Lunar alignments at Ur

Abstract

In ancient Sumer the Moon god, Nanna, was the patron deity for the city of Ur. In this article data are presented showing how the city of Ur was astronomically aligned to the Moon. Assessments are made using satellite imagery in combination with early maps and aerial photographs. Also shown is how the geographic location of Ur relative to Nippur may be related to the Moon's 18.6-year nodal cycle. It is also shown how lunar calendric data are likely embedded in an ancient legend that tells of the Moon god's journey from Ur to Nippur. Together these and other lines of evidence demonstrate how one of the world's oldest cities was shaped through its entanglement with the gods -and in particular, the Moon god Nanna.

A Calanais myth and an alignment of the east stone-row with both the rising of the Pleiades and crossovers of Venus at sunrise on the summer solstices

“…This cycle is not synchronised with the solar cycle; therefore, it has no direct correlation with the summer solstices. Even if structures were built hundreds of years before or after the century of 1700-1600 BC, the change in the Moon's apparent position due to changes in the obliquity of the orbit happens so slowly and is so small in the short term that the resulting differences in rising and setting azimuths would not be noticeable to the naked eye (Romain W, 2019).…”