An early system A-type scheme for Saturn from Babylon

Abstract

In this paper we publish three fragments of a cuneiform tablet that, when complete, contained the dates and zodiacal positions of Saturn’s synodic phenomena for roughly 60 years. The text is unique in containing comparisons of computed data with observations. Through an analysis of the preserved data we propose that the dates and positions were computed by an otherwise unknown two-zone System A-type scheme and show that the computed data in the tablet can be dated to the fourth century BC. This early date and the comparisons with observations suggest that the text was produced during the period of active development of the planetary systems.