ZENITH OF THE BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMERS

THE Encyclopedia Britannica (article, Babylonia) says " Babylonia astronomy goes back to the time when the Accadai (Agadi) had not yet descended from their mountain fastnesses. The zenith was fixed above Elam and not above Babylon and 'The Mountain of the East', the primitive home of the race, was supposed to support the firmament.

The more exact location of this zenith is a matter of considerable importance. In an article " The Key to the Book of the Dead" it was shown that the Book of the Dead was originally written in the language which Clay calls " Amuraic... the early Semitic language... which in time developed into what has been preserved for us and which we call Phoenician, Aramaic, Biblical Hebrew, etc." and that, while the main body of the text has been correctly translated, place names have been translated which should have been left as they stood, and personal names have been mis-translated as made up of roots of a different language from that in which they were written. The situation is somewhat as if an English translation of Caesar were found in 4000 A.D. and Caesar and Rome believed to be mythical and Caesar translated as " He who takes things by violence" (Seizer) and Rome as " The Wide City" (Roomy). For example, Osiris Urt-ab, which in Amuraic means " Osiris, son of the Sun" (see chapter 43) is translated as " Osiris Still-Heart". Where the syllables are reversed, as is frequently the case in Amuraic (see Jastrow, Bab. & Assyr. p. 222 and Clay, Orig. Bib. Trad. p. 167), the appellation Ab-ur is left untranslated (see chapter 42). Iris and Nephthys, the goddesses of morning and evening, are called the " Ur-Urti" goddesses; the term is translated but it is pure Amuraic for " Light and Darkness". Qemurte is translated as " City of the Inundation", but should not be translated, as it is Kemurtu, and so on.

When the original language is thus taken into account, it is found that the hidden land of Amen where the sun rose out of the water (the Caspian, where the god Kha-Ra, the Greek Charon, transported the dead), passed over the mountain of morning, Bakhau (now Mt. Bakhar near Baku) along the mountain range of the horizon, with its gap (the Caucasus range and pass of Dariel) and set over the mountain of Temu, Ta-Manu (now the peninsula of Tamen, the temenos of the sun-god) into the Pool of Maatis (Lake Maeotis of the Greeks, now the Sea of Azov), was the Caucasus isthmus, the land of Aia of the Greeks. And that the directions of the Book of the Dead were very precise directions for reaching the valley of the Cyrus (now the Kur). Since the old name for Egypt was Aetia and the old name for the Nile was Siris (Rawlinson, note to Herodotus 2.15) and the Egyptians and Colchians were of the same race (Herodotus 2.104 and 3.12), this was probably (there are many reasons for holding this) the old home land of the Egyptians.

The route given is very precise (there are two, but I refer to the main one) and leads through the Mediterranean, up the west shore of the Black Sea, across the isthmus of the Crimea and the district of Rostow, through the lake and river system and then down the west shore of the Caspian and up the river Pir-ata or Ata-ar to Sebakhu and Kemartu and Lake Kau and the Mountain Bakhar. Thence south into the Kur-Alizon valley and Sakataly. In following the route only the old place names must be used. These are best found on the British Staff Map of 1885, for a copy of which I am much indebted to the War Office, as this was made before the country had been settled from Russia. Also the Stieler's Hand Atlas of 1902, sheets 48 and 49 and the Times Atlas of 1897 will be found very useful. The best map of all would probably be the Russian Staff Map of 1847, made long before the country was invaded by Russia, but so far no copy has been available. Strabo and Ptolemy will also be found of much use; Strabo, for example, gives the city Beta; and Ptolemy the location of Alexander's pillars, now Scandrjukjowsk on the Caspian. Kerkulijukjowsk is now about forty miles inland, west of the mouth of the Alontas of the classical atlas, now Ta-lowka. Shari-Shariket and Shari-Sapu (now ShariSharidon and Shari-Suppu) are shown on the International map, North, L. 38.

The reason why the knowledge of the zenith is important is this. In the neighborhood of Mt. Bakhar (see Staff Map, sheet I, 8) we find well-known Babylonian place names, i.e. Shemacha and Marazi, the mountain and gap of the sun; Eshagil, Erech, Shirappik, Azar-Akanna, Kassim-kend, Agadi-kend, Kissu, Kurkur and Konack-kent, which, since it is on the Apsu or end of the Caucasus range, I take to be possibly Apsu-anaki (and possibly Enoch or Kanach). This gives us a meeting point of the Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations. The Gilgamesh story relates to the same district and I have shown elsewhere that the rivers Kacheten (Cocytus), and Uroch (Pyriphlegethon), which flow into the Ast-ach-su (Styx) are near by and that the route of Ulysses was up the Kuban. The writer's work along this line has met with 'much earlier recognition and acceptance than might have been anticipated, and it is now proposed to send out a preliminary expedition. Obviously it is advisable to fix definitely; if possible, the places to excavate.

Now, east of Mt. Bakhar are two peculiar islands, now known as the " Two Brothers", between which, one one day of the year, the sun may be seen to rise from Mt. Bakhar. West of Mt. Bakhar are some curious rocks which possibly may be a primitive Stonehenge. There are reasons for believing that Bakhar may have been the site of the primitive observatory of the Babylonians, which fixed their zenith.

June 11, 1924.

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