The illustrations on this page have been compiled from a variety of sources. If advised that copyright has been infringed I will immediately remove the particular illustration(s).
E: Late Mesopotamian Constellations
8: Assyrian Mul.Apin series
WA 86378 [BM 86378]. Mul.Apin tablet 1 (obverse side and reverse side) in the British Museum, London. (The tablet is 8.4 cms high and is considered to be a masterpiece of miniature cuneiform writing.) The broad astronomical content and significance of the (two-tablet) Mul.Apin series had been identified by the English assyriologists Archibald Sayce and Robert Bosanquet in a journal article published in 1880. The first part of the Mul.Apin series to be published was BM 86378 in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum: Part XXXIII (Plates 1-8) by Leonard King (1912). This tablet is almost complete copy of tablet 1. See also "A Neo-Babylonian Astronomical Treatise in the British Museum and its Bearing on the Age of Babylonian Astronomy." by Leonard King (Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology, Volume 35, 1913). This article by the English assyriologist Leonard King drew attention to the importance of this text for identifying the Babylonian constellations. In the next two years numerous articles and books appeared that utilised its star list information in the attempt to identify the Babylonian constellations and the stars that comprised such.
This principal copy of tablet 1 probably dates to circa 500 BCE and is a late Babylonian copy of tablet 1 of the astronomical compendium Mul.Apin. The earliest copies were recovered from the royal archives of the Assyrian King Assurbanipal (667-626 BCE) in Nineveh (and also from Assur). The Mul.Apin series contains the most comprehensive surviving star/constellation catalogue. It is largely devoted to describing the risings and settings of constellations/stars in relation to the schematic calendar of twelve 30-day months.
The text of tablet 1 was able to be completely restored with the aid of five copies - one dated to the Neo-Babylonian Period, two from Assurbanipal's library (hence written before 612 BCE), and two from Assur.
The principal copy of the second tablet is VAT 9412 from Assur, dated 687 BCE. (This is the oldest of the texts.) Multiple copies of tablet 2 are known: principally three from Assur, three from Assurbanipal's library, and one dated to the Neo-Babylonian period.
There are also texts of Mul.Apin in which the two tablets are combined in one large tablet. The connection of a third tablet to the Mul.Apin series, by some modern commentators, was probably only an occasionally added appendix to Mul.Apin.
The Mul.Apin series (the name being derived from its opening words) is obviously a compilation of nearly all astronomical knowledge of the period before 700 BCE. (Because the Mul.Apin series is a compilation from various sources no single date is assignable.) It is difficult to identify the history of the text or the sources for its parts. However, it is reasonably certain the origin of the Mul.Apin series dates to the Assyrian Period circa 1000 BCE. (Component parts of Mul.Apin date at least to the early first millennium BCE.) The Mul.Apin series contain improvements to the older astrolabe lists of the stars of Anu, Enlil, and Ea. Various facts make a Babylonian origin of the series probable. Everything that is known about the astronomy of this period is in some way related to the series Mul.Apin. The Mul.Apin series follows the "astrolabe" system (i.e., "three stars each" calendrical system) very closely, but at the same time, it also makes some substantial improvements.
Mul.Apin is essentially a series of structured lists grouped into 18 sections. Tablet 1 basically contains eight sections (including five star lists): (1) a list of 33 stars in the Path of Anu, 23 stars in the Path of Enlil, and 15 stars in the Path of Ea; (2) a sequential list of (Morning Rising) dates in the ideal calendar (i.e., based on a year comprised of 12 months of 30 days each) on which 36 fixed stars and constellations rose heliacally; (3) a list of simultaneously rising and setting constellations; (4) time intervals (periodicity) between the Morning Rising dates of some selected stars; (5) the visibility of the fixed stars in the East and the West; (6) a list of 14 ziqpu-stars (i.e., stars which culminate overhead as more fundamental stars helically rise) [May be deemed secondary stars.]; (7) the relation between the culmination of zipqu-stars and their Morning Rising; and (8) a list of stars and planets in the path of the moon. (The beginning of the second tablet continues the listing of (8) in tablet 1.) Tablet 2 basically has ten sections dealing with: (9) the path of the sun and the planets and the path of the moon; (10) Sirius data (rising dates) relating to the equinoxes and solstices; (11) the heliacal risings of some further fixed stars, wind directions; (12) data relating to the five planets (i.e., the planetary periods); (13) the four corners of the sky; (14) the astronomical seasons (i.e., the sun's risings on the eastern horizon on the days of the solstices and equinoxes); (15) Babylonian intercalary practice (i.e., a scheme (actually two schemes) of intercalary months); (16) gnomon tables detailing shadow lengths and water clock data (i.e., weights of water for their clocks) [A list showing, by mathematical calculations, when the shadow of a gnomon (vertical rod) one cubit high is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10, cubits long at various seasons.]; (17) the length of a night watch on the 1st and 15th day of the month, tables of the period of the moon's visibility (Rules for calculating the rising and setting of the moon.); and (18) astral omens connected with fixed stars and comets.
A list of 17/18 stars/asterisms in the path of the moon is given. A statement that the Sun, Moon, and five planets were considered to move on the same path also appears. Reports of lunar eclipses dating from the 7th-century BCE are also recorded.
The Mul.Apin series contains the earliest (surviving) full description of the Mesopotamian constellations. Its detailed constellation material dates to the late 2nd-millennium BCE possibly relates to the Mesopotamian constellations being largely formalised around the time of the completion of the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil.
The data contained in the Mul.Apin series is not quantifiable (i.e., precisely defined) and appropriate assumptions are required to be made (i.e., of the stars forming each constellation and which of these stars were listed to rise heliacally). In a Hastro-L posting (June 5, 2007) the assyriologist Hermann Hunger explained: "The tablets contain no observations. They state on which calendar date certain phenomena (mostly risings and settings) are supposed to occur. Since that calendar used real lunar months, and years consisting of either 12 or 13 such months, the date of a stellar rising, e.g., cannot occur on the same date each year. Assuming that the dates given in the text are the result of averaging, one can use them as if they were observations."
Analysing all of the star list data in the Mul.Apin series the American astronomer Brad Schaefer has concluded (2007) that the epoch for the data comprising Mul.Apin star lists is 1370 ± 100 BCE with a latitude of 35° ± 1.2°. The actual observations to establish the data through averaging were obviously a little earlier. This corresponds with the cuneiform evidence (the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil, the Astrolabes (i.e., star calendars), the creation epic Enuma Elish) indicating that most of the Mesopotamian constellation set was established during the late 2nd millennium BCE.
The inclusion of an anthology of 47 celestial omens (drawn from a variety of Mesopotamian celestial divination texts) at the end of the Mul.Apin series suggests its goal was to serve as an introduction to celestial omen literature and the practice of celestial divination. The data contained in the Mul.Apin series was functionally important in the practice of celestial divination in Mesopotamia. The intended audience for the text would have been scribes receiving practical training in celestial divination. (See: "Teaching the Stars in Mesopotamia and the Hellenistic Worlds." by Jeffrey Cooley (Humanitas, Volume 28, Issue 3, Spring, 2005, Pages 9-15).
Note: Ziqpu-stars were stars "so chosen that one crosses the meridian before dawn, in the middle of each month, as another constellation is rising heliacally." (See: Mul.Apin by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree (1989) Page 142.) The ziqpu-stars were useful if, for whatever reason, the eastern horizon was obscured and the heliacal rising of important stars was unable to be directly observed. The most common version of the ziqpu-star list contained 25 stars.
Copyright © 2001-2008 by Gary D. Thompson
This Web Page was last updated on: Sunday, February 17, 2008, 12.30 am.
This Web Page was created using Arachnophilia 4.0 and FrontPage 2003.
You can reach me here by email: 