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BM 30617: An astronomical diary from the reign of Antiochus and his son Antiochus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2020

Yasuyuki Mitsuma
Yasuyuki Mitsuma*
Affiliation:
University of Tsukuba
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

This is the first publication of the astronomical diary BM 30617 from Babylon. This clay tablet shows an example of “preliminary diaries”, which record primary observations of the sky and, if any, the Euphrates for one month or less. The cuneiform text of BM 30617 shows the primary day-by-day observations of the sky over the first four days of the Babylonian month IX (Kislīm). The recorded phenomena are dated to an unknown year during the joint kingship of Antiochus and his son (or stepson), also named Antiochus, of the Seleucid dynasty. Some clues in the diary, however, help us to narrow down the candidates for the year to which our month IX belongs.

Keywords

AntiochusAstronomical diariesBabylonClay tabletPreliminary diariesSeleucids
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 239 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London, 2020

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Footnotes

My research for this paper is funded by JSPS KAKENHI Grants No. 24700245, 26870111, 18K00987, and JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad. I am greatly indebted to the Trustees of the British Museum for allowing me to reproduce and study the unpublished tablet BM 30617. I would like to thank Jon Taylor for the revision of my English. I would also like to thank an anonymous referee, Andrew George, Hermann Hunger, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Ulrike Steinert, Christopher Walker, and Cornelia Wunsch, for their help, advice, and suggestions. All the remaining errors, of course, are mine. The abbreviations used here follow the list in Michael P. Streck (ed.), Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie, vol. 12, Šamuḫa – Spinne (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009–2011) with the following exceptions:

ADART = Abraham J. Sachs and Hermann Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia (Vienna: VÖAW, 1988–).

PD = Richard A. Parker and Waldo H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology: 626 B.C.–A.D. 75 (Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1956).

SE = Seleucid Era (its first year, 1 SE, corresponds to the Babylonian calendar year which began in the spring of 311 BC, or of -310 in astronomical year numbering).

Since the greater part of 1 SE falls in the year -310, the diary for 1 SE, if any, should be numbered -310. If two or more diary tablets are preserved for the same year, a capital letter (A, B, etc.) is added to each diary's year number according to chronological order (see ADART 1: 37).

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