LINGUIST List 6.1419

Fri Oct 13 1995

Sum: Mesopotamian star/constellation names

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Richard S Cook, Mesopotamian Star/Constellation Names

Anyone with information on specific etymological studies of Mesopotamian
star/constellation names, or with titles of comparative studies of Greek
and Mesopotamian star/constellation names is still invited to respond to
this query.

I have assembled quite a long bibliography of things tangentially related
to Mesopotamian constellation names, and anyone interested may request it
from me.

Titles specifically related to my query with regard to Mesopotamian
star/constellation name etymologies were not forthcoming, directly. But
working between several sources I have been able to work up the
beginnings of an analysis myself.


As far as I have been able to ascertain, for Mesopotamian star and
constellation NAMES there are two principal sources:

***Hermann Hunger and David Pingree. MUL.APIN : an astronomical
compendium in cuneiform / by Hermann Hunger and David Pingree. PUB. INFO:
Horn, Austria : F. Berger, 1989. DESCRIPTION: 164 p., xxviii p. of plates
: ill. ; 30 cm. SERIES: Archiv fur Orientforschung. Beiheft

***Erica Reiner, in collaboration with David Pingree. Babylonian
planetary omens PUB. INFO: Malibu, Calif. : Undena Publications, 1975-
DESCRIPTION: v. : ill. ; 28 cm. SERIES: Bibliotheca Mesopotamica ; v.
2, fasc. 1-2. SUBJECTS: *S1 Akkadian language--Texts. *S2 Astronomy,
Assyro-Babylonian. *S3 Omens.

For ETYMOLOGIES of these names one must consult the various Sumerian
dictionaries, some of which are more accessible than others:

The most accessible of these is in French, and is now in its seventh
edition, available from the publisher for about $75 in the US. This
volume is a very adequate formal treatment of the Sumero-Akkadian signs
for beginners, and also contains an appendix of star/constellation names,
some of which lie outside the scope of the above cited sources:

***Labat, Ren, Manuel d' Epigraphie Akkadienne(Signs,
Syllabaire,Idogrammes) Sixieme Edition Augmentee d'Addenda par Florence
Malbran-Labat, Libraire Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, S.A., Paris 1988.

For more in-depth research one must consult the larger works, hopefully
in your research library. One of these, a three-volume set, is in print
and available from Eisenbrauns (for example) for $700. There are of
course other titles, longer and ongoing efforts, to which a specialist
will be better qualified to direct you.

***Soden, Wolfram von, 1908- TITLE: Akkadisches Handworterbuch : unter
Benutzung des lexikalischen Nachlasses von Bruno Meissner (1868-1947) /
bearbeitet von Wolfram von Soden. EDITION: 2., um Hinweise auf die
Nachtrage verm. Aufl. PUB. INFO: Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1985.
DESCRIPTION: 3 v. (xvi, 1592 p.) 30 cm.
SUBJECTS: *S1 Akkadian language--Dictionaries--German.