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The Babylonian Sky, Volume 1
From Celestial Omens to the Beginnings of Modern Astrology
in Ancient Mesopotamia
New Evidence for the Development of Modern Astrology in Cuneiform Texts Based on the Study of Three Technical Terms (DUR = ṭurru, GU and DUR) for the Description of Celestial Phenomena and Stellar Positions
by Jeanette C. Fincke
Dresden 2024
Inhaltsangabe / abstract
This interdisciplinary study benefits Assyriologists as well as historians of astronomy and astrology. It analyses all the cuneiform sources that use the terms dur, ṭurru (dur) or gu to describe celestial phenomena, and it derives their specific meanings in their different contexts. In particular, the investigation of the logogram dur in astrological texts has consequences for the history of astrology. Now we see that this, as well as other elements of early horoscopic astrology described by Greek astrologers and hitherto thought to have been invented by them, had already been developed by the Babylonians.
It used to be assumed that all three terms (dur; ṭurru; gu) share the same basic idea, namely the description of a kind of "band" in the sky in which stars and planets can occasionally be seen. However, a closer look at the relevant text passages makes it clear that this cannot be the case. The terms refer to different types of astral units: planets including the Sun and the Moon (dur; ṭurru; gu); constellations or parts of them (ṭurru; gu); individual stars (ṭurru). In addition, they appear in different text genres: in celestial omens (dur; ṭurru; gu), in astronomical texts (dur; ṭurru; gu and modifications such as gu-si.sá-dúb.ba and gu-tu.lu) and in astrological texts (dur; GU). Each term, therefore, describes a different phenomenon.
