Mesopotamian Astronomers' Introduction of the Zodiac as the Band of Constellations
This essay analyzes the earliest history of the zodiac in Mesopotamian astronomy with the help of cuneiform sources on constellations dating from the second millennium BCE, the scholarly «memoirs» and «reports» to Assyrian kings of the 7th century BCE, and the defi nition of the zodiac in MUL.APIN. There is no reason to assume that zodiacal constellations played any special role in Mesopotamian astronomy during the second millennium BCE. During the Neo-Assyrian period, however, the zodiac was already known as the band of constellations, as evident from the observations of the Moon and planets relative to the zodiac and from the MUL.APIN text.