Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa
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| Material | Clay |
|---|---|
| Size | Length: 17.14 cm (6.75 in) Width: 9.2 cm (3.6 in) Thickness: 2.22 cm (0.87 in) |
| Writing | cuneiform, |
| Period/culture | Neo-Assyrian |
| Place | Kouyunjik |
| Present location | Room 55, British Museum, London |
| Registration | K.160 |
The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (Enuma Anu Enlil Tablet 63) refers to the record of astronomical observations of Venus, as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets dating from the first millennium B.C. It is believed that this astronomical record was first compiled during the reign of King Ammisaduqa (or Ammizaduga), the fourth ruler after Hammurabi. Thus, the origins of this text should probably be dated to around the mid-seventeenth century B.C. (according to the Middle Chronology).
The tablet recorded the rise times of Venus and its first and last visibility on the horizon before or after sunrise and sunset (the heliacal risings and settings of Venus) in the form of lunar dates. These observations are recorded for a period of 21 years.
This Venus tablet is part of Enuma anu enlil ("In the days of Anu and Enlil"), a long text dealing with Babylonian astrology, which mostly consists of omens interpreting celestial phenomena.
The earliest copy of this tablet to be published, a 7th-century BC cuneiform, part of the British Museum collections, was recovered from the library at Nineveh. It was first published in 1870 by Henry Creswicke Rawlinson and George Smith as Enuma Anu Enlil Tablet 63, in "Tablet of Movements of the Planet Venus and their Influences" (The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, volume III).
As many as 20 copies of this text are currently on record, many of them fragmentary, falling into 6 groups. The oldest of these copies is believed to be Source "B", found at Kish in 1924. It was copied from a tablet written at Babylon while Sargon II was King of Assyria between 720 and 704 BCE.
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