Chapter IX: Babylonian and Assyrian Culture (3)

The Babylonian year, according to Eduard Meyer, consisted of simple lunar months (twenty-nine or thirty days), which, as with the Greeks and the Mohammedans, was determined by the course of the moon itself.

To make this year coincide with the course of the sun, an extra month was intercalated; in olden times this seems to have been done after the first or the sixth month.

This year, with the names of its months, was adopted by the Jews at the time of the Exile, and is still in use with them. The commencement of their year (Nisan) falls at the time of the spring equinox. The Babylonians had no continuous chronology; they dated according to the years of the kings, or, rather, they marked the year according to any important event which took place in it. Thus we see dates like “on the 30th Adar in the Sixth year after the conquest of Nisin by King Rim-Sin.”

Later on in Babylon, and also in Assyria, they reckoned simply the years of the kings, from the day of their accession to the throne. The remainder of the year, in the course of which the predecessor had died, was therefore considered the first part of the first year of the new reign, and was very often called “the beginning of the reign” of the king in question.

Chronological calculations were reckoned from the same starting-point as in Egypt. They reckon the calendar year in which a king comes to the throne as his first year, and hence his death takes place in the first year of his successor. This is the method of the Ptolemaic canon, one of the most important chronological monuments of antiquity. It is the list beginning with Nabonassar (about 747 B.C.) of the native and Persian kings of Babylonia, to which the Egyptian rulers up to Alexander are added. It is an addition to the astronomical work of Ptolemy, and was intended to throw light on the passages relating to the Babylonian, and later on to the Alexandrian chronological methods. It is authentic, and is confirmed by the monuments. Yet, in using the same, it must be recollected that all dates of the Egyptian “vague” year (and the Egyptian months) are reduced. Therefore the first year of the Nabonassar era begins on the 1st Tehuti, the 26th February, 747 B.C.

In Assyria there is also a second and far more common form of specifying the years. Since a very early date (as far back as the fourteenth century) it was customary to name the year after some high official. The year, as such, is called _limmu_, “eponymic year.” Of course, they had continuous lists of these eponyms; and we have recovered several fragments. The lists for the years 893 to 666 are complete, and with fragments we can go still farther back. The kings frequently used this system, and private persons regularly used this eponym.

Some copies of the lists contain accounts of the changes of reigns, and give short statements of important internal and external events of the particular years. Thus an eclipse of the sun June 15, 763 B.C., mentioned therein can be astronomically fixed, and the dates arrived at thereby concur exactly with the accounts of the Ptolemaic canon. The chronological history of this epoch is therefore perfectly determined.[e]

THE BABYLONIAN DAY AND ITS DIVISION INTO HOURS

This being the Babylonian method of reckoning dates, it is interesting to note on what plan they subdivided the day. Investigations were made in this line by that indefatigable Irishman, Edward Hincks, from whose article “On the Assyrio-Babylonian Measures of Time,” in the _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, we quote.[a]

I begin with the day and its divisions.

Our knowledge on this subject is mainly derived from a tablet in the British Museum, marked K. 15. A paper of mine was read before the Royal Irish Academy in 1854, and was published in the twenty-third volume of the _Transactions_ in which this tablet was discussed. As that paper contained some slight philological errors, I will here repeat the substance of it, correcting those errors.

I now translate the inscription on the Tablet as follows, omitting the customary benedictory formula. “On the sixth day of the month Nisan the day and the night are equal; six kazabs [kashbu] are the day; six kazabs [kashbu] are the night.” It is evident that this inscription records the observation of an equinox; and I will return to the consideration of it with that view. At present I will only remark that it points to a double division of the day, or _Nycthemeron_; viz., the first into the day properly so called, and the night; which were in this instance equal, though not generally so; the second into twelve equal kazabs [kashbu].

I proceed to the second division of the day into twelve kazabs [kashbu]. Each of these was equivalent, putting out of sight errors of observation, to two hours of _mean solar time_, such as we use in ordinary life. The word kazab [kashbu] is from a Hebrew root meaning “to fail,” which is applied to streams that run dry. This suggests the primary signification, “runnings out,” namely, of the water which had been poured into a vessel with a small hole in the bottom. The Babylonians measured time by clepsydræ, which, when they had been filled, would be emptied in two hours of mean time. Such clepsydræ would maintain a sufficiently accurate division of the day into twelve kazabs [kashbu] if the first were set to run at apparent noon, the second when the first had run out, and so on till the thirteenth, which would be set to run at the next apparent noon, whether the twelfth was just running out, or had already run out, or had still a little water in it.

The kazab [kashbu] is mentioned as an ordinary measure of time in more than one passage. The distance from the mainland to an island in the Persian Gulf is said to be a voyage of thirty kazabs [kashbu] (Botta, 41. 48), just as that from Cyprus to Syria is said to be one of seven days (Botta, 38. 41). Also, in Rawlinson, 42. 13, Sennacherib speaks of slaughtering his enemies for the space of a journey or march of two kazabs [kashbu]. This use of the word seems to me a positive proof that the clepsydræ was in use among the Assyrians and Babylonians generally, and was not confined to the astronomers.

There does not appear to me any reason to suppose that a division of the day from sunrise to sunset into twelve hours, varying in length according to the season of the year, and again of the night, from sunset to sunrise into twelve similar hours, was ever known to the Babylonians. Such a division was in use among the Egyptians, and was adopted from them by the Greeks, but the Babylonians and Assyrians knew nothing of it. I may here observe that some modern writers have committed a strange mistake in supposing the clepsydræ to have been invented so late as the third century before Christ and at Alexandria. These writers have confounded two totally different things; viz., the original invention of the clepsydræ marking mean solar time, which goes back to remote antiquity, and is almost certainly due to the Babylonians, and the adaptation of the clepsydræ to the _seasonable_ (καιρικαὶ) hours of the Egyptians and Greeks, which was accomplished at the time and place which these writers mention. I have met with no subdivisions of the kazab [kashbu], and I much doubt whether the Babylonians had any means of marking such.[f]

ASSYRIAN SCIENCE

The exact sciences were cultivated in Assyria from the earliest times, nor had natural sciences been neglected. Zoology, botany, mineralogy are largely represented in the library of Nineveh, and as all these tablets contain a Sumerian as well as the equivalent Assyrian text, we are justified in believing that the Ninevites, in this respect, still followed the traditions of their predecessors.

We find lists of animals arranged in a certain order which indicates an attempt at classification; thus the dog, lion, and wolf are in the same category, whilst the ox, sheep, and goat form another. In the enumeration of the different animals, there is a very evident design of establishing genera and families, and of distinguishing species. Thus we have a family comprising the great Carnivora: the dog, lion, and wolf; then we have different species in the dog family--such as the dog itself, the domestic dog, the coursing dog, the small dog, the dog of Elam, etc. The scientific side of this classification is revealed by an easily recognised circumstance; thus one finds after the common name a special nomenclature, which belongs to a scientific classification with which the Assyrians seem to have been familiar.

Among the birds similar attempts at classification are evident. Birds of rapid flight, sea-birds, or marsh birds are differentiated. Insects form a very numerous class; we see an entire family whose species are differentiated according as they attack plants, animals, clothing, or wood. Vegetables seem to be classified according to their usefulness, or the service that industry can make of them. One tablet enumerates the uses to which wood can be put, according to its adaptability, for the timber-work of palaces, the construction of vessels, the making of carts, implements of husbandry, or even furniture. Minerals occupy a long series in these tablets. They are classed according to their qualities, gold and silver forming a division apart; precious stones form still another, but there is nothing to indicate on what basis a classification would be established.

If we pass from the natural sciences to geography, we find the latter in a synthetic and fairly confused state. Nevertheless several lists give us a series of the names of towns, rivers, and mountains, arranged according to their geographical disposition, as we can easily prove. Sometimes the data are of a practical character, and names are followed by mention of natural or industrial products of localities, their revenue taxes, or tributes. But the science, _par excellence_, which was especially cultivated in Assyria, and which the learned men of Asshurbanapal connected with the greatest care with antique Chaldean traditions, was astronomy.

This science was not indeed born at Nineveh; the Greeks teach us that astronomical observations were first made in lower Chaldea 1903 years before Alexander, and consequently 2226 years before Christ. Whatever the value of this date may be, the tradition of this origin is found in the works of the Assyrians, who constantly refer to the observations of their predecessors. Asshurbanapal had sent these learned men to the old schools of Mesopotamia, Ur, Sippar, Agade, Babylon; there to imbibe the elements of the science which was the glory of the southern empire. In the seventh century before our era, observations were carried on at Nineveh. At this date the fixed stars had long been distinguished from the planets; the sidereal revolutions, the divisions of the year, the course of the sun in the different constellations of the zodiac, periodic return of eclipses, and even the precession of the equinoxes, had been calculated. These achievements imply long and conscientious observation, a special intelligence to undertake them, and simple methods of rigorous calculation.

We are ignorant as to the nature of the instruments with which the Assyrio-Chaldeans could observe the stars. The chances of error in observations by the naked eye are evidently very great, and errors can only be rectified by multiplied operations and the most minute calculations. It is known that the determining of the periodicity of the moon’s eclipses rests on a knowledge of the cycle of 223 lunations which bring back the same eclipses periodically. It is certain that the Assyrio-Chaldeans must have also known another cycle of 22,325 lunations equalling 1805 tropical years plus 8 days, or 1805 Julian years of 365¼ days; after which the eclipses return with still greater precision in the same order. How long did it take the human mind to observe and understand a sufficient number of lunations so as to combine the data they afforded and deduct the law that Meton formulated and to which he has given his name?

In regard to eclipses of the sun, the cycle is so very much greater that the beginnings of the observations on which the calculations of their periodicity would rest, would take us back to a period which is quite beyond the limits of the historic age. Diogenes Laertius estimates it as 48,863 years. During that time 373 eclipses of the moon and 832 eclipses of the sun had been observed. When they turned their attention to the calculations resulting from these observations the Assyrio-Chaldeans were marvellously helped by their system of notation. Their numerical system lent itself with ease to the most complicated of calculations. We must content ourselves with stating the results. As we were saying a minute ago, the observations were carried on under Asshurbanapal; the king sent astronomers to different points to study celestial phenomena, and the results of their labours were sent him. Here are the terms in which these reports were expressed:

“To the King, my Lord, his humble servant Ishtar-iddin-apal, chief astronomer of the town of Arbela writes this: Peace and happiness to the king my master and may he long prosper.

“On the 29th day, I observed the node of the moon, the clouds obscured the field of observation, and we could not see the moon.

“In the month of Sebat (January) the 1st day during the year Bel-haran-saduya (648 B.C.).”

The result of this mission was not satisfactory. The eclipse had been predicted, but although the state of the atmosphere did not allow of observation, the attesting of this failure proves the care with which every circumstance that could serve to explain the phenomenon was noted. Here is an observation which was entirely successful:

“To the director of observations my Lord, his humble servant Nabu-shum-iddin, Great Astronomer of Nineveh writes this: May Nabu and Marduk be propitious to the director of these observations, my Lord.

“The 15th day we observed the node of the moon, and the moon was eclipsed.”

Here is a more complicated observation:

“To the king, my Lord, may the Gods Nabu and Marduk be propitious, may the great gods grant to the king, my master, long life, the benefits of the flesh and satisfaction of the heart.

“The 27th day the moon disappeared; the 28th 29th and 30th day we continually observed the node of the obscuring sun. The eclipse did not take place. The 1st day (of the following month) we saw the moon during the first day of the month Tammuz (June) above the star Mercury of which I have previously sent an observation to the king my master. In its course during the day of Anu, around the shepherd star (the planet Venus), it was seen declining: on account of rain the horns were not very distinctly visible, and so it was in its whole course. The day Anu I sent the observation of its conjunction, to the king my master. It was prolonged and was visible above the star of the Chariot in its course during the day of Baal; it disappeared towards the star of the Chariot.

“To the King, my Lord, peace and happiness.”

The discovery of the precession of the equinoxes is generally attributed to Hipparchus. It was he, indeed, who taught this fact to the Greeks, and he estimated its yearly amount as from 36 to 39 seconds; but it is certain that he learned about it in Chaldea, and that he obtained the elements of his calculations from the astronomical observations made on the lower Euphrates. All the astronomical knowledge of the Ninevite savants had the same point of origin.

Two thousand years before our era, from the time of a king of Agade called Sharrukin (Shargani-shar-ali), and who is usually known as Sargon I (the Ancient), the precession of the equinoxes was an observed and calculated fact, since it had already brought sufficient disturbance into the calendar to make a corrective element necessary. Sargon had given a brilliancy to his century which the learned men of Nineveh only echoed. In his time there was a library at Agade, the importance of which we can judge by the fragments which were preserved at Nineveh. We are certain that at these remote times the great divisions of the uranographic chart were already determined upon. Fixed stars were designated according to the different groups or constellations which were known by the names they have retained to this day.

Outside these fixed stars the signs of the zodiac were perfectly determined in that portion of the celestial vault which the texts designate by the name of harranu (the way), that is to say, the way of the stars. These stars were the planets. The Chaldeans knew of seven, and they were thus known to them: Shamash, the sun; Sin, the moon; Alap-Shamash, Saturn; Rus, Jupiter; Ashbat, Venus; Sulpa-sadu, Mars; Nivit-Anu, Mercury. The Ninevite savants borrowed their astronomical knowledge from the Chaldeans; they made use of the calendar as it was transmitted to them, and as such it has been used by all nations from the remotest times up to the present day.

The Assyrian year was composed of twelve lunar months. It began with the new moon preceding the vernal equinox. A well-known tablet thus fixes the day of the equinoxes: “At the sixth day of the month of Nisan (March) the days and nights are equal (and comprise), six kashbu for the day and six kashbu for the night. May Nabu and Marduk be propitious to the King, my Lord.”

To correct the error resulting from the difference between the lunar and solar year, a supplementary month was intercalated, the length of which necessarily varied with circumstances. The Ninevite tablets offer us calendars arranged in conformity with the different exigencies of life. Some are purely scientific, and show us the divisions of the year into days, months, and seasons. Others are formed to meet the needs of religion, and tell us, by the day, the feasts consecrated to divinities invoked or honoured by special ceremonies. Others seem to take current superstitions into account; thus days are marked by a particular sign, according as they are considered propitious or disastrous. We see tables constructed to indicate the influence of the stars on each day of the year, with a mention of appropriate prayers, to propitiate favourable auguries and ward off those which are fatal.

The importance of these last documents must not be exaggerated; they are related to superstitions common to all ages and lands; and, in the ancient East, as everywhere else, these beliefs merely represent one of the most curious, but the least interesting phases of the aberrations of the human mind.[g]

FOOTNOTES

[33] [This probably means that the father had been called to a high office.]

[34] [This is a letter from King Ammidatitana, the king who was third from the end of the first Babylonian dynasty. It is an example of the usual style of a royal letter.]

[35] For a description of these monuments and the history of their discovery, as well as for the conclusions which are to be drawn from them for the history of art in Mesopotamia, the reader is referred to De Sarsac’s album of reproductions [l’Art Chaldéen], also to L. Heerzey, _Les fouilles de Chaldée_ in the _Revue Archæologique_, 1881, new series, vol. xlii, p. 56 ff. and 257.

[36] Here of course only architecture and sculpture in general are intended, without denying that the Semites, also those of Babylonia and Assyria have accomplished original things in single cases, in execution, and in certain genres, as, for example, in the reproduction of animal forms.