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System of interpretation

Astral medicine

Astrology was also incredibly important in a practice known as astral medicine. According to a kalendartext discovered, belonging to a mašmaššu priest in the late Babylonian period of Uruk named Iqīšâ, different remedies are created for patients for different days, depending on the date.

Month IV: First twelve lines of Iqīšâ's kalendartexte

1	Ares	7	Sheep-blood, sheep-fat, and sheep-hair, you anoint.
2	Capricorn	14	Goat-blood, goat-fat, and goat hair, you anoint.
3	Libra	21	"Empty place", you anoint.
4	Cancer	28	Crab-blood, or crab-fat, you anoint.
5	Taurus	5	Bull-blood, or bull-fat, or bull-hair, you anoint.
6	Aquarius	12	Eagle-head, wing, and blood, you anoint.
7	Scorpio	19	"Empty place", you anoint.
8	Leo	26	Lion-blood, lion-fat, or lion-hair, you anoint.
9	Gemini	3	Rooster-head, blood, and wing, you anoint.
10	Pisces	10	Dove-head, blood, swallow-head, blood, you anoint.
11	Sagittarius	17	Anzu(-bird?)-head, Anzu(-bird?)-wing, Anzu(-bird)-blood, you anoint.
12	Virgo	24	šigušu-barley-flour, raven-head, and raven-wing, you anoint.

Steele acknowledges that it is entirely possible that the practice of astral medicine is nothing more than a theoretical practice, devised by scholars of the time. Since several of the parts would have been expensive or otherwise impossible for the average Babylonian to obtain, this raises two possible situations. It is very possible that the whole concept of astral medicine in terms of the kalendartexte and other such sources were, as previously stated, simply theory and never intended for real use. However, Babylonian medicine contains a tradition known as Dreckapotheke, wherein the names of common ingredients are given names of often unpleasant sounding ones. It is also within the realm of possibility that the ingredients listed in the kalendartexte are following this tradition.

Animal ingredients for each sign in Iqīšâ's kalendartexte

Zodiacal Sign	Normal Babylonian Name	Ingredient
Aries	The Hired Man	Sheep
Taurus	The Stars (Pleiades)	Bull
Gemini	The Twin	Rooster
Cancer	The Crab	Crab
Leo	The Lion	Lion
Virgo	The Barleystalk	Barley-flour, Raven
Libra	The Balance	"empty"
Scorpio	The Scorpion	"empty"
Sagittarius	Pabilsag	Anzu-bird
Capricorn	The Goat-fish	Goat
Aquarius	The Great One	Eagle
Pisces	The Tails	Dove, Swallow

Astrology and the calendar

(From left to right) Ashur, Ishtar, Sin, Enlil, Shamash, Adad, and Ishtar of Arbela are flanked by two star-worshippers

The calendar and astrology were very interconnected. When creating the calendar for the next month or year, it was important to keep in mind where important festivals and other religious activities would fall. It seems that four nearby, surrounding countries contributed to each twelve-month calendar year: Elam, Amurru, Subartu, and Akkad. The months were divided intro groups of three, alternating by four, evenly split among the four lands. The first, fifth, and ninth months belonged to Akkad, the second, sixth, and tenth belonged to Elam, the third, seventh, and eleventh belonged to Amurru, and the fourth, eighth, and twelfth belonged to Subartu. Days of each month follows the same pattern, beginning with one for Akkad, two for Elam, three for Amurru, four for Subartu, five for Akkad, and so on. As calendars were often created by priests, months that would come with rather unfavorable events were limited, especially prioritizing against eclipses and new moons; this practice also carried over into scheduling the days of each month. The moon was rather important to Mesopotamian peoples, often it was what they based their calendar on. Lunar omens were among the most commonplace and, most often, they were based on eclipses rather than simple visibility. Deities of Mesopotamia were associated with certain times, days, and months.

In more mythological belief, at the end of each day, the sun god, Shamash, retired to "the lap of heaven" to rest.