Babylonian Horoscopes

First account of a birthday in human history

“…In view of the fact that several competing readings are supplied for a few lines of the text, here I offer my own variant of transliteration and full translation of the tablet. Obverse I 1 4 udu gur-ra 2 U 2 -U 2 3 agrig-ge 4 niĝ 2 -gu 7 -de 3 5 ba-ra 6 1 udu gur-ra 7 ensi 2 8 e 2 -munusše 3 9 e-ĝen-na-a 10 e 2 -muḫaldim-ma II 1 ba-sa 6 2 1 munus aš 2 -gar 3 3 1 sila 4 4 2-kam-ma-ka 5 e 2muḫaldim 6 ba-sa 6 7 1 ud 5 8 En-gil-sa 9 ba-de 6 10 1 udu En-en 3 -tar-zi 11 1 udu Du-du III 1d Utu u 4 nu 2 -a-ka 2 ba-gu 7 3 1 udu d Nin-ĝir 2 -su 4…”

“…ME) 11 ba-de 6 III 1 šuniĝin 2 1 udu nita 2 2 sila 4 3 1 ud 5 4 1 munus aš 2 -gar 3 5 5 maš 6 iti ezem-d Ba-U 2 -ka 7 Bara 2 -namtar-ra 8 dam Lugal-an-da 9 ensi 2 IV 1 Lagaš ki -ka-ke 4 2 dumu munus i 3 -tu-da-a 5 3 ba-gu 7 4 udu gu 7 -a 5 en-ku 3 6 kurušda-kam 4 Obverse I 1 4 fat ewes 2 to Uu, 3 the administrator, 4 for eating 5 slaughtered, 6 1 fattened ewe 7 for the ensi, 8 (when) into "the women's house" 9 it was delivered, 10 to the kitchen II 1 donated, 2 1 doe kid, 3 1 lamb 4 for the second time 5 to the kitchen 6 donated. 7 1 billy-goat 8 Engilsa 9 brought, 10 1 ewe for Enentarzi, 11 1 ewe for Dudu III 1 on "the day of waning sun light" 2 (they) ate. 3 1 ewe to Ningirsu, 4 1 ewe to Bau, 5 1 kid to Šulšagan … (lines 6-7 broken) Reverse I (lines 1-2 broken) 3 1 ewe to Eli, 4 1 kid Me-Kulaba 5 afterwards 6 on "the bank of Bilgames" II 1 (they) ate.…”

No evidence for an early seventeenth‐century Indian sighting of Kepler's supernova (SN1604)

“…Already mentioned in Assyrian astrological tablets dating from the 7th century BC as the "secret houses" (bīt nis . irti) of the planets, these were places where a planet was believed to indicate good fortune (Rochberg 1998). Specific longitudes within a sign are already cited in classical texts dating from the 1st century AD 2 and these were also adopted by Islamic astrologers who added values for the lunar nodes.…”

Ptolemy, Babylon and the rotation of the Earth

“…Signs of the zodiac are sometimes included in eclipse reports contained in horoscopes; many of these reports may refer to observed eclipses, but in at least one case (BM 41301 rev. 7′, see Rochberg 1998) a solar eclipse prediction is given with a zodiacal sign. Again, however, the horoscopes display several different features in their recording of astronomical data to the Eclipse Texts, and I do not believe that the inclusion of a zodiacal sign for a solar eclipse prediction, which can easily be estimated simply by turning the number of the month of the year into the n th zodiacal sign, and is of particular importance for horoscopic astrology, is of significance to the text under discussion.…”