Mari, Syria, 1800 BCE

This tablet is a facsimile reproduction of a Babylonian-Assyrian calendar tablet uncovered in 1910 by Walter Andrae, who led the German expedition of Ashur. Calendar tablets like this and others discovered in Mari, Syria, show that the Assyrians had a highly developed calendar by 1800 BCE, with allocations based on a 29- and 30-day lunar month. This kind of calendar was a non-intercalated, or non-inserted day, lunar calendar of 360 days in a year. The original tablet is from the Old Assyrian period under Shamshi-Adad I (1809-1776 BCE).

Bibliography

Ben-Dov, Jonathan. “Calendar and Festivals” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref:obso/9780199843305.001.0001/acref-9780199843305-e-13

Babylonian-Assyrian Calendar Tablet, Mari, Syria, 1800 BCE. University of Oregon Special Collections & University Archives, Cuneiform 004. https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/3uoa1r/CP71346128440001451