Compiled by Gary D. Thompson
Copyright © 2001-2012 by Gary D. Thompson
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Books/Pamphlets:
Adamson, Kathleen. (1988). Iconography of Ishtar. [Note: Unpublished PhD thesis. Includes some speculative astronomical discussion.]
Anscombe, Kate. (2005). The Lion-Bull Combat as an Astronomical Symbol in the Context of the Origin of the Constellations. [Note: Unpublished (?) thesis for Master of Arts Degree, University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand). Approximately 140 pages; Call Number: 7LXG A. (The thesis was completed in 2005 and the MA awarded in 2006.) Because of the mix of mythology and art and ancient Middle-Eastern and Graeco-Roman period scope, perhaps use was made of The Theme of the Feline-and-Prey in Archaic Greek Art by Sven von Hofsten (doctoral thesis, 1997, Det humanistiske facultelt, Universitetet i Tromso). The author of the thesis supports the views of Willy Hartner on the earliest Mesopotamian constellations (and accepts his point of view as a "given"). Unfortunately she lacks intimate knowledge of the issues, relies exclusively on secondary sources, and has not been aware of recent archaeological work relevant to the interpretation of the lion-bull symplegma. Also, no recalculated "accuracy test" of Hartner's calculations is made. This is a particular problem in view of her claims to identify slight time-related changes in lion-bull iconography. Kate Anscombe also presented a paper entitled "The Lion-Bull Combat" on February 1st, 2005, at the Australasian Society for Classical Studies Conference held at the University of Otago. Interestingly, in the (10-page) publication The Research in Classics for Higher Degrees in New Zealand Universities compiled by John Davidson and Jody Connor (July, 2004) Anscombe's MA Thesis at the University of Otago was listed as The Signs of the Zodiac in Greek and Roman Art.]
Baehr, Ulrich. (1955). Tafeln zur Behandlung chronologischer Probleme. Teil I-III. [Note: A list of star names and constellations appears in Teil III. The publication contains a detailed explanation of the heliacal risings of stars and also algorithms for calculating the heliacal risings of stars. The extensive star list tables for determining the calendar dates for heliacal risings can offer assistance for the identification of such. Example: the Mul.Apin star lists. See the (English-language) book review by Richard Parker in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume XVII, January-October 1958, Pages 95-96; the (German-language) book review by Robert Böker in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Volume 53, 1959, Pages 319-324; and the (German-language) book review by Willy Hartner in Gnomon, Band 31, Heft 2, 1959, Pages 177-178. The project ceased with publication of Part III.]
Bezold, Carl. (1911). Astronomie, Himmelsschau und Astrallehre bei den Babylonier. [Note: See the (German-language) book review by Ernst Weidner in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 15 Jahrgang, Juli 1912, Number 7, Columns 318-320.]
Bezold, Carl., Kopff, August. and Boll, Franz. (1913). Zenit- und Aequartorialgestirne am babylonischen Fixsternhimmel. [Note: An excellent study summarising research by various scholars into the identification of the constellation and star names on Mul.Apin tablet 1. Carl Bezold (1859-1922) was a German Orientalist. See the biographical entry in "Reallexikon der Assyriologie," edited by Erich Ebeling and Bruno Meissner, Volume 2, 1938, Pages 23-24. Also, see "Friedrich Delitzsch und Carl Bezold," by Heinrich Zimmern (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Neue Folge, Band 2, (Band 77), 1922, Pages 121-136). August Kopff was an astronomer who worked in Heidelberg; then Berlin. In Berlin he was Director of the Institute for Astronomical Calculation of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-University (now the Humboldt-University).]
Bischoff, Eric. (1906). Im Reiche der Gnosis. Die mystischen Lehren des jüdischen und christlichen Gnostizismus, des Mandäismus und Manichäismus und ihr babylonisch - astraler Ursprung. [Note: The author was a Panbabylonist.]
Brown, David. (2000). Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology. (Pages 287-303). [Note: Excellent for the Assyrian Period. The book is based on the authors doctoral thesis. See the (English-language) book review by Lorenzo Verderame in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), Volume 64, Number 2, 2001, Page 268; and the (English-language) essay book review "Planets, Livers and Omens in Mesopotamia." by Martin Worthington in Early Science and Medicine, Volume 9, Number 2, 2004, Pages 136-143. The essay reviews 2 books. Also see the (?-language) book review by Johannes Koch in Bibliotheca-Orientalis, Volume 58, 2001, Columns 156-163.]
Brown, David. (2011 (Expected publication date.)). The Interactions of Ancient Astral Science. [Note: = Vergleichende Studien zu Antike und Orient; X. Bremen: Hempen. Will include discussion of the diffusion of the Mul.Apin series.]
Brown, Junior., Robert. (1883). Eridanus: River and Constellation. A Study of the Archaic Southern Asterisms. [Note: Now thoroughly dated. Full of erroneous speculations.]
Brown, Junior., Robert. (1899-1900). Researches into the Origin of the Primitive Constellations of Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans. (2 Volumes). [Note: These volumes are full of errors and should not be used. Brown mistook the early circular "three stars each" texts (commonly called "planispheres" but actually functioning as star calendars) as representing the standard Mesopotamian scheme of constellations. On the basis of three small fragments of these circular "star calendars" (Sm. 162, Sm. 608, and Sm. 94) he attempted to re-establish what he believed was a complete standard Babylonian "planisphere." His speculative and erroneous reconstruction of such was based on his belief that the circular "planispheres" set out an ecliptic based scheme with the 12 stars in the Path of Ea (outer ring) marking southern constellations, the 12 stars in the Path of Enlil (inner ring) marking northern constellations, and the 12 stars in the Path of Anu (middle ring) marking the 12 zodiacal constellations along the ecliptic. On the basis of his mistaken circular "planisphere" reconstruction Brown believed the constellations, including a 12-constellation zodiac scheme, in something like their present form, originated in Mesopotamia in the late 3rd millennium BCE. He denied (quite incorrectly) that anyone in Mesopotamia was inventing the 12-constellation zodiac as late as circa 500 BCE. Brown was unaware of the star lists of the Mul.Apin series. Mul.Apin tablet 1 (BM 86378) was not published until 1912 by Leonard King (CT 33, Plates 1-8) and it was perhaps first discussed by Franz Kugler in his Supplement 1 (1913) to his Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. The first section of Mul.Apin tablet 1 lists considerably more stars in the Paths of Enlil, Anu, and Ea than are found in the "planispheres." (He was also misled by the limited listing of stars/constellations in the Paths of Enlil, Anu, and Ea through Tablet 82-5-22 512.) Usually Robert Brown is mistakenly described as an English Orientalist. Actually he was an English Solicitor in Barton-on[upon]-Humber. (He lived at Priestgate House.) He was known (locally) as a writer on archaic religion and was an amateur Orientalist. He corresponded with William Gladstone (on Greek literature no doubt) when Gladstone was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1880. His wife was apparently a keen cyclist and she was also connected with - or a member of - the Society for Psychical Research (London). It is possible that Mary-Helen Brown, daughter of Robert Brown, Barton-upon-Humber, (who married William Spry in 1852) was his sister. See the (English-language) book reviews by Anon in Nature, Volume LIX, (Number 1537), April 13, 1899, Pages 553-544, and Volume LXXIV, (Number 1921), August 3, 1906, Pages 410-411; Theophilus Pinches in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1900, Pages 371-375, & Pages 571-577; Anon in The Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Volume IX, Number 8, 1898/1899, Pages 386-387, and Volume X, Number 10, 1899/1900, Pages 414-415; William Crooke in Folk-Lore, Volume XLIV, 1899, Pages 339-341; W. W. B. in The Observatory, Number 283, Volume 22, September, 1899, Pages 345-346, and The Observatory, Number 294, July, 1900, Pages 292-293; George Barton in The American Journal of Theology, Volume 4, 1900, Page 152, and Volume 5, Number 1, January, 1901, Pages 124-125; and the (French-language) book reviews by Henri Hubert in Revue de L'Histoire des Religions, Volume 41, 1900, Pages 240-242, and Volume 45, 1902, Pages 440-441. Other (English-language) book reviews appear in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, Volume 90, 1901, Page 463; and The American Journal of Philology, Volume 24, 1903, Page 343. See brief biographical entries in A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, by John Kirk (1891, Volume 1, Page 227); and Men and Women of the Time, 15th edition, by Victor Plarr (1899, Page 137). Life dates: 1844-1912.]
Brown, [Junior]., Robert. (2010). Remarks on the Euphratean Astronomical Names of the Signs of the Zodiac. [Note: A Kessinger Publishing print-on-demand book containing 2 out-dated 19th-century articles by Robert Brown, Junior. The 2 articles are: Remarks on the Tablet of the Thirty-Stars (Part I and Part II), and Remarks on the Euphratean Astronomical Names of the Signs of the Zodiac. Both were originally published in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.]
Bücher, F[?]. (2010). "The Stars in the Path of the Moon": A Short History of the Names of the Zodiacal Signs. [Note: Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universitat Wien.]
Casaburi, Maria. (2002 (2003?)). Tre-stelle-per-ciascun(-mese): l'Astrolabio B: edizione filologica. [Note: Title also appears as Tre-stelle-per-ciascun (-mese), L'Astrolabio B: edizione filologica. The author is an Italian assyriologist. This short book (107 pages) discusses the Middle-Assyrian miscellaneous texts labeled as "Astrolabe B[erlin]" (KAV 218 = VAT 9416, written by the Babylonian scribe Marduk-blassu-ēreš at Assur during the 11th century BC). Astrolabe B is composed of a bilingual almanac written in Sumerian and Akkadian, a planisphere, a stellar calendar, and the colophon.]
Craig, James. (1899; Reprinted 1977). Astrological-Astronomical Texts. Copied from the original tablets in the British Museum. [Note: There is no text. The book contains drawings of sections of the approximate 70 texts comprising the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil. (Tablets 50 and 51 have important constellation/star name lists.) See the (English-language) book review article "Craig's Astrological-Astronomical Texts." by Reginald Thompson in The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Volume 17, Number 2, January, 1901, Pages 107-115. The author was a Canadian assyriologist. He held the position of Professor of Oriental Languages first at University of Michigan, and then at McGill University and University of Toronto. Life dates: 1855-1932.]
Emelianov, Vladimir. (1997 (1999?)). Nippur Calendar and the Early History of the Zodiac. [Note: Unpublished PhD thesis. The author is a department member of the Oriental Department, and Associate Professor (Dozent) at the Saint-Petersburg State University (a major Russian university). From the summary: "The calendar of an old Sumerian city Nippur (now Niffer in Iraq) played a very important role in the cultural history of the Ancient Near East. During the third millenium it was a local calendar; but after Ur III, it became the calendar of almost the whole of Babylonia, and influenced Hebrew, Syriac and Syro-Arabic chronological systems. This work deals with cuneiform sources related to the Nippur calendar and its rituals. The main aim of the book is to analyze all these texts and to make some associations between the Nippur calendar and the solar Zodiac." Vladimir Emelianov’s thesis summary: "Summary. The calendar of an old Sumerian city Nippur (now Niffer in Iraq) played a very important role in the cultural history of the Ancient Near East. During the third millenium it was a local calendar; but after Ur III, it became the calendar of almost the whole of Babylonia, and influenced Hebrew, Syriac and Syro-Arabic chronological systems. This work deals with cuneiform sources related to the Nippur calendar and its rituals. The main aim of the book is to analyze all these texts and to make some associations between the Nippur calendar and the solar Zodiac. Introduction. There have been three main tendencies in the study of Sumerian culture. The first one may be named aesthetical comparison. It refers to the discovery of similarities between Sumerian and Old Testamental texts by means of the analysis of its poetic composition (S. N. Kramer, W. W. Hallo, V. K. Afanasieva). The second may be called politics in myth, that is, the application of political history to the plot of sacred texts and the explanation of ancient culture by means of modern socio-economical ideas (Th. Jacobsen, I. M. Diakonoff, C. Wilcke-K.Volk, J. S. Cooper). The third tendency, religious culture, treats ideology as the sphere of religion and cult, and the cultic activity predominates here over the cultural activity (French scholars, H. Sauren, R. Averbeck). However, the existence of these tendencies in the consciousness of Sumerians is doubtful because there are no words such as 'politics', 'religion' or 'beauty' in ancient cuneiform languages. So, it would be strange to place the Sumerian world picture around one abstract modern term. Sumerian texts reveal a tendency to co-ordinate human life with the world of nature and cosmos. Not only as it is but also in relation with the days of sacrifice was the cult of a god important. Historical inscriptions compared the king with deities whose actions were connected with the seasons and months of the calendar. The form, stylistic elements and formulae of the text contain hidden indication to the calendar ritual, which was the prototype of a literary work. So, it is important to study the ancient calendar as a source of culture, for example, of the Sumerian culture. In the field of Sumerology there are four significant books on Sumerian calendars. B. Landsberger (1915), M. E. Cohen (1993), W. Sallaberger (1993) investigate the facts of calendar, that is, all month names and days of sacrifices found in all kinds of cuneiform texts. S. Langdon (1935) tried to explicate the ritual essence of calendar months. His work was the first attempt to overcome the separation between cultural and calendar studies in Sumerology. Recently, a second attempt was made by A. Livingstone (1986) in his book dedicated to the rituals and explanatory works on them. Our investigation continues the 'Langdon-Livingstone line'. We shall try to analyze the substance of all Nippur months and then to reveal chrono-topos (Space-and-Time, by M. M. Bakhtin) of the Nippur calendar. Chapter I. The Nippur Calendar. All cuneiform sources related to the Nippur calendar can be divided into three groups: 1) Nippur pre-Sargonic and Sargonic administrative texts (ECTJ, OSP 1-2, TuM); 2) Middle Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian and Seleucian explanatory works (KAV 218, OECT XI 69+70, SBH VIII, BPO 2 X, 'Nippur Compendium' in George, BTT); 3) series of prescriptions like Iqqur-ipush (Labat, Hem. et Men; Labat, Cal.). In group 1) we can find all 12 months' names in their archaic written versions. Texts of group 2) (like Astrolabe B) contain explanations of each months' name by means of the month's ritual and connect it with the definite celestial object heliacally rising in this month. Prescriptions of group 3) relate to the most important events of the month. Additional information can be extracted from Sumerian hymns to a god (so called myths) and royal inscriptions. The Nippur calendar consisted of four seasons: season of An (XII-II), season of Enlil (III-V), season of An II (VI-VIII), season of Enki (IX-XI). It began near the spring equinox and might be connected with the time of the rising of the river. Astronomical foundations of the calendar were lunar and solar observations: each month began with a new moon, but each season depended on the way of the Sun through the stars of the celestial equator. I bara2-za3-gar (March-April) '(re-establishing) the dais in shrine'. Enthronement as a result of the Great Battle between the Young Hero and the Chaos (= the Old Hero). Ninurta and Asag, Marduk and Tiamat, Tarhunas and Illuyanka, St. George and the Dragon. The dais here is a symbol of stable, solid earth in the middle of the Abyss and, therefore, a symbol of the beginning of the New World. II gu4-si-su3/sa2 'turning/direction of the oxen'. The Great Meeting of the Young Hero in the gates of Nippur and his Sacred Marriage, which is connected with ploughing the earth. Here Ninurta became ensigal and engar of his father Enlil. III sig4 gish u3-shub-ba gar 'placing the brick to the brick-mould'. The symbolic meaning of this magic procedure is the real co-existence of antipodes. We know that this month was associated in late astronomical texts with the Gemini Lugalgirra and Meslamtaea who were Sin and Nergal (the light of the Moon and the darkness of the Nether World). One can propose some kind of relation between the myth of this month and the plot of ‘Enlil and Ninlil’. IV shu-numun ‘sowing’. Here the process of sowing is connected with the departure of Dumuzi to the Nether World. Women cry over him to stimulate the growth of seeds. We would suppose that the crying Nin-ru-ru-gu2 of Astrolabe B < Nin-lu2-ru-gu2 'Mistress who opposes a man', is Ereshkigal. V NE.NE gar 'establishing of torches'. The fire of many torches helps mankind to drive away ghosts of the Nether World. People at that time make sacrifices to their dead relatives who had not received food and drink from their children and came out from the Nether World to disbalance relations between the living and the dead. In literature, it is the time of Inanna's descent to the Nether World and Gilgamesh's march to kur-lu2-ti-la of Huwawa (in Sumerian, kur means simultaneously 'a mountain', 'a foreign country' and 'the Nether World'). Athletic game played at this time in memory of Gilgamesh with the light of many torches seems to have been similar to the Greek Olympic Games. VI kin-dInnin 'the service for Inanna'. Inanna's statues are cleaned in 'the River of the Sacred Ordeal' because of her coming out from the Nether World at that time. In the literature, we know the myth ‘Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven’ where Gilgamesh has refused to enter Inanna’s temple in Uruk. He names her Nin-e2-gal 'Mistress of the Big House (= Acc. bit kili 'prison')'. It means that she was a prisoner of the Nether World and, after coming out, she is waiting for a new Dumuzi, that is, for a hero who must descend to the Nether World as a substitute for Inanna. VII du6-ku3 'the Sacred Mound'. Purification of kings and rulers, libations to Enki-Ninki as parent of Enlil. From OS and SB texts (Krebernik, BFE 18-19; Selz, 1995, enki-ninki; van Dijk, 1964) we know that Enki-Ninki had been the first deity before Enlil. He lived in the Earth, in the root of sacred tamarisk, at the very beginning of the world. The month and its rituals symbolize the very ancient time of the Universe, the period of establishing the World Order. Enki-Ninki was the parent of Anunna-gods who were rulers of Justice. The sun-god Utu was the second god of this month. VIII apin-du8-a ‘release of the Plough’. The ritual is unknown (it should be the holiday of Tummal). Astrolabe B alludes to this ritual when it mentions the 'Dialogue between the Plough and the Hoe'. It means the time of finishing all work with the plough (the plough’s activity on the field lasting from the IV till the VIII months). IX gan-gan-e3 'rising of the Killer'. Here GAN.GAN = @agK@u 'to kill', e3 'to rise'. We know from Astrolabe B and the corresponding texts that it is the month of Nergal. In the Erra-Epic Nergal is called bel shagashe 'master of murder', so we can say that the whole month is dedicated to Nergal's rising from the Nether World, that is, to the darkness of the winter sun. There is an association between Nergal’s rising and the rising of fruits from the Earth. This is the reason why the IX month is ‘the month of prosperity and abundance’. X ku3-SHEM ‘the sacred nakedness’. According to J. Bauer’s reading, SHEM = sux, su3PA.SIKIL = /sug/. In the Sumero-Eblaite glossary su3PA.SIKIL = sa-ba-tu ‘to be naked’ (cf. Arabic sbt,, Hebrew shbt, ‘twig, rod’). It is the time of the Earth’s holiday after agricultural activities. X ab-ba-e3 (from Ur III) 'rising of the Elder(s)'. Here the main rituals are: a) a big feast of An related to the eldest deities (Enmesharra, Ninshubur); b) rising of the dead founders of the state (Ur-Nammu, Shulgi) and their seating at the place of assembly. XI ud2-duru5 'emmer'. The ritual is unknown; however, in Astrolabe B it is 'the month of cold, the favourite month of Enlil', in Iq.-ip. 105, 11 'the month of Ishkur, canal inspector of the Heaven and the Earth'. We know about a very obscure holiday of Enlil at that time ('Nippur Compendium'; Ur III text in Sallaberger, 1993), where many weepers participate. Assur state ritual (van Driel, Assur, 140) contains the liturgical reading of a-ab-ba hu-luh-ha at the end of this month. In the latter text, the people of Nippur appeal to Enlil with a request not to flood their city and not to freeze them. One can suggest that rituals of this month may be related to the image of the Flood and the World Crush. XII she-gur10-ku5 '(time of) harvest'. The ritual is unknown, however, we know from Iqqur-ipush that it was the time of destruction of Agade and Ur. 'Harvest' may mean 'the end' here. Gods of the month are Sibitti, who are friends of Asag, children of Enmesharra. Chapter II. Semantic System of the Nippur Calendar. Steady observations lead us to the conclusion that the Nippur year was divided into two periods. Its first period (I-VI) was devoted to the 'Inanna-Dumuzi cycle', its second period was occupied by the gods of the Nether World and the Abyss. The main plot of the Nippur year is the conflict between the World of Life and the Nether World. Here the spatial meaning of 'the World of Life' is 'our world' < 'our land' (= Sumer), the temporal meaning is 'the bright time of the year' (from the winter solstice till the summer solstice). Correspondingly, the spatial meaning of 'the Nether World' is 'steppe', 'foreign country', 'outside space', the temporal meaning is 'the dark time of the year' (from the summer solstice till the winter solstice). This is the chrono-topos of the Nippur calendar. The situation of conflict is implemented here in four positions: I-III - domination of the World of Life. Giving ME as potencies of being to the Hero after his battle with the Abyss, reconstruction of the world and temple, enthronement and the sacred marriage, division of light and dark. Lugale, Barton Cylinder, an-gim dim2-ma, Cyl.A Gudea, Enki and the World Order, Enlil and Ninlil (?). IV-VI - war with the Nether World: Substitutes (Dumuzi, Inanna, Gilgamesh in the Nether World), ghosts of the Nether World ascend. Descent of Inanna, Gilgamesh and kur-lu2-ti-la, Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, Gilgamesh's Death. VII-IX - peace with the Nether World. Reconstruction of the margins between the two worlds, judgement of Utu and libations to the old gods. Utu hymns, Plough and Hoe. X-XII - domination of the Nether World and Abyss. Deluge, destruction of cities, saving the World of Life by a righteous person. Deluge myth, Ur Lament, Curse of Agade. One may note that there is a system of interconnections within the Nippur calendar, such as an opposition between the corresponding months of the first and the second periods of the year: I-VII - predestination and judgement; II-VIII - plough cycle (battle and discussion between the opponents); III-IX - twins (Sin and Nergal); IV-X - entering the Nether World and rising there from; V-XI - immortality (through conquering the world during the war or through saving that during the Deluge); VI-XII - the end of period (purification before the new period). Chapter III. Life after death: metamorphoses of the Nippur calendar semantics. The following three similarities are discussed: a) the similarity between the Nippur and the Standard Babylonian calendars; b) that between the Nippur calendar and the Babylonian Zodiac; and c) the between the Nippur calendar and the Epic of Gilgamesh. The first scholar who has suggested these similarities was F. Lenormant (Lenormant, 1874 II, 78-79). Our task here is to verify his conclusion. a) nisan < nesag 'the first', 'the first sacrifice' has a semantic resemblance with Sum. bara2-za3-gar, since bara2 was the place of enthronement where the Young Hero defeated an old deity (e.g. Enmesharra, Tiamat) and became the leader of nation. du'_zu may be correlated with the holiday of Dumuzi in shu-numun. e/ululu is similar to the rite of purification in kin-dInnin, and vebTtu and @abKvu show a relation between months X-XI and the Deluge. b) I MUL.LU2.HUNGA was the constellation of Dumuzi who had a ram's head. Dumuzi, one variant of the young spring god, was sacrificed in summer. Thus, it was also the constellation of Kingu, victim-god. Semantics of the First god who was a victim for the new world is very close to the ritual of I bara2-za3-gar. II MUL.GU4.AN.NA is very close to II gu4-si-sa2. VI ab-sin2 (image of Virgo with ear-corn) is related to the image of VI kin-dInnin (Inanna’s Return from the Nether World). VII zi-ba-ni-tum is similar to VII du6-ku3 (justice). We could propose that many images of the Babylonian Zodiac had had their prototypes in images and functions of the Nippurian ritual. See SpTU II, 43; BRM IV 19-20; Pinches Astrolabe. c) The way of Gilgamesh is the annual solar route from the East (= Persian Gulf = Utnapishtim's land) to the West (Lebanon and Mediterranean Sea = Humbaba’s mountains). In our book, we show many details indicating very close connections between the Nippur month rituals and plots of some corresponding tablets of the Epic of Gilgames: Tabl. II Battle of Gilgamesh and Enkidu near the entrance to the sacred bedroom < the Sacred marriage of Ninurta after his battle with Asag. Tabl. III Gilgamesh and Enkidu become friends < Sin and Nergal, light and dark, twins. Tabl. VI Gilgamesh refuses to marry Ishtar, his purification < purification of Ishtar’s statues. Tabl. VII Gods judge Enkidu to death, Enkidu judges Shamhat (two fates) < Utu’s Justice, in Zodiac - Libra. Here are the most obvious pieces of evidence in favour of the similarity between the Nippur calendar and the Gilgamesh Epic. The confirmation of F. Lenormant’s hypothesis leads us to the issue of the ritual and calendrical functioning of the Epic. However, we do not have any solution to this problem."]
Epping, Joseph. and Strassmaier, Johann. (1889). Astronomisches aus Babylon. [Note: The first exposition of Babylonian mathematical astronomy. Also contains identifications of constellations and star names. See the (German-language) book review by Peter Jensen in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebeite, Vierter Band, 1889, Pages 121-133; and the (French-language) book review by Rodolphe Radau in Bulletin Astronomique, Serie I, Volume 6, 1889, Pages 434-436 (Revue des Publications Astronomiques). See the (German-language) obituary for Joseph Epping by Alexander Baumgartner in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebeite, Neunter Band, 1894, (comprises 7 un-numbered pages at end of volume); and the (English-language) obituary by Anon in The Observatory, Volume XLIII, 1920, Pages 98-99. See the (German-language) obituary for Johann Strassmaier by Anton. Deimel in Orientalia, Number 1, 1920, Pages 5-10; and the (English-language) obituary by John Pollen in The Month, Volume CXXXV, February, 1920, Pages 137-145.]
Foxvog, Daniel. (1993). "Astral Dumuzi." In: Cohen, Mark. et al. (Editors). The Tablet and the Scroll: Near Eastern Studies in Honor of William W. Hallo. (Pages 103-108).
Galter, Hannes. and Scholz, Bernhard. (Editors). (1993). Die Rolle der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens. [Note: A collection of papers presented at a 1991 symposium in honour of the German Assyriologist Ernst Weidner. Several papers deal with Babylonian constellations and star names. See the (German-language) book review by M[?]. Streck in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Band 85, I Halbband, 1995, Page 166; and the (English-language) book reviews by Andrew George in Archiv für Orientforschung, Band XLII und Band XLIII, 1995/1996, Pages 254-255; and Jens Høyrup in Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Volume 46, 1996, Pages 159-161.]
Geuthner, Paul. (2006). Naissance et diffusion du zodiaque babylonien, présentation synthétique.
Giedion, Sigfried. (1964; Reprinted 1981). The Eternal Present: The Beginnings of Architecture. [Note: Includes a brief discussion of Mesopotamian constellations and astral concepts. See the (English-language) book review by André Leroi-Gourhan in American Anthropologist, Volume 65, 1963, Pages 1180-1181.]
Gössmann, Felix. (1950). Planetarium Babylonicum oder die sumerisch-babylonischen Stern-Namen. [Note: Though the entries are usually brief and can be somewhat cryptic this book remains the most useful compilation/compendium of all Mesopotamian constellation names/star names known up till circa 1950. (Also, all the entries are hand-written with very few slips.) Though compiled from references that can date back to the turn of the 19th-century it is still considered to be the standard reference. (Two-thirds of the sources used by Felix Gössmann pre-date 1920 i.e., fall within the pioneering period of assyriology and efforts to recover Babylonian astronomy. Because the majority of his sources are over 90 years old and the book itself is over 60 years old it needs to be used with caution.) Improved modern translations of some constellation and star names (due to various changes in transliteration format since 1950) are, of course, not reflected in the book and some revision is required. For corrections/improvements to constellation and star names, and their identifications, see Babylonian Planetary Omens 2 by Erica Reiner and David Pingree (1981); and Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree (1999). To date I have not come across any book review for this volume. See obituaries for Pater Felix Gössmann O. S. A. in Augustinianum (Review), Volume 8, 1968, Pages 547-550; and Cor Unum (Review), Volume 26, 1968, Pages 119-120. Also see: Who's Who in the Catholic World (1967, Volume 1), edited by Stephen Taylor. Gössmann was born in 1907 in Sulzwiesan, Germany. He was the son of Joseph Gössmann, a farmer. Felix Gössmann had a Doctor of Theology degree (= Doctor of Philosophy degree) and Doctor of Assyriology degree. He was a member of the Augustinian order, which he entered in 1920. From 1937 to 1938 he was a professor at the Augustinian College of Nijmegan. Life dates: 1907-1968. To keep in mind when reading the material and interpretations in this book: The Akkadians borrowed Sumerian cuneiform script for writing their own language and whilst they retained numerous Sumerian signs they also added their own. According to the cuneiform philologist John Heise, Akkadian speakers systematically used the Sumerian language at least to the Old Babylonian Period. It was the language of the Akkadian-speaking scholars. However, Sumerograms did not necessarily represent Sumerian loan words in the Akkadian language. It may be that there has been an Akkadian adaptation of a Sumerian logogram. A logogram used in an Akkadian text could represent either a loan word from Sumerian or a native Akkadian word. It was a general convention in ancient Mesopotamian scientific texts to use Sumerian word-signs to render Akkadian vocabulary words. However, it is not (always) possible to decide whether the Sumerian words used in later (non-Sumerian) times are actually Sumerian in origin or are just later Babylonian notions recorded in anachronistic Sumerian. No conclusion can be confidently drawn from the later use of Sumerian terms regarding the time or place of the origin of the content of the texts.]
Graßhoff, Gerd. (1999). "Normal Star Observations in Late Babylonian Astronomical Diaries." In: Swerdlow, Noel. (Editor). Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination. (Pages 97-147). [Note: See the (English-language) book review by Robert Biggs in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 63, January, Number 1, Pages 49-50).
Hallo, William. (2008). "MUL.APIN and the names of constellations." In: van der Spek, J[?]. (Editor). Studies in Near Eastern World View and Society. (Pages 235-254). [Note: Festschrift Marten Stol.]
Hartner, Willy. (1985). "Old Iranian Calendars." In: Gershevitch, Ilya. (Editor). The Cambridge History of Iran (Volume 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods). (Pages 714-792). [Note: Includes an argument for interpreting certain early iconography as constellations used for seasonal markers.]
Heimpel, Wolfgang. (1989). "The Babylonian Background of the Term "Milky Way."" In: Behrens, Hermann. et al. (Editors). DUMU-E2-DUB-BA-A: Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjöberg. (Pages 249-252).
Hinke, William. (1907). A New Boundary Stone of Nebuchadrezzar I from Nippur. [Note: Still one of the few detailed discussions of the possibility of astronomical themes being depicted on Kudurru (which are commonly, but mistakenly, referred to a "boundary-stones"). The author discusses 37 kudurru and the book is profusely illustrated. See the (English-language) book review by William Ward in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete, Band 22, 1910, Pages 408-411; and the detailed (German-language) book review/article by Carolo [Karl] Frank (1875-1950) in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete, Band 21, 1909, Pages 98-124. A summary of a 1916 paper presented by the the author (to the Archaeological Institute of America) on "The Significance of the Symbols on Babylonian Boundary-Stones" appeared in American Journal of Archaeology, Second Series, Volume XX, Number 1, 1916, Pages 76-77.]
Hobson, Russell. (2009). The Exact Transmission of Texts in the First Millennium B.C.E. [Note: Unpublished PhD thesis. An excellent study that includes examination of Enuma Anu Enlil tablet 63 (the 'Venus Tablet') and the Mul.Apin series. Of interest is the quote (Page 464) by Geoffrey Elton that succinctly critiques the use of statistics in solving complex historical problems, and a concluding statement (Page 494) regarding the lack of stabilisation in the transmission of astronomical/omen cuneiform texts. The latter is interesting. Hobson's examination demonstrates persistent error-making by a trained scribal elite in copying cuneiform astronomical/omen texts. And this error-making occurred over a relatively short period of time. A tradition of oral transmission did exist in Mesopotamia. The numerous variants of popular myths is used as an argument for an oral tradition in Mesopotamia. A group of 'experts' and later, in the Neo-Assyrian period (circa 950-600 BCE), 'chief singers' is identified with oral tradition. It is accepted by a number of scholars that these persons would make slight changes. However, it appears that in Mesopotamia there was an early reliance/preference for scribes trained to accurately copy texts. According to The Cambridge History of the Bible (Volume 1, 1975, Page 40): "In Mesopotamia oral tradition played only a limited part in the transmission of literary texts after 2,700 B.C., the scribe using an oral source only when all else failed." It is quite evident that scribal tradition = variation and copyist errors. Even the text of the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil exhibits divergences and was not really fixed.]
von Hofsten, Sven. (1997). The Theme of the Feline-and-Prey in Archaic Greek Art. [Note: Discusses the astronomical interpretation of the lion-bull combat theme. Doctoral thesis (Det humanistiske facultelt, Universitetet i Tromso) approximately 145 pages. Still awaiting republication by Universitet Stockholm (Stockholm Studies in Classical Archaeology) as of 2006. Life dates: 1947- .]
Hommel, Fritz. (1901). "Das babylonische Weltbild." In: Aufsätze und Abhandlungen, Band III, Heft I, Pages 344-349.
Hommel, Fritz. (1901). "Die Astronomie der alten Chaldäer." In: Aufsätze und Abhandlungen, Band III, Heft I, Pages 350-474. [Note: Now thoroughly outdated.]
Hommel, Fritz. (1920). Zu den babylonischen Grenzsteinsymbolen. [Note: A detailed attempt by a Panbabylonist to use the kudurru symbols to draw and date the Babylonian constellations. He perceived in the kudurru symbols an equatorial zodiac dating to the 5th-millennium BCE. This is pure fantasy.]
Hommel, Fritz. (1926). Ethnologie und Geographie des Alten Orients. [Note: Contains numerous short discussions of constellations, star names, and astral myths.]
Horowitz, Wayne. (1993). "The Reverse of The Neo-Assyrian Planisphere CT 33, 11." In: Galter, Hannes. and Scholz, Bernhard. (Editors). Die Rolle der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens. (Pages 149-159).
Horowitz, Wayne. (1998; 2nd printing with corrections of 1998 edition 2011). Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. [Note: A significant study based on extensive research - based on the authors doctoral dissertation. A comprehensive study of all extant Mesopotamian texts (including mythological texts and literary texts) relating to the idea of the physical universe and its constituent parts. Includes a detailed discussion of the "three stars each" (incorrectly termed "astrolabes" and now usually termed "planispheres") and the Mul.Apin series. See the (English-language) book reviews by Marilyn Schaub in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Volume 61, 1999, Pages ?-?; by Philip Jones in The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Volume 91, Numbers 3-4, January-April, 2001, Pages 485-487; and by Frances Reynolds in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 121, Number 1, January-March, 2001, Pages 131-132. The author is an assyriologist.]
Horowitz, Wayne. (2007). "The Astrolabes: Astronomy, Theology, and Chronology." In: Steele, John. (Editor). Calendar and Years: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient Near East. (Pages 101-113). [Note: The author is a leading authority on the Babylonian astrolabes. From the book review by Mladen Popovic (Qumran Institute, Groningen, The Netherlands), of Calendars and Years (2007), edited by John Steele, in RBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Email Newsletter, 03/2010. "Wayne Horowitz (101–13) devotes attention to the astrolabe and its astronomical, chronological, and theological significance. The astrolabe is a term in modern Assyriology that denotes a fixed-star scheme based on the three so-called paths of Anu, Enlil, and Ea, the appearance of which regulate the stars' annual movement. The focus in this contribution is not on circular astrolabes, of which only two fragmentary examples are known, but on the much larger number of astrolabes written in list format and especially on the so-called Astrolabe B. The oldest copy of Astrolabe B (KAV 218) dates to sometime in the early to the middle twelfth century B.C.E., but Horowitz thinks the contents of the text are not much older than this copy. He argues that Astrolabe B was not simply an astronomical aid for calendar reckoning. Horowitz understands it to have been a sort of astronomical handbook with practical applications, although these cannot be clearly determined. In addition to a possibly practical function, Astrolabe B had "a purely academic function as a statement of astronomical theory with religious overtones; namely that the stars were identified with gods, and that Marduk, whose star is to be found in the pivotal position at the end of the Path of Anu in Alb B II, was the god who regulated the starry sky and so the passage of time" (106). Horowitz also reviews the history of the Astrolabe tradition with regard to issues of canonicity, text history, and transmission and also connects it with Enuma Elish, with which the oldest copy of Astrolabe B is roughly contemporary. The Enuma Elish comparison shows the similarities between these texts regarding the central and primary position of Marduk, which suggests the religious outlook of a "purely astronomical" text such as Astrolabe B."]
Horowitz, Wayne. (Expected 2011/2012?). [The Astrolabes and Related Texts: Mesopotamian Astronomy Before 1000 B.C.] [Note: In preparation for Archiv fur Orientforschung Beihefte-series. The abstract for a 2010 presentation by Wayne Horowitz titled "Astronomy and Mythology in Ancient Babylonian Tradition: Enuma Elish and the Astrolabes." States: "In the Babylonian national epic Enuma Elish, Tablet V lines 1-8, Marduk, the newly crowned King of the Gods, takes it upon himself to arrange the luminaries in the heavens in the wake of his victory over Tiamat at the end of Tablet IV. Here Marduk assigns three stars to each month of the year, and sets the station of his star N alongside the stations of Enlil and Ea to regulate the stars. The system described here is that of a group of cuneiform astronomical texts commonly known as "Astrolabes," or more properly by their ancient name, "The Three Stars Each." The affinities between the Astrolabes and Enuma Elish help prove the late second millennium date for the composition of Enuma Elish, and demonstrate that the Astrolabes are not only astronomical works, but moreover have important religious and theological implications."]
Hunger, Hermann. and Pingree, David. (1989). Mul.Apin: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform. [Note: The standard study of the astronomy of the Mul.Apin series. See the (English-language) book reviews by Alexander Jones in Journal for the History of Science, Volume 22, 1991, Pages 327-329; by Bernard Goldstein in Isis, Volume 81, 1990, Pages 561-562; by Alan Bowen in Ancient Philosophy, Volume 13, Number 1, Spring, 1993, Pages 139-142; and the (German-language) book review by Anon in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Volume 86, 1991, Number 2, Columns 165-168.]
Hunger, Hermann. (Editor). (1992). Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. [Note: The reports make frequent references to constellations. See the (English-language) book reviews by Stefan Zawadzki in Zeitschrift für und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Band 84, 1 Halbband, 1994, Pages 308-310; and by Robert Biggs in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 55, January-October 1996, Pages 241-242. Hermann Hunger: 1942- .]
Hunger, Hermann. and Pingree, David. (1999). Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia. [Note: The best book-length overview (critical summary) of Babylonian astronomy and astrology to date. An essential book to read and it contains discussions of constellations and star names. See the (English-language) book reviews by John Britton in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 32, Part 2, May 2001, Pages 169-170; by Manuel Gerber in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 121, Number 2, April-June, 2001, Pages 317-319; by Salvo de Meis in Annals of Science, Volume 58, Number 3, July, 2001, Pages 323-325; by Salvo de Meis in Annals of Science, Volume 58, Number 3, July 2001, Pages 323-325; by Robert Biggs in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 62, Number 4, October, 2003, Pages 284-286, and by John Steele in Isis, Volume 94, Number 2, 2003, Pages 358-359; and the (German-language) book reviews by Johannes Koch in Die Welt des Orients, Band 31, 2000/2001, Pages 229-235; by Liz Brack-Bernsen in Archiv für Orientforschung, Band XLVIII und Band XLIX, 2001/2002, Pages 244-247; and by J[?]. Oelsner in Orientalische Literaturzeitung, Band 96, 2001, Columns 503-510. Life dates for David Pingree: 1933-2005. See the (English-language) obituaries by Anon in The Providence Journal, (Obituaries), Wednesday, November 16, 2005; by Kam Sripada in The Brown Daily Herald, (Section: Campus News), Friday, November 18, 2005; by Kim Plofker and Bernard Goldstein in Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science, Volume 2, 2005, Pages 71-72; by Toke Knudsen in Bulletin of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Number 38, May , 2006, Pages 5-6; by William Calder III and Stephan Heilen in Gnomon, Band 78, 2006, Pages 750-751; and by Alexander Jones in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 37, Part 2, Number 127, 2006, Pages 229-231. This latter obituary includes a photograph of David Pingree.]
Hunger, Herman. and Hübner, Wolfgang. (2004). "Constellations." In: Cancik, Hubert. and Sneider, Helmuth. (Editors). Brill's New Pauly. (Antiquity Volume 4, Columns 1187-1194). [Note: An excellent and informed entry on both Babylonian and Greek constellations.]
Hunger, Hermann. (2007). "How to make the gods speak: A late Babylonian tablet related to the microzodiac." In: Roth, Martha. et. al. (Editors). Studies Presented to Robert D. Biggs, June 4, 2004. (Pages 141-151).
Jastrow, Junior., Morris. (1898). "The Zodiacal System of the Babylonians." In: The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. (Pages 454-466). [Note: Obviously dated discussion. See the (English-language) biographical entry by Harold Wechsler in American National Biography, General Editors John Garraty and Mark Carnes, Volume II, 1999, Pages 886-887. Life dates: 1861-1921.]
Jastrow, Junior., Morris. (1905-12). Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens. (2 Volumes). [Note: See the (German-language) book review by Marie Pancritius, of both volumes, in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Volume 13, May, 1910, Number 5, Columns 199-204; and Volume 13, June, 1910, Number 6, Columns 252-260. See the (English-language) book review by Claude Johns in The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume VI, 1905, Pages 633-635. Two lengthy chapters in volume 2 (published 1912, in two parts) are based on Franz Kugler's identification of constellations and star names in the early volumes of his monumental "Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel." (1907-1935; 2 Volumes and 3 Supplements in 7 Parts).]
Jensen, Peter. (1890, Reprinted 1891?, and 1974). Die Kosmologie der Babylonier. [Note: Now thoroughly out-of-date. The author demonstrated that the Greek zodiac was borrowed from the Babylonians. See the (German-language) obituary by Walter Baumgartner in Archiv für Orientforschung, Elfter Band, 1936/1937, Pages 281-282; and the (German-language) obituary by Albert Schott in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete, Volume 44, 1938, Pages 183-190. See the (German-language) book review by Heinrich Zimmern in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete, Fünfter Band, 1890, Pages 114-120; and the (English-language) book review by C. B. in The Academy, May 31, 1890, Number 943, Page 375. The author was later a Panbabylonist independent of the Panbabylonist school of Hugo Winckler and Alfred Jeremias.]
Kelley, David. and Milone, Gene. (2005). Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of Astronomy. [Note: See the section "Iconographic Representations on Cylinder Seals," Pages 213-216. This section is rather speculative and unreliable and dependent upon the speculative 1988 doctoral dissertation "Iconography of Išhtar" by K[?]. Adamson. A problem with the book in general is its reliance on secondary sources. At times the sources used are unreliable and as a result numerous topics covered lack reliability. See the (English-language) comments/'book review' by Bradley Schaefer in Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture, Volume 21, 2007-2008, Page 113. Also see the (English-language) book reviews by Owen Gingerich in Sky and Telsecope, Volume 110, Issue 2, August, 2005, Pages 91; and by Clive Ruggles in Journal of the History of Astronomy, Volume 38, Part 1, February, 2007, Page 133.]
King, Leonard. (Editor). (1912, Reprinted circa 1980). Babylonian boundary-stones and memorial-tablets in the British Museum. (2 Volumes). [Note: The first volume is text and the second volume is a portfolio of 133 plates. Life dates: 1869-1919.]
Koch, Johannes. (1989). Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels. [Note: An important study. The author attempts to identify a number of Mesopotamian constellations mentioned in the Mul.Apin series. Unfortunately Koch was unable to use the book, Mul.Apin by Hunger/Pingree (1989). Koch convincingly demonstrates the Reiner/Pingree interpretation of the paths of Enlil, Anu, and Ea as arcs along the (eastern) horizon. In Chapters 1-3 Koch offers a critical re-evaluation of Waerden (1949) and Reiner and Pingree (1981). In chapters 7-16 Koch deals in elaborate detail with the "planisphere" K 8538 from Niniveh. See the (English-language) book reviews by Peter Huber in Centaurus, Volume 34, Issue 2, June, 1991, Pages 172-173; by David Pingree in Die Welt des Orients, Band. 23, 1992, Pages 168-170; by John North in Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Volume 42, 1992, Page 180; by Kristian Moesgaard in Isis, Volume 83, Number 3, September, 1992, Pages 474-475; and the (German-language?) book review by Walter Farber in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Band 88, Heft 4, September/Oktober, 1993, Columns 385-389. See also "Anmerkungen zu Johannes Koch, Neue Untersuchungen sur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels." by Heinz Neumann in Archiv für Orientforschung, Band 38-39, 1991-1992, Page 111. Whilst the author was not a trained assyriologist his many contributions to Mesopotamian astronomy and astrology were widely welcomed by assyriologists. Life dates: 1926-2011.]
Koch, Johannes. (1993). "Das Sternbild mul.mas-tab-ba-tur-tur." In: Galter, Hannes. and Scholz, Bernhard. (1993). Die Rolle der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens. (Pages 185-198).
Koch-Westenholz, Ulla. (1995). Mesopotamian Astrology: An Introduction to Babylonian and Assyrian Celestial Divination. [Note: See Appendix C. List of Babylonian Star Names. (Pages 207-208).]
Kugler, Franz. (1907). Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. I. Buch. [Note: Though the volume primarily deals with Babylonian planetary theory some discussion of Babylonian constellations is included. See the (German-language) book reviews by Friedrich Ginzel in Vierteljahrsshrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 42 Jahrgang, 1907, Pages 368-375; and by Anon in Revue Biblique Internationale, Nouvelle Série, Sixième Année, Tome VI, 1909, Pages 323-324; the (French-language) book reviews by Auguste Bouché-Leclercq in Journal des Savants, Nouvelle Série, Tome 5, 1907, Pages 564-566; and by ? in Journal des Savants, Volume 5, October, 1907, Pages 564. (Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel by Franz Kugler (1907-1935), 2 volumes and 3 supplements in 7 parts. Buch 1, 1907; Buch 2, Teil 1, 1909/10; Buch 2, Teil 2, Heft 1, 1912); Ergänzungen Heft 1, 1913, Ergänzungen Heft 2, 1914; Buch 2, Teil 2, Heft 2, 1924; Ergänzungsheft 3, 1935, by Johann Schaumberger.)]
Kugler, Franz. (1909/10). Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. II. Buch. I Teil. [Note: The volume includes some discussion of Babylonian constellations. See the (German-language) book reviews by Friedrich Ginzel in Vierteljahrsshrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 46 Jahrgang, 1911, Pages 28-32; and by D[?] Kreichgauer in Anthropos, Band V, 1910, Pages 276-277; and the (French-language) book reviews by François Martin in Journal Asiatique, Dixième Série, Tome XVI, MDCCCCX, Pages 159-161; and by Anon in Revue Biblique Internationale, Nouvelle Série, Huitième Année, Tome VIII, 1911, Pages 313-314.]
Kugler, Franz. (1912). Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. II. Buch. II. Teil. I Heft. [Note: The volume includes some discussion of Babylonian constellations.]
Kugler, Franz. (1913). Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. Ergänzungen zum ersten und zweiten Buch. I. Teil. [Note: In this volume Franz Kugler focused on the problem of the identification of constellations and star names. He later continued this investigation in Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. Ergänzungen 2. (1914). See the (French-language) book review by Albert Condamin in Recherches de Science Religieuse, Tome Cinquieme, [Volume 5], 1914, Pages 178-179; and the (German-language) book reviews by C[?]. Frank in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 68 Band, 1914, Pages 218-220; and Friedrich Ginzel in Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 60 Jahrgang, 1925, (included in) Pages 24-29. See the (German-language) obituaries by Michael Esch in Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 64 Jahrgang, 1929, Pages 294-301 (with portrait photograph); and by Johann Schaumberger in Orientalia, Volumen 11, Nova Series, 1933, Pages 97-100; and the (English-language) obituary by Stephen Langdon in The (London) Times, Friday, 27 December, 1929, Page 6. See also the (German-language) biographical entries by Otto Volk in Neue Deutsche Biographie, Dreizehnter Band, 1982, Pages 247-248; and by Paul-Richard Berger in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (1992), Band 4, Columns 780-782. An entry on Franz Kugler is also included in Porträtgallerie der astronomischen Gesellschaft (1931, Page 35 (with portrait photograph). Life dates: 1862-1929.]
Kugler, Franz. (1914). Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. Ergänzungen zum ersten und zweiten Buch. II. Teil. [Note: Further studies on the identification of Babylonian constellations and star names.]
Kurtik, G[?]. (2007). The Star Heaven of Ancient Mesopotamia. [Note: In Russian. Publishing details: St. Petersburg: Aletheia. ISBN: 978-5-903354-36-8. Life dates, G. Kurtik: 1951- .]
Laffitte, Roland. (2009). "Le point sur l'origine Mésopotamienne du signe du Bélier." In: Cahiers de l'Institut du Proche-orient Ancien du Collége de France, I. Centre et Périphérie Approches Nouvelles des Orientalistes. (Pages 101-108). [Note: Publication of conference papers presented 31 May to 1 June, 2006.]
Langdon, Stephen. (1914). Tammuz and Ishtar: A Monograph Upon Babylonian Religion and Theology. [Note: See especially: Chapter V. Tammuz and Innini as Astral Deities.]
Landsberger, Benno. (1923). "Ein astralmythologischer Kommentar aus der Spätzeit babylonischer Gelehrsamkeit." (Archiv für Keilschriftforschung, Band 1, Pages 43-48). [Note: I have seen the page numbers incorrectly given as 69-78.]
Langdon, Stephen. (1923). The Babylonian Epic of Creation. (2 Volumes). [Note: Detailed commentary/discussion of Tablet 5 of the Enuma Elis regarding constellations and star names. See the (English-language) book review by Anon in The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume XXX, 1928, Pages 102-105; and the (German-language) book review by Erich Ebeling in Archiv für Keilschriftforschung, Zweiter Band, 1924-1925, Pages 28-30. See the (English-language) obituary by Cyril Gadd in Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume XXII, 1937, Pages 565-580; and the (German-language) obituary by Anon in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete, Neue Folge Band 10 (Band 44), 1938, Pages 192-193; and the (English-language) obituary by Reginald Thompson in Archiv für Orientforschung, Zwölfter Band, 1937-1939, Pages 97-98. Life dates: 1876-1937.]
Langdon, Stephen. (1935). Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars. [Note: Discusses constellations marking the months. Daryn Lehoux succinctly explains: Langdon unsuccessfully attempts to make use of Astrolabe Pinches, which is a a modern compilation (reconstruction), in conjunction with the menologies to reconstruct the features of (1) an ancient Sumerian calendar which began with the month of Nisannu with the rising of the Pleiades; and also (2) a prehistoric calendar which began with the autumn equinox. See the (English-language) book review by Cyril Gadd in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1936, Pages 156-158; and the (French-language) book review by Charles Jean in Journal Asiatique, Tome CCXXVIII, 1936, Pages 671-673.]
Lindl, Ernest. (1918). "Zur babylonischen astronomie." In: Orientalistische Studien: Fritz Hommel zum sechzigsten Geburtstage am 31. Juli 1914 gewidmet 1917. (2 Volumes; Erster band published 1917; Zweiter band published 1918). [Note: Article is in Zweiter band (Pages 346-356). The author was a German assyriologist and Privatdozent at the University of Munich. Life dates: 1872-1921.]
Mackenzie, Donald. (No Date (1915?)). Myths of Babylon and Assyria. [Note: Contains a dated discussion of the astrolabes (circular star calendars). The author was a Scottish journalist and prolific writer on religion, mythology, and anthropology in the early 20th-century. Life dates 1873-1936.]
Maunder, Edward. (1908). "The Triad of Stars." (The Expository Times, Volume XIX, Pages 300-303). [Note: The article later appeared in The Observatory, Volume 31, August, Pages 303-307. Flawed discussion of kudurru (boundary-stone) iconography and dating.]
Meissner, Bruno. (1920-1925). Babylonien und Assyrien. (2 Volumes). [Note: A summary of Mesopotamian astronomy is contained in Einundzwanzigstes Kapitel, Volume 2, Pages 380-418. The fold-out sky map of Mesopotamian constellations, drawn by Ernst Weidner, located at the back of Volume 2 is unreliable. See the (French-language) book review by M[?]. Ginsburger in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, Tome XCV, Numbers 2-3, Mars-Juin 1927, Page ? [Notices Bibliographiques]. See the (German-language) obituaries by Ernst Weidner in Archiv für Orientforschung, Fünfzehnter Band, 1945-1951, Pages 173-174; and Reallexikon der Assyriologie, Dritter Band, Fabel-Gyges und Nachtrag, 1957-1971, Pages 10-11.]
Frederic Miller et al. (Editors). (2009). Babylonian Astronomy. [Note: Published by Alphascript Publishing (= VDM Publishing)). The book simply reproduces Wikipedia articles. Though comprising 158 pages of Wikipedia articles only 15 pages (at generous best) actually deal with Babylonian astronomy. (Only a few of these pages deal with constellation names and star names.) The rest of the pages deal either with non Babylonian astronomy or simply historical non astronomical topics. The 5 articles or sections of articles comprising these 15 pages deal with only a few themes in an unconnected manner. The price for this paperback (June, 2010) was Aust$102 was remarkably expensive in view of the fact that Wikipedia articles result from volunteer efforts. Generally the Wikipedia articles on ancient astronomy are not put together by expert persons. (Simply see the discussion pages for the articles.) As publishing ventures, the Google electronic scans (even though frequently of poor quality), and the Kessinger and Nabu print on demand books (usually from Google scans), look positively professional and somewhat of a bargain in comparison.]
Mitchell, Terence. and Searight, Ann. (2007). Catalogue of the Western Asiatic seals in the British Museum, Volume 3. (Pages 11-14). [Note: Briefly discusses seal impressions, mainly from Warka, which can be seen a representing signs of the zodiac. At the time of co-authoring the book Terence Mitchell was Keeper of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum. Ann Searight has been professionally involved in archaeology since 1960 as conservator and subsequently draughtsman. She also conducts work for the British Museum's Middle East and Asia Departments.]
Neugebauer, Paul. and Weidner, Ernst. (1915). Ein astronomischer Beobachtungstext aus dem 37. Jahre Nebukadnezars II. [Note: Paul Neugebauer was astronomer to the Royal Astronomical Computing Office (Rechen-Institute) in Berlin. Life dates for Paul Neugebauer: 1878-1940.]
Newton, Robert. (1976). Ancient Planetary Observations and the Validity of Ephemeris Time. [Note: Contains some interesting discussions of Babylonian star names and constellations.]
Pallis, Svend. (1956). The Antiquity of Iraq: A Handbook of Assyriology. [Note: The author of this standard (but imperfect) handbook on many aspects of Assyriology is an Assyriologist. Some space is given to discussion of ancient Mesopotamian constellations. See the (French-language) book review by Agnès Spycket in Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale, Volume LI, Number 2, 1957, Pages 159-161.]
Pannekoek, Antonie. (1961). A History of Astronomy. [Note: English-language translation of the author's 1951 Dutch-language-book. See the (English-language) biographical entry by Marcel Minnaert in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, (1970-1980), edited by Charles Gillispie, Volume X, Pages 289-291. Life dates: 1873-1960.]
Papke, Werner. (1978). Die Keilschriftserie Mul.Apin. Dokument wissenschaftlicher Astronomie im 3. Jahrtausend. Dissertation. [Note: Werner Papke's 64 page doctoral dissertation that formed the basis for his later books was published in booklet form. Argues that information in the Series Mul.Apin can be dated to the third millennium BCE. Unreliable because of how his argument is constructed. See the effective criticisms in Mul.Apin: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree (1989).]
Papke, Werner. (1989). Die Sterne von Babylon. [Note: Unreliable.]
Papke, Werner. (1994). Die geheime Botschaft des Gilgamesch. [Note: Unreliable. The book is a reprint of the authors "Die Sterne von Babylon." See the (German-language) book review by Johannes Koch in Die Welt des Orients, Band 24, 1993, Pages 213-222.]
Parpola, Simo. (1983; Reprinted 2007). Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. [Note: The letter reports make frequent references to constellations.]
Parpola, Simo. (1993). (Editor). Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. [Note: See the (English-language) book review by Robert Biggs in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 56, January-October 1997, Pages 63-64. Simo Parpola is Professor of Assyriology, University of Helsinki, Finland.]
Pingree, David. and Walker, Christopher. (1988). "A Babylonian Star Catalogue: BM 78161." In: Leichty, Erle. (Editor-in-Charge). A Scientific Humanist: Studies in Memory of Abraham Sachs. (Pages 313-322). [Note: Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund, 9. A different interpretation of this tablet is given by Johannes Koch in "Der Sternenkatalog BM 78161" (Die Welt des Orients, Volume 23, 1992, Pages 39-67). See the (English-language) book review by Asger Aaboe in Isis, Volume 81, 1990, Pages 562-563.]
Porada, Edith. (1987). "On the Origins of "Aquarius."" In: Rochberg-Halton, Francesca. (Editor). Language, Literature, and History: Philological and Historical Studies Presented to Erica Reiner. (Pages 279-291). [Note: See the (English-language) book review by Jeremy Black in Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume XXXIV, 1989, Pages 196-197. See the (English-language) obituary by Holly Pittman in American Journal of Archaeology, Volume 99, 1995, Pages 143-146. Life dates 1912-1994.]
Reiner, Erica. and Civil, Miguel. (1974). Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon II. [Note: Comprises a study of the Series HAR-ra="hubullu", Tablets XX-XXIV. Several times discusses Babylonian lists of constellations dating to the early 2nd millennium BCE.]
Reiner, Erica. and Pingree, David. (1981). Babylonian Planetary Omens 2. [Note: An excellent study of constellations and star names on Enuma Anu Enlil omen series tablets 50 & 51. Contains an extensive catalog of star names appearing in the omen texts (i.e., derived from omens about stars). David Pingree was Professor of the History of Mathematics at Brown University in the USA. See the (English-language) article book review by "Babylonian Astrological Omens and Their Stars." by Wilfred Lambert in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 107, Number 1, Jan-Mar., 1987, Pages 93-96. Life dates for Erica Reiner: 1924-2005; and for David Pingree: 1933-2005. See the obituaries for Erica Reiner by Hermann Hunger in Aestimatio, Volume 2, 2005, Pages 237-238; by Lori Rackl in the Chicago Sun-Times, January 4, 2006; by Anon in The University of Chicago Chronicle, January 5, 2006, Volume 25, Number 7; by Wolfgang Saxon in The New York Times, January 22, 2006; and by Loren Yue in the Chicago Tribune, January 24, 2006.]
Reiner, Erica. (1995). Astral Magic in Babylonia. [Note: Interesting discussion of some constellations, including the 10 stars/constellations in The Prayer to the Gods of the Night.]
Reiner, Erica. and Pingree, David (2005). Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part Four. [Note: See: II The Omens on Pages 27-32 for a discussion of Babylonian constellations mentioned in relation to Jupiter. See also the (English-language) book review by John Steele in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 37, Part 3, August, 2006, Number 128, Pages 362-363.]
Reynolds, Frances. (1999 [2000?]). "Stellar Representations of Tiāmat and Qingu in a Learned Calendar Text." In: van Lerberghe, Karel. and Voet, Gabriela. (Editors). Languages and Cultures in Contact: At the Crossroads of Civilizations in the Syro-Mesopotamian Realm. (Pages 369-378). [Note: The volume contains 33 papers presented at the 42th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale held at the University of Leuven in July 1995. (Proceedings of the 42e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale.) Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta - OLA 96. At the time of publication Frances Reynolds was at the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Birmingham. Currently (2011) she is Shillito Fellow in Assyriology; Senior Research Fellow of St Benet's Hall, University of Oxford.]
Rochberg-Halton, Francesca. (1988). Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination: The Lunar Eclipse Tablets of Enuma Anu Enlil. [Note: Beiheft 22, Archiv für Orientforschung. The author's doctorate dissertation written circa 1980. See the critical (English-language) review by Andrew George in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Sechsundachtzigster Jahrgang, 1991, Number 4, Columns 378-384).]
Roughton, Norbert. (2002). "A Study of Babylonian Normal-Star Almanacs and Observational Texts." In: Steele, John and Imhausen, Annette. (Editors). Under One Sky: Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East. (Pages 367-378).
Sachs, Abraham. (1974). "Babylonian observational astronomy." In: Hodson, Frank. (Editor). The Place of Astronomy in the Ancient World. (Pages 43-50). [Note: See page Table 1 on 46 for a list of the (late) standard Babylonian reference stars. The papers comprising the volume originated from a joint symposium on ancient astronomy held by The Royal Society and The British Academy. They were also published in the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London," Volume 276 A, Number 1257. See the (English-language) books reviews by Colin Renfrew in Archaeology, Volume 26, Number 1, January, 1973, Pages 222-223; and by A[lexis?]. Brookes in The Classical Review, New Series Volume XXVII, (Volume XCI of the Continuous Series), 1977, Pages 95-96.]
Sachs, Abraham. and Hunger, Hermann. (1988). Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia. Volume 1. Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C. [Note: See the section "Normal Stars" (Pages 17-19) in the "Introduction."]
Schroeder, Otto. (1920). Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts. [Note: A study of Astrolabe B (KAV 218). The author was a German assyriologist Otto Schroeder. Publication details: Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 35, 1920). Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (WVDOG) is a series publication of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft. Astrolabe B (KAV 218) (tabular format) was studied and published by the German assyriologist Otto Schroeder (1851-1937), in a monograph titled Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts (Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 35, 1920). Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (WVDOG) is a series publication of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft.Life dates: 1851-1937.]
Seidl, Ursula. (1989). Die Babylonischen Kudurru-reliefs: Symbole Mesopotamischer Gottheiten. [Note: The standard study. Includes a discussion of the possible astronomical significance of Kudurru iconography. Profusely illustrated.]
Schaumberger, Johannes. (1935). Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. 3. Ergänzungsheft zum ersten und zweiten Buch. [Note: Johannes Schaumberger took up Franz Kugler's unfinished studies and completed a third supplement to volumes 1 and 2 of "Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel." This supplement includes further studies on the identification of constellations and star names. See the (English-language) book review by Solomon Gandz in Isis, Volume XXV, Part 2, Number 70, September, 1936, Pages 473-476; and the (French-language) book review by David Sidersky in Journal Asiatique, Tome CCXXVIII, MDCCCXXXVI, Pages 515-516; and the (German laguage) book reviews by Albert Schott in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Band 90, (Neue Folge Band 15), 1936, Pages 493-496; and by Paul Neugebauer in Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 73 Jahrgang, 1938, Pages 14-18. See also the (German-language) obituary by Ernst Weidner in Archiv für Orientforschung, Siebzehnter Band, 1954-1956, Pages 490-491; and the (German-language) biographical entry by OttoWeiss in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (1995), Band 9, Columns 22-23. Life dates: 1885-1955.]
Schneider, Nikolaus [Nickolaus]. (1914). Pantheon Babylonicum. [Note: Latin text. The entries frequently deal with Babylonian constellations and star names and draw heavily on the published volumes of "Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel" by Franz Kugler. See the (German-language) book review by Wilhelm Förtsch in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Volume 18, March, 1915, Number 3, Columns 80-83; the (French-language) book review by Louis Delaporte in Journal Asiatique, Onzième Série, Tome IV, 1914, Pages 672-673; the (English-language) book review by Anon in The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume XVI, 1915, Pages 284-285; and the (German-language) book review by Otto Schroeder in Theologische Literaturzeitung, Volume 40, Number 10, 15 May, 1915, Columns 217-218. See the (German-language) obituary by Ernst Weidner in Archiv für Orientforschung, Sechzehnter Band, 1952-1953, Pages 396-397. Nikolaus Schneider was a German cuneiformist/assyriologist and priest. He was located in Luxembourg (Priestseminar). Life dates: 1884-1953.]
Steinkeller, Piotr. (2005). "Of Stars and Men: The Conceptual and Mythological Setup of Babylonian Extispicy." In: Gianto, Agustinus. (Editor). Biblical and Oriental Essays in Memory of William L. Moran. (Pages11-47). [Note: Brilliant essay on the nature of Babylonian extispicy. Some discussion of constellations and star names.]
Steinmetzer, Franz. (1922; Reprinted 1968). Die babylonischen Kudurru (Grenzsteine) als Urkundenform.
Stephenson, Francis. and Walker, Christopher. (1985). (Editors). Halley's Comet in History. [Note: Contains a brief discussion of Babylonian zodiacal constellations and normal stars.]
Tuman, Vladimir. (1987). "Kudurru # SB 25 At The Louvre Museum Represents The Summer Solstice Festival June 22, 1203 B.C. (Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Volume 19, Pages652-?).
Tuman, Vladimir. (1992). "Astronomical Dating of Mul.Apin Tablets." In: Charpin, Dominique and Joannès, F[?]. (Editors). La circulation des biens, des persons et des idées dans le Proche-Orient ancien: Actes de la XXXVIIIe Recontre Assyriologique Internationale (Paris, 8-10 juillet 1991), Pages 397-414). [Note: The paper was also published in the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies in 1992.]
Tuman, Vladimir. (1993). "Astronomical Dating of Observed and Recorded Events in the Astrolabe V R 46." In: Galter, Hannes. and Scholz, Bernhard. (Editors). Die Rolle der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mespotamiens. (Pages 199-209). [Note: Vladimir Tuman was Professor of Physics and Earth Sciences at the California State University. He first started researching Mesopotamian astronomy circa 1975.]
Ungnad, Arthur. (1923). Ursprung und Wanderung der Sternnamen. [Note: Pamphlet. Title in English: Origin and Migration of the Star Names. The author was a noted German assyriologist.]
Verderame, Lorenzo. (2004). "I colori nell'astrologia mesopotamica." In: Waetzoldt, Hartmut. (Editor). Von Sumer nach Ebla und zurück: Festschrift; Giovanni Pettinato. [Note: The Festschrift was held in 1999.]
Virolleaud, Charles. (1905-1912). L'astrologie chaldéenne. [Note: Transcriptions and autographs of the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil. (There are no translations included.) Published in 12 fascicules. (Tablets 50 and 51 have important constellation/star name lists.) See the (English-language) book review by Reginald Thompson in The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Volume 25, Number 3, April, 1909, Page 256.]
van der Waerden, Bartel. (1965). Die Anfänge der Astronomie: Erwachende Wissenschaft II. [Note: Somewhat different in arrangement and a little different in content to the later revised English translation "The Birth of Astronomy" (1974). See the (German-language) book reviews by Wolfram von Soden in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Dreiundsechzigster Jahrgang, 1968, Number 7/8, Columns 350-354; and by Willy Hartner in Gnomon, Band 44, 1972, Pages 529-537. See also the (English-language) book reviews by Gerald Toomer in Journal of Hellenic Studies, Volume 88, 1968, Pages 192-194; by Owen Gingerich in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 89, Number 3, 1969, Pages 634-635; and the quite critical book review by the assyriologist Wilfred Lambert in the Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 21, Numbers 1 and 2, 1976, Pages 163-164.]
van der Waerden, Bartel. (1974). Science Awakening II: The Birth of Astronomy. [Note: A translation of the 1965 (reprinted (1966?/1968) German edition. The author was a Dutch mathematician (Professor of Mathematics at the University of Zürich) who also contributed considerably to our knowledge of the exact sciences in antiquity, including aspects of Babylonian astronomy. The book contains detailed information on Babylonian constellations and star names but needs to be used with some caution. See the (English-language) book reviews by Victor Thoren in Isis, Volume 67, Number 3, September, 1976, Pages 478-479; by Lis Brack-Bernsen in Centaurus, Volume 20, 1977, Pages 327-328; and by Bernard Goldstein in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 37, January-October, 1978, Pages 275-277.]
van der Waerden, Bartel. (1988). Die Astronomie der Griechen. [Note: Contains a brief discussion of the ideas of Werner Papke regarding Babylonian star identifications.]
Wallenfels, Ronald. (1993). "Zodiacal Signs among the Seal Impressions from Hellenistic Uruk." In: Cohen, Mark. et al. (Editors). The Tablet and the Scroll: Near Eastern Studies in Honor of William W. Hallo. (Pages 281-289).
Wallenfels, Ronald. (1994). Uruk: Hellenistic Seal Impressions
in the Yale
Watson, Rita. and Horowitz, Wayne. (2011). Writing Science before the Greeks: A Naturalistic Analysis of the Babylonian Treatise MUL.APIN. [Note: Abstract: "The beginnings of written science have long been associated with classical Greece. Yet in Ancient Mesopotamia, highly-sophisticated scientific works in cuneiform script were extant and in active use while Greek civilization flourished in the West. The subject of this volume is an earlier work, the astronomical series MUL.APIN, which can be dated to the 7th century BCE and which represents the crowning achievement of traditional Mesopotamian observational astronomy. Writing Science before the Greeks explores this early text from the perspective of modern cognitive science in an effort to articulate the processes underlying its composition. The analysis suggests that writing itself, through the cumulative recording of observations, played a role in the evolution of scientific thought." Rita Watson holds the Abraham Schiffman Chair in Education at the Hebrew University and has published primarily on the relation of language and literacy to human cognitive development. Her most recent book is an edited collection on the Toronto School of Communication Theory. Wayne Horowitz is Professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, and has published extensively in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Assyriology, and Mesopotamian astronomy. His books include Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography and a new volume on the Astrolabes.]
Weidner, Ernst. (1911). Beiträge zur babylonischen Astronomie. [Note: Basically a collection of (now outdated) studies. Though rather rare a copy appeared for sale in 2009 in a German used book catalogue and another in 2010 in a German used book catalogue. The German Assyriologist, Ernst Weidner (1891-1976) was 20 years old when this book was published. See the (French-language) book reviews by Charles Fossey in Revue critique d'histoire et de littérature, Volume 46, Number 2, 1912, Pages 323-324; and Journal Asiatique, Séries 11, 1, Mars-Avril, 1913, Pages 472-473; and the (German-language) book review by Hugo Figulla in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Volume 18, 1915, Number 10, Columns 305-307. See the (German-language) biographical tribute "Ernst Weidner - Gelehrter und Mensch," by Kurt Jaritz in Die Rolle der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens, edited by Hannes Galter and Bernhard Scholz (1993), Pages 11-20; and the (German-language) obituary by Wolfram von Soden in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Volume 66, 1976, Pages 153-155. Life dates: 1891-1976. By way of noting some details regarding Charles Fossey (1869-1946). Fossey was trained as an Assyriologist. However, his work was connected with philology and archaeology and focused more on the technical problems of linguistic and archaeological evidence. He participated in several expeditions to sites in the Middle East. Between 1902 and 1909 he published a number of manuals, dictionaries, and grammars of Assyrian languages and also several works on Assyrian magic and divination. He held a chair in teaching Assyrian-Babylonian religion at the École Pratique de Hautes Études (a Public University founded in 1868 by the French Government).]
Weidner, Ernst. (1915; Reprinted 1976). Handbuch der babylonischen Astronomie. Band I. Teil I. [Note: No further volumes appeared. The existing volume is now very outdated. See the (German-language) book review by Bruno Meissner in Theologische Literaturzeitung, Volume 41, Number 7, 1 April, 1916, Columns 145-147; and the highly critical (German-language) book review by Franz Kugler in Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 51 Jahrgang, 1916, Pages 162-171.]
Weidner, Ernst. (1967). Gestirn-Darstellungen auf Babylonischen Tontafeln. [Note: Basically a study of constellation representations on clay tablets. See the (English-language) book review by Robert Biggs in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 30, Number 1, January, 1971, Pages 73-74; and the (English-language) book review by Richard Caplice in Orientalia, Volume 38 Nova Series, 1969, Pages 580-582.]
White, Gavin. (2007; Revised edition 2008). Babylonian Star-lore: An Illustrated Guide to the Star-lore and Constellations of Ancient Babylonia. [Note: The first edition title was: Babylonian Star-lore: An Illustrated Guide to the Stars and Constellations of Ancient Babylonia. Not written for a scholarly audience. Also, not reliable. The book is based on Mul.Apin: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree (1989), and other similar publications. The author is a dedicated enthusiast, and possibly an astrologer (of sorts), who spent some 3 years researching and writing the book using the extensive library at the School of Oriental and African Studies in Central London. However, the book needs to be used with considerable caution. There is nothing to support some of his key beliefs. The book contains a number of speculative and quite misleading ideas such as (1) the oldest constellations were originally organised by Mesopotamian farmers sometime in the 5th millennium BCE and around 2400 BCE the Mesopotamian star-map underwent a substantial revision, (2) the star-map as a whole can be best understood as a pictorial calendar which represents the life-cycles of the sun, Dumuzi and mankind in general, (3) precession was known to the Mesopotamian astrologers by the 3rd millennium BCE, (4) the Mul.Apin star catalogue is derived from a celestial globe, and (5) the Denderah circular zodiac is really an Egyptianised (and somewhat confused) version of the Babylonian star-map. The author places reliance on the Denderah circular zodiac in his reconstruction of the Babylonian star-map. The author appears to mistake his speculative assertions for information. The limited references cited at the end of the book (10 in all) are wholly inadequate for the contents of the book and its radical claims. Only a few author references given (i.e., [Ernst] Weidner, [Felix] Gössmann, and [Hermann] Hunger - [David] Pingree) in the body of the book. The absence of, for this field, an all-important bibliography (or detailed references to sources or discussion of sources) is a major drawback. In some respects the book appears to be an uncritical gloss of secondary sources - a number of which are clearly outdated i.e., Ernst Weidner and Felix Gössmann. Two-thirds of the sources used by Felix Gössmann pre-date 1920 i.e., fall within the pioneering period of assyriology and efforts to recover Babylonian astronomy. Because the majority of Gössmann's sources are over 90 years old and the book itself is over 60 years old it needs to be used with caution. (His enthusiastic and uncritical review of The Chinese Sky During The Han: Constellating Stars and Society by Sun Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker (1997) also poses concerns. Their discussion of early occidental constellations is confused and uninformed.) Gavin White, who describes himself as an independent researcher, established his own publishing company, Solaria Publications, to publish his book. He also writes articles on aspects of Babylonian and Greek astrology.]
Articles/Entries:
Beaulieu, Paul-Alain. (1999). "The Babylonian Man in the Moon." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 51, Pages 91-99).
Bosanquet, Robert. and Sayce, Archibald. (1880). "The Babylonian Astronomy. No 2." (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume XL, January 9, No 3, Pages 105-123). [Note: Includes a lengthy discussion of K 8538 (an Assyrian 8-sector planisphere). Life dates for Robert Bosanquet: 1841-1912. See the (English-language) obituary by Anon in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 73, 1913, Pages 202-203. Life dates for Archibald Sayce: 1846-1933.]
Brack-Bernsen, Liz. (2003). "The Path of the Moon, the Rising Points of the Sun, and the Oblique Great Circle on the Celestial Sphere." (Centaurus, Volume 45, Pages 16-31). [Note: Interesting discussion of the identification of the obliquity of the ecliptic and its division into12 parts comprising 30 degrees each.]
Brack-Bernsen, Liz. (2005). "The "days in excess" from MUL.APIN. On the "first intercalation" and "water clock" schemes from MUL.APIN." (Centaurus, Volume 47, Number 1, Pages 1-29).
Brown, David. (2001). "Astronomy - Astrology in Mesopotamia." (Bibliotheca Orientalis [Leiden], Jaargang LVIII [Volume 58], Number 1/2, januari-april, 2001, Pages 41-59.) [Note: Essentially a critique of Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree (1999). Contains some interesting comments on Babylonian uranography.]
van Buren, Elizabeth. (1939-1941). "The Seven Dots in Mesopotamian Art and their Meaning." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Band 13, Pages 277-289). [Note: For an informed criticism of the basic tenets of the article see Symbols of Prehistoric Mesopotamia by (the historian) Beatrice Goff (1963) Pages 122-123. The identification of the seven dots is first known with certainty in Mitannian glyptic art circa 1500 BCE (where they form a ring or rosette). During this early period they were also arranged in two rows of three headed by a seven dot. Earlier use of (seven) dots have no precise order and no uniform size. The seven dots perhaps originally represented the Sibittu, the seven unnamed gods (who may have been associated with the Pleiades). (There were actually two groups of Sibittu, the good gods and the evil demons.) The identification of the seven dots with the (seven) incantation stones/pebbles used for giving oracles by casting lots is not firmly established. At least from the Middle Assyrian Period (1400-1050 BCE) the seven dots appear in close association with clearly established astral symbols such as the solar disk and the lunar crescent. During the Assyrian Period they also became shaped like stars. This substitution of the seven dots by seven stars during the Neo-Assyrian Period (934-610 BCE) and Neo-Babylonian Period (626-539 BCE) may be an identification with the Pleiades. Only much later are they firmly identified in texts with the Pleiades. The Seleucid Period tablet (circa 3rd-century BCE) VAT 7851 has the seven dots labelled MUL.MUL (= Pleiades). See also her article "The Rosette in Mesopotamian Art" in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie Vorderasiastische Archäologie, Neue Folge 11. (45.) Band, September 1939, 2/3 Heft, Pages 99-107; and "dVII-bi" by Charles-F. Jean in Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale, Volume XXI, Numbers 1-2, 1924, Pages 93-104.]
Burrows, Eric. (1935). "The Constellation of the Wagon and Recent Archaeology." (Analecta Orientalia 12, Pages 34-40).
Çağirgan, Galip. (1984). "Three more Duplicates to Astrolabe (4 resimle birlikte)." (Belleten, Cilt [Volume]: XLVIII, Sayi [Issue]: 191,192, [Pages] 399-416). [Note: The reference is usually given as: "Three More Duplicates to Astrolabe B" by C. Cagirgan (Belleten, 48, 1984, 399-416. However, I have checked the source online. The journal title is also given as Belleten - Türk Tarih Kurumu [= Bulletin - Turkish Historical Society].]
Cavaignac, Eugène. (1959). "À propos des Pléiades. Calendrier babylonien et calendrier grec." (Journal Asiatique, Volume CCXLVII, Pages 396-398).
Chatley, Herbert. (1940). "Sirius and the Constellation of the Bow." (Nature, Volume 145, 27 April, Page 670). [Note: A short study of Sirius and the constellation of the bow in Babylonia, China, and Egypt.]
de Jong, Teije. (2007). "Astronomical dating of the rising star list in MUL.APIN." (Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Band 97, Pages 107-120).
De Meis, Salvo. and Hunger, Hermann. (1995/1996). "Astronomical Dating of "Observed" Events in the Star List V R 46." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Volume XLII and Volume XLIII, Pages 208-209).
Donbaz, Veysel. and Koch, Johannes. (1995). "Ein Astrolab der Dritten Generation NV. 10." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 47, Pages Pages 57-62?/63-84?).
Dossin, Georges. 1935). "Prières aux "Dieux de la Nuit" (AO 6769)." (Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale, Volume XXXII, Number 4, Pages 179-187).
Eisler, Robert. (1948). Review of "Azimuthpendelungen der Fixsterne und die Ueberlieferung. Berechnungen zur vorgriechischen Astronomie Number IV," by Robert Böker (1949). (Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Nouvelle Série d'ARCHEION, Tome XXVIII, Numéro 5, Octobre, 1948, Pages 1184-1189). [Note: The "review" comprises a fascinating essay covering a lot of territory.]
Florisoone, André. (1950). "Les origines chaldéennes du zodiaque." (Ciel et Terre, Volume 66, Pages 256-268). [Note: I think this excellent article was also issued as a pamphlet.]
Florisoone, André. (1951). "Astres et constellations des Babylonians." (Ciel et Terre, Volume 67, Pages 153-169). [Note: A continuation of his 1950 article and deals mainly with the constellations listed in Mul.Apin. Use of dated material by Ernst Weidner and others. Use of Planetarium Babylonicum by Felix Gössmann (1950), and Mul.Apin by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree (1989), is preferred.]
Frank, Carl. (1914). "Nochmals Br. M. 86378." (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete, Achtundzwanzigster Band, Pages 371-376). [Note: An early discussion of Mul.Apin tablet 1.]
Geller, Markham. (1990). "Astronomy and Authorship." (Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume LIII, Part 2, Pages209-213). [Note: An informed discussion of the issues involved in the dating of Mul.Apin.]
Gingerich, Owen. (1984). "The Origin of the Zodiac." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 67, Number 3, March, Pages 218-220).
Hartner, Willy. (1965). "The Earliest History of the Constellations in the Near East and the Motif of the Lion-Bull Combat." (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume XXIV, Pages 1-16, and Plates I-XVI. [Note: Also printed in Oriens-Occidens, Volume 1, 1968, Pages 221-259 (comprising 1 of 2 volumes of Hartner's collected essays). The paper is highly speculative and remains unsupported by any archaeological evidence. Its conclusions have been accepted by Bartel van der Waerden, Owen Gingerich, and Ed Krupp. The paper is 1 of 3 highly speculative (and generally ignored) papers published by the author. The other 2 are: "Eclipse Records and Thales' Prediction of a Solar Eclipse: Historic Truth and Modern Myth." (Centaurus, Volume 14, 1969, Pages 60-71); and "The Young Avestan and Babylonian Calendars." (Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 10, 1979). (See also Hartner's other essay supporting his view of the lion-bull combat as a depiction of early constellations: "The Conquering Lion, the Life Cycle of a Symbol," by Willy Hartner and Richard Ettinghausen, Oriens, Volume 17, 1964, Pages 161-171.) Life dates: 1905-1981. His doctoral dissertation, gained in 1928 from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, was Die Störungen der Planeten in Gyldénschen Koordinaten als Funktionen der mittleren Länge. See the (English-language) obituaries by Paul Kunitzsch in Journal for the History of Arabic Science, Volume 5, 1981, Pages 109-?; by Matthias Schramm in Journal for General Philosophy of Science, Volume 13, Number 1, March, 1982, Pages 1-21; and by Michael Hoskin in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 25, 1984, Page 373.]
Hommel, Fritz. (1900). "Der Ursprung des Tierkreises." In: Hommel, Fritz. Aufsätze Abhandlungen II. (Pages 236-268). [Note: Thoroughly outdated discussion of possibility of zodiacal symbols being depicted on kudurru. The essay several parts. The second part comprises "die babylon. Grenzstein-Embleme." (Pages 244-265) which may be considered a prelude to his (rare pamphlet) "Zu den babylonischen Grenzsteinsymbolen" (1920). The latter is a detailed attempt to use the kudurru symbols to draw and date the Babylonian constellations. He argued in this latter essay that the kudurru symbols represented an equatorial zodiac dating to the 5th-millennium BCE. This is pure fantasy.]
Horowitz, Wayne. (1989). "The Akkadian Name for Ursa Minor: mul.mar.gíd.da.an.na = eriqqi same/samami." (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiastische Archäologie, Volume 79, Pages 242-244).
Horowitz, Wayne. (1994). "Two New Ziqpu-Star Texts and Stellar Circles." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 46, Pages 89-98).
Horowitz, Wayne. and Wasserman, Nathan. (1996). "Another Old Babylonian Prayer to the Gods of the Night." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 48, Pages 57-60). [Note: The authors discuss the identification of a 3rd version of the prayer on a tablet that is probably from Sippar. The Prayer to the Gods of the Night is addressed to the nocturnal stars and constellations (10 in number).]
Horowitz, Wayne. (2000). "Astral Tablets in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg." (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiastische Archäologie, Volume 90, Issue 2, January, Pages 194-206). [Note: Renewed discussions of 3 astral tablets belonging to the Lichačov Collection, Russia. All were originally published and discussed circa the mid 1920s by the Russian assyriologist Vladimir (Woldemar) Šilejko. One is a tablet (ERM 15642) containing a "Prayer to the Gods of the Night" = Star-List. The 2nd (an Old Babylonian tablet containing astronomical omens) and 3rd (a fragment of a Neo-Assyrian commentary to the omen series Enūma Anu Enlil) tablets were published together in 1927 in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de l'URSS B (Pages 125-127; 196-199).]
Horowitz, Wayne. and Al-Rawi, Farouk. (2001). "Tablets from the Sippar Library IX. A Ziqpu-Star Planisphere." (Iraq, Volume LXIII, Pages 171-181).
Huber, Peter. (1958). "Ueber den Nullpunkt der Babylonischen Ekliptik." (Centaurus, Volume 5, Numbers 3-4, Pages 192-208).
Hunger, Hermann. (1982). "Zwei Tafeln des astronomischen Textes MUL.APIN im Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin." (Forschungen und Berichte Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Band 22, Archäeologische Beiträge 1982, Pages 127-135).
Hunger, Hermann. (1995/1996). "Astronomical Dating of "Observed" Events in the Star List V R 46." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Zweiundvierzigster und Dreiundvierzigster Band [Band 42-43], Pages 208-209).
Huxley, Margaret. (1997). "The Shape of the Cosmos According to Cuneiform Sources." (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Volume 7, Pages 189-198). [Note: The author brings together evidence from a range of sources and argues that in ancient Mesopotamia the sky was thought to be a rotating sphere with a polar axis.]
Ignace, Gelb et al. (Editors), (1964-). Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. [Note: The volumes of this continuing project (due for completion 2006/2007) include multiple entries on the identification of constellations and star names. However, there is still a heavy reliance on earlier studies. The quality of the project, whilst very high, has attracted mixed reviews. For example see the (English-language) book review by Godfrey Driver in Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume IX, 1964, Pages 346-350.]
Iwaniszewski, Stanislaw. (2003). "Archaeoastronomical Analysis of Assyrian and Babylonian Monuments: Methodological Issues." (Journal for the history of Astronomy, Volume 34, Part 1, February, Number 114, Pages 79-93). [Note: An important critique of Vladimir Tuman's methodological approach to, and the early dating of, kudurrus. The author is Professor of Anthropology at the National School of Anthropology and History, Mexico City; and Keeper at the State Archaeological Museum, Warsaw.]
Jean, Charles-F. (1924). "dVII-bi." (Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale, Volume XXI, Numbers 1-2, Pages 93-104). [Note: Discusses the identification of dVII-bi as the Pleiades.]
Jones, Alexander. (2004). "A Study of Babylonian Observations of Planets Near Normal Stars." (Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 58, Number 6, September, Pages 475-536). [Note: Attempts to describe the observational practices involving the planets and marking system of "normal stars" positioned near the ecliptic.]
de Jong, Teije. (2007). "Astronomical dating of the rising star list in MUL.APIN." (Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Band 97, Pages 107-120).
King, Leonard. (1913). "A Neo-Babylonian Astronomical Treatise in the British Museum and its Bearing on the Age of Babylonian Astronomy." (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, January - December, Volume 35, Pages 41-46). [Note: Provides a general description of the contents of BM 86378 (i.e., Mul.Apin tablet 1). Also provides a photograph of both the obverse and reverse sides of tablet 1.]
Koch, Ulla., Schaper, Joachim., Fischer, Susanne. and Wegelin, Michael. (1990/1991). "Eine neue Interpretation der Kudurru-Symbole." (Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 41, Pages 93-114).
Koch, Johannes. (1991 (Some references have 1990)). "Der Mardukstern Nēberu." (Die Welt des Orients, Band 22, Pages 48-72).
Koch, Johannes. (1991-1992). "Irrungen und Wirrungen einer Rezension." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Band 38-39, Pages 125-130). [Note: The authors response to "Anmerkungen zu Johannes Koch, Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels," by Heinz Neumann, in the same volume.]
Koch, Johannes. (1992). "Der Sternkatalog BM 78161." (Die Welt des Orients, Band 23, Pages 39-67). [Note: Journal title also variously appears (incorrectly) as: Welt und Oriens, Die Welt des Oriens, and Die Welts des Orients.]
Koch, Johannes. (1995). "Der Dalbanna-Sternenkatalog." (Die Welt des Orients, Band 26, Pages 43-85).
Koch, Johannes. (1995-1996). "MUL.APIN II i 68-71." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Zweiundvierzigster und Dreiundvierzigster Band [Band 42-43], Pages 155-162). [Note: The author gives his analysis of Mul.Apin II i 68-71 and proposes a date of 1300 BCE for this section of text.]
Koch, Johannes. (1997). "Zur Bedeutung von Lál in den "Astronomical Diaries" und in der Plejaden-Schaltregel." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 49, Pages 83-101).
Koch, Johannes. (1999). "Die Planeten-Hypsomata in Einem Babylonischen Sternenkatalog." (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 58, January-October, Pages 19-31).
Koch, Johannes. (2001). "Neue Überlegungen zu Einigen Astrologischen und Astronomischen Keilschrifttexten." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 53, Pages 69-81).
Koch, Johannes. (2004). “Ein astralmythologischer Bericht aus der Zeit der Diadochenkämpfe.” (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 56, Pages 105-126).
Koch, Johannes. (2006). "Neues vom astralmythologischen Bericht BM 55466+." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 58, Pages ?-?).
Kramer, Samuel. (1961). "New Literary Catalogue from Ur." (Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale, Tome 55, Page 172). [Note: See lines 49-50 for possible astronomical reference.]
Krupp, Ed. (1997). "In the Wake of Heaven's Gate." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 94, Number 3, September, Pages 80-81).
Krupp, Ed. (2000). "Hard Rain." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 100, Number 5, November, Pages 93-95).
Kurtik, G[?]. (1999). "The identification of Inanna with the planet Venus: a criterion for the time determination of the recognition of constellations in ancient Mesopotamia." (Astronomical and Astrophysical Transactions, Volume 17, Pages 501-513). [Note: The publication date is sometimes given as 1998. Abstract: "The author of the paper believes that the identification of Inanna with Venus as the morning or evening star chronologically preceded the time when the first constellations began to be recognized in Ancient Mesopotamia. If this is correct, the date of identification can be used as a reference point for the determination of the earliest probable limit for the epoch when in Mesopotamia the process of constellation recognition have been started. The earliest known images with the symbol of Inanna date from the period of archaic Uruk. They can be divided into two groups: (1) the images on seals and ceramics where there are no astral attributes; (2) the pictographic texts where the picture of a star and the signs of a sunrise or a sunset are placed alongside the symbol of Inanna. The pictographic texts, however, admit also a non-astral interpretation, if the picture of a star is a determinative of a deity. The astral nature of Inanna for the Uruk period therefore cannot be considered as finally proved. The identification of Inanna with Venus is reliably certified on seals of the Early Dynastic Period where there are at once three astral symbols - the crescent, the solar disk and the star of Inanna."]
Laffitte, Roland. (2004). "Sur l'origine du nom de la constellation de la Vierge." (Journal asiatique, Tome CCIXII, Numbers 1 and 2, Pages ?-?).
Laffitte, Roland. (2006). "Précisions sur l’origine des noms des signes du zodiaque." (Bulletin de la SELEFA, Number 7, 1er semester, Pages 1-10).
Laffitte, Roland. (2007). "Naissance et diffusion du zodiaque mésopotamien." (16-page PDF article posted on the Internet). [Note: The author, a French philologist, is an expert on the history of the constellations.]
Landsberger, Benno. and Wilson, John. (1961). "The Fifth Tablet of Enuma Elis." (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 20, Pages 154-179.)
Langdon, Stephen. (1915). "kusarikku, "Goat-Fish."" (The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Volume 31, Number 4, July, Pages 283-285). [Note: Appears in section Critical Notes, III.]
Lynn, William. (1887). "Note on Babylonian Astronomy." (The Babylonian and Oriental Record [The Babylonian & Oriental Record], Volume 1, Number 5, March, Pages 78-79).
Madeja, E[?]. (1918). "Das Ninlil-Tor zu Ninnive." (Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 21 Jahrgang, Number 7/8, Juli/August, Columns 165-167).
Mahler, Eduard. (1903). "Die Wege des Anu, Bel und Ea." (Orientalistische Litteratur-zeitung, Number 4, April, Columns 155-160).
Neugebauer, Paul. and Weidner, Ernst. (1931/1932). "Die Himmelsrichtungen bei den Babyloniern." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Siebenter Band, Pages 269-271).
Neumann, Heinz. (1991/1992). "Anmerkungen zu Johannes Koch, Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Volumes 38/39, Pages 110-124). [Note: An extensive critical commenatary on "Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels," by Johannes Koch.]
Oelsner, Joachim. and Horowitz, Wayne. (1997/1998). "The 30-Star-Catalogue HS 1897 and The Late Parallel BM 55502." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Band XLIV und Band XLV, Pages 176-185).
Oelsner, Joachim. (2006). "LBAT 1500 : Amurru-Sterne." (NABU, Number 9). [Note: NABU = Nouvelles Assyriologiques Breves et Utilitaires.]
Oppenheim, Adolf. (1959). "A New Prayer to the "Gods of the Night."" (Analecta Biblica, Volume 12, Pages 282-301). [Note: Includes a discussion of the star-list.]
Peters, Celeste. (1992). "The Mesopotamians Astrologer's Universe: Celestial and Terrestrial." (Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies, Volume 23, Pages 33-44).
Plunket, Emmeline. (1893). "The Constellation Aries." (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Volume 15, March, Pages 237-242). [Note: The contents page for Volume 15 (1893: November - 1893: June) has mistakenly printed Pages 257-342 for the article. Unreliable. The article was also included as Chapter II (Pages 24-43), with added illustrations, in her book Ancient Calendars and Constellations (first published 1903). Life dates: 1835-1924.]
Plunket, Emmeline. (1896). ""Gu," the Eleventh Constellation of the Zodiac." (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Volume 18, February, Pages 65-70). [Note: Unreliable. The article was also included as Chapter III (Pages 44-55) in her book Ancient Calendars and Constellations (first published 1903).]
Plunket, Emmeline. (1906). "The "Star of Stars" and "Dilgan"." (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, January - December, Volume 28, Pages 6-13 (January), and Pages 47-53 (February)).
Postgate, Nicholas. (1997). "Mesopotamian Petrology: Stages in the Classification of the Material World." (Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Volume 7, Number 2, October, Pages 205-224) [Note: Includes a discussion of a Seleucid astrological tablet (VAT 7847) depicting several constellations (i.e., Leo and Hydra).]
Puhvel, Jan. (1997). "kutal(i), kurtalli-(n.)" In: Hittite Etymological Dictionary, Volume 4: Words Beginning with K. [Note: The author added a second meaning for the Hittite kurtal(i), as the name of the constellation (MUL) Pleiad(es). However, he author of "Hittite [.sup.GIS/GI.kurtal(i)], Akkadian nab-bu, and the cuneiform sign NAB.(Report)" (The Journal of the American Oriental Society, July, 2006) sets out the the Pleiades constellation is written (always) [.sup.d.7.7] (BI), or with the likely Hitticized lemma for this deified star-group, [.sup.d.Seppitta], in the Hittite texts.]
Reiner, Erica. (1974). "A Sumero-Akkadian Hymn of Nanâ." (Journal of Near Eastern studies, Volume 33, Number 2, April, Pages 221-236).
Roaf, Michael. and Zgoll, Annette. (2001). "Assyrian Astroglyphs: Lord Aberdeen's Black Stone and the Prisms of Esarhaddon." (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiastische Archäologie, Band 91, Pages 264-295).
Rochberg-Halton, Francesca. (1983). "Stellar Distances in Early Babylonian Astronomy: A New Perspective on the Hilprecht Text (HS 229)." (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 42, Pages 209-217).
Rogers, John. (1998). "Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions." (Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Volume 108, Number 1, February, Pages 9-28). [Note: Both parts of this article need to be used with caution. They comprise a speculative and misleading synthesis compiled in part from dated and/or unreliable sources. These include: Richard Allen, Robert Brown, Andrew Crommelin, Alex Gurshtein, Willy Hartner, Edward Maunder, Michael Ovenden, Werner Papke, Archibald Roy, Richard Proctor, Giuseppe Sesti, and David Ulansey. These authors have had a major influence on the ideas expressed in the article. Unfortunately the article tends to be highly regarded instead of highly disregarded.]
Roughton, Norbert. and Canzoneri, G[?]. (1992). "Babylonian Normal Stars in Sagittarius." (Journal of the History of Astronomy, Volume XXIII, Pages 193-200).
Roughton, Norbert., Steele, John. and Walker, Christopher. (2004). "A Late Babylonian Normal and Ziqpu Star Text." (Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 58, Number 6, September, Pages 537-572).
Sachs, Abraham. (1952). "A Late Babylonian Star Catalog." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume VI, Pages 146-150).
Schaefer, Bradley. (2004). "The Latitude and Epoch for the Origin of the Astronomical Lore of Eudoxus." (Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 35, Number 2, Pages 161-223). [Note: A critical quantitative analysis of the date for the origin of the astronomical lore of Eudoxus. Schaefer establishes that the lore was of Babylonian origin circa 1130 BCE, and based on the information in the Mul.Apin series.]
Schott, Albert. (1934). "Das Werden der babylonisch-asyrischen Positions-Astronomie und einige seiner Bedingungen."(Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Band 88, Pages 302-337). [Note: Albert Schott was an accomplished German assyriologist who studied under Peter Jensen. He has also been described as Jensen's most faithful disciple, but Schott never engaged in the excesses of Panbabylonism. Also, his book Das Gilgamesch-Epos (1934) is considered a reliable (one of the best) translations. He was Privatdozenten [Universitätprofessor] für Assyriologie, Universität Bonn (Albert Schott, Prof. Dr. phil., ao Prof. der Assyriologie, Bonn). In 1926 he completed his Habilitation in Bonn. During 1928-1929 he participated in the excavations at Uruk/Warka. In 1939 he was apparently excavating at Warka (the 11th season for the German expedition). He is listed as a philologist there for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Vorderasiatische Abteilung). He was assisted at Uruk/Warka by the emminent Dutch Assyriologist Francisco Bohl, then Professor of Assyriology at Leiden University. In 1939 Albert Schott was described by one person as '100% Nationalsozialist.' Schott was one of approximately 40 (non-resident) Assyriologists who completed individual assignments for the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, as requested by Edward Chiera. In Schott's case he contributed on material on astronomical and astrological texts. Schott was a pupil of Peter Jensen. Like Jensen he translated the Gilgamesh epic, but he did not follow Jensen's Panbabylonist excesses. Schott translated the Gilgamesh epic (Das Gilgamesch-Epos (1934)) into German blank verse (= unrhymed iambic pentameter). (It has also been state he developed a personal poetic style in translation, acting on the belief that a poetic original deserves a poetic or at least a high-style translation.) Schott wrote in the Preface to his German translation of the Gilgamesh epic that we do not know what the ancient tellers of this poignant tale intended. He also gave attention to fixing the chronology of Babylonian literature. Life dates: 1901-[1941-1945?]1945.]
Schott, Albert. (1936). "Marduk und sein Stern." (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete, Neue Folge, Band 9 (Band 43), Pages 124-145).
Šilejko, Vladimir. (1924). "Tabletka s molitvoj nočnym bogam v sobranii Lichačeva," (Izvestija Rossijs koj Akademii Istorii Material' noj Kul'tury, Volume 3, Pages 144-152.) [Note: The journal name also appears as: Izvestija Rossijskoj Akademii istorii Material'noj Kul'tury. The author, a famous Russian assyriologist and hebraist, discusses a tablet (ERM 15642) containing a "Prayer to the Gods of the Night" = Star-List.]
Slanski, Kathryn. (2000). "Classification, Historiography and Monumental Authority: The Babylonian Entitlement Narus (Kudurrus)." (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Volume 52, Pages 95-114). [Note: An informed alternative view of the function of kudurrus. The author briefly mentions the attempts at an astral interpretation of some symbols on kudurrus. Her book-length study is: Babylonian Entitlement Narus (Kudurrus: A Study in Their form and Function (2003).]
Toomer, Gerald. (1996). "Constellations and Named Stars." In: Hornblower, Simon. and Spawforth Antony. (Editors). The Classical Oxford Dictionary. Third edition. (Pages 381-383).
Tuman, Vladimir. and Hoffman, Robert. (1987/1988). "Rediscovering the Past: Application of Computers to the Astronomical Dating of Kudurru SB22 of the Louvre Museum." (Archeoastronomy: The Journal of the Center for Archaeoastronomy, Volume X, Pages 124-138).
Tuman, Vladimir. (1989/1990). "Astronomical dating of the Kudurru, IM-80908." (Sumer, Volume 46, Numbers 1/2, Pages 98ff).
Tuman, Vladimir. (1992). "Astronomical Dating of Mul-Apin Tablets." (Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Volume VI, Number 1, Pages ?-?). [Note: The paper was originally presented at the XXXVIIIth International Congress of Assyriologists in Paris, 8-10 June, 1991, and was published in the Proceedings of the Conference in 1992.]
Tuman, Vladimir. (1993/1994). "An attempt to Date Text 3 of Enuma Anu Enlil, Tablets 50-51: "Tentative date December 2, - 1878."" (Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 46, Pages 95-103). [Note: In another paper Vladimir Tuman dates Mul Apin Tablet I to 2048 BC.]
Unger, Eckhard. (1957). "Die Milchstraβe Nibiru, Sternbild des Marduk." (Die Welt des Orients, Volume 2, Issues 4-6, Pages 432-437).
Ungnad, Arthur. (1919). "Bemerkungen zur babylonischen Himmelskunde." (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Volume 73, Pages 159-175). [Note: See the (German-language) obituary by Ernst Weidner in Archiv für Orientforschung, Fünfzehnter Band, 1945-1951, Pages 175-176.]
Ungnad, Arthur. (1923). "Babylonische Sternbilder oder der Weg babylonischer Kultur nach Griechenland." (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Volume 77, Pages 81-91).
Ungnad, Arthur. (1925). "Die Paradiesbäume." (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Volume 79, Pages 111-118).
Ungnad, Arthur. (1941/1944). "Besprechungkunst und Astrologie Babylonien." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Vierzehnter Band, Pages 251-284).
van der Waerden, Bartel. (1949). "Babylonian Astronomy II: The Thirty-six Stars." (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume VIII, January-October, Pages 6-26). [Note: Bartel Leendert van der Waerden (1903-1996) was a Dutch mathematician and from 1951 was professor of mathematics at the University of Zürich. He published numerous books and articles on the history of mathematics and astronomy in Antiquity.]
van der Waerden, Bartel. (1952/1953). "History of the Zodiac." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Volume 16, Pages 216-230). [Note: An important article. t needs to be noted that in other articles the author held divergent and at time flimsy viewpoints.]
van der Waerden, Bartel. (1978). "Mathematics and Astronomy in Mesopotamia." In: Gillespie, Charles. (Editor in Chief). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Volume XV. Supplement I. (Pages 667-680).
von Soden, Wolfram. (1959-1981). Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. (3 Volumes). [Note: The volumes include multiple entries on the identification of constellations and star names. See the (English-language) book reviews (of the first fascicule) by Cecil Weir in Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume V, 1960, Pages 158-159; and (of the last fascicule) by Wilfred Lambert in Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume XXVII, 1982, specifically Pages 281-282. Life dates: 1908-1996. See also the (French-language) review of the first fascicule by Édouard Dhorme in Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale, Volume LIII, Number 3, 1959, Pages 211-214; and the (German-language) reviews of later fascicules by Armas Salonen in Archiv für Orientforschung, Einundzwanzigster Band, 1966, Pages 96-98; Archiv für Orientforschung, Band 22, 1968/1969, Pages 88-89; and Archiv für Orientforschung, Band 23, 1970, Pages 95-97. See the (German-language) obituary by Rykle [Riekele] Borger in Archiv für Orientforschung, Vierundvierzigster und Fünfundvierzigster Band, 1997/1998, Pages 588-594. Life dates: 1908-1996.]
Verderame, Lorenzo. (2009). "The Primeval Zodiac: Its Social, Religious, and Mythological Background." In: José Rubiño-Martín, et al. (Editors). Cosmology Across Cultures. (Pages 151-156). [Note: Generally excellent study. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Volume 409. Proceedings of the 2008 international conference on "Cosmology Across Cultures." ISBN 9781583816981. Abstract: "In this brief paper we try to draw the lines of the possible development of the original iconographic and symbolic repertoire of the Mesopotamian zodiac, which through the Greeks was adopted in the Western world." Lorenzo Verderame, Cattedra di Assiriologia, Dipartimento di Studi Orientali, "Sapienza" Universit`a di Roma, Italy.]
Walker, Christopher. and Hunger, Hermann. (1977). "Zwölfmaldei." (Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin, Nummer 109, Pages 27-34). [Note: Life dates for Christopher Walker circa 1940-.]
Walker, Christopher. (1983). "The Myth of Girra and Elamatum." (Anatolian Studies, Volume XXXIII, Pages 145-152).
Walker, Christopher. (1995). "The Dalbanna Text: A Mesopotamian Star-List." (Die Welt des Orients, Volume 26, Pages 27-42).
Weidner, Ernst. (1911). "Babylonische Messung von Fixsterndistanzen." (Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Number 8, Columns 345-347).
Weidner, Ernst. (1912). "Das Tierkreisbild des Wassermanns in der babylonischen." (Babyloniaca: Études de philologie assyro-babylonienne, Tome 6, Pages 216-224). [Note: Forms part of part XI of a larger article: "Zur babylonischen Astronomie."]
Weidner, Ernst. (1913). "Zu der neuen Sternliste in CT XXXIII." (Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Number 4, Columns 149-152).
Weidner, Ernst. (1913). "Beiträge zur Erklärung der astronomischen Keilschrifttexte." (Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Number 5, Columns 204-212).
Weidner, Ernst. (1919). "Babylonische Hypsomatabilder." (Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Number 1/2, Columns 10-16).
Weidner, Ernst. (1921-1923). "Studien zur Babylonischen Himmelskunde." (Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, Volume IX, Pages 287-300).
Weidner, Ernst. (1923). "Astrologische Texte aus Boghazköi. Ihre sprachliche und kulturhistorische Bedeutung." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Erster Band, Pages 1-8, and Pages 38-43).
Weidner, Ernst. (1924). "Ein babylonisches Kompendium der Himmelskunde." (The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, Volume XL, Pages 186-208). [Note: A study of Mul.Apin series tablet 1.]
Weidner, Ernst. (1924/1925). "Das Paradies am Sternenhimmel." (Archiv für Keilschriftforschung, Zweiter Band, Pages 124-130).
Weidner, Ernst. (1927). "Eine Beschreibung des Sternenhimmels aus Assur." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Vierter Band, Pages 73-85).
Weidner, Ernst. (1931/1932). "Der Tierkreis und die Wege am Himmel." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Siebenter Band, Pages 170-178).
Weidner, Ernst. (1938). "kakkab Epinnu." In: Ebeling, Erich. and Meissner, Bruno. (Editors). Reallexikon der Assyriologie. Volume 2. Pages 409-412. [Note: It's really a dual article. The second entry is: Die Serie kakkab Epinnu.]
Weidner, Ernst. (1956). "Ein Losbuch in Keilschrift aus der Seleukidenzeit." (Syria. Revue d'Art Oriental et d'Archéologie, Volume XXXIII, Pages 175-183). [Note: Includes discussion of a cuneiform text dated circa 1500-1000 BCE that mentions some ecliptic constellations that later formed part of the 12-constellation zodiac.]
Weidner, Ernst. (1957-1971). "Fixsterne." In: Weidner, Ernst. and von Soden, Wolfram. (Editors). Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie. (Volume 3, Pages 72-82). [Note: The author erroneously inferred that there was evidence of constellations and star names existing in the third millennium BCE.]
Weidner, Ernst. (1959/1960). "Ein astrologischer Sammeltext aus der Sargonidenzeit." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Neunzehnter Band, Pages 105-113).
Weidner, Ernst. (1963). "Astrologische Geographie im Alten Orient." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Zwanzigster Band, Pages 117-121).
Weidner, Ernst. (1966). "<<Sirius am Tage>>." (Archiv für Orientforschung, Einundzwanzigster Band, Page 55).
Books/Pamphlets:
Billault, Alain. (1997). (Editor). Héros et voyageurs grecs dans l'occident romain. [Note: One of the essays discusses astral references to the mythology of Greek hero voyages. See the (English-language) book review by Michael Whitby in The Classical Review (New Series), Volume 49, 1999, Page 600.]
Bloomberg, Mary. and Henricksson, Göran (1997). "Evidence for the Minoan origins of stellar navigation in the Aegean." (In: Lebeuf, Arnold. and Ziolkowski, M[?]. (Editors). Actes de la Vème Conférence Annuelle de la SEAC. Gdańsk 1997. Pages 69-81).
Blomberg, Peter. (2000). "An Astronomical Interpretation of Finds from Minoan Greece." In: Esteban, César. and Belmonte, Juan. (Editors). Oxford VI and SEAC 99 "Astronomy and Cultural Diversity." (Pages 311-318). [Note: This publication is the proceedings of the 6th "Oxford" international symposium on archaeoastronomy, jointly with the SEAC99 (European archaeoastronomy) meeting, held in La Laguna, Tenerife, in 1999. Copies of the book are exceedingly rare due to water damage to stock during a devastating Madrid flood. A PDF file has now (February, 2010) been kindly made available by Michael Rappenglück and is freely downloadable from the publications page of the SEAC web site.]
Blomberg, Peter. (2003). "The Early Hellenic Sky Map reconstructed from Archæoastronomical and Textual Studies." In: BAR International Series, 1154, Pages 71-76. [Note: Paper presented at the European Association of Archaeologists eighth annual meeting, in Thessaloniki, 2002. BAR = British Archaeological Reports. The author believes the astronomical knowledge of the Minoans influenced the development of the Greek constellations. The author includes: "A Comment of the Author on Bradley Schaefer's Recent Paper in JHA, 33, 2002, 313-350." which fails as a critical comment.]
Blomberg, Peter. (2003). "The northernmost constellations in early Greek tradition." In: Blomberg, Mary., Blomberg, Peter., and Henriksson, Göran. (Editors). Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture. (Pages 67-71). [Note: Proceedings of the 9th annual meeting of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC), Stockholm, 27-30 August 2001.]
Böker, Robert. (1952). Die Entstehung der Sternsphaere Arats. [Note: A 68-page brochure on the Aratean planisphere. A solid discussion of the issues.]
Boll, Franz. (1903; Reprinted 1967). Sphaera: Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Sternbilder. [Note: The title translated to English is: Spheres: New Greek Texts and an Examination of the History of the Constellations. The book includes a detailed discussion of the Sphaera Barbarica. See the (English-language) book review by Anon in Nature, Volume LXVII, November 1902 to April 1903, (Thursday, March 26, 1903), Page 481; the (French-language) book review by Édouard Chavannes in T'oung Pao, Series II, Volume V, 1904, Pages 208-212; and the (German-language) book review by Hugo Winckler in Orientalistische Litteratur-zeitung, Siebenter Jahrgang, Number 2, February, 1904, Columns 55-65; and Siebenter Jahrgang, Number 3, March, 1904, Columns 93-104. See also the (German-language) biography in Neue Deutsche Biographie, Zweiter Band, 1953, Page 432. Life dates: 1867-1924.]
Boll, Franz. (1918). Antike Beobachtungen farbiger Sterne. [Note: Carl Bezold contributed a chapter to this book. See the (German-language) book review by Otto Schroeder in Theologische Literaturzeitung, 44 Jahrgang, Number 7/8, 26 April 1919, Columns 73-74.]
Brown, Junior., Robert. (1885). The Phainomena or 'Heavenly Display' of Aratos: Done into English Verse. [Note: Said to be a literal translation into English but radically different to the English translation rendered in "The Skies and Weather-forecasts of Aratus," by E[?]. Poste (1880). See the (English-language) reviews by J[ohn?]. Watson in The Academy, August 29, 1885, Number 695, Pages 137-138; and by Anon in the Astronomical Register, Volume 24, 1886, Page 317.]
Brown, Junior., Robert. (1892). "The Celestial Equator of Aratos." In: Morgan, E. (Editor). Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists. 2 Volumes. (Pages 445-485). [Note: The paper is in Volume 2. By way of noting Robert Brown Junior was appointed Secretary of the Archaic Greece and the East Section (for the duration/terms of the Congress?). This is the publication in which Robert Brown (erroneously) dates the origin of the Babylonian zodiac to 2084 BCE. Brown believed that nobody was inventing the zodiac circa 500 BCE. In fact we now know that the zodiac was developed by the Babylonians over circa 700 BCE to circa 400 BCE. Nobody was inventing a zodiac prior to the Babylonians in the first millennium BCE.]
Büchel, Carl. (1905). Über Sternnamen. [Note: 15-page, A4 size pamphlet.]
Buttmann, Philipp (1826). Arati phaenomena et diosemea. [Note: Latin commentary to Greek text of poem.]
Campion, Nicholas [Nick]. (2008). The Dawn of Astrology: A Cultural history of Western Astrology. Volume 1: The Ancient and Classical Worlds. [Note: See: 9. Greece: Homer, Hesiod and the Heavens. Pages 127-148; and see: 11. The Hellenistic World: The Zodiac. Pages 173-184. The author is a practising British astrologer but also frequently referred to as a historian (of astrology). Nicholas Campion was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of the West of England, for his study of the 'extent and nature of contemporary belief in astrology.' Campion is a past President of the Astrological Association. The book is uneven and ambitiously seeks to invent an early and universal astrology originating in the Paleolithic Period. Compiled entirely from secondary sources it needs to be used with care. Attempting to write a general early history of astrology when so many source texts remain untranslated and unresearched seems nonsense. The author does not contribute any new translations of ancient texts. The author has close links with The Sophia Project which currently (2009) funds The Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales, Lampeter, offering a MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology; and The Sophia Trust sponsoring the MA in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination at the University of Kent. Nicholas Campion is Director, Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture. Judging by the yearly graduation speeches the courses are pro-astrology and serve to give academic credentials to astrologers. It appears the overall goal is to award legitimate degrees, and thus to attempt to legitimize astrology within the context of mainstream academia. The steering committee for administering The Sophia Trust funds are comprised of persons from the "astrological community." Nicholas Campion is also a faculty member of the failed Kepler College (formerly Kepler College of Astrological Arts and Sciences), in Seattle, USA, which also attempted to offer "academic" courses on astrology. Academic courses on astrology by non-astrologers seem to hold no attraction. The History of Mathematics Department at Brown University offered a course in the "History of Astrology and History of Science" in 2003; and The History of Science and Technology Department at Dalhousie University offered a course in 2008 on "Omens, Science and Prediction in the Ancient World." Volume 2 titled A History of Western Astrology: The Medieval and Modern Worlds was published in 2009. The volumes engage in a less-than-satisfactory defense of astrology and its traditional claims. The intention is the creation of a concept of astrology that will enable it to have acceptance and respectability. A shorter and more skeptical history of astrology is The Fated Sky: Astrology in History, by Benson Bobrick (2005). Life dates: 1953- .]
Charvet, Pascal. and Zucker, Armaud. (Editors). (1998). Le ciel: mythes et histoire des constellations: les Catastérismes d'Ératosthène. [Note: An edition of the Catasterisme of [pseudo-]Eratosthenes with commentary.]
Chassapis, C[onstantin]? (1967). He Hellenike astronomia tes 2 Chilieteridos p. X. kata tous Ophikous hymnous [Greek Astronomy of the 2nd Millennium BC According to the Orphic Hymns.] [Note: The English title given is an approximation of the Greek-language title (with thanks to Paolo Ulivi). The author identifies himself as a Greek astronomer. In the monograph, which entirely in Greek except for a 4-page English-language summary, he argues that the Orphic Hymns were formulated during 1841-1366 BCE and contain sophisticated knowledge of astronomy from this period. He concludes, on rather shaky grounds, the Greeks of the second millennium BCE laid the foundations of theoretical astronomy earlier than the Babylonians.]
Clerke, Agnes. (1892). "Homeric Astronomy." In: Clerke, Agnes. Familiar Studies in Homer. (Pages 30-57). [Note: Chapter II of her book of essays. The most detailed biography of Agnes Clerke to date is the article "Agnes Mary Clerke, Chronicler of Astronomy" by Mary Brück (The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 35, 1994, Pages 59-79).]
Condos, Theony. (1997). Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans: A Sourcebook. [Note: An English-language translation of the "Catasterismi" of the Pseudo-Eratosthenes and the "De Astronomia" attributed to Hyginus. Based on her doctorate thesis and needs to be used with some caution. See the (English-language) book reviews by Roger Ceragioli in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 30, Part 3, 1999, Pages 313-315; by Ken Dowden in The Classical Review, New Series, Volume 49, Number 2, 1999, Pages 587-588; and by John McMahon in Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture, Volume XVI, 2001, Pages 98-99.]
Cumont, Franz. (1919). "Zodiacus." In: Daremberg, Charles., Saglio, Edmond. and Pottier, Edmond. (Editors). (1877-1919). Dictionnaire des antiquités greques et romaines d'après les textes et les monuments. (5 Volumes). [Note: The article is in Volume 5, Pages 1046-1062. See the (English-language) obituary by Arthur Nock in "Necrology" section, American Journal of Archaeology, Volume LI [51], 1947, Pages 432-433. Life dates: 1868-1947.]
Delambre, Jean. (1817; Reprinted 1965). Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne. (2 Volumes). [Note: See Chapter 4, Aratus, (Volume 1, Pages 61-74), for Delambre's examination of Aratus' constellation description in Phainomena. Delambre discusses the issue of whether Aratus' description of the zodiacal constellations (with the positions they occupied in relation to the celestial equator) agrees best with Aratus' own time or centuries earlier, and found it was not possible to come to any definite conclusion. See the (English-language) biographical entry for Jean Delambre in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, by I[?]. Cohen, Volume IV, 1971, Pages 14-18. Life dates: 1749-1822.]
Dicks, David. (1970; Reprinted 1985). Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle. [Note: The author was a Classicist (who retired in 1988 as Senior Lecturer in Greek at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (London University)). A discussion of Babylonian constellations is also included. An excellent book. See the (English-language book reviews by Victor Thoren in Isis, Volume 61, 1970, Pages 541-542; by C[?]. Gillmor in The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 391, March, 1971, Pages 175-176; by John Morrison in The Classical Review, New Series, Volume XXI, 1971, Pages 224-229; by Tom Jones in The American Historical Review, Volume 76, 1971, Number 4/5, Pages 1136-1137; by Wilbur Applebaum in The Historian, Volume XXXIII, Number 3, May 1971, Page 460; by Gerald Toomer in Gnomon, Band 44, 1972, Pages 127-131; and by Abraham Wasserstein in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 3, 1972, Pages 212-216.]
Erren, Manfred. (1967). Die Phainomena des Aratos von Soloi. [Note: A detailed study by a classical philologist. The author argues that the Aratean constellations can be dated to Babylonia circa 2000 BCE. Regardless of some of its radical conclusions it is considered to be the standard study in the German-language. See the (French-language) book review by Jacques Schwartz in L'Antiquité Classique, Tome XXXVII, 1968, Pages 685-686; and the critical (German/English-language) book review by Walther Ludwig and David Pingree in Gnomon, Band 43, 1971, Pages 346-354.]
Erren, Manfred. (1971). Aratos: Phainomena. Sternbilder und Wetterzeichen. [Note: See the (English-language) book review by Mary Natunewicz in Classical Review, Volume 66, 1973, Pages 471-472.]
F[?]. M[?]. (2002). "Aratus [From Soli in Cilicia]." In: Cancik, Hubert. et. al. (Editors). Brill's New Pauly, Antiquity Volume 1, Columns 955-960). [Note: The English-language edition has drawn some key criticisms.]
Faucounau, Jean. (2001). Les Proto-Ioniens: Histoire d'un peuple oublié. [Note: In Chapter 3 (Pages 39-57) of this book the author, a mathematician, uses linguistic arguments to try to demonstrate that the names of the Greek constellations are Proto-Ionic and that the inventors of the constellations were a sea people inhabiting the Cycladic Islands circa 2,500 BCE (± 400 years). (In 1994 Archie Roy and Jean Faucounau co-authored a paper in Kadath (numéro 83, Pages 26-38) in which they discussed their belief in a constellation set dating to 2,500 BCE. Jean Faucounau is very much influenced by the (unreliable) writings of Edward Maunder, Andrew Crommelin, and Michael Ovenden on the constellations.) Jean Faucounau is French-born but now lives in retirement in Luxembourg. (He is now (2007) over 80 years old.) He is an amateur linguist and an amateur historian who claims he has successfully deciphered the Phaistos Disk. He is a member of the Linguistic Society of Paris.]
Ferrari, Gloria. (2008). Alcman and the Cosmos of Sparta. [Note: An informed discussion of the Partheneion composed in the 7th-century BCE by the Spartan poet Alcman. Discusses possible constellations and star names. The author is professor emerita of classical archaeology and art at Harvard University. Life dates: 1941- .]
Gain, David. (Editor and translator). (1976). The Aratus ascribed to Germanicus Caesar. [Note: The author is a classical scholar and the book is his doctoral thesis. See the (French-language) book reviews by André Le Boeuffle in Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome XXXVII, 1978, Pages 200-201; and in Revue des Études Latines, Volume 54, 1976, Pages 415-416); and the (German-language) book review by Gregor Maurach in Gnomon, 50 Band, März 1978, Heft 1, Pages 351-355.]
Ginzel, Friedrich. (1901). Die astronomischen Kenntnisse der Babylonier und ihre kulturhistorische Bedeutung. Parts I, II, & III. (Klio Beiträge zur alten Geschichte, Volume I, 1901, Pages 1-25, 189-211, 349-380). [Note: Republished as a pamphlet in 1908.]
Grasshoff, Gerd. (1990). The History of Ptolemy's Star Catalogue. [Note: An excellent study.]
Gundel, Wilhelm. (1926). Die Herkunft unserer Gesternnamen I. Die Deutschen Bezeichnungen. (Welt und Mensch, Number VII)
Gundel, Wilhelm. (1926?). Die Herkunft unserer Gesternnamen II. Die von den Griechen und Römern herrührenden bezeichnungen. (Welt und Mensch, Number VIII). [Note: Also relevant is Welt und Mensch, Number VII.]
Gundel, Wilhelm. (1926). Zur Geschichte unserer Sternbilder und Sternnamen. [Note: Included in Die Herkunft unserer Sternbilder und Sternnamen, zweite folge, Welt und Mensch. Now quite a rare booklet. Very few libraries appear to hold a copy.]
Gundel, Wilhelm. (1936, Reprinted 1976). Neue Astrologische Text des Hermes Trismegistos: Funde und Forschungen auf dem Gebiet der antiken Astronomie und Astrologie. [Note: A brilliant study of Hipparchan stars in an early (composite) astrological text (at that time the neglected and almost unknown MS., Harleianus 3731 in the British Museum). (Also contained in the manuscript, and discussed, are a list of decans.) See the (English-language) book reviews by H. J. R. in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Volume LVI, 1936, Page 262; by Arthur Nock in Gnomon, Band 15, Heft 7, Juli, 1939, Pages 359-368; and the (French-language) book review by J. B. [Joseph Bidez] in L'Antiquité Classique, Tome XII, 1943, Pages 162-164. See the (English-language) obituary by Margarete Bieber in "Necrology" section, American Journal of Archaeology, Volume LI [51], Number 4, October-December, 1947, Page 433. See also the (German-language) biographical entry in Neue Deutsche Biographie, Siebenter Band, Pages312-313. Life dates: 1880-1945. For further biographical details see: Giessener Gelehrte in der ersten hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts by Hans Gundel and Peter Moraw (1982, Volume 2, Pages 120 and 344); "Nachruf auf seinem Freund Wilhelm Gundel." by Hugo Hepding (Nachrichten der Giessener Hochschulgesellschaft, Band 19, 1950, Pages 105-122); and Wilhelm Gundel, zum Gedächtnis by Albert Rehm and Hans Gundel (1947). The obituary by Hugo Hepding (comprising 18 pages) apparently was first published in 1948. Wilhelm Gundel, zum Gedächtnis comprises approximately 80 pages.]
Hannah, Robert. (2002). "Euctemon's Parapēgma." In: Tuplin, Christopher. and Rihll, Tracey. (Editors). Science and Mathematics in Ancient Greek Culture. (Pages 112-133). [Note: Abstract: "The smooth functioning of an ordered society still depends today on the possession by that society of a means of regularising its activities according to a calendar. The Gregorian calendar, accepted worldwide either as the sole means of dating or as an alternative means that must be acknowledged, is a simple refinement of the Roman Julian calendar, which, in its turn, is the product of c.300 years of development by the Greeks of a solar calendar that, under the Romans, ultimately replaced previous lunar or luni-solar calendars. This chapter re-examines how a solar calendar was formed by the ancient Greeks, focusing on the role of the Athenian astronomer Euctemon, who worked around 432 BC. Euctemon invented a time-keeping device called parapēgma, a formal physical means of keeping a record of the times of star rise and star set through the seasonal year. Euctemon structured his calendar on observations of the zodiacal stars."]
Heath, Thomas. (1932). Greek Astronomy. [Note: Contains an English translation of sections of Commentary on the Phainomena of Aratus and Eudoxus by Hipparchus of Rhodes (Pages 116-121). See the (English-language) book review by David Hughes in The Observatory, Volume 112, Number 1108, June, 1992, Pages 132-133. See also the biographical sketch "Sir Thomas Little Heath" by David Smith in Osiris, Volume II, 1936, Pages Pages IV-XXVII.]
Henriksson, Göran. and Blomberg, Mary. (2000). "New arguments for the Minoan origin of the stellar positions in Aratos' Phainomena." In: Esteban, César. and Belmonte, Juan. (Editors). Oxford VI and SEAC 99 "Astronomy and Cultural Diversity." (Pages 303-310). [Note: This publication is the proceedings of the 6th "Oxford" international symposium on archaeoastronomy, jointly with the SEAC99 (European archaeoastronomy) meeting, held in La Laguna, Tenerife, in 1999. Copies of the book are exceedingly rare due to water damage to stock during a devastating Madrid flood. A PDF file has now (February, 2010) been kindly made available by Michael Rappenglück and is freely downloadable from the publications page of the SEAC web site. Based on a paper presented at the 1999 conference. The date given for the Aratean constellations is circa 2,250 BCE. Caution is advised in accepting the date given in this paper for the Aratean constellations.]
Hoepken, Julius. (1905). Über die Entstehung der Phaenomena des Eudoras-Aratos.
Hübner, Wolfgang. (1982). Die Eigenschaften der Tierkreis Zeichen in der Antike und Ihre Darstellung und Verwendung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Manilius.
Hübner, Wolfgang. (1984). Manilius als Astrologe und Dichter. In: Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, Part II 32.1, Pages 126-320. [Note: Contains a discussion of the classical constellations. The author is a Philologist and a Professor at the Institut für Klassische Philologe in Munich.]
Hunger, Herman. and Hübner, Wolfgang. (2004). "Constellations." In: Cancik, Hubert. and Sneider, Helmuth. (Editors). Brill's New Pauly. (Antiquity Volume 4, Columns 1187-1194). [Note: An excellent and informed entry on both Babylonian and Greek constellations.]
Kidd, Douglas. (1997). Aratus Phaenomena. [Note: Considered the best English-language study to date. See the (English-language) book reviews by A-M Lewis in Phoenix, Volume 53, Number 3/4, Autumn-Winter, 1999, Pages 371-374; S[?]. Olson in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Volume 119, 1999, Pages 187-188; Gregor Weber in The Classical Review, New Series, Volume XLIX, Number 1, 1999, Pages 11-13; and Alexander Sens in The Classical Journal, Volume 96, Number 1, October-November, 2000, Pages 93-96. See also the (Greek-language) book review by Charilaos Avgerinos in Hellenika, Volume 49, 1999, Pages 174-184; and the (French-language) book review by Germaine Aujac in Latomus, Tome 59, 2000, Pages 706-707. For a biography of Aratus of Soli see "Dictionary of Scientific Biography," edited by Charles Gillispie, (1970-1990), Volume I, Pages 204-205; and "The Oxford Classical Dictionary," (Third edition). edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (1996), Pages 136-137. (Also, for a biography of Eudoxus of Cnidus, whose earlier astronomical work Aratus' Phainomena is based upon, see "Dictionary of Scientific Biography," edited by Charles Gillespie, (1970-1990), Volume IV, Pages 465-467.)]
Lasserre, François. (1966) (Editor). Die Fragmente des Eudoxos von Knido. [Note: See pages 38-67 for references to Eudoxus' descriptions of the constellations in his now lost books Phaenomena and Enoptron. See the (French-language) book review by Jean Itard in Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, 1967, Pages 307-310.]
Lehoux, Daryn. (2007). Astronomy, Weather and Calendars in the Ancient World: Parapegmata and Related Texts in Classical and Near-Eastern Societies. [Note: An excellent. study of parapegmata. A revision and expansion of his doctoral thesis. The book includes a catalogue of extant parapegmata, and also contains extant parapemata texts. The author is currently (2008) Senior Lecturer in Roman History, Classics and Ancient History at the University of Manchester.]
Le Boeuffle, André (1975). Germanicus les Phénomènes d'Aratos. [Note: See the (French-language) book review by Raoul Verdière in Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome XXXVI, 1977, Pages 558-559).
Manitius, Carolus [Karl]. (1894). (Editor). Hipparchi in Arati et Eudoxi Phaenomena commentariorum libri tres. [Note: The most accessible edition of "Commentary on the Phainomena of Aratus and Eudoxus" by Hipparchus of Rhodes. See the (English-language) book review by Edmund Webb in The Classical Review, Volume XII, Number 3, April, 1898, Pages 170-172). Life dates: 1848-1922. (See: The Observatory, Volume 46, Number 591, 1923, Pages 262-263.)]
Manitius, Karl. (1912-1913). (Editor). Des Claudius Ptolemäus Handbuch der astronomie. (2 Volumes).
Martin, Jean. (1998). Phénomènes. (2 Volumes). [Note: Excellent. Builds on the authors previously published studies. See the (English-language) book reviews by Mary Pendergraft in Isis, Volume 91, Number 1, March 2000, Page 147; and by Mirjam Plantinga in Classical Review, Volume 51, Number 1, 2001, Pages 23-25.]
Mazarguil, J[?]. and Brunet, J-P. (1976). Commentaire d'Hipparque aux Phénomenes d'Eudoxe et d'Aratos. [Note: Unpublished Master's Degree dissertation, Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail.]
Mütherich, Florentine. (2004). "Die Bilder des Leidener Aratus." In: Mütherich, Florentine. (Editor). Studies in Carolingian Manuscript Illumination. [Note: Excellent and detailed discussion.]
Neugebauer, Otto. (1975, 3 Parts). A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy. [Note: Contains some discussion of constellations.]
Pauly's Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. (1894). [Note: Begun by August Pauly (1796-1845) in 1839, and continued by Georg Wissowa in 1894, it was finally completed a century-and-a-half later in 1980. In its completed form it reached 83 volumes (including the supplement volumes (of new and revised entries), addenda and corrigenda) plus a 2-volume index by Hans Gartner. (Additionally, an index volume, by John Murphy, had been previously issued for the supplement volumes.) A new revised edition edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, and known as Der Neue Pauly, began publication in 1996. For a complete listing of star name/constellation entries in this Encyclopedia see page 78 in "Aratos: Sternbilder und Wetterzeichen," by Albert Schott and Robert Böker (1958); and also see "B. Secondary Sources," pages 271-277, in "Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans: A Sourcebook," by Theony Condos (1977).]
Pedersen, Olaf. (1974). A Survey of the Almagest. [Note: See the (English-language) book reviews by Victor Thoren in Isis, Volume 68, Number 1, March 1977, Pages 139-141; and by Gerald Toomer in Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Volume 27, 1977, Pages 137-150.]
Pfeiffer, Erwin. (1916). Studien zum Antiken Sternglauben. [Note: Does not include a lot of information on constellations and star names.]
Rehm, Albert. (1896). Mythographische Untersuchungen über griechische Sternsagen. [Note: A 48-page booklet. Deals largely with the "Catasterismi" of the Pseudo-Eratosthenes but also discusses star lore in Hesiod, and Ovid. Albert Rehm was a German philologist. Albert Rehm was the first person to understand, around 1905, that the Antikythera mechanism was an astronomical calculator. Life dates: 1871-1949.]
Rehm, Albert. (1941; Reprinted circa 1966). Parapegmastudien: Mit einen Anhang Euktemon und das Buch De signis. [Note: Based on his earlier book "Das Parapegma des Euctemon," (1913). Life dates: 1871-1949. See the (German-language) obituary by Heinz Haffter in Gnomon, Band 22, Heft 5/6, 1950, Pages 315-318.]
Savage-Smith, Emelie. and Katzenstein, Ranee. (1988). The Leiden Aratea: Ancient Constellations in a Medieval Manuscript. [Note: 36-page illustrated brochure issued by the J. Paul Getty Museum. The Aratea is a 9th-century CE copy of an astrological and meteorological treatise based on the Phaenomena by Aratus. The Leiden Aratea (a 99-page profusely illustrated parchment now held in the University Library at Leiden) is a Carolingian Latin copy of the Greek that was translated by Claudicus Germanicus. The authors of the brochure discuss the poem, the astronomical and meteorological illuminations, and the astrological miniatures.]
Savage-Smith, Emelie. (1992). "Celestial Mapping." In: Harley, John. and Woodward, David. (Editors). The History of Cartography. Volume 2, Book 1: Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. (Pages12-18). [Note: A discussion of Carolingian Aratea.]
Schott, Albert. and Böker, Robert (1958). Aratos: Sternbilder und Wetterzeichen. [Note: Robert Böker argues that the Aratean constellations can be dated to Babylonia circa 2000 BCE. See the supportive (German-language) book review by Manfred Erren in Gnomon, Volume 31, 1959, Pages 728-732; and the critical (German-language/English-language) book review by Walther Ludwig and David Pingree in Gnomon, Volume 43, 1971, Pages 346-354. Albert Schott was an assyriologist. Life dates: 1901-1945. Robert Böker was an engineer, physicist and historian of astronomy. For a biography of Robert Böker see the pamphlet: Der Präzessionsglobus und die wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten von Robert Böker by Felix Schmeidler (1978). Life dates: 1885-1980.]
Soubiran, Jean. (1981). Aviénus, Les Phénomènes d'Aratos. [Note: Good for the several hundred pages of notes. See the (German-language) book review by Manfred Erren in Gnomon, Volume 56, 1984, Pages 99-103.]
Stevenson, Edward. (1921). Terrestrial and Celestial Globes: Their History and Construction. (2 Volumes). [Note: See Volume 1 for a discussion of early Greek celestial globes.]
Thiele, Georg. (1898). Antike Himmelsbilder: Mit Forshungen zu Hipparchos, Aratos und seinen Fortsetzern und Beträgen zur Kungstgeschichte des Sternhimmels. [Note: Georg Thiele (1866-1917) was a German Professor of Classical Philology (at the universities of Marburg and Griefswald. See the (English-language) book review by Edmund Webb in The Classical Review, Volume XIII, Number 1, February, 1899, Pages 73-76. There is also a (English-language) book review by ? in the American Journal of Philology, Volume 20, 1899, Pages 108-?]
Toomer, Gerald. (1984; Reprinted 1998). Ptolemy's Almagest. [Note: Likely to remain the standard English-language study. See the (English-language) book review by Peter Pesic in Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture, Volume XVI, 2001, Pages 102-103.]
Tueller, Michael. and Macfarlane, Roger. (2009). "Hipparchus and the Poets: A Turning point in Scientific Literature." In: Harber, M., Regtuit, R., and Walker, G. (Editors). Nature and Science and Hellenistic Poetry.
van der Waerden, Bartel. (1988). Die Astronomie der Griechen. [Note: See the (German-language) book review by Wolfgang Hübner in Gnomon, Band 61, 1989, Pages 494-500.]
Valerio, Vladimiro. (2005). "L'Atlante Farnese e la rappresentazione delle costellazioni." In: Sardi, Eugenio. (Editor). Eureka: Il genio degli antichi. (Pages 233-239). [Note: The author is an Italian expert on ancient cartography.]
Volk, Katharina. (2009). Manitius and his Intellectual Background. [Note: Contains an informed discussion of the Sphaera Barbarica.]
Webb. Edmund. (1952). The Names of the Stars. [Note: Still important for debunking many constellation myths such as Taurus being the leading constellation of the zodiac and marking the vernal equinox circa 3000 BCE. Argues a case for the Greeks inventing most of their constellations, and not largely borrowing their constellations from Babylonian uranography. See the (English-language) book review Benjamin Farrington in The Classical Review, New Series Volume V, Number 1, March, 1955, Pages 88-89; and the (French-language) book reviews by Joseph Mogenet in L'Antiquité Classique, Tome XXII, 1953, Pages 529-530; and by J[?]. Beaujeu in Revue des Études Latines, Volume 33, 1955, Pages 500-501. The book also contains a memoir by his brother Clement Webb (Pages xiii-xv).]
Weitzmann, Kurt. (1947; Reprinted 1970). Illustrations in Roll and Codex: A Study of the Origin and Method of Text Illustrations. [Note: Excellent discussion of illustrations of Aratea during the Carolingian period. Kurt Weitzmann was born in Klein Almerode (Witzenhausen) Germany in 1904 and died in Princeton, New Jersey in 1993. He was a highly influential art historian and an expert on Byzantine and medieval art. He attended the universities of Münster, Würzburg and Vienna before moving to Princeton in 1935, due to Nazi prosecution. See also: Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination (1970), Ancient book illumination (1959), and Age of Spirituality: A Symposium (Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 1977-February 1978) edited by Kurt Weitzmann (1979).]
Werner, Helmut. (1953; Revised and Enlarged Edition 1957). From the Aratus Globe to the Zeiss Planetarium. [Note: Contains a brief discussion of ancient Greek celestial globes.]
Zhitomirsky, Sergey. (2003). "The Phaenomena of Aratus, orphism, and ancient astronomy." In: Blomberg, Mary., Blomberg, Peter., and Henriksson, Göran. (Editors). Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture. (Pages 79-82). [Note: Proceedings of the 9th annual meeting of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC), Stockholm, 27-30 August 2001. The article is speculative and unreliable.]
Articles/Entries
Abry, Josèphe-Henriette. (2007). "Manilius and Aratus: two Stoic poets on Stars." (Leeds International Classical Studies, Volume 6, Number 1, Pages ?-?). [Note: A study of the relationship between Manilius' Astronomica and Aratus' Phainomena. The author is at the Universite Jean Moulin Lyon 3.]
Anghelina, Catalin. (2010). "Watching for Orion: A Note on Od. 5.274 = Il. 18.488." (The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Volume 60 , Pages 250-254). [Note: The author is a Classicist at the Ohio State University.]
Aujac, Germaine. (1976). "Le ciel des fixes et ses représentations en Grèce ancienne." (Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, Volume XXIX, Pages 290-307).
Aujac, Germaine. (1978). "Globes célestes en Grēce ancienne." (Der Globusfreund, Number 25-27, Pages 117-125).
Aujac, Germaine. (1980). "Le zodiaque dans l'astronomie grecque." (Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1, Pages 3-32).
Baker, Howard. (1973). "Eudoxus of Cnidus: A Proto-Classical Life." (The Sewanee Review, Volume 81, Number 2, Spring, Pages 237-281).
Bethe, Erich. (1900). "Das Alter der griechischen Sternbilder." (Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, Neue Folge, Band 55, Pages 414-434). [Note: The author was a German classical philologist.]
Bilic, Tomislav (2009). "The Myth of Alpheus and Arethusa and Open-Sea Voyages on the Mediterranean--Stellar Navigation in Antiquity." (International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Volume 38, Number 1, March, Pages116–132). [Note: Abstract: "The article offers a new interpretation of the Greek myth of Alpheus and Arethusa, which it is believed emerged as a description of latitude-sailing between the Peloponnese and Sicily during the Bronze Age. The author discusses the stars which could have assisted navigation on this route. This is followed by a discussion on the ancient practice of determining latitude by observing the altitude of the lower culmination of the last circumpolar star. Some sea-routes are suggested which could have been traversed using the latitude-sailing technique, and the stars that could have been used as navigation aids on such voyages." The author is with the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Croatia.]
Böker, Robert. (1953). "Zur Systematik der griechischen Sternbildsetzung." (Die Sterne, Band 29, Pages 217-222).
Boll, Franz. (1899). "Das Kerykion als Sternbild." (Hermes, Band 34, Heft 4, Pages 643-645).
Boll, Franz. and Gundel, Wilhelm. (1937). "Sternbilder, Sternglaube und Sternsymbolik bei Griechen und Römern." In: Roscher, Wilhelm. (Editor). Aüsführliches Lexicon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie. (Volume VI, Columns 867-1071). [Note: A book-length article that remains a standard study of Greek and Roman constellations and star names. Both the authors were classical philologists who specialized in ancient astronomy.]
Boutsikas, Efrosyni. and Ruggles, Clive. (2011). "Temples, Stars, and Ritual Landscapes: The Potential for Archaeoastronomy in Ancient Greece." (American Journal of Archaeologu, Volume 115, Number 1, Pages 55-68).
Le Boeuffle, André. (1973). "Notes critiques aux Aratea de Germanicus." (Revue de Philologie, Année et Tome XLVII, Troisième Série, Pages 61-67).
Brown, Edwin. (1981). "The Origin of the Constellation Name "Cynosura."" (Orientalia, Volume 50 New Series, Pages 384-402).
Buttmann, Philipp. (1826 (1829), Reprinted 1929). "Über die Entstehung der Sternbilder auf der griechischen Stäre." (Abhandlungen der historisch-philologischn Klasse der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Pages 19-63. Printed 1829 for the year 1826). [Note: Pioneering study of Greek constellations and star names by a brilliant classical philologist.]
Cenev, Gjore. (2008). "Macedonian Folk Constellations." (Publications of the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, Number 85, Pages 97-109).
Clerke, Agnes. (1887). "Homeric Astronomy I." (Nature, Volume XV, April 21, Pages 585-588).
Clerke, Agnes. (1887). "Homeric Astronomy II." (Nature, Volume XV, April 28, Pages 607-608).
Cooley, Jeffrey. (2005). "Teaching Stars in Mesopotamia and the Hellenistic Worlds: The Padagogies of Aratus, Enuma Elish and MUL.APIN." (Humanitas, Volume 28, Issue 3, Spring, Pages 9-15). [Note: Informed and perceptive]
Cooley, Jeffrey. (2006). "A Star is Born: Mesopotamian and Classical Catasterisms." (Humanitas, Volume 30, Fall, Issue 1, Pages 8-16). [Note: Informed and perceptive.]
Davis, Junior., George. (1946). "The Origin of Ursa Major." (Popular Astronomy, Volume 54, Pages 111-115).
Dimitrakoudis, S[?]., Papaspyrou, P[?]., Petoussis, V[?]. and Moussas, X[?]. (2006). "Archaic artifacts resembling celestial spheres." (Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, Volume 6, Issue 3 (Special Issue), Pages 93-99). [Note: Study of bronze artifacts from the Archaic Age in Greece (750-480 BCE). The authors are in the Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, Department of Physics, University of Athens.]
Duke, Dennis. (2006). "Analysis of the Farnese Globe." (Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 37, Part 1, February, Number 126, Pages 87-100). [Note: A critique of Bradley Schaefer's paper that Hipparchus' star catalogue is the basis for constellation depiction on the Farnese globe.]
Duke, Dennis. (2008). "Statistical Dating of the Phenomena of Eudoxus." DIO - The International Journal of Scientific History, Volume 15, December, Pages 7-23).
Gow, Andrew. (1914). "Hesiod's Wagon." (Journal of Philology, Volume 33, Pages 145-153). [Note: The author was a Classicist. Life dates: 1886-1979.]
Hardie, Philip. (1985). Imago Mundi: Cosmological and Ideological Aspects of the Shield of Archilles." (Journal of Hellenic Studies, Volume CV, Pages 11-31).
Haliburton, Robert. (1893). "Orientation of Temples by the Pleiades." (Nature, Volume 48, Number 1250, October 12, Pages 566-567). [Note: Robert Haliburton was a leading Canadian lawyer and spent 5 years in England from 1871-1876. His "New Materials for the History of Man. Number 1. The Festival of the Dead." (1863; Reprinted 1920) comprised a study of Pleiades lore world-wide. Life dates: 1831-1901.]
Housman, Alfred. (1900). "The Aratea of Germanicus." (The Classical Review, Volume XIV, Pages 26-39). [Note: The author was an outstanding Classicist. Life dates: 1859-1936.]
Kaibel. Georg. (1894). "Aratea" (Hermes, Neunundzwanzigster Band, Pages 82-123).
Kaurov, Edward. (1998). "The Draco Constellation: The Ancient Chinese Astronomical Practice of Observations." (Astronomical and Astrophysical Transactions, Volume 15, Pages 325-341). [Note: From his particular analysis the author argues that the origin this particular constellation, included within the celestial sphere of the Greeks, dates back to ancient China circa 110,000 years ago. Finding extremely early (and improbable) dates for the origin of constellations is typical of the Russian school of constellation researchers.]
Krupp, Ed. (1991). "Seven Sisters." (Griffith Observer, Volume 55, Number 1, Pages 2-16). [Note: Dr. Edwin C. Krupp is an astronomer and Director of Griffith Observatory a position he has held since his appointment in 1974. He first joined the Griffith Observatory in 1970, working as a part-time Planetarium Lecturer, and upon completion of his graduate degree, was appointed Curator in 1972. He is now recognized internationally as an expert on ancient, prehistoric, and traditional astronomy, and has visited nearly 1800 ancient and prehistoric sites throughout the world, regularly leading field study tours to exotic locations that have astronomical and archaeological interest. Also, he is a contributing editor for Sky & Telescope and writes a monthly column that emphasizes the cultural component of astronomy for this internationally distributed magazine.]
Krupp, Ed. (1996). "Queen of Heaven." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 92, Number 2, August, Pages 60-61).
Krupp, Ed. (1997). "Horsefeathers on High." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 93, Number 1, January, Pages 70-71).
Krupp, Ed. (1997). "Throwing the Bull." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 93, Number 4, April, Pages 68-69).
Krupp, Ed. (1997). "A Dipper for all Seasons." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 93, Number 6, June, Pages 68-69).
Krupp, Ed. (1998). "Barking in the Dark." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 95, Number 4, April, Pages 80-81).
Krupp, Ed. (1998). "Hair-Raising Tale." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 95, Number 5, May, Pages 80-81).
Krupp, Ed. (1998). "Celestial Kings." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 96, Number 5, November, Pages 92-94).
Krupp, Ed. (1998). "Starry Fish in the Firmament." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 96, Number 6, December, Pages 101-103).
Krupp, Ed. (1999). "The Stellar Ties That Bind ..." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 97, Number 1, January, Pages 101-103).
Krupp, Ed. (1999). "The Guiding Light." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 97, Number 3, March, Pages 87-89). [Note: Deals with the star Canopus.]
Krupp, Ed. (1999). "Bear Country." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 97, Number 5, May, Pages 94-96).
Krupp, Ed. (2000). "Theft of Light." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 99, Number 3, March, Pages 94-96).
Krupp, Ed. (2000). "Astronomical Instrument." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 100, Number 3, September, Pages 93-95).
Krupp, Ed. (2000). "Flood Control." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 100, Number 4, October, Pages 101-103).
Krupp, Ed. (2001). "Horse Sense." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 102, Number 1, July, Pages 86-88).
Krupp, Ed. (2001). "Europing the Bull." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 102, Number 3, September, Pages 77-79).
Krupp, Ed. (2002). "Hunting the Hare." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 103, Number 2, February, Pages 76-78).
Liritzis, Ioannis. (1998). "Bronze Age Greek Pyramids and Orion's Belt." (Griffith Observer, October, Pages ?-?).
Lockyer, Joseph. (1893). "The influence of Egypt upon temple-orientation in Greece." (Nature, Volume 48, Number 1244, August 31, Pages 417-419).
Lombardo, Stanley. (1979). "Auriga reoriented: a note on constellation forms and Greek artistic imagination." (The Ancient World, Volume 2, Pages 107-109).
Lorimer, Hilda. (1951). "Stars and Constellations in Homer and Hesiod." (The Annual of the British School at Athens, Number XLVI [46], Pages 86-101).
Lovi, George. (1986). "Aratus the Constellation Bard." (Sky and Telescope, Volume 72, Number 4, October, Pages 375-376). [Note: Contains an unreliable discussion of the antiquity of the constellations.]
Lynn, William. (1887). "Aratus and Hipparchus." (The Observatory, Volume 10, April, Pages 162-163).
MacFarlane, Roger. and Mills, Paul. (2005). "Bright and conspicuous stars in Ptolemy and Hipparchus: On the mistranslation of e?fa???." (Centaurus, Volume 47, Number 2, Pages 178-180).
MacGillivray, Joseph. (2000). "Labyrinths and Bull-leapers." (Archaeology, Volume 53, Number 6, November/December, Pages 53-55). [Note: The author, who is co-director of the British School at Athens, identifies the Minoan bull-leaping paintings as depictions of constellations, and not ritual events as popularly believed.]
Maurach, G[?]. (1977). "Aratus and Germanicus on Altar and Centaur." Acta Classica, Volume XX, Pages 121-139).
Mozel, Philip. (2003). "Nocturnal Musings Concerning a Winged Horse." (The Journal of the Royal Society of Canada, Volume 97, April, Pages 61-?). [Note: An interesting, though speculative, inquiry into the history of the constellation Pegasus. The author is a past National Librarian of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and was the Producer/Educator at the McLaughlin Planetarium. He is currently an educator at the Ontario Science Centre.]
Pàmias i Massana, Jordi. (1998). "Sobre el fragment dels Catasterismes d'Eratòstenes de manuscrit Parisinus Graecus 1310: el nom dels planetes Saturn i Júpiter." (Faventia, Volume 20, Number 2, Pages 71-77). [Note: The author is a Spanish academic.]
Panchenko, Dmitri. (1999). "Who found the Zodiac?" (Antike Naturwissenschraft und ihre Rezeption, Band IX, Pages 33-44). [Note: The author, a Russian scholar (History of Philosophy) at St Petersburg State University, holds that the notion of the zodiac was probably a Greek invention introduced by Oenopides of Chios. The appearance of the notion of the zodiac is held to be connected with the cosmological debates of the Presocratics. The Greek invention of the zodiac was then subsequently adopted by the Babylonians. The publication comprises conference papers delivered on 13 June, 1998, in Trier. The abbreviation for the journal is AKAN.]
Pendergraft, Mary. (1990). "On the Nature of the Constellations: Aratus, Ph. 367-85." (Eranos, Volume 88, Fascicle 2, Pages 99-106).
Penrose, Francis. (1892). "A preliminary statement of an investigation of the dates of some of the Greek temples as derived from their orientation." (Nature, Volume 45, Number 1165, February 25, Pages 395-397). [Note: Francis Penrose was a noted Architect and at one time Director of the British School at Athens. His publications on the orientation of Greek temples still have value.]
Penrose, Francis. (1893). "The orientation of Greek temples." (Nature, Volume 48, Number 1228, May 11, Pages 42-43).
Penrose, Francis. (1901). "The orientation of Greek temples." (Nature, Volume 48, Number 1228, March 21, Pages 492-493).
Phillips, J[?]. (1980). "The constellations on Archilles' shield (Iliad 18. 485-489)." (Liverpool Classical Monthly, Volume 5, Number 8, October, Pages 179-180).
Rogers, John. (1998). "Origins of the ancient constellations: II. The Mediterranean traditions." (Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Volume 108, Number 2, April, Pages 79-89). [Note: Speculative and unreliable. Both parts of the article comprise a total of 31 pages.]
Rousseau, A[?]. and Dimitrakoudis, S[?]. (2006). "A study of the catasterisms in the 'phaenomena' of Aratus." (Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, Volume 6, Issue 3 (Special Issue), Pages 111-120). [Note: The authors are in the Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, University of Athens, Greece.]
Schaefer, Bradley [Brad]. (2002). "The Latitude and Epoch for the Formation of the Southern Greek Constellations." (Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 33, Part 4, Pages 313-350). [Note: An important paper by an astronomer comprising a critical quantitative analysis of the "void zone" arguments for the origins of the Greek constellations in the third Millennium BCE.. A suitable discussion of numerous problems with the basic methodologies of Maunder-Crommelin-Ovenden-Roy has been undertaken Schaefer in this paper. His conclusions are that the southern Greek constellations originated in the first millennium BCE, and are basically derived from Babylonia.
Schaefer, Bradley. (2004). "The Latitude and Epoch for the Origin of the Astronomical Lore of Eudoxus." (Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 35, Number 2, Pages 161-223). [Note: A critical quantitative analysis of the date for the origin of the astronomical lore of Eudoxus. Establishes that the lore was of Babylonian origin circa 1130 BCE.]
Schaefer, Brad[ley]. (2006). "The Origin of the Greek Constellations." (Scientific American, Volume 295, Number 5, November, Pages 70-75). [Note: Reliable account of the origin of the Greek constellations consolidated in Ptolemy's star catalogue and included in his book Almagest. Slightly dogmatic regarding the existence of a Paleolithic bear constellation.]
Schaefer, Bradley. (2006). "L'origine des constellations." (Pour la Science, Number 350 - décembre, Pages ?-?).
Schaefer, Bradley. (2007). "Unsprünge der griechischen Sternbilder." (Spektrum der Wissenschaft, März, Pages ?-?).
Schmidt, M[?]. (1854). "Zu Aratos." (Philologus, Band 9, Pages 396-400 & 551-5).
Theodossiou, E[?]., Manimanis, V[?]., Mantarakis, P[?]., and Dimitrijevic, M[?]. (2001). "Astronomy and Constellations in the Iliad and Odyssey." (Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Volume 14, Number 1, Pages 22-30).
Verkerk, C[?]. (1980). "Aratea: a review of the literature concerning MS. Vossianus lat. q. 79 in Leiden University Library." (Journal of Medieval History, Volume 6, Issue 3, September, Pages 245-287). [Note: "Abstract: The beautiful, well-known, but highly problematical, illuminated Carolingian MS. of the classical astronomical work called the Aratea or the Syntagma Arateorum, once owned by Isaac Vossius, has long been a prized possession of Leiden's University Library. Aratos of Soli, the Greek poet (about 315-270/23;9 B.C), was the author of the earliest version of this work, which he called the Phaenomena; Germanicus Caesar, Cicero and Festus Rufus Avienus produced Latin translations of it. Over the years an extensive literature has developed concerning the many problems raised by this MS. This literature is reviewed in detail in what follows and an attempt made, as it were, to clear the air ready for the further research which is shown to be necessary."]
Wagman, Morton. (1992). "Hercules, the Champion." (Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 23, Pages 134-136). [Note: An investigation into the Near Eastern origin of the Greek constellation "the Kneeler" and its identification with Hercules.]
Wilk, Stephen. (1996). "Mythological Evidence for Ancient Observations of Variable Stars." (Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, Volume 24, Number 2, Pages 129-133).
Wilk, Stephen. (1999). "Further Mythological Evidence for Ancient Knowledge of Variable Stars." (Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, Volume 27, Number 2, Pages 171-174).
Williams, Jean. (1987). "Greeks Bearing Myths: The Phaenomena of Aratus." (Griffith Observer, June, Pages ?-?).
Books/Pamphlets:
de Bourdellès, H. (1985). L’Aratus Latinus: étude sur la culture et la langue latine dans le nord de la France au VIIIe siècle [Note: See the (English-language) book reviews by P[?]. McGurkin in Peritia, Volume(s) 6-7, 1987-1988, Pages 325-327; and by F[?]. Jensen in Speculum, Volume 62, 1987, Page 436.]
Le Boeuffle, André. (1973). Le vocabulaire latin de l'Astronomie. (3 Volumes). [Note: The volumes comprise the authors 1970 doctorate thesis on Classical Roman constellations and star names. The study is both comprehensive and reliable (and is undoubtedly the standard work on the subject). It also traces back the Latin names to the Greek and Babylonian predecessors. The thesis was published by the Universite de Lille III.]
Le Boeuffle, André. (1977). Les noms latins d'astres et de constellations. [Note: An abridged version of the authors 1970 doctorate thesis "Le vocabulaire latin de l'Astronomie." It includes a detailed discussion of the Sphaera Barbarica. See the (English-language) book review by Paul Kunitzsch in Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Volume 28,, Number 103, 1978, [has been mistakenly given as Volume 27, 1978], Pages 334-335; and the (French-language) book reviews by Michel Rambaud in Revue des Études Latines, Volume 58, 1980, Pages 461-463; and by Pierre Hamblenne in Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome XL, 1981, Pages 426-427.]
Le Boeuffle, André. (1987). Astronomie Astrologie Lexique Latin. [Note: Partly replaces the outdated "Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning," by Richard Allen. See the (French-language) book review by Josèphe Abry in Revue des Études Latines, Volume 65, 1987, Pages 293-296; and the (German-language) book review by Wolfgang Hübner in Gnomon, Volume 60, Heft 5, 1988, Pages 509-516.]
Le Boeuffle, André. (1989). Le ciel des Romains. [Note: See the (English-language) book reviews by Joshua Lipton in Isis, Volume 82, Number 1, March, 1991, Pages 112-113; Tamsyn Barton in The Journal of Roman Studies, Volume 82, 1992, Page 238; and the (German-language) book review by Wolfgang Hübner in Gnomon, Band 63, Heft 1, 1991, Pages 305-309.]
Gaedechens, Rudolph. (1862). Der marmorne Himmelsglobus des fürstlich Waldeck'schen Antikenkabinettes zu Arolsen. [Note: Rudolph Gaedechens was Professor of Classical Archaeology, Jena. Life dates: 1834-1904. The book discusses a marble celestial globe (thought to be Roman) in the museum of the German town of Arolsen (now Bad [= Spa] Arolsen). It showed the zodiacal band with a sequence of images of the zodiacal signs. Similarly to other Arolsen museum items (such as the Byzantine coin collection) it is presently dispersed (or apparently so).
Gee, Emma. (2000). Ovid, Aratus and Augustus: Astronomy in Ovid's "Fasti." [Note: See the (English-language) book review by Philip Hardie in The British Journal for the History of Science, Volume 34, Number 2, June, 2001, Page 237.]
Goold, George. (Editor and translator). (1977; Revised reprint 1992). Manilius Astronomica. [Note: An excellent translation and commentary. Contains a discussion of Manilius's constellations. Star charts of the skies of Marcus Manilius follow page 386. See the (German-language) book review by Wolfgang Hübner in Gnomon, Band 52, 1980, Pages 11-15; and the (French-language) book review by André Le Boeuffle in Revue des Études Latines, Volume 65, 1987, Pages 308-309. For a biography of Marcus Manilius see "Dictionary of Scientific Biography," edited by Charles Gillispie, (1970-1990), Volume IX, Pages 79-80. (The "Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography," (1982), based on the multi-volume edition, has numerous errors.)]
Hübner, Wolfgang. (1982). Die Eigenschaften der Tierkreiszeichen in der Antike. [Note: See the (French-language) book review by André Le Boeuffle in Revue des Études Latines, Volume 60, 1982, Pages 426-427; and the (English-language) book reviews by Charles Burnett in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 15, 1984, Pages 48-50; and by Alexander Jones in Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, Volume 35, 1985, Pages 482-483.]
Kornemann, Mathhias. (1998). Vom Astralmythos zum Roman.
Künzl, Ernst. (2005). Himmelsgloben und Sternkarten: Astronomie und Astrologie in Vorzeit und Altertum. [Note: The title in English is "Celestial globes and star charts." The author has made a detailed study of all the surviving Graeco-Roman celestial globes from classical antiquity. Until his retirement in 2004 he was the Director of the Roman Department of the Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum in Mainz. Includes a detailed study of the Mainz celestial globe, a 2nd-century CE Roman miniature celestial globe. The author has also published multiple journal articles on the topic of celestial globes from Graeco-Roman antiquity. See the (English-language) book review by James Evans in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 37, Number 2, May, 2006, Number 127, Pages 239-240.]
Possanza, D. Mark. (2004). Translating the Heavens. Aratus, Germanicus, and the Poetics of Latin Translation. [Note: D. Mark Possanza, Faculty of Department of Classics, University of Pittsburgh. See the (English-language) book review by Katharina Volk, The Classical Review, New Series, Volume 55, Number 2, October, 2005, Pages 538-539.]
Soubiran, Jean. (Editor and translator). (1981). Avenius. Les phénomènes d'Aratos. [Note: See the (French-language) book reviews by Richard Adam in Revue des Études Latines, Volume 59, 1981, Pages 349-350; and by Raoul Verdière in Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome XLIII, 1984, Page 482.]
Articles/Entries:
Bakhouche, Béatrice. (1998). "Le corps humain et les astres dans la littérature latine impériale." (Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome 57, Pages 362-374).
Beehler, Carolyn. (1980). "The Priscilla Catacomb Painting: A Hidden Star Map Revealed." (Archaeoastronomy, Volume 3, Number 3, July-August-September, Pages 14-16). [Note: The Catacombs of Priscilla is located on the Via Salaria north of the city of Rome in what was a quarry in Roman times. The art work dates to circa 200-300 CE. The author believes a ceiling painting there could be a star map (and include the "Christmas Star"). Dorrit Hoffleit at Yale University Observatory also considered this idea in 1984.]
Benndork, O., Weiss, E., and Rehm, A. (1903). "Zur Salzburger Bronzescheibe mit Sternbilden." (Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien, Band VI, Pages 32-49). [Note: Fragments of zodiacal disks dating from the 1st- to the 3rd-century CE have been found at Salzburg (Austria) and Grand (France). The fragment at Salzburg formed part of a Medieval clock.]
Le Boeuffle, André. (1961). "Quelques Observations Sur Virgile, Géorgiques, IV, 234 sq." (Revue des Études Latines, Volume 39, Pages 100-105).
Le Boeuffle, André. (1962). "Vénus, << Étoile Du Soir >>, Et Les Écrivains Latins." (Revue des Études Latines, Volume 40, Pages 120-125).
Le Boeuffle, André. (1964). "Quelques Erreurs Ou Difficultés Astronomiques Chez Columelle." (Revue des Études Latines, Volume 42, Pages 324-333).
Le Boeuffle, André. (1965). "Recherches Sur Hygin." (Revue des Études Latines, Volume 43, Pages 275-294).
de Callataÿ, Godefroid. (1993). "Le zodiaque l'Énéide." (Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome 52, Pages 318-349).
de Callataÿ, Godefroid. (2001). "La géographie zodiacale de Manilius (Astr. 4, 744-817), avec une note sur l'Énéide virgilienne." (Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome 60, Pages 35-66).
Dellinges, William [Bill]. (2006). "The Strange Case of Libra." (The Voyager, Volume 20, Issue 11, November, Pages 1-2). [Note: An informed short article, but not wholly reliable, on the history of the constellation Libra and its (re)introduction by the Romans circa 1st-century CE.]
Hoffleit, Dorrit. (1984). "The Christmas Star, Novae, and Pulsars." (The Journal of the American Association of Variable tar Observers, Volume 13, Number 1, June, Pages 15-20). [Note: An attempt to identify the "Christmas Star" in a ceiling painting in the Catacombs of Priscilla near Rome. Dorrit Hoffleit (1907-2007) was an eminent astronomer who worked at Yale University Observatory. She was a world-renowned expert on variable stars and the history of astronomy.]
Fox, Matthew. (2004). "Stars in the "Fasti": Ideler (1825) and Ovid's Astronomy Revisited." (The American Journal of Philology, Volume 125, Number 1 (Whole Number 497), Spring, Pages 91-133). [Note: A review of Christian Ideler's understanding of Ovid's Fasti using astronomy software.]
Gee, Emma. (2001). "Cicero's Astronomy." (Classical Quarterly, New Series, Volume 51, Number 2, Pages 520-536). [Note: An assessment of Cicero's Aratea - a Latin adaptation of Aratus's Phaenomena.]
Gundel, Wilhelm. (1925). "Textkritische und exegetische Bemerkungen zu Manilius." (Philologus, Band LXXXI, Heft 2, (N. F. Band XXXV, Heft 2), Pages 168-191).
Hannah, Robert. (1986). "The Emperor's Stars: The Conservatori Portrait of Commodus." (American Journal of Archaeology, Volume 90, Pages 337-342). [Note: A calendrical interpretation of the three zodiacal signs carved on the globe at the base of the Conservatori portrait of Commodus.]
Hannah, Robert. (1993). "The Stars of Iopas and Palinurus." (American Journal of Philology, Volume 114, Number 1, Spring, Pages 123-135).
Künzl, Ernst. (1996). "Sternenhimmel beider Hemisphären. Ein singulärer römischer Astralglobus der mittleren Kaiserzeit." (Antike Welt: Zeitschrift für Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte, Band 27, Heft 2, Pages 129-134).
Künzl, Ernst. (1998). "Der Globus im Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum Mainz: Der bisher einzige komplette Himmelsglobus aus dem griechisch-römischen Altertum." (Der Globusfreund, Number 45/46, 1997/1998). [Note: Issue number 45/46 covering the years 1997/1998 was published in February 1998. Articles are in both German and English. The German-language text article appears on pages 7-80; and the English-language text article "The globe in the "Römisch-ermanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz". The only complete celestial globe found to-date from classical Graeco-Roman antiquity." appears on pages 81-153.]
Künzl, Ernst. (1998). "Ein antiker Astralglobus aus dem römischen Kaiserreich: Der älteste vollständig erhaltene Himmelsglobus." (Sterne und Weltraum, Band 37, Pages 28-33).
Künzl, Ernst., Fecht, Maiken., and Greiff, Susanne. (2000 (2003)). "Ein römischer Himmelsglobus der mittleren Kaiserzeit. Studien zur römischen Astralikonographie." (Jahrbuch Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum Mainz, Number 47, Pages 495-594).
Laffitte, Roland. (2006). "Précisions sur l’origine des noms des signes du zodiaque." (Bulletin de la SELEFA, Number 7, 1er semester, Pages 1-10).
Maass, Ernst. (1902). "Salzburger Bronzetafel mit Sternbilden." (Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien, Band V, Pages 190-197). [Note: Fragments of zodiacal disks dating from the 1st- to the 3rd-century CE have been found at Salzburg (Austria) and Grand (France). The fragment at Salzburg formed part of a Medievel clock.]
Pickering, Keith. (2002). "The Southern Limit of the Ancient Star Catalogue." (DIO - The International Journal of Scientific History, Volume 12, September, Pages 3-27). [Note: The author is the editor of DIO. The term 'Ancient Star Catalogue' means the star catalogue in books 7 and 8 of Claudius Ptolemy's Mathematike Syntaxis (Almagest). The page numbers in the journal are not sequential.]
Pickering, Keith. (2002). "A Re-identification of some entries in the Ancient Star Catalogue." (DIO - The International Journal of Scientific History, Volume 12, September, Pages 59-?). [Note: I could not sight this article in the PDF copy.]
Reeve, Michael (1980). "Some Astronomical Manuscripts." (The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Volume XXXX, Number 2, Pages 508-522). [Note: Traces Roman and Medieval manuscripts of Aratea. The author was a Professor of Classics at Exeter College, Oxford.]
Ovadiah, Asher. and Mucznik, Sonia. (1996). "A Fragmentary Roman Zodiac and Horoscope from Caesarea Maritima." (Liber Annuus, Volume 46, Pages 375-380, Plates 31-32).
Valerio, Vladimiro. (1987). "Histographic and numerical notes on the Atlante Farnese and its celestial sphere." (Der Globusfreund, Number 35/37, 1987/1989, Pages 97-127). [Note: Issue number 35/37 covering the years 1987/1989 was published in 1987.]
Viré, Ghislaine. (1992). "Le texte du De astronomia d'Hygin: questions de méthode." (Latomus Revue D'Études Latines, Tome 51, Pages 843-856).
West, Stephanie. (1985). "Venus Observed? A Note on Callimachus, Fr. 110." (The Classical Quarterly, Volume 35, Pages 61-68).
Books/Pamphlets:
Blomberg, Peter. (2007). "How did the constellation of the Bear receive its name?" In: Pásztor, Emilia (Editor). Archaeoastronomy in Archaeology and Ethnography. (Pages ?-?). [Note: BAR S1647 2007. Papers presented at the annual meeting of SEAC (European Society for Astronomy in Culture), held in Kecskemét, Hungary, in 2004.]
Calzolari, Enrico. and Gori, Davide. (2007). "The archaeological symbols M and W and the symbolic link with Cassiopeia constellation." In: Zedda, Mauro. and Belmonte, Juan. (Editors). Lights and Shadows in Cultural Astronomy. (Pages 145-154). [Notes: Proceedings of the SEAC 2005, Isili, Sardinia, 28 June to 3 July. SEAC = European Society for Astronomy in Culture. Looks at certain ancient rock art and pottery ornamentation in Italy and Sardinia.]
Frank, Roslyn. (2000)."Hunting the European Sky Bears: Hercules Meets Harzkume." In: Esteban, César. and Belmonte, Juan. (Editors). Oxford VI and SEAC 99 "Astronomy and Cultural Diversity." (Pages 295-302). [Note: This publication is the proceedings of the 6th "Oxford" international symposium on archaeoastronomy, jointly with the SEAC99 (European archaeoastronomy) meeting, held in La Laguna, Tenerife, in 1999. Copies of the book are exceedingly rare due to water damage to stock during a devastating Madrid flood. A PDF file has now (February, 2010) been kindly made available by Michael Rappenglück and is freely downloadable from the publications page of the SEAC web site.]
Gibbon, William. (1960). Popular Star Names among the Slavic Speaking Peoples. [Note: Unpublished doctoral dissertation (University of Pennsylvania). From at least 1964 he was with the University of Nebraska and has remained on the faculty there.]
Gladyszowa, Maria. (1960). Wiedza ludowa o gwiazdach. [Note: This Polish-language book is the most comprehensive study of Slavic star lore to appear. The title in English is: Folk knowledge about stars.]
Hannah, Robert. and Moss, Marina. (2003). "The archaeoastronomy of the Palaikastro kouras from Crete." In: Blomberg, Mary., Blomberg, Peter., and Henriksson, Göran. (Editors). Calendars, Symbols, and Orientations: Legacies of Astronomy in Culture. (Pages 73-77). [Note: Proceedings of the 9th annual meeting of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC), Stockholm, 27-30 August 2001. The authors argue against a constellation interpretation.]
Hartner, Willy. (1969). Die Goldhörner von Gallehus. [Note: See the (English-language) book review by Arthur Beer in Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 1, 1970, Pages 139-143.]
Harley, John. and Woodward, David. (Editors). (1987). The History of Cartography, Volume 1. [Note: See "Celestial Maps." Pages 81-85.]
Henriksson, Göran. (1999). "Prehistoric constellations on Swedish Rock-carvings." In: Le Beuf, A[?]. and Ziólkowski, M[?]. (Editors). Actes de la Vème conference de la SEAC, Gdańsk, Warsaw, 5-8 septembre (1997 (Światowit supplement series H: Anthropology, 2), Pages 155-173. [Note: Göran Henriksson, Ph.D., writes (often with Mary Blomberg) highly speculative material and makes extravagant claims concerning early astronomy. His publications need to be used with caution. He is currently (2010) with the Institute for Physics and Astronomy, Department of Astronomy and Space Physics, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.]
Holmberg, Uno. [Harva, Uno]. (1927). The Mythology of All Races IV: Finno-Ugric[Ugaric], Siberian. [Note: Uno Holmberg (1882-1949), was a scholar (Uralic linguist and cultural researcher) who specialised in religion, ethnosociology and folklore, and made several expeditions to Finno-Ugric tribes in Russia and Siberia. He became Professor of Sociology at the Turku University and exchanged his Swedish family name for the Finnish sounding Harva. After a number of scientific works he published in 1948 the huge Suomalaisten muinaisusko ('The ancient belief of the Finns').]
Hurt, Jakob [Jacob]. (1899). Eesti astronoomia. [Note: A book based on a talk delivered the previous year. I presently cannot find any mention of it in any library catalogue. The author was a cleric and folklorist, and was regarded as a polymath. Life dates: 1839-1907.]
Hurt, Jakob [Jacob]. (1900). Über estnische Himmelskunde, Vortrag. [Note: 89-page book published in St. Petersburg. The author is a key source for knowledge of Estonian sky lore.]
Jones, Prudence. (1991). Northern Myths of the Constellations. [Note: Illustrated 18-page card-back pamphlet. The author is a "New-Ager," astrologer, and pagan writer.]
Kolev, Dimiter. (2000). "Bulgarian Traditional Cosmogonical and Cosmological Beliefs (After Ethnographic Data from AD 19th to 20th)." In: Esteban, César. and Belmonte, Juan. (Editors). Oxford VI and SEAC 99 "Astronomy and Cultural Diversity." (Pages 327-334). [Note: This publication is the proceedings of the 6th "Oxford" international symposium on archaeoastronomy, jointly with the SEAC99 (European archaeoastronomy) meeting, held in La Laguna, Tenerife, in 1999. Copies of the book are exceedingly rare due to water damage to stock during a devastating Madrid flood. A PDF file has now (February, 2010) been kindly made available by Michael Rappenglück and is freely downloadable from the publications page of the SEAC web site.]
Kuperjanov, Andres. (2003). Eesti tævas: Uskumus ja tõlgendusi. [Note: Title in English is: Estonian Sky: Beliefs and Interpretations. Publication by Eesti Folkloori Instituut of 2003 MA thesis for Estonian Agricultural University.]
Mándoki, László. (1932). "Asiatische Sternnamen." In: Diószegi, Vilmos. (Editor). Glaubenswelt und. Folklore der sibirischen Völker. (Pages 519–532). [Note: Vilmos Diószegi was a Hungarian ethnologist. Unfortunately he suffered an early death.]
Maxia, Mauro. (2007). "Popular Names of Stars and Constellations in Sardinia." In: Zedda, Mauro. and Belmonte, Juan. (Editors). Lights and Shadows in Cultural Astronomy. (Pages 338-343). [Notes: Proceedings of the SEAC 2005, Isili, Sardinia, 28 June to 3 July. SEAC = European Society for Astronomy in Culture.]
North, John. (1996). Stonehenge: Neolithic Man and the Cosmos. [Note: The book is considered bizarre. From 1977 until his death from cancer in 2008 the author, a cultural astronomer and historian of science, was Professor [Chair of the Department] of the History of Philosophy and the Exact Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and later Dean. He was a generalist interested in everything from archaeoastronomy to medieval astronomy to modern astrophysics. The book contains considerable discussion on barrow and henge alignments with particular stars. The author also argues that Britain's chalk hill figures (such as the Uffington White Horse on the Berkshire Downs and the Cerne Giant in Dorset) were Neolithic in origin and connected with the heliacal risings of particular stars. See the (English-language) book review by Anthony Aveni in Nature, Volume 383, 3 October, 1996, Pages 403-404; the (English-language) essay book review by Clive Ruggles in Archaeoastronomy, Number 24, Pages S83-S88 (Supplement to the Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 30, 1999); and the (English-language) book review by Christopher Chippindale in Isis, Volume 93, Number 4, December, 2002, Pages 680-681. Nuffield Foundation Research Fellow, Oxford University 1963-68, Assistant Curator, Museum of the History of Science 1968-77, Senior Research Associate, Museum of the History of Science 2003-08; Professor of History of Philosophy and the Exact Sciences, University of Groningen, Netherlands 1977-99 (Emeritus); Honorary Permanent Secretary, Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences 1983-2008; FBA 1992. Life dates: 1934-2008.]
Ottescu [sometimes Otescu], Ion. (1907; English-language translation 2009). Credinţele Ţăranului Român în Cer şi Stele [= The Romanian Peasant's Belief's in Stars and Sky.] [Note: His 1907 study - the culmination of 12 years research - was published in the Romanian Academy Annals. The essay/book contains an array of old Romanian folklore regarding the constellations, and stars more generally, the Milky Way, the Earth, the sky, meteors, comets, the Sun, the Moon and eclipses, plus atmospheric phenomena comprising the wind, rain, lightning and thunder. Ion Ottescu was a Romanian mathematician. Life dates: 1859-1932. In 1997 preparation for an English-language translation was begun by Andrei Gheorghe and Alastair McBeath. The translation was completed in 2008 (kindly brought to my attention by David Ross) and published (= PDF files constructed in the format of a book) by the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM), and posted on their web site in 2009 as a series of PDF files.]
Reuter, Otto. (1934; Reprinted 1982). Germanische Himmelskunde: Untersuchung zur Geschichte des Geistes. [Note: Covers ancient Northern European astronomy including old Germanic constellations, festivals, Viking navigation, and Icelandic astronomy. Based on a research expedition during the mid-1920's. Still useful but should be used with caution. The contents are suspect for manipulation of facts to glorify the Germanic (Aryan) past. Otto Reuter, a staunch Ariosophist, was one of the founding fathers of Nazi archaeology. (The other founding father of Nazi archaeology was Hermann Wirth.) Otto Reuter was the leader of the Germanic Belief Fellowship (and also founder of several Aryan-Christian orders) and author of many books on astrology, prehistoric pagan religion, and the Edda. See the (German-language) book review by Robert Lehmann-Nitsche in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1935, Heft 4, Pages 199-200. For biographical details see Michael Behrend's 1982(7?) English translation of Reuter's 1936 paper on ancient Northern European astronomy "Die Himmel über den Germanen" as "Skylore of the North" (24 pages; reprinted 1999). The 1936 German-language paper was also reprinted in 2005. (The paper's forward on Reuter's life and work was written by his daughter Irmgard Teubert.) There is also an article on Reuter, written by his friend and fellow-researcher Rolf Mueller, in "Von Bremer Astronomen und Sternfreunden" (1958) edited by Walter Stein. Life dates: 1876-1945.]
Reuter, Otto. (1936, Reprinted 2005). Die Himmel über den Germanen. [Note: An English-language translation by Michael Behrend, titled Skylore of the North, was published in 1982(7?) and reprinted in 1999.]
Ridderstad, Marianna. (No Date (circa 2005?)). Evidence of Minoan Astronomy and Calendrical Practices. [Note: 42 pages, illustrated. The discussion of possible constellations is speculative, uses an unreliable source, and needs to be used with caution.]
Scherer, Anton. (1953). Gestirnnamen bei den indogermanischen Völken. [Note: Invaluable. See the (English-language) book review by Ernest Pulgram in Language, Volume 30, 1954, Pages 284-285; and the (German-language) book review by Ernst Zinner in Theologische Literaturzeitung, Volume 82, Number 9, September, 1957, Columns 674-675.]
Svenonius, Björn. (1937). Quelques Essais d'Identification de Constellations sur les Rochers Sculptés en Ostrogothie (Suède). [Note: The author, who was an astronomer, sets out a case for the identification of Swedish rock drawings of constellations circa 3000 BCE.]
Therkorn, Linda. (2004). Landscaping the Powers of Darkness & Light: 600 BC – 350 AD settlement concerns of Noord-Holland in wider perspective. [Note: PhD. thesis, University of Amsterdam. 351 pp. Linda Therkorn is an American?/Dutch? archaeologist at the University of Amsterdam. Her doctoral thesis includes her so-called pit-zodiac theory. Her pit-zodiac theory makes the claim for the possible early knowledge of the Classical zodiacal constellations (and others) being recognized in 'The Netherlands' circa 300 CE (and also perhaps circa 500 BCE!). She claims recognition of Taurus, Canis Major, Pegasus, and Hercules at Muggenburg circa 4th-century CE, and Taurus and Pegasus at Velserbroek circa 6th-century BCE. Therkorn's research foucus: "My focus of research is on landscape within a contextual archaeological approach. The wonderful conditions of preservation and the excellent build-up of stratigraphy in the province of Noord-Holland, with at some sites a 1 to 2.5 m deep layering with accompanying traces and materials including wood and bone, has lent possibilities for studying various facets of small scale farming society through all periods, from the late Neolithic, onwards. Most interesting, I find, is the long-term aspect afforded by these sites: whether in traces of housing and cosmology, as the traces left by religious practice and landscape use and definition through marking areas with various types of features. An important facet of interpretation derives from study of the common structuring principles and traditions shown by such diverse features as barrows and offering sites in conjunction with, and in comparison to, everyday spaces such as hearths, housing, acreage, pastureland, roads and pathways. Ethnohistory, anthropology, mythology, cultural astronomy and archaeology are the combined fields used in interpreting meanings and in defining transformations of traces etched in the ground up through the 19th century."]
Vaiškūnas, Jonas. (1999). "The Pleiades in Lithuanian Ethnoastronomy." (In: Lebeuf, Arnold. and Ziolkowski, M[?]. (Editors). Actes de la Vème Conférence Annuelle de la SEAC. Gdańsk 1997. Pages 225-237). [Note: Discusses the meaning of the Lithuanian name of the Pleiades and the mythological interpretation of the origin of the Pleiades. The author is with the Lithuanian Museum of Ethnocosmology.]
Vaiškūnas, Jonas. (2000). "Did there Exist the Baltic Zodiac?" In: Esteban, César. and Belmonte, Juan. (Editors). Oxford VI and SEAC 99 "Astronomy and Cultural Diversity." (Pages 319-326). [Note: This publication is the proceedings of the 6th "Oxford" international symposium on archaeoastronomy, jointly with the SEAC99 (European archaeoastronomy) meeting, held in La Laguna, Tenerife, in 1999. Copies of the book are exceedingly rare due to water damage to stock during a devastating Madrid flood. A PDF file has now (February, 2010) been kindly made available by Michael Rappenglück and is freely downloadable from the publications page of the SEAC web site.]
Wirth, Kai. (2000). Der Ursprung der Sternzeichen. [Note: A very small book. The geographer Kai Wirth has proposed an astronomical theory that the signs of the zodiac could have been maps which are representing currents and the bearing of coast lines of the whole Northern Atlantic as well as the Mediterranean. Wirth’s conjecture is influenced by the more radical speculations of Michael Rappenglück. Rappenglück holds that circum-Atlantic voyages were accomplished in the Paleolithic period – before the last Ice-Age. Wirth believes that representations of ships exist in European cave art of the Paleolithic period. Michael Rappenglück has wildly speculated about Ice-Age people finding their way by land and sea by the stars. He also proposes, on really no evidence at all, that there had been interactions between Paleolithic cultures in Europe (Cantabrian coast) and in North America, in Solutrean and Magdalenian time (circa 19,000-10,000 BCE). These extreme speculations have no credibility.]
Ziegler, Karl. (1921). Deutsche Sternnamen. [Note: Doctoral dissertation.]
Articles/Entries:
von Arnim, Bernd. (1942). "Slavische Sternsagen und Sternnamen, I. Die Vorstellung: Mādchen mit Eimer und (oder) Tragstange." (Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie, Band XVIII, Heft 1, Pages 86-103). [Note: Life dates: 1899-1946.]
Avilin, Tsimafei. (2006). "Belarusskaya narodnaya astranomiya." (Istoriko-Astronomicheskie Issledovaniya [Studies in the History of Astronomy], Vyp. 31 [Issues 31], Pages 314-322, & 340). [Note: The journal is published by the Rossijskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Istorii Estestvoznaniya i Tekhniki im. S. I. Vavilova. The paper deals with some folk Byelorussian [Belarussian] names of constellations and stars and also the Sun, Moon, Crescent, comets, meteors, Milky Way, etc. Kindly brought to my attention by Tsimafei Avilin. Tsimafei Avilin kindly brought 22 articles to my attention, most of which will be listed here as soon as suitable referencing can be made.]
Bagdasarov, R[?]. (2001). "Symbolics of the constellations of Sagittaurius and Centaurus in Russian traditional culture." (Astronomical & Astrophysical Transactions, Volume 20, Issue 6, Pages 975-996). [Note: Numerous illustrations.]
Banos, Geoorge. (2006). "A Taurus Map on a Minoan Vase?" (Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, Volume 6, Issue 3 (Special Issue), Pages 27-32). [Note: Suggests the image on a vase dated to circa 1700 BCE of an off-white bull with a pattern of red round dots scattered over its body is a map of the Taurus constellation. The author is at the University of Ioannina, Department of Physics Division of Astro-Geophysics, Ionnina, Greece.]
Baudouin, Marcel. (1913). "Découverte de la Commune mesure intercupulaire, réduite au 10e, sur la pierre à cupulettes et à rigoles minuscules de Saint-Aubin (Suisse)." (Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, Tome 10, Number 8, Pages 474-476).
Baudouin, Marcel. (1916). "La préhistoire des étoiles: Les Pléiades au néolithique." (Bulletin et mémoires de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, Series 6, Tome 7, Pages 25-103). [Note: Its reference as Series 6, Number 3, which is sometime made, is incorrect.]
Baudouin, Marcel. (1917). "Démonstration de l'existence, au Néolithique, de Pierre à Cupules représentent les Pléïades au naturel et de l'Urne des Pléïades de la Période greque." (Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, Tome 14, Number 5, Pages 237-244).
Baudouin, Marcel. (1921). "La Grande Ourse et le Phallus du Ciel. [Spongiaire phalliforme à gravures]." (Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, Tome 18, Number 11, Pages 301-308). [Note: Article in which Baudouin describes what he believes is a representation of stars in Ursa Major and Boötes incised on a fossilised and silicified sea-urchin (Echinus), on an amulet from stone-age northern Europe.]
Baudouin, Marcel. (1922). "Preuves matérielles que les Cupules représentent bien des Astres." (Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, Tome 19, Number 12, Pages 270-272).
Blomberg, Peter. (2006). "On the origins of the modern star map." (Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, Volume 6, Issue 3 (Special Issue), Pages 193-200). [Note: The author puts forward the hypothesis that the western map of the constellations has its roots on Crete during the Minoan period around 2000 BCE.]
Fikri Sertkaya, Osman. (1996). "Die Geschichte der im Zweiten Weltkrieg verlorengegangenen und zerstörten uigurischen Texte und das altuigurische Bruchstück mit Sternnamen." In: Emmerick, Ronald. et al. (Editors). Turfan, Khotan und Dunhuang. (Pages 279-289).
González García [González-García], A. César, and Belmonte, Juan Antonio. (2011). "Thinking Hattusha: Astronomy and Landscape in the Hittite Lands." (Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 42, Number ?, Pages 1-34). [Note: Some discussion of constellations and astral mythology.]
Haltsonen, Sulo. (1971). "Eine Untersuchung der uralischen Sternnamen [arvustus]." (Finnisch-ugrischen Forschungen, Volume XXXIX, Pages 122-126).
Hamp, Eric. (1974). "The Principal (?) Indo-European Constellations." In: Heilmann, Luigi. (Editor). Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress of Linguists. (2 Volumes, Pages 1049-1055). [Note: The paper is in Volume 2.]
Harley, John. and Woodward, David. (Editors). (1987). The History of Cartography, Volume 1. [Note: See the entry/section "Celestial Maps." Pages 81-85.]
Kale, Jadran. (1996). "Multiple Features in the Orion Constellation as Recognised in Croation Folklore." (Naroda umjetnost, Volume 33, Number 1, Pages 209-221). [Note: Narodna umjetnost - Hrvatski časopis za etnologiju i folkloristiku = Folks Art - Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research. The journal title is usually abbreviated to: Nar. umjet. It is a semiannual journal published by the Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku. Jadran Kale, at time of writing the article, was with the District Museum of Šibenik, Šibenik.]
Klepa, Lilian. (1985). "Gods and the Sky in Ancient Scandanavia." (Griffith Observer, Volume 49, Number 6, June, Pages 2-11).
Kolev, Nickolay. (2002). "Heavenly Bodies and Bulgarian Folk Meteorology." (Proceeding of the Historical Museum - Kustendil [Kyustendil], Volume VI, Pages ?-?). [Note: Likely in Bulgarian with a summary in English. Kyustendil is a town in the very west of Bulgaria.]
Koleva, Veselina. and Kolev, Dimitar. (1998). "The Orion Constellation in Folk Tradition." (Ethnologica Bulgarica [Bulgarian Ethnology], Numbers 1-2, Pages 68-78). [Note: A comparative ethno-astronomical analysis of the Orion constellation in Bulgarian traditional culture. The conclusion confirms the influence of farming practice on the traditional astronomical knowledge and conceptions associated with the Orion constellation i.e., the visibility of the Orion constellation in certain seasons. The publication Ethnologica Bulgarica is the "Yearbook of Bulgarian Ethnology and Folklore."]
Kowatscheff, J[?]. (1931). "Bulgarischer Volksglaube aus dem Gebiet der Himmelskunde." (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Volume LXIII, Pages 322-346). [Note: Journal of Anthropology.]
Kubarev, Vladmir. (2006). "Myths and Rituals Impressed in Petroglyphs of the Altai." (Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, Volume 3, Number 27, September 1, Pages 41-54). [Note: Some possible constellation representations are discussed. The author is Senior Researcher with the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. He turned 60 years of age in the year he published the article.]
Maltwood, Katharine. (1943). "The Discovery of a Prehistoric Zodiac in England." (The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Volume XXXVII, September, Pages 269-276). [Note: Unconvincing. The English artist and sculptress Katherine Maltwood (1878-1961) was interested in the occult and theosophy as well as ancient history and mythology. In 1936 (the date also appears as 1938) she and her husband left England and settled in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1940 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. For her biography see the 64-page monograph: Katharine Emma Maltwood, Artist, 1878-1961, by Rosemary Brown (1981). According to Alison Sinclair in her essay The Glastonbury Zodiac of Katherine Maltwood (2008): "With regard to Maltwood's Zodiac, the archaeological community has not been enthusiastic. Ian Burrow (1975), Somerset’s Planning Department staff archeologist, stated that while the outlines of the effigies may be plotted today, their antiquity is illusory. The particulars of terrain and land use have come into the current form only in the last several centuries through modern waterways and drainage engineering and other landscape alterations. Since the Somerset landscape morphology is relatively contemporary, it is erroneous to claim ancient Celtic or Chaldean origination. Also along these lines, Liz Bellamy and Tom Williamson, ley line debunkers, (1983) criticized the Zodiac hunters for their makeshift approach to plotting zodiacal figures. Zodiacs, they contended, were constructed by picking and choosing figures in order to complete a pattern, which was not preexisting." According to Richard Leviton in his essay Zodiacal Circles of Light: Landscape Zodiac Temples in Britain (1985, Revised 1992): "One of the chief objections zodiac critics put forward is their sheer size. Often a landscape effigy measures 3-5 miles long and is visible, technically, only at elevations exceeding 5000 feet; you can’t see them at ground level. Did the ancient Druid priests fly around Somerset observing their magnificent temple? Most unlikely, say the Zodiacphobes. Then there’s the problem that the effigies don’t always correspond to the standard shapes of the zodiacal images; there is in fact often a great deal of poetic license—distortion, say the critics—in how they are terrestrially rendered. In the Somerset zodiac, for instance, Aquarius the Water-Carrier is portrayed instead as a phoenix; Cancer isn’t a crab but a ship; Libra is a dove and not the balance scales. Sloppy zodiacs don’t impress the doubters. The landscape zodiac has at best only a subjective reality, say the more gracious critics. Glastonbury Arthurian expert Geoffrey Ashe notes in his Avalonian Quest : "They are supposed to be obvious in aerial photographs. I have studied these photographs. I know what I am meant to see; I honestly try to see; and I simply do not. I cannot believe that the Zodiac is ‘there,’ as, say, Stonehenge is there. The phenomenon is akin to the Rorschach ink blot test, or to seeing pictures in the fire. It is a fact and must be admitted. The Glastonbury Zodiac is a magic circle, a stylized mandela which the Unconscious of some—but only some - takes hold of and projects on the landscape. As a result the landscape for them is charged with occult energies." Further, comments Ian Burrow, Somerset’s Planning Department staff archeologist, while the outlines of the effigies may be plotted today their antiquity is illusory. The particulars of terrain and land use today have come into this form only in the last several centuries through modern waterway and drainage engineering and other landscape alterations. Since the Somerset landscape morphology is thus relatively contemporary, it’s fanciful but erroneous to claim medieval, Celtic, or Chaldean-Atlantean origination. Ley line debunkers Liz Bellamy and Tom Williamson have points to make against zodiacs, too, in their Ley Lines in Question. They criticize the zodiac hunters for their morphological flexibility, for their easy, lax standards and somewhat makeshift approach to plotting zodiacal figures. Zodiacs, Bellamy and Williamson contend, seem to be constructed "by a process of picking and choosing figures in order to complete a pattern, rather than there being anything intrinsically significant about those which are chosen." Folklore and place-names are relied on extensively for confirmation - "manipulated," say the authors - but the methodology is dubious. "Zodiac hunters are prepared to interpret English place-names in terms of every language known to man. Folklore is contorted in a similar way. It is particularly damning when zodiac hunters reveal how easily alternative shapes can be found in the same landscape by continually altering and revising one another’s creations.""]
Maticetov, Milko. (1972). "Slovenska ljudska imena zvezd in predstave o njih." (Anzeiger für Slavische Philologie, Band 6, Pages 60-103). [Note: The article title in English is: "Slovenian folk-names of the stars and their perception." The author is a Slovene folklorist and ethnologist.]
Maticetov, Milko. (1974). "Zvezdna imena in izrocila o zvezdah med slovenci." (Zbornik za zgodovino naravoslovja in tehnike, Volume 2, Pages 43-90). [Note: The article title translates as: "Names of stars and connected beliefs among Slovenes." The journal name translates as: History reviews - science and technology. Seems to be identical with his earlier 1972 article.]
Mozel, Philip. (2003). "The Sky Disk of Nebra." (The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Volume 97, October, Pages 245-?).
Németh, J[ulius?]. (1968). "Über alttürkische Sternnamen." (Acta Linguistica Hungarica, Volume 18, Numbers 1-2, Pages 1-6).
Prüller, Paul-Egon. (1968). "Eesti rahvaastronoomia (Teaduse ajaloo lehekülgi Eestist. 1. Kogumik., Pages 9-70). [Note: The article title in English is: "Estonian Folk Astronomy." The article is one of several in which the author summarises earlier studies of Estonian folk astronomy. The journal is published by Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus (Estonian Academy Publishers) in Tallinn.]
Pásztor, Emília. (2011). "Prehistoric Astronomers? Ancient Knowledge Created By Modern Myth." (Journal of Cosmology, Volume 14). [Note: Electronic journal posted at JournalofCosmology.com. The article comprises an uneven discussion of issues. The author, a Hungarian academic, is indebted to secondary sources - not all of which appear to be mentioned.]
Roux, Jean-Paul. (1979). "Les astres chez les Turcs et les Mongols." (Revue de l'histoire des religions, Tome 195, Number 2, Pages 153-192). [Note: An excellent collection of information.]
Ryan, William. (1974). "Curious star names in Slavonic literature." (Russian Linguistics, Volume 1, Number 2, November, Pages 137-150). [Note: Kindly brought to my attention by David Ross.]
Schlosser, Wolfram. (2005). "Die Himmelsscheibe von Nebra - Astronomische Untersuchungen." (Mitteilungen der Mathematischen Gesellschaft in Hamburg, Band XXIV, Pages 5-37). [Note: Comprehensive discussion.]
Schütte, Gudmund. (1920). "Primæval Astronomy in Scandinavia." [Note: Reprinted from The Scottish Geographical Magazine, Volume XXXVI, October, 1920, Page 244-254. Discusses possible evidence for early constellations in Scandinavia. The author was a Danish philologist and historian specialising in Danish prehistory. Life dates: 1872-1958.]
Siimets, Ülo. (2006). "The Sun, the Moon and Firmament in Chukchi Mythology and on the Relations of Celestial Bodies and Sacrifice." (Folklore [= Electronic Journal of Folklore], Volume 32, Pages 129-156). [Note: Contains a detailed discussion of Chukchi constellations and astral mythology. The Chukchi are an indigenous people inhabiting the (Russian) Chukchi Peninsula.]
Šmitek, Zmago. (2001). "Astral Symbolism on the Pre-Romanesque Relief in Keutschach (Hodiše)." In: Studia Mythologica Slavica IV. (Pages 119-140). [Note: Abstract: "The author attempts to prove that the pre-Romanesque relief on the facade of the parish church of St George in Keutschach (Hodiše) in Austrian Carinthia is a depiction of the Orion constellation. He justifies his theory with historical and art-historical facts. The main emphasis is laid on the fact that traces of late Classical astral mythologisation and deification are also recognisable in the Slovenian folk tradition." The aim of scientific journal Studia mythologica Slavica is to throw light on Slavic mythology from different aspects, to add to it's reconstruction, and to present the mythopoetic and religious traditions of Slavic nations. The journal publishes detailed analyses of Slavic epic and narrative traditions, and comparative studies on the mythology and religious notions of older Slavic, Eurasian as well as other civilisations. The character of the publication is both international and interdisciplinary, covering the themes from the field of ethnology, philology, history, archaeology, religious studies, history of literature and philosophy.]
Vaiškūnas, Jonas. (2007?). "Some peripheral forms of Mediterranean and oriental zodiac traditions in heathen Lithuania." (Archaeologica Baltica, Volume 10, Pages ?-?). [Note: Abstract: I have previously presented some evidence concerning the possibility of a Baltic zodiac, documented by archaeological artifacts and supported by historical sources (Vaiškūnas 2000). It seems clear that such knowledge was imported into the Baltic region from Classical and Medieval cultures to the south. If the Baltic zodiac was a simple copy of the Mediterranean one, it would be of minor interest for the iconography of Baltic constellations, but in the Baltic versions we observe very important differences from the Classical model. In this paper I analyse the relevant traditions in more detail and discuss these differences in the hope that it can offer us valuable information about sky mythology in northern traditions.]).
Watkins, Calvert. (1974). "I-E 'Star'." (Sprache, Volume 20, Pages 10-14). [Note: Needs to be used with care.]
Wirth, Kai. (2002). "The Emergence of the Constellation Signs." (Migration and Diffusion, Volume 3, Issue 12, Pages 11-33). [Note: Effectively an English-language translation of his small book. The geographer Kai Wirth has proposed an astronomical theory that the signs of the zodiac could have been maps which are representing currents and the bearing of coast lines of the whole Northern Atlantic as well as the Mediterranean. Wirth’s conjecture is influenced by the more radical speculations of Michael Rappenglück. Rappenglück holds that circum-Atlantic voyages were accomplished in the Paleolithic period – before the last Ice-Age. Wirth believes that representations of ships exist in European cave art of the Paleolithic period. Michael Rappenglück has wildly speculated about Ice-Age people finding their way by land and sea by the stars. He also proposes, on really no evidence at all, that there had been interactions between Paleolithic cultures in Europe (Cantabrian coast) and in North America, in Solutrean and Magdalenian time (circa 19,000-10,000 BCE). These extreme speculations have no credibility.]
Zsigmond, Gyözö. (2003). "Popular Cosmogony and Beliefs about Celestial Bodies in the Culture of the Hungarians from Roma." (Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, Volume 48, Numbers 3-4, August, Pages 421-439). [Note: Abstract: The paper is an analysis and synthesis of the beliefs and knowledge of the Hungarians from Romania concerning the genesis of the world and the celestial bodies (sky, Earth, Sun, Moon, stars, rainbow); furnishing new details about the whole popular cosmogony of the Hungarians living in the Eastern part of the Carpathian basin. The author tries to present a comprehensive aspect of this domain based on fieldwork and the literature. He also refers to most recent beliefs such as ideas connected to landing on the Moon. Keywords: Popular cosmogony, beliefs on sky, Earth, Sun, Moon, stars, rainbow. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica is published by Akadémiai Kiadó. Gyözö Zsigmond is Chair of Hungarology, University of Bucharest, Romania.]
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