Mesopotamian Astronomy & Astrology

Dans l'expression Astrologie : « science des astres » il y a… 3 mots qui posent problème : « science », « des » et « astres » ! Ce sera le fil conducteur pour une analyse critique en profondeur de l'astrologie, qui plus est rénovée par l'EX-astrologue que je suis.
Ce tome 1 est donc une introduction à cette nouvelle analyse d'une discipline dont on sous-estime souvent la complexité. Signe "d'une grande richesse" pour l'astrologue, elle constitue pour moi le terreau idéal pour les biais cognitifs. La raison première, peut-être, pour laquelle l'astrologie a pu si aisément traverser les siècles.
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4e de couverture :
Il y a 12 ans, assistant aux désaccords profonds entre ses collègues, un jeune astrologue commence à s’interroger sur la question de l’erreur. Il débute une autocritique et se confronte aux sceptiques. Cet essai est le témoignage d’un homme sur son long parcours de déconversion. C’est aussi l’introduction à une analyse critique rénovée et sereine de l’astrologie qui ouvre à des problématiques plus fécondes.
Pourquoi les astrologues ne se réfèrent-ils pas aux positions des planètes réellement observées sur la voûte céleste ? Pourquoi conservent-ils certains astres qui n’existent plus ? Pourquoi les interprétations « marchent-elles » quand le praticien se trompe de date de naissance ?! L’outil astrologique (complexe et sacré) dupe-t-il ses utilisateurs de générations en générations ? Le zodiaque mésopotamien a-t-il, d’ailleurs, été créé par des astrologues ? Est-il vraiment né dans le ciel ?!
Et quel est l’énorme coup de chance qui permit aux horoscopes d’intégrer la presse, il y a juste 80 ans, avant d’inonder littéralement toute la planète ?
Le brainstorming, enfin, peut-il expliquer succès, échecs et longévité de l’astrologie sans prétexte scientifique ni métaphysique ?
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Membre du bureau de l’Observatoire Zététique et ex-astrologue de la Fédération Des Astrologues Francophones, Serge BRET-MOREL a développé une expertise unique. Dans ses conférences et publications, il met un point d’honneur à décrire avec pédagogie les questions déroutantes posées à, et par, l’astrologie.
Plus d’informations : www.astroscept.com

The second part of 'An ancient Arabian zodiac. The constellations in the Safaitic inscriptions' discusses the position of the Arabian zodiac visa -vis other parapegmata from antiquity, and takes up a comparative etymological study of the zodiac names in an attempt to locate their source. Four appendices discussing tangential issues that arose in the course of this study follow.

This article is devoted to cuneiform sources shedding light on history of Mesopotamian constellations mul uz 3 ("The Goat") located in the area of modern Lyra, mul d Gula, a goddess connected with mul uz 3 , and mul ur.gi 7 ("The Dog") located in Hercules. In the eyes of ancient Mesopotamians, these constellations were bound by complex relationships that were changing in course of time. Gula was the goddess of the Goat constellation, and the Dog was a sacred animal of Gula. In the Neo-Assyrian period, Gula's anthropomorphic image was considered to be a figure of the constellation mul uz 3 , while figures of other constellations with animal names always corresponded to their names. It is shown in the article that originally (at the end of the third and the beginning of the second millennium b.c.) there were only two constellations (mul uz 3 and mul ur.gi 7) out of three mentioned above singled out in the Mesopotamian sky. The goddess Gula became associated with the constellation mul uz 3 only in the second half of the second millennium b.c.

In this paper, we will discuss the concept an-ki, “universe”, from the analysis of a diverse corpus of Mesopotamian texts (lexical, administrative, literary, omens, and kudurrus), with the aim of understanding how the tripartition of the cosmos in heaven, earth, and netherworld (or cosmographic perception of the universe) and, likewise, each of the mentioned planes would have been associated with a particular site destined for a group of divinities. In particular, we are interested in interpreting how from the third and until the first millennium BCE, the aforementioned textual sources would have been used together with a series of social practices and, in addition, they were linked to a belief system (myths), enabling the generation of a type of materiality of which participated the tablets as supports, the (written) messages that they contained, and the specialists (scribes / diviners) who elaborated and decoded them.

The moon had a particular importance in the III millennium Mesopotamian society, being the basis of the Ur III calendar, of the daily life, and of the religious cult. It was in fact the astral representation of the moon-god Nanna/Sîn. Thus its first visual representation, as a crescent with its hump toward down, belongs to this period. But the moon isn’t only a crescent. It has different phases: from the crescent to the full moon and vice-versa. Aim of this paper is to analyze the representation of the moon and its meaning in its two main phases (new moon and full moon) on the Ur III glyptic, as representation of a specific time and a specific temporal event of the Ur III lunar calendar.

This paper discusses the evidence pertaining to water clocks in Mesopotamia, revealing the serious flaws that exist in our current understanding of the devices and attempting to remedy this, while recognising the limitations inherent in the exercise. We possess no recognised examples, however fragmentary, from ancient Mesopotamia of outflowing water clocks. Any reconstruction of them relies on textual evidence and what is known to be both physically possible and impossible. J. Fermor undertook the experimental work. This paper also presents BM 29371, which was edited by C. B. F. Walker and published in a photograph in Astronomy before the Telescope (1996, ed. C. B. F. Walker) p. 47. BM 29371 describes weights, times and the lengths of shadows on various days through the year and was inscribed during the Late Babylonian period

A brief but detailed rundown of astral science in cuneiform, from Sumerian and Old Babylonian celestial divination, via EAE 14 and ideal-period astrology, Mul.Apin and star-mapping to predictive astronomy in texts from 750 BCE on. The importance of a regulated luni-solar calendar and the zodiac for the mathematical astronomical texts is explained, and the intimate relationship between the most advanced planetary astronomy of the last few centuries BCE and the requirements of personal zodiacal horoscopy is stressed. The connection between the magnificent lunar ephemerides and omen divination is also noted. In conclusion, the importance of astral science in perpetuating the use of cuneiform as a learned medium of communication is made clear, and its significant survival in the astral sciences of neighbouring cultures is outlined

https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203946237.ch32

An alternative translation to a passage in a Sumerian narrative composition concerned with Inana is offered, based on similarities with OB compositions concerned with water clocks. The new translation suggests that in this composition Inana was said to have caused day and night to vary in length from an equinox where both day and night were said to last 3 units (probably minas) each. This suggests that the author of this Sumerian literary text was familiar with the "ideal year" applied in OB and later astrological-astronomical cuneiform texts.

This review praises Swerdlow’s attempt to show how the parameters underlying the cuneiform mathematical astronomical texts for the five star-planets might be derived from observations not of the accurate locations of the planets’ synodic phenomena, but merely the dates upon which they occurred and in which zodiacal sign. These data more closely match those recorded earlier for the sake of astrological interpretation of planetary phenomena.

The article deals with the history of ecliptic as an element of the mathematical astronomy in Ancient Mesopotamia. It contains data from the cuneiform sources of the 2nd-1st millennia BC and from the modern studies shedding light on the following three questions: 1) the idea of the celestial sphere in Mesopotamian astronomy; 2) the geometric representations associated with the ecliptic; 3) the positions of the ecliptic relative to the fixed stars and to the Sun. It is shown that although we do not have solid evidences, however, there are serious reasons to believe that in the Seleucid period in the mathematical astronomy and astrology the ecliptic was conceived geometrically as a circle divided into 12 equal parts. It is also shown that in this period the ecliptic was not yet identified with the projection of annual path of the Sun to the celestial sphere.

This paper is part of a book about new research concerning the Magdalenenberg in Germany. It's aim is to summarise what was known about astronomy in Egypt, Mesopotamia and early Greek prior or contemporary to the building of the Magdalenenberg.