The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East, pp. 539-578, 2023/04/12
Proceedings of the 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale and the 12th Melammu Symposium, University of Innsbruck, July 16‒20, 2018
This contribution is dedicated to the astronomical meaning of the so called “star catalogue” of the early astronomical compendium of MUL.APIN. After a careful re-reading of the text, the authors suggest an interpretation not as a “catalogue” but as an explanatory list. In some cases, this has led to new interpretations concerning the identification of certain celestial objects and the meaning of certain terms and divine names. Consequently, we propose that the deities associated with asterisms can be used to group the astronomical entities and thus help to unveil the frame of reference used in MUL.APIN, which is subdivided on a finer scale than previously realized. In the appendix, we present a tabular layout of the text of MUL.APIN and its translation.
