The Stars of Bablyon : The MUL.APIN Cuneiform Tablets and the Epic of Gilgamesh - LexiLine Journal 483

The MUL.APIN series of astronomical tablets - now found in the British Museum - describe a UNIQUE heaven which occurred at ca. 2340 BC, plus or minus 20 years. See Werner Papke, Die Sterne von Babylon, "The Stars of Babylon". See Tablet 1 - The path of EnLil - of MUL.APIN.

At that time, MUL.MUL (eta-Tauri,the Pleiades) and GIR.TAB (beta-Scorpii) were visible at the East and West points of the horizon and also defined the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes. The equator, ecliptic and horizon cut the Equinoxes exactly, with alpha-Leonis and iota-Aquarii at the Solstices. It was a "heavenly fit" for ancient astronomers.

More than that, delta-Ursae maioris was not only at the lower culmination on the meridian in the northern sky (2360 BC) but also exactly on a line connecting the celestial north pole with the Solstices - an "absolute" position irrespective of the position of the observer on earth.

THE CARDINAL DIRECTIONS OF HEAVEN WERE FIXED
Hebrew QEVI'A = KHUFU, CHEOPS (Hebrew Qevi'a means "calendric fixing") [= Kochab ?]

Using a gnomon as described in the Old Indic Katyayana-Sulbasutra the ecliptic could be "fixed" in ca. 2340 BC point for point relative to the fixed stars and cardinal directions.

This was the beginning of formal astronomy.

1. The Path of EnLil
is the "upper" heavenly path of the rotating stars, north of +16.69 degrees declination

2. The Path of Anu
is the middle "normal" heavenly path along the ecliptic, which is the path of the Sun

3. The Path of Ea
is the "lower" path. Papke calls it the path of the water, the path of stars below the ecliptic

Linguistically, in terms of Indo-European

EnLil = Latvian JANU LIELais "upper elevated, great path of Anu"

Anu = Latvian JANU or JUMU "(of the) Heaven, Ceiling", viz. JANIS, the path of Anu

Ea (E.AN.NA) = Latvian JANU LEJINA "lower path of Anu"

Subsequent postings show these paths and the stars in them.