Uruk, Southern Mesopotamia, ca. 200 BCE

This tablet is a facsimile reproduction of a Cuneiform astrological chart originally housed in the Louvre, recovered from the ruins of the Temple of Anu in ancient Uruk. It belongs to the Seleucid Era (330-180 BCE), named after Alexander the Great’s general Seleucid, who assumed rule following the Greek invasion. Archaic Sumerian names and star designations indicate it is a library text copied many times from earlier sources. One of the few cuneiform texts with actual constellation drawings, the tablet gives a depiction of “MUL,” the seven stars of the Pleiades, central to all ancient cosmologies. The lunar disc is depicted at the center of the tablet. “GUANNA,” (Taurus) the Great Bull of Heaven rises on the right. Star positions and designations are inscribed above in Old Sumerian. Causing significant controversy in academic circles, the tablet shows that mathematical astronomy may have been fully developed much earlier than previously believed and reveals where the Greeks learned their astronomy.

Bibliography

Babylonian Astronomical Almanac Cuneiform Tablet, Uruk, 200 BCE. University of Oregon Special Collections & University Archives, Cuneiform 005. https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/3uoa1r/CP71346139420001451