in termsofthegreatest possibleeclipsemagnitude. Thusc = 18 fingers or 1 maximum
eclipse.
Assumingthat'¡ris measuredin fingers (and so 11,40shouldbe read 11;40,etc.),
thenwe see thatthosevaluesclose to 18 indeedcorrespond to thelargesteclipses.The
greatest valueof ý is 35;10, whichis just largerthan2c (34;48) in SystemA, andjust
smallerthan2c (36) in SystemB, and againas we wouldexpectthisis a verysmall
eclipse (in factpenumbral).In theobservational texts,a totallunareclipseis defined
to havea magnitude of 12 fingers.In SystemB, therefore, themaximummagnitude of
an eclipseis takento be 3/2thatof a totaleclipse.Thus ^ valuesbetween12 and 24
fingers shouldcorrespond to totaleclipses.All oftheý valuesin thisrangedo indeed
correspond to totaleclipses.In addition,theeclipseon SE 60, IX, 14 has a ý valueof
ll;40, i.e.,just less thantotality.Moderncomputations give thiseclipse a magnitude
of 1.03 (i.e.,justtotal),so theBabyloniancalculationsarenotfarwrong.However,the
eclipsein SE 69, IV has a ^ of6; 10 andmoderncomputation givesthiseclipseas total
also witha magnitude of 1.12. Perhaps6;10 is a scribalerrorfor16;10 (mistakesof 10
arecommonin thistext).
In supportof myinterpretation of ý as theeclipsemagnitude is thefactthatit is
followedbythetermHAB. Thisterm,sometimes written inothertextsinthefullerform
HAB-rat,seemstomean"disc"inthebroadsenseofthemoon'sdisc,orsometimes the
moretechnical"eclipsemagnitude".45 HAB is evenusedto referto column^ in some
oftheACT ephemerides.
Comparison ofthecomputedlatitudes withý immediately suggeststhatwe interpret
thelogogramsLAL andSIG as increasing anddescending latitude A better
respectively.
wayof expressing thiswouldbe to say thatLAL indicatesthattheeclipsetakesplace
neartheascendingnode,and SIG nearthedescendingnode. Similarusage is attested,
eg,in ACT 135 whichis also fromUruk.46
To summarise, I suspectthatthe lunarlongitudeswere takenfroma SystemB
ephemeris oreclipsetextsuchas ACT 135,andthatthefunction ý is closelyrelatedto
theSystemB function *I>or one ofitsfamily. However,withthesmallamountofdata
preserved, thiscan be no morethana working hypothesis.

Henderson,"The BabylonianTheoryof LunarLatitudeand Eclipses Accordingto SystemA",

ArchivesInternationalesd'Histoiredes Sciences25 (1975), 181-222.
44
NeugebauerreservedU>forthefunction whenitwascalculatedonlyforeclipsepossibilities,
andused *!>'and 4*"forthosefunctions I call all these
calculatedforall syzygies.Forsimplicity,
functions between*I>and *!>'or U>"is irrelevant
U>sincethedifference forthepresentdiscussion.
45 O. Ex-
Neugebauer,ACT, 197-198. See also A. Livingstone, Mysticaland Mythological
planatoryWorksofAssyrianand BabylonianScholars(ClarendonPress,Oxford,1986),90.
46 O. ACT, 162.
Neugebauer,
 TextfromUruk
A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical 129

(vìi) Summary

I haveshownabovethattheastronomical dataon A 3405 is on thewholeconsistent

withhavingbeencalculatedbymeansofACT schemes.Butdoes thisimplythatitdoes
indeedcomefromtheseACT schemes?In myopinion,theanswerto thisquestionis
yes.Comparison ofthedatesoftheplanetary phenomenaon A 3405 withthedatesof
theobservations intheDiariesshowedconsiderable discrepancies whichprovethatthe
A 3405 datacannothavebeenobserved.
The datesofplanetary phenomenacalculatedbytheACT schemesmayvarycon-
siderablyfrom the true datesofthephenomena.47 Nevertheless, thedatesinA 3405 are,
withtheexception ofthoseforMercury, inverycloseagreement withdatesgivenbythe
ACT schemes.Similarly, ACT longitudes can varybya considerable amountfromthe
truelongitudes ofthephenomena. Taking the first in
visibility the east (T) ofMercury
as anexample,thesynodicarcaroundCapricorn inSystemA' is about10° greater than
thatgivenbymoderncomputations, andabout10° less aroundTaurus.48 Nevertheless,
thelongitudes of F in A 3405 arein exactagreement withtheSystemA' valuesin this
partofthezodiac.Thusthelongitudes fortheMercury dataalmostexactlyfitan ACT
schemethatdoes notitselfalwaysagreewell withtheactualastronomical situation.
Although notso extreme, similararguments could be made forthe other planets.
Probablythemostconvincing argument, however, is notthatanyindividualplanet
almostexactlyfitsan ACT scheme,butratherthattheyall fitso well. For example,
withthemoonwe onlyhavefourlongitudes. If thisinformation was all thathad been
preserved on the text,it could be
rightly arguedthat,although these longitudes can be
fittedintoa lunarSystemB scheme,thisis nothing morethancoincidence.However,
thefactthattheyarepreserved on a tabletwhereall oftheotherdatais consistent with
ACT methodsallowsus to saythatthislunardatais highlylikelyto also comefroman
ACT scheme.The internalself-consistency of thetabletif it is assumedto havebeen
calculatedbyACT methodsis striking.

Context

AttheendofcolumnVIII, 10 linesofa colophonarepartially

preserved:
12'[x] M
A šá
'y[tu]p-pildl-EN-šú-nu
WVNi-din-tuA-álxúGALAá'
15' ma-rùIdsm-TI-ÍRUNUGki-w
16' ?óíIdl-AD-GURDUMU.A-lw
17' 1ÚUMBISAG DIŠ-UD-dl-dEN-LÍL-LÁ
18' UNUGkiituGAN<UD>-14-KAM
19' [MU-lHmč-211 AAn-ti-'i-i-ku-su
LUGAL

47 See, 2.2ffinN. M. Swerdlow,

e.g.,figures BabylonianTheoryofthePlanets,whichcompare
observedandtheoreticalsynodictimeswiththosefromtheACT schemes.
48 A. Aaboe,"On Theories".
BabylonianPlanetary
130 J.M.Steele

20' [. . .] UDU-IDIMmeš
21' [...]30

12'[...]
13' [Tab]letofAnu-bel-šunu, son of
14' Nidinti-Ani, lamentation priestofAnu,
15' descendant of Sin-leqë-unninnï,theUrukean.
16' HandofAnu-aba-utër, his son,
17' tupšarEnümaAnuEnlil.
18' Uruk,MonthIX, the14th,
19' [year1]21,kingAntiochus.
20' [. . .] planets
21' [. ..]moon?.
The ownerandscribe,Anu-běl-šunu andhissonAnu-aba-utër, arebothwellknown
fromastronomical textsfoundat Uruk(see Table2), as wellas othertextsincludingan
illustrated
astrologicaltextwhichlinkszodiacalsignswiththenamesofcities,temples,
planets,trees and stones,49a ritualtext,50themathematical textTU 33, and various
administrative documents.51
The datethatA 3405 was written fitsin well withthedatesof thetextsmentioned
above. Most of theACT textsfromUrukmaybe datedto betweenaboutSE 90 and
SE 150. Althoughthesite fromwhichthesetabletswererecoveredis unknown, the
Germanexcavationsof 1912/13weremadein thevicinity of theRës sanctuary,52and
manyofthetabletswereprobablyfoundat thistime.The colophonsofa numberofthe
astronomical textsindicatethattheastronomers hadsomeconnection withthetemple,53
andthisled Neugebauerto suggestthatthechronology oftheUrukACT textsmayhave
beenrelatedtothehistory oftheRës sanctuary. He arguesthatthisastronomical activity
may haveceased around SE 173 with thedestruction of theRës shortly
sanctuary, after
theoccupationofBabyloniabytheParthians. However, a textpublishedin 1984indicates

49 E. Weidner, Tontafeln
aufbabylonischen (HermannBöhlausNachf.,
Gestirn-Darstellungen
Graz,1967),text2.
50 W.R. Ritualeaus WarkamitEmesal-Gebeten", Orientalia47 (1978),
Mayer,"Seleukidische
431^58.
51 See H.
Hunger,BabylonischeundassyrischeKolophone(VerlagButzon& BerckerKevel-
aer,Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1968),D. B. Weisberg, TheLateBabylonianTextsoftheOrientalInstitute
Collection(UndenaPublications, Malibu,1991),36-37, andthetabletscitedinG. J.P. McEwan,
Priestand TempleinHellenisticBabylonia(FranzSteinerVerlag,Wiesbaden,198 1), 12, andP.-A.
Beaulieuand F. Rochberg,"The Horoscopeof Anu-Bělšunu", Journalof Cuneiform Studies48
(1996), 89-94, esp. 93-94 and n. 18-21.
52 O. ACT, 10.
Neugebauer,
53 See F. in Late Babylonia",in H. D. Gaiter
Rochberg,"The CulturalLocus of Astronomy
(ed.), Die Rolle derAstronomie in den KulturenMesopotamiens (Graz, 1993),31-45 and idem,
"Scribesand Scholars:thetupsarEnümaAnuEnliV' in J.Marzahnand H. Neumann(eds.),As-
syriologicaetSemitica:FestschriftfürJoachimOelsneranläßlichseines65. Geburtstages am 18.
Februar1997 (Kevelaer,Butzon& Berker,1999).
 TextfromUruk
A 3405: An UnusualAstronomical 131

textsownedorwritten
Table 2. Astronomical andAnu-aba-uter
byAnu-bel-šunu

Text Owner Scribe Date Written Contents

ACT 102 Anu-běl-šunu - SE 121,XII, 12 SystemB lunar

ephemerisfor
SE 121
ACT 135 Anu-běl-šunu [Anu-aba-utěr] SE 12[1],I SystemB eclipsetext
forSE 113-130
ACT 163 Šamaš-etir Anu-aba-utër - SystemB auxiliary
lunartextforSE
117
ACT 165 - Anu-aba-utër - SystemB auxiliary
lunartextforSE
137-156
ACT 171 - Anu-aba-utër - SystemB auxiliary
lunartextforSE
115-124
ACT 194 Anu-aba-utër Ana-balatsu-iqbï SE 13[0],VI, 28 Daily lunarpositions
forSE 130
ACT 400 Anu-bël-sunu Anu-aba-utër - VenusSystemAo for
SE 111-135
ACT 501 Anu-aba-utër Anu-uballit SE 124,IX, 4 Mars SystemA forSE
123-202
ACT 600 Šamaš-etir Anu-aba-utër SE 118,VII, 12 JupiterSystemA for
113-173
ACT 640 Anu-bël-sunu Anu-aba-utër SE 119 JupiterSystemB'
for131-161. Also
proceduretextACT
820 forJupiter
ACT 802 Anu-aba-utër - - Proceduretextfor(at
least) Saturn
NCBT 1232 - - Horoscopeof Anu-
bel-šunuplacinghis
dateof birthas SE
63, X, 2

thattheRes sanctuary in at leastSE 203.54 Furthermore,

was stillfunctioning a text
a
containingsummary ofastronomicalobservations fortheyearsSE 212 to 214 almost
also comesfromUruk,55
certainly andindicatesthatastronomical activitydidnotcease

54 W 18568,
publishedby K. Kessler,"Eine arsakidenzeitiche
Urkundeaus Warka",Bagh-
daderMitteilungen15 (1984),273-281. See also S. Sherwin-White,
"SeleucidBabylonia:A Case
StudyfortheInstallationand Development of GreekRule",in A. Kuhrtand S. Sherwin-White,
Hellenismin theEast (University
ofCaliforniaPress,Berkeley, 1987) 1-31.
55 BM 140677,
publishedby A. J.Sachs and H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related
TextsfromBabyloniaVolumeIII (Österreichische AkademiederWissenschaften,Wien,1996),
406ff.
132 J.M.Steele

in thecityaftertheParthianconquest.It seemsmorelikelythattheconcentration of
astronomical materialinthefirsthalfofthesecondcentury oftheSeleucidEra is related
purelyto theexcavations;perhapstheycomefroma smallnumberofprivateortemple
archives.56
Although thedatewhenA 3405 was written is similartothatoftheotherACT texts,
itscontents earlier,coveringtheyearsSE 60 to 70. Amongthegeneral
aresignificantly
ACT corpus,thetextsareusuallycontemporary withtheircontents, orelse containcal-
culationsforthenearfuture. Why,therefore, does thistabletcontaincalculationsfor
thisearlierperiod?Furthermore, whydoes itcontainmaterialforall oftheplanetsand
forlunareclipsesarranged chronologically? Collectionssuchas thisarenotattested in
anyotherACT texts.
I thinkwe can discountthepossibilitythatthiscomputedmaterialwas gathered
together so thatitmightbe comparedwiththeobservational recordtotestthereliability
oftheastronomical models.The ownerand scribeofA 3405 knewofmanymoreACT
planetary schemesthanwereusedincompilingthistext,so whyshouldtheseparticular
oneshavebeenchosenforcomparison? In anycase,itwouldseemmuchmoresensible
tocollecttogether datafora particularplanetcalculatedbyall theknownschemes,and
thencomparethesewithobservations. Furthermore, I wouldquestiontheidea thatthere
existedsucha simplerelationship between"observation" and "theory"in Babylonian
astronomy that"theory"wouldbe testedin thisway.57
A moretempting answertothisquestionis tosee A 3405 as a collectionofastronom-
ical materialused in makinghoroscopes.Only28 horoscopesareknownto us today.58
MostarefromBabylon,butfivearefromUruk(one oftheseis a duplicate,another con-
tainstwohoroscopes).Although all ofthesehoroscopeshavecertainfeatures incommon
(in particulartheyall containpositionsof thesun,moonand planetsin thezodiac),59
itseemsto me validto dividethemintotwosubsetsbasedupontheirprovenancesince
thereare noticeabledifferences betweenthetextsfromthesetwo sites.In particular,
noneoftheUrukhoroscopesincludesreferences to eclipses,solsticesor equinoxesor
thelunarthree,datawhichis frequently recordedin theexamplesfromBabylon,butdo
sometimescontaina statement aboutthemoon'slatitudewhichis neverfoundin the
horoscopesfromBabylon.Furthermore, theUrukhoroscopeshavea tendency to give
longitudes withdegrees(5 outof5 texts)whereasthisis rarein thetextsfromBabylon
(3 outof22, all ofwhicharecomparatively lateindate).Notall oftheUrukhoroscopes
givedegreesof longitudeforall oftheheavenlybodies,however.Texts5 and 9 record

56 Privatearchives textsdid existat Uruk.See,

amongotherthingsastronomical
containing
forexample,thetabletsfromthelibraryof Iqïsâ collectedin E. von Weiher,Spä tbaby Ionische
Texteaus UrukTeilII (Gebr.MannVerlag,Berlin,1983). On archivesfromLateBabylonianUruk
generally,see O. Pedersén,ArchivesandLibrariesintheAncientNearEast 1500-300B.C. (CDL
Press,Bethesda,Maryland,1998),202-213.
57 The andtheory
betweenobservation in Babylo-
onlydetaileddiscussionoftherelationship
nianastronomy "BetweenObservation
is F. Rochberg-Halton, andTheoryin BabylonianAstro-
nomicalTexts",JournalofNear EasternStudies50 (1991), 107-120.
58
HoroscopesarecitedbytheirtextnumberinF. Rochberg, BabylonianHoroscopes(Ameri-
can PhilosophicalSociety,Philadelphia,1998).
59 Or, non-zodiacalconstellations.
occasionally,
 A 3405:AnUnusual Textfrom
Astronomical Uruk 133

themonlyforthesunandmoon;text10 and 11 (duplicate)fortheSun andthevisible

planets(Mercurywas said to be too close to thesun to be visibleon thatdate); and
thetwohoroscopeson text16 givedegreesof longitudeforthefiveplanetsand,for
horoscopeb only,themoon.
Whatwas thesourceofthedegreesoflongitudes in thehoroscopes?Sachs,basing
hiscomments on onlythe6 horoscopesthatwereidentified at thetime,suggestedthat
theycomefromthemathematical ephemerides.60Working fromthecompletecorpusof
currently knownhoroscopes, however, Rochberghas givena morecautiousstatement:
"we lacktheevidencetoconcludein anypositivewaythatACT tablesormethodswere
usedbythescribeswhopreparedhoroscopes".61 The argument againstidentifyingthe
ACT textsas thesourceof thedegreesof longitudes is thatACT planetary and lunar
theory has as itsprimary goal thecalculationofthedatesandlongitudes, etc.,ofpartic-
ularphenomena(theGreekLetterphenomenafortheplanets,syzygiesforthemoon)
ratherthanlongitudes times.Thislattergoal was apparently
at arbitrary onlytreatedas
a secondary problembytheBabylonianastronomers, although theirmethodsforitsso-
lutionweremathematically highlyastute.The veryfactthatsuchinterpolation methods
weredeveloped,however, meansthattheycouldhavebeenusedinmakinghoroscopes,
iftheastronomers so desired.
Sincethelongitudes areonlygiventothedegree,oroccasionallyhalfdegree,inthe
horoscopes, theycouldalso havebeencalculatedsimplybya straightforward, probably
linear,interpolation betweenthelongitudes ofGreekLetterphenomena inanephemeris.
In thisrespect, a textsuchas A 3405 whichbringstogether all theplanetary datawould
havebeenextremely useful,and thiscould explainwhythelongitudes in A 3405 are
roundedto thenearestdegree.Lunareclipsesare notrecordedin thepreservedUruk
horoscopes,buta statement concerning thelatitudeof themoonoftenis, and thisis
givenforeach lunareclipsepossibility in A 3405. However,A 3405 does notprovide
solarandlunarlongitudes, excepton thedateofa lunareclipsepossibility.
We mustalso considerwhetherany plausiblesourcesexistapartfromthe ACT
schemesforcalculating degreesofplanetary longitudes. Rochberghas arguedthatmost
of thecontents of theBabylonianhoroscopescould havebeentakenfromtheAlma-
nacs.62Fortheplanets,thesetextscontain,foreachmonth, thedateoftheGreekLetter
phenomena together withthezodiacal signin whichit occurs,and thedateswhenthe
planetsenterintoeach sign.Interpolation betweenthedatesof thesignentrieswould
givetheplanetary longitudes foranyrequireddate,providing theplanetdidnotchange
thedirection of itsmotion.However,theAlmanacsdo notprovideinformation on the
longitude ofthesunormoon.
AtUruk,andprobablyalso as Babylon,horoscopeswereapparently writtenbythe
samegroupofscribeswhowrotetheACT textsofmathematical astronomy. Anyonewho

60 A. Sachs,
"BabylonianHoroscopes",JournalofCuneiform Studies6 (1952),49-75.
61 F.
Rochberg,"BabylonianHoroscopy:The Textsand theirRelations",in N. M. Swerd-
low(ed.),Ancient Astronomyand CelestialDivination(The MIT Press,Cambridge, MA, 1999),
39-59,esp. 48.
62 F.
Rochberg-Halton,"BabylonianHoroscopesand theirSources",Orientalia58 (1989),
102-123.
134 J.M.Steele

madehoroscopeswouldalmostcertainly havebeena memberof theintellectual elite,

mostlikelya tupiarEnümaAnuEnlil.Onlytheseindividuals wouldhavehadaccessto,
notto sayunderstanding of,thenecessaryastronomical dataon whicha horoscopewas
based.Despitetheremarks aboveabouttheutilityofAlmanacsforcastinghoroscopes, it
seemstomemorelikelythattheastronomical dataintheUrukexampleswas takenfrom
theACT texts.Too fewnon-mathematical astronomical textshavebeenrecovered from
Urukto suggestanylarge-scaleprogramme ofastronomical observation comparableto
thatundertaken in Babylon.Without theseobservations, textssuchas Almanacscannot
havebeen producedon a regularbasis. Therefore, theonlysourcefromwhichastro-
nomicalmaterial couldbe takenwhena horoscopewas commissioned, perhaps20 or30
yearsafterthedateofitscontents, werethetextsofmathematical astronomy whichwere
eitheralreadyprepared, orcouldbe calculatedfairly readilywhenrequired.AtBabylon
withitslongprogramme ofastronomical observation, however, it seemsquitepossible
thatAlmanacs,whichwereapparently prepared foreachyearfromatleastSE 50, could
havebeenconsultedandusedto compilea horoscope,as Rochberghas argued.
Returning toA 3405,although we cannotsayconclusively whether longitudesinthe
horoscopesweretakenfromtextssuchas this,theveryfactthatitcontainscalculated
datafora periodsome60 yearsbeforeitwas written seemstometobe highlysuggestive.
Indeed,I can see no otherreasonwhythistextmighthavebeencompiledexceptthat
itwas to do withhoroscopes.Horoscopesare,afterall, theonlyastronomical textsthat
werebynecessity writtenafter- perhapssomeyearsafter- theircontents. By a remark-
able chance,NCBT 1232,a textin theNewellCollectionofBabylonianTabletshoused
at Yale University,63 containsthehoroscopeof a certainAnu-běl-šunu, and Francesca
Rochberghas arguedthatthisis thesameAnu-běl-šunu, sonofNidinti- Ani,descendent
ofSin-leqë-unninnï knownto us fromtheACT material, andownerofA 3405. He was
bornon SE 63, X, 2, one oftheyearscoveredbyA 3405. Couldthistexthaveprovided
thematerialforhis ownhoroscope?Unfortunately, no directcomparisoncan be made
sincethatpartof A 3405 corresponding to thedate of his birthis destroyed.It must
be noted,however,thatAnu-bël-sunu's horoscopedoes notgivedegreesof planetary
longitudes, onlydegreesoflongitudeforthesunandmoon.
I thinkitis reasonableto speculate,therefore,thatA 3405 was preparedto assistin
makinghoroscopesforclientswhowerebornbetweenSE 60 and70. Ifthiswasthecase,
whichI repeatwe haveno directevidencefor,thenit wouldmeanthatAnu-běl-šunu
and his son Anu-aba-utër preparedhoroscopes.This suggestiondoes notseemto me
to be too untenablesince Anu-běl-šunu did own astrologicalas well as astronomical
tablets.Countingagainstthissuggestion, however, is thefactthattheclientsforwhom
a horoscopewas castusingA 3405 wouldbe overfifty yearsold atthistime.
Irrespective of whether A 3405 was indeedused to makehoroscopes,thetextis of
considerableimportance sinceit is thefirstexamplewe haveof a textcompiledfrom
ACT ephemerides. These ACT textswerenotjust theoretical exercises,then,buthad
somefunction - whatever thatmayhavebeen.Atthemoment we do notknowwhether
A 3405 is an exampleof a standardtypeof textthatwas regularly compiled,or an in-

63 NCBT 1232 has been

publishedby P.-A. Beaulieu and F. Rochberg,"The Horoscopeof
andas text9 in F. Rochberg,
Anu-Bèïsunu", BabylonianHoroscopes.
 A 3405:AnUnusual Textfrom
Astronomical Uruk 135

dividualtextwritten
forsomeparticularpurpose.Perhapsothertextssimilarto A 3405
willonedaysurface,whetheritbe fromthegroundorthedepthsofa museumcollection.
However,thefactthata textof thistypewouldbe compiledfromACT ephemerides
wouldmakeit in a sense "disposable".If one wereused on a day-by-day basis, for
exampleincompiling horoscopes,thenitwouldbe subjecttowearandtear,andperhaps
it wouldeveneventuallybe discardedby theowneronce it was no longerconsidered
useful,whereastheactualACT ephemerides mayhavebeenonlyconsultedirregularly
tocompilethesetexts,andthusremainin a bettercondition.
One cannotdiscount,how-
ever,thesimpleaccidentsof excavationforthefactthatothertextssimilarto A 3405
arenotcurrentlyknown.

Acknowledgements. I amdeeply
indebted
toHermann forsending
Hunger mea copyofhistrans-
ofA 3405inadvance
literation andforseveral
ofpublication, useful
discussions
duringthecourse
I alsowishtothank
ofthisresearch. AlexanderJonesandJohnBritton
fortheir
helpinunravelling
various wasmadepossiblebytheawardofa Leverhulme
partsofthistext.Thisresearch Trust
ResearchFellowship.

ofPhysics
Department
ofDurham
University
SouthRoad
Durham,DH13LE
England

(ReceivedMay 17,2000)