Observations of Venus periodics figure in 2nd Millenium Babylonian non-fiction...after observation of Solar and Lunar periodics Venus will always come in third place in ancient societies, the Sun takes the gold medal of course and the Moon silver.








For Sin, the stones have an obvious crescent moon, and the other large star almost always with eight points is Venus.


Very direct symbolism in the signs for the sun and the moon and in several other symbols whose meaning is understood tempt a guess that the symbolism in the Star of Ishtar (Venus) is in some way equally direct. Perhaps the number eight is itself symbolic, for Venus experiences an eight-year cycle. During that time it passes through its complete evening star/morning star/evening star pattern five times. This means that a configuration of Venus recurs on the same calendar date after eight years, which is how long five complete back-and-forth passes to either side of the sun take.

To establish the importance of this cycle we must verify that the Mesopotamians were familiar with it and made something special of it. In fact, we know they were well aware of it. Omen texts from the First Babylonian Dynasty (ca. 1900-1660 BC) confirm that the old Mesopotamian sky watchers understood that Venus as the morning star and as the evening star were the same thing.



By the Seleucid period (ca 301-164 BC), we have a number of late goal-year texts in which the eight-year period was used to predict the appearances of Venus. These goal-year texts are clay tablets that list astronomical data for a given year and also for years specified by adding an appropriate number to the starting year. For Venus, the number to be added is eight. Accordingly, the pattern in the table for Venus will work for every eighth year from the year for which the table is prepared. For example, Professor Otto Neugebauer, one of the foremost historians of ancient science, described one of the Venus goal-year texts and showed that it provides dates and positions for Venus at last visibility as a morning star in steps of eight years. Another lists the planet's reappearance as an evening star over three eight-year intervals. Although the eight-year, five-cycle Venus period is close, it is not exact. After eight years, Venus is actually a little ahead of schedule, about 2.4 days.

One text from the Neo-Babylonian period (626-539 BC), referring to Venus as Dilbat, records "Dilbat 8 years behind thee come back ... 4days thou shalt subtract."

Here, the Mesopotamian planet watcher is instructed to subtract four days to get the right date for Venus. This may appear to be in error, but it isn't. The 2.4-day correction applies to a solar calendar and the Mesopotamians kept their calendar by the moon. Because the moon arrived 1.6 days late, Venus configurations recurred four days early, and the Neo-Babylonian astronomers adjusted their predictions.

Unfortunately, the goal-year texts are rather late and do not confirm that the eight-year cycle of Venus was known in Kassite times. We have, however, copies of a much earlier set of astronomical texts, the so-called tablets of Ammizaduga. Ammizaduga (or Ammi-saduqa) was the next to the last king of the First Babylonian Dynasty and probably ruled between 1650 and 1550 BC. The exact dates are somewhat uncertain. Three decades after the end of his reign the Hittites deposed his successor, and somewhere in that period the Kassite Dynasty began.

The original tablets of Ammizaduga probably were inscribed around 1700-1600BC, but they are long gone. Copies survived, however, in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-626 BC) at Nineveh and are in the British Museum today.

In them, 21 years of Venus data are given - dates of the first and last appearances as a morning star and as an evening star and durations of invisibility - along with appropriate omens.


"If on the 25th of Tammuz Venus disappeared in the west, for 7 days remaining absent in the sky, and on the 2nd of Ab Venus was seen in the east, there will be rains in the land; desolation will be wrought. (year8) "

Despite scribal errors, the texts clearly exhibit the eight-year cycle and indicate Mesopotamians in the middle of the second millenium BC were aware of it.




[doormann.tripod.com]




The sidereal 225 day orbit could be deduced from these observations, the Maya went to the extreme of having a seperate calender to incorporate this of course.





It would appear, then, that the maya long count number (360c) was designed in order to achieve calculations regarding an approximation between Earth's solar year and Venus' sidereal orbital time, in relation to the reckoning system of 52/365:65/584:73/260; as well as, in relation to calculations of Venus' orbital time of its synodic year based on a 585c. By the use of these day-count numbers, cycle-numbers, and constants, general (and even precise) calculations could be made regarding whole cycles of the planetary bodies involved. In further essays, we shall see how these reckoning systems, in fact, accounted for calculations regarding the orbital time of the Moon (lunations; full lunar cycles; etc.).



[www.earthmatrix.com]




Morph.















Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2008 08:42AM by Morph.