Astral sciences in Mesopotamia / by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 278-292) and index.

Preliminaries -- Omens -- Second Millennium B.C. -- Old Babylonian -- Areas outside Babylonia -- Middle-Babylonian and Middle-Assyrian -- First Half of the First Millennium B.C. -- Enuma Anu Enlil -- Non-canonical -- Commentaries and explanatory texts -- Diviner's Manual -- Letters and Reports -- Second Half of the First Millennium B.C. -- Proto-horoscopes -- Hypsomata -- Innovations -- Genethlialogy -- Egyptian borrowings -- Indian borrowings -- Astronomy -- The Early Period -- Astronomy in Enuma Anu Enlil -- The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa -- Planetary theory in Enuma Anu Enlil -- Lunar and solar theory -- Tablet 14 and related texts -- "Astrolabes" or "Three Stars Each" Texts -- MUL. APIN -- Stars -- Planets -- Intercalation Schemes -- Shadow Table and Water Clock -- I. NAM. GIS. HUR. AN. KI. A -- Ziqpu star texts -- The GU Text -- The DAL. BA. AN. NA Text -- Time-keeping texts -- First millennium: Observations and Predictions -- Sargonid Period -- Observations and Predictions in Letters and Reports -- Other Contemporary Observations -- The Diaries -- Planets -- The Moon -- The Normal Stars -- The Sun -- Eclipses -- Excerpts from the Diaries -- Ptolemy's Use of the Diaries -- Normal Star Almanacs -- Almanacs -- Goal-Year texts -- Planets -- Eclipses -- Theoretical Texts -- Early Theoretical Texts, Solar and Lunar -- The "Saros" Cycle -- The Nineteen-year Cycle -- Solstices, Equinoxes, and Phases of Sirius -- Early Theoretical Texts, Planetary -- Period Relations -- Planetary Latitudes -- Subdivisions of Synodic Arcs.

"Astronomy and astrology, or the astral sciences, played an enormous, if not key role in the political and religious life of the Ancient Near East, and, later, of the Greek and Roman world. This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the origins of the astral sciences in the Ancient Near East." "Every type of Sumerian or Akkadian text dealing with descriptive or mathematical astronomy, including many individual tablets are thoroughly dealt with. All aspects, such as the history of discovery, reconstruction, and interpretation come to the fore, accompanied by a full bibliography."--Jacket.