The Origin of the Christian Era: Fact or Fiction by Vedveer Arya

Author:Vedveer Arya [Arya, Vedveer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aryabhata Publications
Published: 2020-01-23T18:30:00+00:00

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The Chronology of Babylon

The epoch of the Nabonassarian era (1406 BCE) and the dates of Achaemenid kings of Persia are the sheet anchors of the later chronology of Babylon. It is also pertinent to establish certain sheet anchors for arriving at the chronology of ancient Babylon. Fortunately, this ancient civilization has recorded sufficient astronomical data in their inscriptions which is instrumental in establishing the absolute dates of certain historical events.

The Venus Tablet of King Ammisaduqa

This famous clay tablet records the astronomical observations (the heliacal rising and setting) of Venus for a period of 21 years during the reign of King Ammisaduqa. Historians have proposed four different dates (1702 BCE, 1646 BCE, 1582 BCE and 1550 BCE) of King Ammisaduqa but miserably failed to explain the astronomical data recorded on this clay tablet.1 Interestingly, Duncan Macnaughton has explained the dates of Venus Tablet in his book “The scheme of Babylonian Chronology: From the flood to the fall of Nuneveh” in 1930 and logically explained the dates of Venus tablet around 2260-2239 BCE but he ignored the reconciliation of the dates with Babylonian calendar. Since the historians were pursuing the chronology with prejudice to the fictitious epoch of 1 CE, they assumed that the date of Ammisaduqa cannot be beyond the period of 1600-1550

BCE. Therefore, the historians rejected the date arrived by Macnaughton considering it as a very early date. In fact, Duncan Macnaughton has propounded a hypothesis that certain year names of the Hammurabi period, which record the enthronement of Babylonian gods, fall on dates which are apparently related in some way to the synodic periods

184 | The Origin of the Christian Era: Fact or Fiction of planets. He has speculated that the enthronement of the planetary gods was apparently being carried out when the heliacal rising of their respective planets took place during the month of Nisan.

Interestingly, Babylonians had the knowledge of the synodic period (584 days or ~20 months) of Venus. The synodic period is the time Venus takes to be seen again from the Earth in the same position with respect to the Sun. When Venus is between Earth and Sun (inferior conjunction) or on the far side of the sun (superior conjunction), it is invisible in the Sun’s glare. Since its greatest elongation from the Sun is never more than 45°, Venus rises as a morning star for about 263 days, invisible when it is behind the sun, appears as the evening star for about 263 days and again invisible when it is in front the sun. Thus, Venus becomes invisible twice during each synodic period. The First and last visibilities repeat themselves after five synodic periods or 8 years. The duration of invisibility is determined by the common longitude of Venus and the sun at conjunction. At inferior conjunction, Venus remains invisible between about 1 day (L= 320O) and about 19 days (L= 160O), while at superior conjunction, Venus remains invisible between 55 days (L= 285O) and 70 days (L= 55O). A Tablet of Babylonian King Ammisaduqa records these observations of heliacal rising and setting of Venus for 21 years.

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