Archaeoastronomical Analysis of Assyrian and Babylonian Monuments: Methodological Issues

Aaboe A. , “Scientific astronomy in Antiquity”, in Hodson F. R. (ed.), The place of astronomy in the ancient world (Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London , ser. A, xxlxxvi (1974), 21–42).

Hartner W. , “The earliest history of the constellations in the Near East and the motif of the lion-bull combat”, Journal of Near Eastern studies , xxiv (1965), 1–16.

An earlier version of this paper was read at the Oxford 4 Conference held in Stara Zagora , 23–27 August 1993. Since this text was written, Tuman has published a number of other studies. However, these do not change substantially the content of the present paper. One of Tuman's contributions (“An attempt to date Text 3 of Enuma Anu Enlil, Tablets 50–51”, Archive for history of exact sciences , xlvi (1993–94), 95–103) has received substantial criticism ( De Meis S. , “Astronomical dating of 'observed” events in the star list V R 46”, Archiv für Orientforschung , xlii/3 (1995/6), 208–9; Hunger H. , “Astronomical dating of ‘observed’ events in the star list V R 46”, Archiv für Orientforschung , xlii/3 (1995/6), 209). My review concerns symbolic representations of the Mesopotamian gods interpreted in terms of particular constellations and stars and it is not my intention to criticize Tuman's approaches to Mesopotamian textual astronomical evidence. I grateful to Walker C. B. F. of the British Museum for his encouraging and very helpful editorial comments as well as for supplementing my list of Tuman's publications. I also acknowledge his help in providing me with other publications. Naturally, I take full responsibility for the viewpoints expressed here.

Cullens L. Tuman V. S. , “Immortality etched in stones”, Griffith observer , 1/1 (1986), 10–19; Tuman V. S. , “Astronomical dating of Esarhaddon's Stela”, Griffith observer , lii/1 (1987), 10–19; Tuman V. S. Hoffman R. , “Rediscovering the past: Application of computers to the astronomical dating of Kudurru SB22 of the Louvre Museum”, Archaeoastronomy (USA), x (1987–88), 124–38.

Tuman Hoffman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 135.

Tuman Hoffman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 125; Cullens Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 11; Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 14.

Cullens Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 16.

Brinkman J. A. , “Kudurru. A: Philologisch”, Reallexikon der Assyriologie , vi/3-4 (1981), 267–74.

Brinkman , op. cit. (ref. 8); Seidl U. , “Die babylonischen Kudurru-Reliefs”, Baghdader Miteilungen , iv (1968), 7–220; idem, “Die babylonischen Kudurru-Reliefs: Symbole mesopotamischer Gottheiten (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, lxxxvii; Freiburg and Göttingen, 1989); Brinkman J. A. Dalley S. , “A royal kudurru from the reign of Aššur-nadin-šumi”, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie , lxxviii/1 (1988), 76–98, p. 77.

For example, Oppert Pinches Epping Strassmaier cited in Hinke W. J. , A new boundary stone of Neburhadrezzar I from Nippur (Philadelphia, 1907), 71, 73.

Hommel , cited by Seidl , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1989), 17.

Cf. Hinke , op. cit. (ref. 10), 98–101, 106–15.

van der Waerden B. L. , Science Awakening II (Leiden and New York, 1974), 92.

Enumerated in Hinke , op. cit. (ref. 10), 71, 92–93. See also Watelin L. Ch. , Observations nouvelles sur les kudurrus (Paris, 1933).

Hinke , op. cit. (ref. 10), 96, 115.

Weidner E. F. , “Eine Beschreibung des Sternenhimmels aus Assur”, Archiv für Orientforschung , iv (1927), 73–85; idem, “Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln”, Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften , Philosophisch-historische Klasse, ccliv/2 (1967), 1–54, p. 7.

Weidner , op. cit. (ref. 16, 1967), 33–34.

E.g. Seidl U. , “Göttersymbole und Attribute”, in Reallexikon der Assyriologie , iii/7 (1969), 484–90; idem, op. cit. (ref. 9, 1989), 233–4).

Cullens Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 12–14; Tuman Hoffman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 127–9.

Tablet BM 86368 I, 24–25, see Weidner E. F. , Handbuch der babylonischen Astronomie (Leipzig, 1915), 35 and Kugler F. X. , Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (Münster, 1913), 58.

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See tablet BM 86378 II, 22, Weidner , op. cit. (ref. 20), 36.

Reiner E. (in collaboration with David Pingree ), Enuma Anu Enlil, Tablet 50–51 (Bibliotheca Mesopotamia, ii/2; Malibu, 1981), 7.

See tablet V R 46, Weidner , op. cit. (ref. 20), 51.

Tuman Hoffman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 136.

Brinkman , op. cit. (ref 8), 270.

Brinkman J. A. , A political history of post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158–722 B.C. (Analecta Orientalia, xliii; Rome, 1968), 192–205.

According to Tuman Hoffman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 136.

Thureau-Dangin F. , “Un acte de donation de Marduk-zakir-šumi”, Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale , xvi/3 (1919), 117–56, pp. 126, 130; Brinkman , op. cit. (ref. 28), 201–2.

Tuman Hoffman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 136.

Brinkman , op. cit. (ref. 28), 203; Seidl , op. cit. (ref. 9, 1989), 59.

Brinkman , op. cit. (ref. 8), 270.

Stanisław Iwaniszewski , “Rola kudurru w kulturze kasyckiej”, unpublished Master's thesis, Institute of Archaeology, Warsaw University, 1978.

Brinkman , op. cit. (ref. 8), 269–70.

Oppenheim A. L. , Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a dead civilization (Chicago, 1964; 1st edn, 1938), 123; Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 34).

Hinke , op. cit. (ref. 10), 92–93; Thureau-Dangin , op. cit. (ref. 30), 135; Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 34); Iwaniszewski , “Observations sur l'iconographie des kudurrus cassites en Mésopotamie”, Astronomie et sciences humaines , viii (1993), 71–100; for a different opinion cf. Zimmern H. , Göttersymbole des Nazimarittaš-Kudurru (Leipziger Semitistische Studien , ii/2 (1906), 33–44; republished Leipzig, 1968).

Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 37); Stanisław Iwaniszewski , “Babylonian kudurrus from the Second Dynasty of Isin: An archaeoastronomical analysis”, in Reunion européenne d'astronomie & sciences humaines , ed. by Carl Jaschek (Strasbourg, 1994), 139–59.

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Lambert W. G. , “Götterlisten”, Reallexikon der Assyriologie , iii/6 (1969), 473–9, p. 475.

Reiner , op. cit. (ref. 24), 6.

Ibid. , 1.

Weidner , op. cit. (ref. 20), 62–102.

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Larsen , op. cit. (ref. 45), 211–17.

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Soden , op. cit. (ref. 47).

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Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 37); Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 38).

Seidl , opera cit. (ref. 9).

Iwaniszewski , op. cit. (ref. 34).

Eliade M. , The myth of the eternal return (New York, 1954), 55–58.

Eliade M. , The sacred and the profane (New York, 1961), 77.

Berthelot R. , La pensée de l'Asie et l'astrobiologie (Paris, 1949); Wierciñski A. , “Time and space in the Sun Pyramid from Teotihuacan”, Polish contributions in New World archaeology , i (1977), 87–103.

There is no place here to discuss these problems in detail. However, observe that under the reign of Nabu-apla-iddina and Marduk-zâkir-šumi I who ruled in the ninth century b.c. (around 890–824 b.c., according to Brinkman , op. cit. (ref. 28)), three kudurrus (BM 90922, BM 91000, AO 6684) were dated on the 20th of Nisannu. Brinkman ( ibid. , 201–2) also notes that Shalmanaser III (c. 858–824 b.c.) started his second campaign against the Babylonian rebels on the same day and postulates that this the 20th of Nisannu was considered as a propitious day.

Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 12–13.

Tuman Hoffman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 88–128.

Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 13–15.

Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4), 18.

Van der Waerden , op. cit. (ref. 13), 89.

Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Oppenheim A. L. , “The city of Assur in 714 B.C.”, Journal of Near Eastern studies , xix/2 (1960), 133–47.

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Tuman V. S. , “The Cerberus Slab of Hatra may represent important astronomical events”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society , xxiv (1983), 14–23; idem, “The tomb of Antiochus revisited: Planetary alignments and the deification of the King”, Archaeoastronomy (USA), vii (1984), 56–69.

Brykczyñski P. , “Astrologia w Palmyrze”, Studia Palmyreñskie , vi (1975), 47–109, p. 81.

Brykczyñski , “Astrologia w Palmyrze” (ref. 66).

Tuman , op. cit. (ref. 4).

Chadwick R. , “The origins of astronomy and astrology in Mesopotamia”, Archaeoastronomy (USA), vii (1984), 89–95, p. 91.

For example, Koch J. Schaper U. Fischer S. Wegelin M. , “Eine neue Interpretation der Kudurru-Symbole”, Archive for history of exact sciences , xli/2 (1990), 93–114.