same significance that it has for us.

The Assyrian month commenced on the evening when the new moon was
first observed, or, in case the moon was not visible, the new
month started thirty days after the last month. Since the actual
lunar period is about twenty-nine and one-half days, a practical
adjustment was required between the months themselves, and this
was probably effected by counting alternate months as Only 29
days in length. Mr. R. Campbell Thompson[10] is led by his
studies of the astrological tablets to emphasize this fact. He
believes that "the object of the astrological reports which
related to the appearance of the moon and sun was to help
determine and foretell the length of the lunar month." Mr.
Thompson believes also that there is evidence to show that the
interculary month was added at a period less than six years. In
point of fact, it does not appear to be quite clearly established
as to precisely how the adjustment of days with the lunar months,
and lunar months with the solar year, was effected. It is clear,
however, according to Smith, "that the first 28 days of every
month were divided into four weeks of seven days each; the
seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty-eighth days
respectively being Sabbaths, and that there was a general
prohibition of work on these days." Here, of course, is the
foundation of the Hebrew system of Sabbatical days which we have
inherited. The sacredness of the number seven itself--the belief
in which has not been quite shaken off even to this day --was
deduced by the Assyrian astronomer from his observation of the
seven planetary bodies--namely, Sin (the moon), Samas (the sun),
Umunpawddu (Jupiter), Dilbat (Venus), Kaimanu (Saturn), Gudud
(Mercury), Mustabarru-mutanu (Mars).[11] Twelve lunar periods,
making up approximately the solar year, gave peculiar importance
to the number twelve also. Thus the zodiac was divided into
twelve signs which astronomers of all subsequent times have
continued to recognize; and the duodecimal system of counting
took precedence with the Babylonian mathematicians over the more
primitive and, as it seems to us, more satisfactory decimal
system.

Another discrepancy between the Babylonian and Egyptian years
appears in the fact that the Babylonian new year dates from about
the period of the vernal equinox and not from the solstice.
Lockyer associates this with the fact that the periodical
inundation of the Tigris and Euphrates occurs about the
equinoctial period, whereas, as we have seen, the Nile flood
comes at the time of the solstice. It is but natural that so
important a phenomenon as the Nile flood should make a strong
impression upon the minds of a people living in a valley. The
fact that occasional excessive inundations have led to most
disastrous results is evidenced in the incorporation of stories
of the almost total destruction of mankind by such floods among
the myth tales of all peoples who reside in valley countries. The
flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates had not, it is true, quite
the same significance for the Mesopotamians that the Nile flood
had for the Egyptians. Nevertheless it was a most important
phenomenon, and may very readily be imagined to have been the
most tangible index to the seasons. But in recognizing the time
of the inundations and the vernal equinox, the Assyrians did not
dethrone the moon from its accustomed precedence, for the year
was reckoned as commencing not precisely at the vernal equinox,
but at the new moon next before the equinox.


ASTROLOGY

Beyond marking the seasons, the chief interests that actuated the
Babylonian astronomer in his observations were astrological.
After quoting Diodorus to the effect that the Babylonian priests
observed the position of certain stars in order to cast
horoscopes, Thompson tells us that from a very early day the very
name Chaldean became synonymous with magician. He adds that "from
Mesopotamia, by way of Greece and Rome, a certain amount of
Babylonian astrology made its way among the nations of the west,
and it is quite probable that many superstitions which we
commonly record as the peculiar product of western civilization
took their origin from those of the early dwellers on the
alluvial lands of Mesopotamia. One Assurbanipal, king of Assyria
B.C. 668-626, added to the royal library at Nineveh his
contribution of tablets, which included many series of documents
which related exclusively to the astrology of the ancient
Babylonians, who in turn had borrowed it with modifications from
the Sumerian invaders of the country. Among these must be
mentioned the series which was commonly called 'the Day of Bel,'
and which was decreed by the learned to have been written in the
time of the great Sargon I., king of Agade, 3800 B.C. With such
ancient works as these to guide them, the profession of deducing
omens from daily events reached such a pitch of importance in the
last Assyrian Empire that a system of making periodical reports
came into being. By these the king was informed of all the
occurrences in the heavens and on earth, and the results of
astrological studies in respect to after events. The heads of the
astrological profession were men of high rank and position, and
their office was hereditary. The variety of information contained
in these reports is best gathered from the fact that they were
sent from cities as far removed from each other as Assur in the
north and Erech in the south, and it can only be assumed that
they were despatched by runners, or men mounted on swift horses.
As reports also came from Dilbat, Kutba, Nippur, and Bursippa,
all cities of ancient foundation, the king was probably well
acquainted with the general course of events in his empire."[12]



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