Reconstruction of ancient constellations in the planetarium dome

Susanne M Hoffmann

Outline

Reconstruction of ancient constellations in the planetarium dome

Susanne M Hoffmann

2021, The Planetarian

Abstract

Our public audiences often visit a planetarium in order to learn, but may be entering with a huge set of misconceptions in mind. For instance, the zodiac does not have only 12 constellations but more; the ecliptic is divided in 12 equal parts (signs), but the constellations in the background are not only the eponymous twelve. Ophiuchus has always covered a larger part of the ecliptic than Scorpius and was already a Babylonian constellations named "God Zababa". For unknown reasons it was decided to not include his name into the zodiac. In addition, taking into account the inclination of the orbit of the Moon, the constellations Cetus, Auriga, Sextant, and Orion contain stars that can be occulted. Among them, Sextant is the only modern constellation-all the others are ancient. By displaying their development and telling their true history of transfer and transformation, we can serve the interest of the public in "stories", cultures, and beautiful pictures while simultaneously explaining why we are not the place for beliefs and astrology. Adding the local uranographies-e.g. the ancient Chinese constellations in China, the Maori constellations in New Zealand, the Navajo, Dakota/Lakota/Nakota in North America and Maya in the south … will also help people to understand constellations as a (cultural) frame of reference.

FAQs

What explains the discrepancies between Greek and Mesopotamian constellations?add

The study illustrates that while some Greek constellations derive from Babylonian origins, others evolved independently, revealing significant transformations, such as the Great Swallow becoming the Swallow-Fish. Eratosthenes' text highlights the inconsistencies in these identifications, demonstrating a lack of a standard imagery during his time.

How does the methodology address biases in historical constellation reconstruction?add

The paper employs a data-driven approach to avoid interpretational biases, relying exclusively on singular historical sources for accurate reconstruction. This method facilitates an independent analysis of constellations, allowing for clearer comparisons across different sky cultures.

What are the key features of the reconstructed Babylonian zodiac?add

The reconstructed Babylonian zodiac, arising in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, features twelve distinct segments corresponding to imaginary constellations, including the essential Astronomical Diary function of measuring time. This zodiac is pivotal for understanding later Greek adaptations seen in mathematical astronomy.

When did the transformation from Babylonian to Greek constellations occur?add

The transformation began in the Hellenistic period, especially influenced by Alexander the Great's empire, which facilitated cultural exchanges beginning in the 4th century BCE. Notably, figures like Pabilsag were reinterpreted into a centaur-like pattern by Greek astronomers, highlighting these cultural adaptations.

What role do modern planetarium technologies play in historical constellation education?add

Modern planetarium technologies enable the visual projection of reconstructed constellations, facilitating a clear understanding of their historical evolution over time. By displaying these transformations visually, audiences grasp the connections and shifts between Babylonian and Greek representations, enhancing educational experiences.

Figures (8)

The popular belief that Greek constellations originate in Mesopotamia is true for the constellations of the zodiac. Likely, the Babylonian zodiac came to Greece especially because of its relevance for measuring time with the sundial, i.e. for reasons of mathematical astronomy (cf. Hoffmann 201 7a: chap. 5 and references therein). The importance of the zodiac as a circle divided in 12 times 30 parts (the ‘ideal months’ that are used until today, e.g. for financial computations) provided the names of the twelve parts according to the constellation behind them but the Babylonian names did not fit the Greek culture and religion. Therefore, several pictures have been re-interpreted by Greek mathematical astronomy (Tab.1). Some transformations have been described in Hoffmann (2017b).

Figure 2 Summer Triangle: left up: Greek, left down: MUL.APIN, right up: Zeiss, right down: Leiden Aratea.

Figure 4 Autumn Constellations: left below: MUL.APIN, left up: Farnese, right below: Leiden, right up: Zeiss. The Babylonian "Old Man" (the grandfather of the gods) turned into a young man (Perseus), the Babylonian Ishtar (Anunitu) changed to Andromeda and the Great God Ea/ Enki got a new name: the “Water Pourer”. Whether or not the Babylonian Bull is full or a half bull is unknown: Both is possible because the Bull of Heaven is defeated by Gilgamesh and the clay tablet VAT 7851 which depicts it, is broken at the questionable part.

Figure 5 left Hercules, right Bootes: Hercules is obviously drawn from a model that actually depicts Bootes because of the characteristic star between his legs. Their feet are mirrored while the busts are not.

Figure 6 left the watery constellations in Greek. Eridanus, the Fish Cord and the Outlet of the Water-Pourer in blue. right: Eridanus is depicted as river god in the Aratea.

Figure 7 The modern version (Zeiss: left) of Eridanus looks similar to the Greek one (above) but in the modern planetarium we tend to use it as constellation of Valentin's Day (right).

Reconstruction of ancient constellations in the planetarium dome Susanne M Hoffmann 1,2 1 Michael Stifel Center of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, susanne.hoffmann@uni-jena.de 2 Planetarium Jena Our public audiences often visit a planetarium in order to learn, but may be entering with a huge set of misconceptions in mind. For instance, the zodiac does not have only 12 constellations but more; the ecliptic is divided in 12 equal parts (signs), but the constellations in the background are not only the eponymous twelve. Ophiuchus has always covered a larger part of the ecliptic than Scorpius and was already a Babylonian constellations named “God Zababa”. For unknown reasons it was decided to not include his name into the zodiac. In addition, taking into account the inclination of the orbit of the Moon, the constellations Cetus, Auriga, Sextant, and Orion contain stars that can be occulted. Among them, Sextant is the only modern constellation – all the others are ancient. By displaying their development and telling their true history of transfer and transformation, we can serve the interest of the public in “stories”, cultures, and beautiful pictures while simultaneously explaining why we are not the place for beliefs and astrology. Adding the local uranographies – e.g. the ancient Chinese constellations in China, the Maori constellations in New Zealand, the Navajo, Dakota/Lakota/Nakota in North America and Maya in the south … will also help people to understand constellations as a (cultural) frame of reference. 1. Introduction 1.1 Motivation In a typical planetarium show where we use the dome to present the latest science news and the results from a spacecraft mission to one of the planets of our solar system, there is probably no time for any details on constellations. However, having been professionally trained in planetarium education ~25 years ago, and with a background of millions of questions from a public audience, I strongly recommend to dedicate some planetarium shows to the topic of constellations for the following reasons: 1. There is a strong public interest in constellations for a variety of reasons, including star lore/myth, astrology, history and more. 2. As astrophysicist, I do not want to use the planetarium for distributing fake news and myths. As historian of science (with one of the doctoral degrees in Greco-Babylonian history of astronomy), I have the opportunity and knowledge to tell the true (hi)story of the constellations instead of the fairy tales. 3. Telling the true history of the images and explaining constellations as ancient frame of reference that is much much older than coordinate systems, helps people to understand their origin. It provides them the knowledge to judge on the concepts of astrology and other esoteric pseudo-science. People come to a planetarium to learn about the concepts and facts, not to listen to a preacher’s view. Thus, I like and recommend telling the facts instead of the myth. 4. The real (hi)story is also full of interesting narratives – it is not necessary to invent stories. Additionally, telling only true stories prevents us from arguing on personal opinions. In this contribution I would like to share my knowledge with the colleagues in planetaria worldwide. 1.2 Popular misconceptions and historical background as starting point Many people think, the Greek constellations originate in ancient Mesopotamia. This is only partially true because (a) `the Greek’ does not really exist; there had been several variants of the constellations during Antiquity (Hoffmann, 2017a: chap. 2.7 and 4.2). (b) Only some of the constellations that were used in Greek Antiquity originate in the Babylonian culture. To communicate these facts to a public audience, the author created fulldome visualizations of four historical sky cultures enabling a tour through four millennia of transfer and transformation. As a by-product this additionally pointed out some suggestions to solve common puzzles of research.

The roots of the Greek sky culture are not preserved because the first complete descriptions date in Hellenism, i.e. after Alexander the Great had established the first multi-cultural world empire (4 th century BCE). In this empire, there had been many subcultures and even centuries later, in the Almagest (2 nd century CE), all dates are given in Egyptian months but in years after the Babylonian king Nabonassar. The katasterismi (star lores) is the only part of the book on astronomy by the librarian Eratosthenes (3 rd century BCE). The modern book called “Eratosthenes’ text” is a reconstruction from fragments preserved in commentaries – some people even call it “Pseudo-Eratosthenes” because of many uncertainties in the reconstruction. In this reconstruction, the author often mentions contradictions and multiple identifications (Eratosthenes 2007, Ératosthènes 2013, Eratosthenes 2015). For example, he states that the Greek constellation of the nameless Maiden could refer to the goddess Dike according to Hesiod (8 th century BCE). As Dike, the goddess of justice carries a balance, this suggests a Babylonian transformation from the original constellation of the Furrow (2 nd millennium) to a female deity although the Babylonian female deity does not carry a balance but an ear of grain (as depicted on a late clay tablet from Uruk in the late -1 st millennium, (Thureau-Dangin 1922,Beaulieu et al. 2018, Steele 2018). Eratosthenes also reports the identification with the Greek goddess Demeter because of the ear of grain in her hand, with the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Syrian goddess Atargatis and the Greek goddess of luck, Tyche because the constellation figure had no head (Eratosthenes, 2007: 87). This example demonstrates that there was no canonical image of the Greek constellations in his time. Comparisons of the sky culture of Eratosthenes with those of Hipparchus (-2 nd century) and Ptolemy (+2 nd century) also return several differences: e.g. Eratosthenes includes a star cluster below the ship Argo which is not enlisted in the other two catalogues (possibly the one that is now called the Southern Pleiades (IC 2602) but the identification is uncertain: Hoffmann 2017a: 539). Furthermore, there are various (expressively marked and not remarked) differences in Ptolemy’s concept of the figures that he quoted from Hipparchus, e.g. he cites “The star over the head, which Hipparchus [calls] `the one on the muzzle’” (Ptolemy 1984: 361). The ancient equivalent to a modern planetarium presentation explaining the constellations to the public was neither of the three scientific authors (Eratosthenes, Hipparchus and Ptolemy) but a poem by Aratos of Soloi (3 rd century BCE). This was basic education and its description has often been recited and depicted and is, therefore, completely preserved. It is the base for the “original” Greek constellations set (Aratus 1997, Aratos 2002) although it differs from the versions of mathematical astronomy in some details. Still, it has been depicted on the Farnese globe and other visual representations in Antiquity and had been copied until medieval epochs (cf. Dekker 2013). Some roots of the Greek set of constellations lay in Mesopotamia. It is known that Alexander’s wise teacher Aristotle instructed his nephew Kallisthenes who accompanied the campaign to collect astronomical information especially in Babylon. Thus, the Babylonian influence was strong in this field (Hoffmann 2017a: chap.5). However, not all Greek constellations have Babylonian origin as we will show in the following sections. In order to demonstrate the dependencies and independencies of the sky cultures, we need to reconstruct the Mesopotamian set of constellations independently. It is not sufficient to deduce them from later Arabic or Greek constellations. The depictions assembled in this reconstruction have been collected and discussed over several years; their positions and identifications are derived with methods of data-driven history of science. They are well-reflected and properly chosen – however, further studies could change the picture again. Yet, this paper presents the current state of knowledge. The same careful suggestions apply for the medieval constellations although those are much more certain because the pictures are based on ancient models and are directly preserved (and not drawn by us). 2. Sources and Method A true reconstruction of historical constellations must be free from interpretational bias and, thus, it must be performed with a single historical source. This computational and data-driven approach to investigate historical constellations is the base for all further research in history of science and astrophysics: Only an independent reconstruction of a set of constellations allows the comparison of one set of constellations with other sky cultures: Many trials to reconstruct e.g. the Babylonian constellations make the mistake to suggest figures that are derived from e.g. the later Greek or Arabic sky culture. It is commonly known that there are dependencies between these uranographies but only an independent reconstruction of the individual ones allows conclusions on the transfers and transformations. The glossary in the appendix of Hunger and Pingree (1999) is a compilation of favourites taken from Gössmann (1950) and Boll (1903) and is not a trial of new identifications. Therefore, we aimed at a new complete reconstruction.

It would be even wrong to reconstruct “the Babylonian” sky culture because this set of constellations changed and was developed throughout the ~2000 years of its existence. Thus, Hoffmann (2017a) reconstructed various sets of Babylonian constellations in the subsections of its chapter 4.1 and further subsets of Greek constellations in chapter 3 and chapter 4.2 with methods described in Hoffmann (2016) and Hoffmann (2020). As the scope of the study presented in my book had been ancient frames of reference (focussing on coordinates and not on images), this aspect has been treated in more detail in the subsequent research (Hoffmann 2017b, Hoffmann and Krebernik, forthcoming and all the assyriological references therein). The reconstructed sky cultures in more detail are the following: 2.1 MUL.APIN for the -2nd Millennium The “original” Mesopotamian sky culture canonically preserved in the clay tablets of MUL.APIN dating before -1250 when Babylon raised to become the capital of a new, unified country (Hoffmann and Krebernik, RAI 2018). This sky culture is designed without a zodiac but includes a list of the path of the moon. The base of this reconstruction are the translations of MUL.APIN by Hunger and Pingree (1989) and Hunger and Steele (2018). For interpretations of the text, the background knowledge is needed, e.g. provided in Watson and Horowitz (2011), Horowitz (1994) and Horowitz (1998) and others (cf. Hoffmann 2017a: chap 4.1). The positions of single stars and asterisms are computed from the given dates. The huge error bars of these estimates reaching from 5° to 25° in right ascension (Hoffmann 2017a: 282- 288) and even more in declination; sometimes only estimates on right ascension are possible. 2.2 Babylonian zodiac for the -1st millennium This is a later variant of the Mesopotamian (then: Babylonian) zodiac. The zodiac has been invented around the middle of the 1 st millennium BCE and is found in Greece at least in Eudoxus’ text dating to 4 th century BCE as a terminus ante quem it has been invented, cf. Hoffmann (2017a: chap. 4 and 5). From Hellenistic epochs, there are seal prints preserved from Babylon and Uruk with relevant drawings. Additionally, there are three clay tablet fragments with sketched constellations (Hoffmann, 2017b). 2.3 Common Sense “Greek” for around “0” The original Greek sky culture on the basis of the globe of the Atlas statue from the Villa Farnese in Naples (Thiele, 1898; Schaefer, 2005; Duke, 2006; Dekker, 2013). The sculpture is a Roman copy of a (lost) Greek original. The globe is carried by a titan whose shoulders cover the southern part of the globe and parts of Capricorn. As it was part of the architecture, it has a hole at the northern polar area and the constellations of the bears are completely missing and of Draco, only a snake-like head is depicted. Additionally, the hands of the titan cover parts of Orion and the Scorpion. The globe had been suggested as artistic copy of Hipparchus’s exact celestial globe but even if Hipparchus’ data are one of the sources of the globe, they are certainly not the only one. The Farnese globe clearly depicts the set of constellations that is described by Aratus, cf. Hoffmann (2017a: 27-31) whose arguments rely on Aratus (1997), Aratus (2009), Hipparchus (1894), Hipparchus (unpubl. draft 2009), Ptolemy (1898), Ptolemy (1984). It is known of ancient globe making (e.g. cf. Dekker 2013) that first the “grid” of celestial equator, tropical circles, ever-visible and ever-invisible circle, ecliptic plus zodiac and the colure circles was drawn. Then, the drawings of constellations were adapted to these circles and fit with respect to one another. The drawings of the constellations themselves were not drawn onto the stars (except on unpreserved mathematical globes according to the Almagest) but followed various styles in art. The style of the Farnese globe is Hellenistic and derived from Aratus’ description. 2.4 Carolingian Aratea for the +1st millennium The Carolingian drawings of the Leiden Aratea. The author of this medieval book is unknown but the precious materials suggest a prominent and wealthy patron, possibly emperor Louis the Pious or his wife Judith of Bavaria (Blume, Haffner and Metzger, 2012). The depictions show many mistakes. For instance, they do not share a common orientation: some are depicted left-right mirrored and some are not. Furthermore, the figure of Hercules used the same model as the one for Boötes (Fig. 5), and the Virgin is not drawn at all. The provenance of the stars had been investigated by Dekker (2018) but this does not help here because the images intentionally do not fit the depiction in the sky. This is a result of them being

visualisations of mere text (cf. Hoffmann 2017a: 475-478). As their style is Roman, they are a copy of a lost Roman version of the classical constellation and show some differences to the Greek version. 2.5 Zeiss standard images for the +2nd millennium This current sky culture displaying the constellations on which the IAU agreed in 1928 (Delporte 1930) is displayed with the set of constellations sold by Zeiss with the star projector. We did not change it but for the sake of completeness we mention its use in planetarium shows. 2.6 Drawings, technology and technique The drawings of the Mesopotamian zodiac figures are painted by a professional artist (Hoffmann, 2017b) but as his modern interpretation of ancient originals from clay tablets, seal prints and temple reliefs on which the relevant characters are depicted. The Mesopotamian constellations outside the zodiac have been drawn by the author herself. Therefore, they are direct copies from ancient originals. The Greek sky culture is a 100 % original copy from the drawings on the marble globe copied by the author herself. The miniature pictures of the Leiden Aratea have been provided by the art historian Prof. Blume as digital file and they have been exempted from their expansive lapis lazuli background by the author. Orientation: (1) Since Antiquity, the convention has been applied that the constellation figures (deities, royals, monsters, demons) are considered looking down upon the observer. As a consequence, celestial globes show them as seen from the back. When we aim to fit the figures of the ancient marble globe onto the modern planetarium sky, the figure must be mirrored (because of Hipparchus’s rule, cf. Dekker 2013: 34) but we decided to keep the original figure and not draw a face instead of the back of the head. (2) In medieval drawings in books, both versions of the constellations exist: e.g. the Arabic astronomer aṣ-Ṣufi (10 th century) depicts each constellation twice, seen from the inside of a globe and seen from the outside. It seems that these two conventions have been mixed up in the Leiden Aratea. Most constellations are depicted as seen from outside the globe but some cases are uncertain (e.g. the Eagle). The Leiden Aratea additionally always turns the picture upright (e.g. Hercules), so the fit to the real star pattern always leaves room for rotations of the drawn image. All adaptions onto the stars of the Yale Bright Star Catalogue projected by the Zeiss Universarium star ball projector have been programmed in Zeiss PowerDome software (versions 2 to 3) for the Velvet projection system. Colours: The constellations of the Atlas Farnese are displayed in pale white (like marble) and the Babylonian constellations are drawn in yellow-orange with a “pre-zodiac” (moon path) in blue. The Aratea drawings are left in their original colours with alpha channel added for some transparency and with black parts inverted to white (in case of the horns of Capricorn and the Goat on the shoulder of Auriga), dark blue brightened (in case of the tail of Capricorn and the Southern Fish) and the dark Bears brightened turning out a lot of red colour in the original picture which makes them appearing in pale pink. 3. What can we learn from the comparison Primarily, we can use these images in the planetarium to show how the drawings have evolved over millennia and that there is really almost no difference from Greek Antiquity to today – at least not in the constellation but only in the design that always has to fit the current fashion. Second, from the Babylonian to the Greek set of constellations, we can show the transformations that “explain” why constellations often do not look easily understandable: In all planetariums worldwide, the most frequent comment is probably “I cannot imagine this figure, it is not clear”. Ancient wordplays and misunderstood deities from other cultures often explain these indistinguishable pictures (cf. Gössmann 1950, McHugh 2016, Hoffmann 2017b, Hoffmann 2020). Additionally, here are some further historical facts that address more rare comments: The cord of fish In the -2 nd millennium, there is the constellation of the Great Swallow between the later Aquarius and the later Aries. The meaning of this constellation is lost (possibly a calendar rule such as swallows travel southwards when this constellation is up in the sky or they arrive when it rises heliacally) and no drawing

is preserved. The fact that the Babylonian astral science of the -1 st millennium, especially the astronomical diaries (Hunger and Sachs, 1988-2014), abbreviate the name of the constellations as “The Tails” points to a V-shaped swallow tail under the left corner of the Autumn Square (Babylonian constellation Iku, the field measure). Originally, there was no fish and no cord. Either only in later epochs or by the influence of geographically disparate cultures, this picture of a swallow tail was equalled to the picture of a (small) bird (still a swallow?) and a fish connected with each other – the so-called Swallow-fish with a preserved depiction on a seal from Uruk (cf. Hoffmann, 2017b). Beaulieu et al. (2018) add some further texts describing the transformation of the figure in the -1 st millennium. Likely, we deal with a Babylonian wordplay here: it is well possible that the swallow-fish originally designated a species but was depicted later with the funny sketch of a fish and a bird connected with a ribbon (Gössmann 1950). The small bird to the down right of the Autumn square could be derived from the bird with which the neighbouring god (the Babylonian Ea, the Greek Water-Pourer Aquarius, Aqr) sometimes is depicted (Fig. 4). Message 1: Drawing the Babylonian constellations with the help of modern star charts or even in the planetarium helps understanding the transformation of the picture. However, it only allows to reconstruct the transformation which, then, challenges to study their causes. The southern part of the constellations around Pisces There are some mysteries on the depiction of the Farnese globe, foremost the question why the canonical figure of the V-shaped band that connects the two fishes lacks one of its edges (Thiele 1898; Schaefer 2005; Duke 2006, Dekker 2013). The marble globe found in the Villa Farnese at Naples dates in the 2 nd century CE but it is the Roman copy of a Greek original. It does not depict the constellations newly introduced by Ptolemy such as the corps of Antinous, the beloved favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian. However, it does depict the Southern Crown that is also a late interpretation of the “ring of stars” under the feet of Sagittarius. Aratus (-3 rd c.) does not refer to it as a crown but Geminos (+1 st c.) and Ptolemy (+2 nd c.) do. The globe was made as a copy of a Greek original in an epoch of pan-Hellenism in the Roman culture and in Hellenism, Aratus’ poem Phainomena had been a popular description of the constellations – an equivalent of an “ancient planetarium show”. It contains a sentence that the faint stars below the feet of Aquarius and below the tail of the nightblue sea monster is called The Water. Historians are puzzled by this statement because the constellation of the Water seems not to be preserved. Looking at the globe this is exactly the area under the drawn edge of the fish cord where the streams of water from Aquarius and the River join. Additionally, the Farnese globe shows the wavy line of the River (our constellation of Eridanus) as reaching to the front feet of the Sea Monster (Ketos). Taking all this together, it looks as if the original Greek sculptor interpreted the area between the lines of Eridanus, the cord of the lower fish and Aquarius’ outlet as “The Water” (Hoffmann 2017a: 30). Displaying the figures of the Farnese globe in the planetarium dome for modern viewers, we arranged the figures of the constellations in the best possible way to fit the stars (and only secondarily the celestial grid to which they were originally fitted). Additionally, we used the Zeiss PowerDome software to add dashed blue lines to indicate the area of the Water (Fig. 6 and 7). Some prominent misfits (e.g. that the bright star Spica does not fit the depicted ear of grain) disprove the hypothesis of Hipparchus as source. Comparing this image with the MUL.APIN set of figures (-2 nd millennium) as reconstructed in Hoffmann (2017a: 325), the striking differences between the Greek and the (original) Mesopotamian sky culture become obvious (Figs. 4 and 2). In the contemporary Hellenistic view of the Mesopotamian figures, the Great Swallow from MUL.APIN was transformed to the Swallow-Fish. The hypothesis of Crossen (2015) on a Mesopotamian (Sumerian) constellation of Water in the -3 rd or at the dawn of the -2 nd millennium reaching from the Swalllow to Capricorn or the Mesopotamian constellation of the River Boat (our Corona Australis) could point to very ancient common roots of the Greek and the Babylonian sky cultures. Message 2: The Greek constellation of The Water in Aratus is clarified and the hypothesis of its roots in ancient Sumer should be further investigated. Orion in the zodiac The modern IAU-constellations boundaries for Orion are only 0.5° south of the ecliptic (Fig. 3). As the orbit of the Moon is tilted by ~5° against the ecliptic, the Moon sometimes travels through the constellation of Orion. During the orbital period of the knots (~18.613 years) roughly half of the time the

southern half of the lunar orbit passes through Orion: It had been the case until September 2020 and will happen next time in 2029 for another nine years. This is nothing new or esoteric but is a result of constellations made by gestalt-seeing and observation and had been known by the ancient Mesopotamians: Occultations of stars by the Moon are easily observable. Therefore, the constellation of the True Shepherd of Anu (equalling Greek Orion) had been enlisted among the 17 constellations in the `path of the moon’ in MUL.APIN, first tablet, 6 th list. Message 3: In the Zeiss planetarium, the standard set of constellations displayed by the Zeiss projector(s) since decades correctly depict Orion’s club or sword at the ecliptic (Hoffmann, 2017b). Now, with the reconstructed ancient constellations we are able to also show that this is not a bug but a feature that applied already in the roots of our set of constellations. Remark: The upper part of Orion is not depicted at the Farnese globe (Fig. 3) due to features of the sculpture – but the Greek concept of Orion’s northernmost stars can be deduced from the Almagest. Transformation of the Babylonian zodiac to Greece The popular belief that Greek constellations originate in Mesopotamia is true for the constellations of the zodiac. Likely, the Babylonian zodiac came to Greece especially because of its relevance for measuring time with the sundial, i.e. for reasons of mathematical astronomy (cf. Hoffmann 2017a: chap. 5 and references therein). The importance of the zodiac as a circle divided in 12 times 30 parts (the `ideal months’ that are used until today, e.g. for financial computations) provided the names of the twelve parts according to the constellation behind them but the Babylonian names did not fit the Greek culture and religion. Therefore, several pictures have been re-interpreted by Greek mathematical astronomy (Tab.1). Some transformations have been described in Hoffmann (2017b). IAU Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo +Sextant Virgo Greek Ram Bull Pair of Twins Crab Lion Maiden Babylonian Hired Worker Bull of Heaven 2 Pairs of Twins Crab A daemon Furrow | Crook | True Shepherd of Anu | IAU Libra Scopius+Ophiuchus Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Greek Scorpion + Snake Carrier Bow Shooter Goatfish Water Pourer 2 Fish Babylonian Scales Scorpion + Zababa God Pabilsag Goatfish God Ea Great Swallow The Table displays an overview of the names of constellations of the zodiac in Greek Antiquity (second line, blue background) and 1500 years earlier in Mesopotamia (third line, yellow background). Remarks: (1) between Taurus and Gemini there were the constellation of the Crook and the Shepherd in Babylonian uranography. (2) The figure of the Lion was called UR.GU.LA in the 2 nd millennium which refers to a daemon that looks like a winged lion, cf. clay tablets summarized in Hoffmann (2017a,b) and Hoffmann (2020). A Mesopotamian uranography from around 800 BCE preserves a constellation of a real lion and another constellation of a winged lion next to it. Both figures alter in the -1 st millennium. Aquarius: the Babylonian god of wisdom Sagittarius and Aquarius had been commonly known gods in the Babylonian culture (Boll 1903; Gössmann 1950). The Babylonian god Pabilsag (after which the constellation is named) was a mixed creature with a rear body of a horse and a scorpion’s tail, wings and the torso of a male human. In Greek mythology this picture comes closest to a centaur. Greek centaurs are typically rather brutal creatures and Eratosthenes states in his Katasterismi that they typically are considered stupid and unable to use bow and arrow. As the figure of centaurus-like Pabilsag with bow and arrow was not really understandable and translatable to Greek, it was simply named the Bow Shooter with an invented lore on the one and only wise centaur, Chiron. A similar fate likely applied to the Water Pourer: The original Babylonian figure was the Great God, a synonym for the philanthropic god of wisdom, Ea/ Enki (Fig. 4). This god is normally depicted with two streams of water springing from his shoulders. A goat-fish is a helping daemon in medicine cult and Ea’s attribute. It is often depicted with the god Ea (Hoffmann, 2017b).

From the Greek point of view, this image does not make sense and they separated the figures in two independent creatures, the Water-Pourer and the Goat-Fish with an invented lore. The Ram and Andromeda: Greek or Babylonian? In place of the Greek constellation of the Ram, there had been a loan worker, the Hired Man in MUL.APIN; cf. Fig. 4. It is unclear how the figure evolved and if this is a Babylonian wordplay as suggested by Gössmann (1950). A non-Babylonian image (from Syria or Greece or Macedonia or somewhere else) could have influenced the Babylonian and/ or the Greek view (Hoffmann, 2017b and references therein). This also happened to the Babylonian and Sumerian goddess of Ishtar/ Inanna who was later equalled with the Syrian Derketo (a mermaid-like deity) and then turned by 90° and named “Princess Andromeda” with a fish next to her at the place of the fish-tail of the Syrian goddess. This change and the correlated debates show clearly that the Mesopotamian constellation figures were all but stable over the centuries. In the planetarium, we should only state the fact without explanations. The Scales: Lost in Greece until Roman times The constellation of the Scales has been common in Mesopotamia by the time of MUL.APIN as well as in the Babylonian Astronomical Diaries. In the early state, the neighbouring constellation (our Maiden) had been the Furrow in which an Ear of wheat (our star Spica) is laying (Fig. 1). This suggests a connection of the weight of grain measured with the scales, maybe a calendar sign for the harvest. However, in Hellenistic time, the Babylonian figure around the Ear of grain is depicted on clay tablet AO 6448 (Louvre) as a young woman, the goddess Shala and not the Furrow (at least in Uruk: Steele 2018). Goddess Shala had always be related to the constellation of the Furrow but the goddess was not depicted as constellation originally; this was changed during the 1 st millennium. It is unknown whether the Greek image of a Maiden goddess influenced this Babylonian depiction or the Babylonian image had changed before being copied to Greece. Yet, comparing the upright woman (Shala) at the clay tablet, standing perpendicular to the tail of the Snake-Dragon (our Hydra) with the laying Maiden on the Farnese globe, it suggests that the Greek image filled a larger room along the ecliptic. This could have caused the scales to merge with the claws of the neighbouring scorpion (Hoffmann 2017a: 317) and could be the reason why Hellenistic uranographies do not mention the image of the balance (but include these stars in the figure of the scorpion). Dekker (2013) assumes that the original Greek constellation of the scorpion always carries a balance in its claws, also if not mentioned. This Greek balanced is possibly turned by 90° or 180° with respect to the earlier Mesopotamian figure (Hoffmann 2017a: 317) In Augusteian time or during the 1 st century CE, Geminos and Manilius again introduced the constellation of the Scales as separated from the constellation of Scorpius. This could be depicted in the planetarium dome with the modern set of ancient constellations in comparison with the historical ones. Yet, the lack of the Scales in Aratus’ poem is the reason why there is no drawing of the Scales in the Leiden Aratea, too. This causes a gap in the medieval zodiac because the picture of the scorpion in the Leiden Aratea is not big enough to cover both constellation areas (Sco+Lib) as considered in Antiquity. Our display in the Jena planetarium dome relying on the research of our local professor for art history (Blume, Haffner, Metzger 2012) leaves a gap that was neither considered by Aratus or by the Carolingians. As the gap is misleading, – in a planetarium show, we could show the modern constellations in order to indicate the missing ones (Virgo and Libra) Creating a fulldome visualisation to demonstrate the changing view on constellations through the millennia, we are now able to demonstrate the strong dependencies of the medieval Christian and Islamic constellations from the Greek ones but the smaller relation and more change from the Babylonian to the Greek ones. Message 4: Although the zodiac was taken over by the Greeks from Babylon, it suffered some transformations during the centuries. Some unexplained Greek figures can be explained by the Babylonian origin and the transformation can be displayed for the public. Constellations outside the zodiac Hydra and Corvus: a Babylonian original Always unchanged was the image of a huge snake with a raven picking into its tail (Fig. 4). This image is found already in MUL.APIN and has obviously been copied to the Greek sky culture. While in

Mesopotamia this was considered a really huge dragon called Mush with the head of a dog and front legs at the body of the snake, it was transformed to a water snake in Greek culture – but the image in the sky did not change. Only concerning the Raven at the tail of the Dragon-Snake there were alternatives: Displaying the figures of the Farnese globe in the planetarium makes obvious that the Greek Raven could be imagined looking towards the head of the snake. In contrast, Ptolemy’s star catalogue describes the Raven picking into the tip of the tail, so he considers the Raven as depicted on the Babylonian clay tablet AO6448. These facts support the hypothesis that the model for the sculptor of the Farnese globe had been of only Greek tradition while Ptolemy is strongly influenced by original Babylonian data (Hoffmann 2018). The Greek added another little picture at the snake’s back: The crater, a really huge vessel which looks like a vase with a wide mouth. This constellation at the place of the tail of the Babylonian Raven probably originates in a misunderstanding of Babylonian words or a wordplay in rather early Greco-Babylonian interactions (e.g. trade) in Homer’s epoch (8 th century BCE). Its description is different in Hipparchus’ only preserved comment on Aratus’s poem and in Ptolemy’s Almagest (Hoffmann 2017a: 214) but the reality of this constellation is present through all Greek epochs. Aquila, the Dolphin and a Ptolemean transformation In other cases, the Babylonian original image has been changed to fit into Greek mythology. The constellation of the Eagle is a Babylonian original, too, and the MUL.APIN uranography reports a constellation of a Corpse next to it. Earlier suggestions for the identification of constellations equalled the Babylonian Corpse with the Greek constellation of the Dolphin (Gössmann, 1950, Hunger and Pingree, 1999: Appendix). However, a detailed reconstruction of Ptolemy’s constellations raises an alternative scenario: The star catalogue of Ptolemy’s Almagest maps descriptions of stellar positions (e.g. “the star at the tip of the tail of X”) to coordinates. Therefore, it is possible to draw figures onto ancient coordinates or the stars that correspond to them. In Ptolemy’s time, the deification of Hadrian’s favourite, Antinous, spread over the whole Roman Empire: In Athens, a festival was established and on the side of his mysterious death in the Nile, a city was built in commemoration of him. Seven years later, when Ptolemy wrote his Almagest, he included the asterism of Antinous in the constellation of the Eagle. Using the coordinates to draw the figure of this constellation results in the bird of prey flying from west to east carrying the body of the dead one whose arms and legs are hanging down. Might it be possible that Ptolemy describes (a changed, maybe smaller version of) an originally Babylonian figure? Fig. 2 displaying the Babylonian constellations of Eagle and Corpse depicts Ptolemy’s description of the Eagle and Antinous star by star because it fits the Babylonian position estimate. By the way, the Babylonian constellation of the bird of prey was indeed a vulture that carried dead souls (derived from vultures eating their bodies) because an eagle would be associated with life instead of death as preserved in the Sumerian myth of king Etana and the helping eagle. The constellation of the bird of prey next to a corpse suggests a vulture more likely than an eagle, and the Sumerian and Babylonian languages do not distinguish between eagles and vultures. Ptolemy often uses Babylonian sources directly as he cites solar eclipse data from Babylon and deals with the constellation of the Scales (Libra) from Babylonian tradition (cf. Almagest, quotation in Dekker 2013: 61) although his star catalogues designates this constellations as “Claws” in the Greco-Roman uranography. Therefore, it is not impossible that he copied the grouping of a bird of prey with a corpse from a Babylonian original and re-named the dead man after his emperor’s favourite. Cygnus and Lyra: Greek innovations(?) The other two constellations of the summer triangle (Fig. 2), Greek the Bird and the Lyre, appear only in the Greek uranography and, thus, their roots are not preserved. At their places, the Babylonian uranography shows much larger constellations that contain many more stars than the Greek constellations: The area of Lyra and parts of the Kneeler (IAU-constellation Hercules) are occupied by the old Sumerian constellation and goddess Gula, a medicine goddess who is accompanied by a dog (possibly because of the healing effect of the dog’s saliva). For the planetarium fulldome version of these two constellations, a typical Sumerian (3 rd millennium) portrait of this goddess was copied.

Instead of the Greek constellation of the Bird (our Cygnus, the Swan), MUL.APIN enlists the U4.KA.DU8.A-daemon. The name of this creature reports it with a gaping mouth and the star list in MUL.APIN relates it to the god of war, Nergal. It is not certain how U4.KA.DU8.A looks like but a daemon with a mouth wide open is depicted at the entrance of a small temple in Nimroud (Layard 1853: Plate 5) and the monster demon is depicted between the gods Nergal (left) and Adad (right). This relief is the model for the depiction of the huge demon that extends from the area around the star λ And (the foot star is mentioned in ziqpu texts) through parts of the IAU-constellation of Cepheus towards Deneb (α Cyg) and beyond. Message 5: As the Greek culture in Hellenism was created by merging several occupied cultures in Alexander’s empire, the “Greek” constellations are of very different origin. The possibility to display the Babylonian constellations offers a very simple way to communicate this knowledge to a public audience. Conclusion During the past few years, the author of this paper reconstructed several sky cultures for planetarium use. It was intended to simply display the transfer and transformation of constellations for teaching a public audience. Additionally, it turned out to be an interesting research tool because for the simultaneous display in the (correctly curved) dome, the constellations need to be mapped onto the stars and overlaps and contradictions become obvious. For example, the transformation of the Old Babylonian or Sumerian Great Swallow to the Greek image of two fishes connected with a ribbon, becomes understandable by consideration of the neighbouring constellations and their transformations. The trial to fit the figures from a marble globe (that was not modelled as a perfect sphere and had holes) to a planetarium dome, additionally allows to estimate the errors of the depiction, e.g. in case when figures turn out to be reworked with picture transformations to fit the star pattern. The sequence of historical constellation figures at a certain field in the sky additionally enables the observer to pursue the development throughout history and to judge in which cases a change is caused by contemporary art or by conceptual changes. It eases the understanding of laymen and researchers. Very important is the mapping of images to the stars because this allows conclusions on shifts. For instance, the Babylonian and the Greek sky culture both enlist a constellation of a ship but for the Babylonians, it was a small river boat and for the Greeks a big sailing ship. Their positions in the sky are separated by 11 hours in right ascension. In case of the famous depictions from Dendera, Egypt, in the Greco-Roman epoch (that are not part of this article), the mapping of Egyptized depictions of mostly Babylonian constellations (with only few originally Egyptian constellations) also turned out that there had been Babylonian transfers of constellations inside and outside the zodiac (Hoffmann, 2017a: 518-519). Thus, the visualisation of historical constellations does not only distribute knowledge but also furthers research in cultural astronomy on which some problems of modern astrophysics rely (cf. Stephenson and Green 2002, Hoffmann, 2019). Concluding, further investigations of this topic are worthwhile and their (public) teaching is not only a question of local common cultural identity of the population of this planet but also improves our understanding of historical frames of reference. Acknowledgement The author thanks the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena for a grant to support the finalization of these visualisations (2020). The programming in planetarium domes was done in the two large domes of Stiftung Planetarium Berlin (2016-’17) and Planetarium Jena (2017-’20) and the author wants to express thanks to both management boards for the collaboration. The whole project started with a request of Björn Voss of LWL Planetarium Münster in 2015 as a visualization of the development of the Babylonian zodiac: We thank Robert Perdok for the beautiful drawings. The content of the further reconstruction of the Babylonian sky did benefit a lot from a close collaboration with the world’s leading expert for Mesopotamian deities, Prof. Dr. M. Krebernik, FSU Jena. The content of the medieval set of constellations relied on the set of reproducible miniatures from the Leiden Aratea, courtesy Prof. Dr. D. Blume, Jena. The reconstructions are based on own work of the author but the two professors consulted her. Additional thanks for advice and fruitful discussions go to Hermann Hunger, Wayne Horowitz, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Jessica Baldwin, Asterios Kechagias, David Perugia and Georg Zotti. The author thanks Stefan Harnisch, Jürgen Neye and Monika Staesche (Planetaria Jena and Berlin) for their friendship and support. All photos were taken in Planetarium Jena by the author.

Additional Material Some animated GIFs concerning the transformations are compiled on my website http://exopla.net/sternbilder/transformations-animationen/ A more extant book on the history, transfer and transformation of the constellations by this author is scheduled to appear this year in August/ September. Previews are already available for: Hoffmann, Susanne M. (2021). Wie der Löwe an den Himmel kam, Stuttgart, Franckh-Kosmos-Verlag References Aratus, 1997. Phainomena, translated by Kidd, D., Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press Aratos, 2009. Phainomena, translated by Manfred Erren, Düsseldorf, Artemis und Winkler Blume, D., Haffner, M. and Metzger, W., 2012-16. Sternbilder des Mittelalters, 2 Volumes, Berlin, Akademie Verlag. Boll, F., 1903: Sphaera, Leipzig, Teubner Crossen, C., 2015: The very ancient origins of the Water Constellations, Sky and Telescope, March 2015, 36-40. Delporte, E. (1930). Atlas Céleste, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Dekker, E. 2010. The Provenance of the stars in the Leiden ‘Aratea’ Picture Book, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 73, 1-37 Dekker, E. 2013. Illustrating the Phenomena, Oxford, Oxford University Press Duke, D., 2006. Analysis of the Farnese Globe, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 37, 87-100 Eratosthenes 2007. Katasterismi, translated by Pàmias, J and Geus, K., Utopica, Oberhaid. Ératosthènes de Cyrène, 2013. Catastérismes, translated by Pàmias, J. and Zucker, Arnaud, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2013 Eratosthenes and Hyginus, 2015. Eratosthenes and Hyginus with Aratus’ Phaenomena, translated by Hard, R., Oxford, Oxford World’s Classics Gössmann, F., 1950: Planetarium Babylonicum, Verlag des päpstlichen Bibel-Instituts, Rom. Hipparchos 1894: Kommentar zu den ”Himmelserscheinungen“ des Aratos und des Eudoxos traslated and commented by Manitius, Carolus, Leipzig, Teubner Verlag Hipparchus, unpubl. draft 2009. Hipparchus’ Commentaries on the Phaenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus, English translation by Macfarlane, Roger T. und Mills, Paul S. Hoffmann, S.M., 2016: Rekonstruktion der griechischen und mesopotamischen Himmelskartographie(n) im ersten Millennium vor Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung, Orbis Terrarum 14, 33-49 Hoffmann, S M., 2017a. Hipparchs Himmelsglobus, Wiesbaden/ New York, Springer Hoffmann, S.M., 2017b: History of Constellations as popularization of uranometry, in: Wolfschmidt, Gudrun: Nuncius Hamburgensis Bd. 41, Hamburg, tredition Verlag Hoffmann, S.M., 2018: The genesis of Hipparchus’ celestial globe, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 18, No. 4 281-287 Hoffmann, S.M. and Krebernik, M.: What do deities tell us about the celestial positioning system, Proceedings of Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (held at Innsbruck 2018), accepted 2019

Hoffmann, S.M., 2019: What information can we derive from historical Far Eastern guest stars for modern research on novae and cataclysmic variables? MNRAS, 490, 4194-4210 Hoffmann, S.M. 2020. Babylonian Constellations in Stellarium 0.19.*, in: Draxler, Lippitsch, Wolfschmidt (eds.): Harmony and Symmetry – Proceedings of the SEAC 2018 Conference in Graz, Hamburg, tredition, 156-172 Horowitz, W., 1994: Two New Ziqpu-Star Texts and Stellar Circles, Journal for Cuneiform Studies, Vol.46, 1994, p. 89–98 Horowitz, W., 1998: Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, Winona Lake, USA: Eisenbraun Horowitz, W. and Al-Rawi, F.N.H. 2003: Tablets from the sippar Library IX. A ziqpu-star planisphere, Iraq, Vol.63, p.171–181 Horowitz, W., 2014: The Three Stars Each. The Astrolabes and Related Texts, Wien. Hunger, H. & Pingree, D., 1989: MUL.APIN. An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform, Horn. Hunger, H. & Steele, J., 2018: The Babylonian Astronomical Compendium MUL.APIN, London / New York. Hunger, H. & Pingree, D. 1999: Astral Science in Mesopotamia, Leiden / Boston / Köln. Hunger, H. and Sachs, A., 1988–2014. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, Vol. I–VII, Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Kurtik, G. E. 2007. The star heaven of ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumero-Akkadian names of Constellations and other heavenly bodies, Aletheia, St Petersburg Layard, A. H. (ed.), 1853. Monuments of Nineveh, Second Series, London, J. Murray McHugh, J. 2016. How cuneiform puns inspired some of the bizarre Greek constellations and asterisms, Archaeoastronomy and ancient technologies, 4(2), 69-100 Ptolemy 1898. Claudii Ptolemaei Syntaxis Mathematica,ed. Heiberg, J.L., Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig 1898 Ptolemy 1984. Ptolemy’ Almagest, translated by Toomer, G.J., Princeton Uni. Press, 1998, Orig.: London, 1984 Schaefer, B. E., 2005. The epoch of the constellations on the Farnese Atlas and their origins in Hipparchus’s lost catalogue, Journal for the History of Astronomy, xxxvi (2005), 167-196 Steele, J., 2018. The development of the Babylonian zodiac: Some preliminary observations. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 18, No 4, pp. 97-105 Stephenson, F.R. and Green, D.A., 2002. Historical Supernovae and their Remnants, Oxford, Oxford University Press Thiele, Georg 1898: Antike Himmelsbilder, Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung Thureau Dangin, Francois 1922. Tablettes d’Uruk, Textes Cunéiformes, Tome VI. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Plate XXV. Watson, R. and Horowitz, W., 2011. Writing Science before the Greeks, Leiden, Boston,

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References (28)

Aratus, 1997. Phainomena, translated by Kidd, D., Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press Aratos, 2009. Phainomena, translated by Manfred Erren, Düsseldorf, Artemis und Winkler Blume, D., Haffner, M. and Metzger, W., 2012-16. Sternbilder des Mittelalters, 2 Volumes, Berlin, Akademie Verlag.
Boll, F., 1903: Sphaera, Leipzig, Teubner
Crossen, C., 2015: The very ancient origins of the Water Constellations, Sky and Telescope, March 2015, 36-40.
Delporte, E. (1930). Atlas Céleste, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Dekker, E. 2010. The Provenance of the stars in the Leiden 'Aratea' Picture Book, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 73, 1-37
Dekker, E. 2013. Illustrating the Phenomena, Oxford, Oxford University Press Duke, D., 2006. Analysis of the Farnese Globe, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 37, 87-100
Eratosthenes 2007. Katasterismi, translated by Pàmias, J and Geus, K., Utopica, Oberhaid.
Ératosthènes de Cyrène, 2013. Catastérismes, translated by Pàmias, J. and Zucker, Arnaud, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2013
Eratosthenes and Hyginus, 2015. Eratosthenes and Hyginus with Aratus' Phaenomena, translated by Hard, R., Oxford, Oxford World's Classics Gössmann, F., 1950: Planetarium Babylonicum, Verlag des päpstlichen Bibel-Instituts, Rom. Hipparchos 1894: Kommentar zu den "Himmelserscheinungen" des Aratos und des Eudoxos traslated and commented by Manitius, Carolus, Leipzig, Teubner Verlag Hipparchus, unpubl. draft 2009. Hipparchus' Commentaries on the Phaenomena of Aratus and Eudoxus, English translation by Macfarlane, Roger T. und Mills, Paul S. Hoffmann, S.M., 2016: Rekonstruktion der griechischen und mesopotamischen Himmelskartographie(n) im ersten Millennium vor Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung, Orbis Terrarum 14, 33-49
Hoffmann, S M., 2017a. Hipparchs Himmelsglobus, Wiesbaden/ New York, Springer
Hoffmann, S.M., 2017b: History of Constellations as popularization of uranometry, in: Wolfschmidt, Gudrun: Nuncius Hamburgensis Bd. 41, Hamburg, tredition Verlag Hoffmann, S.M., 2018: The genesis of Hipparchus' celestial globe, Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 18, No. 4 281-287
Hoffmann, S.M. and Krebernik, M.: What do deities tell us about the celestial positioning system, Proceedings of Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (held at Innsbruck 2018), accepted 2019
Hoffmann, S.M., 2019: What information can we derive from historical Far Eastern guest stars for modern research on novae and cataclysmic variables? MNRAS, 490, 4194-4210
Hoffmann, S.M. 2020. Babylonian Constellations in Stellarium 0.19.*, in: Draxler, Lippitsch, Wolfschmidt (eds.): Harmony and Symmetry -Proceedings of the SEAC 2018 Conference in Graz, Hamburg, tredition, 156-172
Horowitz, W., 1994: Two New Ziqpu-Star Texts and Stellar Circles, Journal for Cuneiform Studies, Vol.46, 1994, p. 89-98
Horowitz, W., 1998: Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, Winona Lake, USA: Eisenbraun Horowitz, W. and Al-Rawi, F.N.H. 2003: Tablets from the sippar Library IX. A ziqpu-star planisphere, Iraq, Vol.63, p.171-181
Horowitz, W., 2014: The Three Stars Each. The Astrolabes and Related Texts, Wien.
Hunger, H. & Pingree, D., 1989: MUL.APIN. An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform, Horn.
Hunger, H. & Steele, J., 2018: The Babylonian Astronomical Compendium MUL.APIN, London / New York.
Hunger, H. & Pingree, D. 1999: Astral Science in Mesopotamia, Leiden / Boston / Köln.
Hunger, H. and Sachs, A., 1988-2014. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, Vol.
I-VII, Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Kurtik, G. E. 2007. The star heaven of ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumero-Akkadian names of Constellations and other heavenly bodies, Aletheia, St Petersburg Layard, A. H. (ed.), 1853. Monuments of Nineveh, Second Series, London, J. Murray McHugh, J. 2016. How cuneiform puns inspired some of the bizarre Greek constellations and asterisms, Archaeoastronomy and ancient technologies, 4(2), 69-100
Ptolemy 1898. Claudii Ptolemaei Syntaxis Mathematica,ed. Heiberg, J.L., Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft, Leipzig 1898
Ptolemy 1984. Ptolemy' Almagest, translated by Toomer, G.J., Princeton Uni. Press, 1998, Orig.: London, 1984
Schaefer, B. E., 2005. The epoch of the constellations on the Farnese Atlas and their origins in Hipparchus's lost catalogue, Journal for the History of Astronomy, xxxvi (2005), 167-196
Steele, J., 2018. The development of the Babylonian zodiac: Some preliminary observations. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol. 18, No 4, pp. 97-105
Stephenson, F.R. and Green, D.A., 2002. Historical Supernovae and their Remnants, Oxford, Oxford University Press Thiele, Georg 1898: Antike Himmelsbilder, Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung Thureau Dangin, Francois 1922. Tablettes d'Uruk, Textes Cunéiformes, Tome VI. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Plate XXV.
Watson, R. and Horowitz, W., 2011. Writing Science before the Greeks, Leiden, Boston,

Reconstruction of ancient constellations in the planetarium dome

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