%u3ac't %Seuitic ert f 'aunlation Voeries.

x X N TIO 0U ) C ) N.
thle a:i.i,'eara' . of fce thie MToon and Sun was to help to
determini e and foretell the lengthL of the lunar month.
If this be so, the yaear in common use throughout
Assyria must have been lunar. The calendar assigns
to each month thirty full days; the Junfar month is,
however, little more than twenty-nine and a half days;
therefore some of the calendar months must consist of
twenty-nine days only. In proof of this statement, I
submit the following facts. On No. 171 (see p. lxii),
which is a report from Balasi, we read, "When the
Moon does not wait for the Sun" such and such things
will happen. The prediction is followed by the words,
which are clearly those of the astrologer, " It appeared
on the fifteenth with the Sun." "When the Moon is
not seen with the Sun on the fourteenth day of Adar"
such and such things will happen. The prediction is
followed by the words, which are again clearly those
of the astrologer, "The day will complete Nisan."
Since the Moon appeared without the Sun on the
fourteenth, and with the sun on the 'fifteenth, the
Moon and the Sun will not be in conjunction before
the afternoon of the twenty-ninth day; in this case
the Moon would not be visible 2 until the first day of
the next month. It must be noted that wheh the
2 Cf on the period of the Moon's invisibility Cuneiform ]zscriptions
of TVeslern Asia, Vol. III, . 51, . 9, " The Moon waned on
the twenty-seventh day: we watched for an eclipse of the Sun on.
the twenty-eight, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth days; the Moon
appeared on the first day [of the next month]." In No. 240
(see p. lxxvi) it is also stated that the period of the Moon's invisibility
may be three days. See also Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 30.
INTRODUCTION. xxi
A astrologer uses the words "this night," he does not
refer to the day on which he is writing, but to the eve
of the day, i.e., last night. The words " The day will
j complete Nisan" refer to the thirtieth day of the
month, and we know from other texts that they
indicate that the month will contain thirty full days. 1
A further proof of this is that the omen concerning
the appearance of the Moon on the first day is often
accompanied by that for "the day in its proper
length," i.e., the ordinary full length day in the
calendar month. Not infrequently a note is added to
the effect that the day completes the month. Here
we must notice in passing the use of the words mrnt
i zitarra, i.e., "the day turns back." The astrologer
uses these words in cases where the Moon has been
seen with the Sun on the fourteenth day, to indicate
that the Moon will appear on the thirtieth day of the
month, and therefore there will be only twenty-nine
days in the next month (see No. 53, obv. 2, p. xliii).
In certain cases where the phrase 2mu t zarr occurs,
e.g., Nos. 62 and 70, the omens on the tablets relate
to the moon on the thirtieth day.
j. AAn examination of No. 171 shows that this tablei
was written at the end of the year in the month Adar,
and that the calendar month corresponded with the
lunar month, and further, since Nisan (which began
the year) is the only other month mentioned, it is
jf 1 Cf the passages:--No. 36, obv. 3 minat arni . . z.muXXX k"'
i
J
al[lam], No. 42, obv. 4, sa ina a"' 2a Tarii u2mzu uiallamma,
No. 52, obv. I, i' l Sin ina ar h NAisanni imu ugaHiam.