V/.nas/n AsUonom~Vol. 36, pp. 171-190, 1993 0083-6656/93 $24.

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Printed in GreatBrita~. All fightsreserved. @ 1993 Per~man Press Ltd

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ZODIACAL

CONSTELLATIONS
Alex A. Gurshtein
Research Group on Astronomy and Space, Institu~ for History of Science and
Technology, Academy of Sciences of Russia, Moscow, Russia

Abstract
A reconstruction of the evolution of the zodiacal constellations is made, based on the Indo-
european and Sumero-Akkadian religio-cultural data, including artifacts such as cult statuettes,
cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals and boundary stones. It is argued that the development of
the twelve houses of the zodiac in three groups of four over some six millennia was dictated by
the changes made by precession in the positions of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and the
winter and summer solstices.

1 Introduction
It was E.W.Maunder who considered that the constellation-makers had lived around 2700 B.C.
at a latitude between 35° to 40 ° north (1). A.C.D.Crommelin arrived at a similar result (2).
More recently Michael W. Ovenden dated the origin of the constellations as 2600 ± 800 B.C. and
took the geographical latitude of the constellation-makers to be 36°+1.5 ° north (3). Archie E.
Roy, continuing Ovenden's work in analysing the list of the constellations in the Aratus' poem
'The Phaenomena', suggested that they had come from Crete in the early Minoan period being
derived from the Sumero-Akkadian astronomer-priests' observations (4).
Most researchers believe that the Babylonian tradition of constellations' formulation and
naming was handed down from Sumer and Akkad. According to W. Hartner, it is actually
more ancient and "had its origin about or even some time before 4000 B.C. with the prehis-
toric settlers of Persia, Elam, and Mesopotamia, and it was taken over by the Sumerians and
Akkadians, from where it eventually passed over to the Greeks" (5). We haw, t,o note that in
some cases this point of view is categorically rejected (6).
A very specific item is the remarkable appearance of Ursa Major. A Soviet philologist Y.A.
Karpenko declared that the age of the constellation is of order 100,000 years. Due to the proper
star motions, the appearance of the constellation was similar to she-bears in that epoch (7).
The idea that this constellation is the oldest was provided a stronger foundation by Owen
Gingerich. Because the name of the bear existed among different Indian tribes throughout
North America, he proposed that "a celestial bear crossed the Bering Straits with ancient
migrants; especially.., the same identification is found across Siberia, as has been pointed out
to me by Alexander Marshak. Such an early tradition could well have diffused throughout the
world from the ancient cave dwellers of Europe... In the widespread mythological connection of
the dipper stars with a Great Bear (Ursa Major) we have a hint that a few of the constellations
may date back as far as the Ice Ages" (8).

171
 172 A. A. Gurshtein

This present work is an attempt to determine the date of the origins of the Zodiac using the
symbolic meanings of the constellations of a specific and important part of the celestial sphere
- the Zodiacal belt. Indeed we believe that we can date the origin of the four most ancient
zodiacal constellations as far back as some 5.5 thousand years B.C.

2 The Four D i s t i n c t i v e Points on the Ecliptic

On the celestial sphere the relative positions of stars remain practically unchanging for centuries,
and that is why they are indispensable as registration marks to fix the movements of the roving
bodies - the Sun, the Moon and the planets. Today twelve Zodiacal constellations along the
ecliptic are combined in the belt of the Zodiac. Their configuration is irregular, exhibiting
varying longitudinal extent. The twelve signs of the Zodiac - which are geometrically correct
sectors of the belt of the Zodiac having equal longitude extents of 30 ° each - are connected with
the traditional corresponding constellations.
According to B.L. van der Waerden (9), the first of the known cuneiform texts which contain
information about the ecliptic divided into twelve equal signs are related to the 5th century
B.C. The more ancient babylonian texts, for instance the famous mulAPIN series that is dated
700 B.C., do not contain equal signs but only irregular Zodiacal constellations. It appears that
irregular constellations were first established in the ecliptic.
The problem of the origin of the term Zodiac itself, which is the translation from the Greek
zodiakos kyklos, remains unsolved. As is well known, almost half of the names of the Zodiacal
constellations have nothing to do with the animal world (5 out of 12). These are Gemini,
Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius. Probably, the emergence of the term zodiac in the
Greek world was a reflection of a more ancient historical event and this linguistic singularity
requires special consideration.
The solar year is approximately composed of 12 lunar months, and this is supposed to be
the reason the annual path of the Sun had to be divided into 12 regulars signs of the Zodiac.
Although the final part of this evolution is understood, we are interested in this paper in the
initial stages of the formulation of the Zodiacal constellations.
Very clear evidence exists in the mulAPIN text for the correlation of the month of the
year to the ecliptic constellation and for the division of the four seasons of the year cycle (10).
However, B.L.van der Waerden emphasizes the older age of this knowledge, which comes from
the most ancient astronomical texts of 1100 B.C. or even earlier (11).
The creation of the Sumerian handwriting is dated as far as the middle of the 3rd millennium
B.C. while the processes involved in the domestication of animals and cereals were evident even
in the 9th-5th millennia B.C. when the great agricultural societies had been formed. The
emergence of agriculture could have been accompanied by systematic astronomical observation
which naturally were not recorded in written form because writing did not exist at that time.
That is why the problem has to be tackled from the general point of view of an astronomer
who has experience of real observations.
Any observing astronomer is aware that systematical observations of the starry sky could
first have found the direct connection between the appearance of the night sky and the seasons
of the solar year. At the same time, the correlation of the Sun's height over the horizon with
the duration of daylight and darkness (i.e. the rising and setting points of the Sun at the
horizon) should have inevitably led to the identification of not more than four special points
on the ecliptic lying in the belt of the Zodiac: the vernal equinox, the point of summer solstice
(the highest mid-day height of the Sun over the horizon), the autumn equinox, and the point
of winter solstice (lowest mid-day height of the Sun over the horizon). These points should
have inevitably been fixed soon after the discovery of the fact that the sequence of the four
seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter) was firmly connected with the annual motion of
 Zodiacal Constellations 173

the Sun on the celestialsphere among the stars and could be forecast preciselythanks to the
Sun's movement.
It is possible thereforeto formulate two postulates for the foundation of our reconstruction.
At first,we assume that, together with the observation of the M o o n and the planets'movement
among the stars,the Sun's position on the eclipticagainst the star background had also been
adopted by the earlieststages of astronomical observations. As the second postulate we assume
that the astronomical observation of the Sun's movement along the eclipticled in time to the
identificationof the four special points of the ecliptic. One must keep in mind that the four
distinctivepoints of the eclipticare required to mark out four groups of stars - constellations
on the celestialsphere.
Sky pictures or registrationmarks? If the design of the constellationshad been motivated
by the picture principle, that is by the combining of noteworthy starry groups, they should
consist of bright stars with the easily remembered configurationsfirstof all. Certainly there
are constellationsthat are distinguished in accordance with their configuration peculiarity:
Ursa Major, Cassiopea, Pegasus and a few others. However, it is firstof all the eclipticthat
gives contrary examples. Pisces with its vast area does not contain stars that are brighter than
the fourth magnitude. Another vast constellation- Aquarius - does not include stars brighter
than the third magnitude. Nor are there bright stars in Sagittarius (12).
These facts support the view that ancient observers had been trying to solve not only the
problem of uniting bright starry groups into the constellations(starry pictures) but also the
problem of fixing certain important areas of the celestialsphere (space marks). This last thesis
is the third postulate of the reconstruction proposed below.
The problem discussed is connected with the problem of the semantic decoding of the ancient
names of constellations. Modern science has stressed the Greek interpretationof this problem
according to which the sky is embroidered with peculiar pattern-pictures. In other words, the
names of constellationsreflectmainly the outward appearance of starry groups. However, there
exists another point of view.
Consider the eclipticalposition of Libra. W h e n the Sun is there, durations of daylight and
darkness are equal. There is a very ancient point of view that this fact was not accidental (13).
The Russian author N.A.Morozov touched the sense of the name Libra: ~Now you do un-
derstand the sense of the figure that is put here. The firstastronomer, Chaldean or Egyptian...
marked this place of the sky on the m a p composed by him with the figure of a balance as the
symbol of daylight and darkness durations balancing. So this picture is a simple inscription
that relatesto that ancient time when people made their symbolic notes on the sky..."(14).
The key aspect of the problem is whether the names of ancient constellationswere given
in accordance with their outward appearance or whether they were memory marks associated
with the symbols of certain natural phenomena.
The thesis of the symbolic approach towards the naming of stars and constellationsis
supported by the folklore of Australian aborigines, provided over a hundred of years ago by
E.B.Tylor, an outstanding researcher of primitive culture: "The savage names and storiesof
stars and constellationsm a y seem at firstbut childish and purposeless fancies; but it always
happens in the study of the .....races, that the more means we have of understanding their
thoughts, the more sense and reason do we find in them. The aborigines of Australia say that...
Marpean-Kurrk and Neilloan (Arcturus and Lyra) were the discoverersof the ant-pupas and
the eggs of the loan-bird, and taught the aborigines to find them for food. Translated into the
language of fact, these simple myths record the summer place of the stars in question, and the
seasons of ant-pupas and loan-eggs, which seasons are marked by the stars who are calledtheir
discoverers" (15).
Concluding the examination of a number of examples, Tylor noted: ~When we consider
that the Australians who can invent them with such fullnessof meaning, are savages who put
two and one together to make their numeral for three,we may judge how deep in the history of
 174 A. A. Gurshtein

culture those conceptions lie, of which the relics are still represented in our star-maps...'(16).
We consider it a justification to insert the fourth general postulate for further reconstruction:
the names of constellations were not the result of the imagination; once appeared, they were
given the symbolic definitions.

3 T h e C o n s t a n c y of Traditions
Formed in the 19th century as a scientific discipline, ethnography is based on the outstanding
steadiness of the officially adopted or unadopted traditional rituals and creeds. The names and
pictures of Zodiacal constellations also are convincing evidence of the steadiness or stability
of traditions. The information we have acquired embraces two and a half millennia, including
the final stage of the Mesopotamian culture, the Antiquity period, the Hellenism epoch, the
birth of Christianity, the rising of the Moslem religion, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and
modern times.
The original reasons for adopting the signs of the Zodiac were completely forgotten at least
as far back as Antiquity. Many attempts have been made to radically rename the Zodiacal
constellations. For example, Christian authors such as Gregory of Tours applied Biblical names
(17), nevertheless the appearance and names of these ancient constellations, despite all the
changes of a social-cultural context, have remained practically inviolable up to now. The
astronyms (the names of the celestial objects) are characterised by a high degree of stability
which is equal to that of toponyms and hydronyms (18).
In fact the assumption that the constancy of Zodiacal designation is meaningful can be used
in the analysis of the most ancient epochs, because the most ancient civihsations were oriented
primarily not to innovation but assimilation and transmission of the features that preserved
social structure. I.P.Weinberg notes: "The orientation to traditions dominated in the ancient
oriental society and the culture of the ancient Near East. It was conditioned by the specificness
of many of... the premises of the culture development, but most of all by the essence of
mythological mentality, in accordance to which the traditions of the Past and the experience of
ancestors were evaluated as the absolute truth and as the model for the following generation...
The domination of absolute truth.., is connected with.., the adherence to the standards, that
express and reflect this truth, to stable stereotypes of behaviour, idioms of speech and formulae,
motives and forms of imitative arts. A man possessing a mythological mentality felt himself
calm and assured in his familiar enviroment and usual conditions. That is why his house and
utensils, dress and meal barely changed for thousands of years; and that is why the literature
and art genres are so stable, each of them having permanent plots, formulae, methods; and
this is the reason why new temples were not only constructed in the places of former ones, but
also imitated their exterior; herefrom - the general canonicity and the aspiratioJl to repeat the
experience of predecssors..." (19).
The postulate of the constancy of traditional astronyms is therefore the fifth one in the
system of premises which will be the base of the proposed reconstruction.

4 T h e Influence of Precession
The problem of by whom and under what circumstances the phenomenon of precession was
discovered does not directly concern our interests. We simply recall that the spatial motion of
the Earth's rotation axis describes a cone about the axis of the ecliptic, causing the positions
of the 4 distinctive ecliptic points (spring, summer, autumn, winter) to move along the ecliptic
with a period of about 26,000 years. Meanwhile, the plane of the ecliptic remains practically
unchanged on the sky. This means that the distinctive points shift counterclockwise among
 Zodiacal Constellations 175

the signs of the Zodiac, passing one sign in approximately 2,140 years. We will consider as a
sufficiently accurate value the distinctive points to remain within one sign for 2,000 years.
The Zodiacal constellations were handed down to us in the antique tradition in the order
displayed in the figures.
It is known that from the start of the Christian era the locations of the distinctive points
of the eclitptic are:
The vernal equinox - in Pisces;
The summer solstice - in Gemini;
The autumn equinox - in Virgo;
The winter solstice - in Sagittarius.
During the first and second millennia B.C. the distinctive points of the ecliptic had been in
other constellations:
The vernal equinox - in Aries;
The summer solstice - in Cancer;
The autumn equinox - in Libra;
The winter solstice - in Capricornus.
Now the presence of the distinctive ecliptical points in the four mentioned constellations
does not depend on whether the phenomenon of precession is known to the observer or not;
the disposition of the distinctive points is determined by a purely empirical method from
observations.
Let us designate the system of constellations in which the four distinctive ecliptical points
are placed in each epoch by the name of the vernal point. Thus, the four ediptical constellations
of the epoch from 2,000 B.C. to the start of the Christian era will be called the quartet of Aries:
Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricornus.
In its turn, the epoch from 4,000 to 2,000 B.C. is characterised by the positioning of the
distinctive points of the ecliptic within the boudaries of the constellations of Taurus' quartet:
The vernal equinox - in Taurus;
The summer solstice - in Leo;
The autumn equinox - Scorpio;
The winter solstice - in Aquarius.
And finally, before 4,000 B.C. the spring, summer, autumnal, and winter points were placed
within the figures of the constellations of Gemini's quartet: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and
Pisces.
If the ecliptical constellations had existed in the epoch of the neolithic revolution, distinctive
points would have been located within the limits of Cancer's quartet, namely in Cancer, Libra,
Capricornus and Aries.
Further reconstruction requires formulating a sixth postulate on the correctness of collective
analysis of the ecliptical constellations within the limits (and only within the limits) of the quar-
tets that are designated. In fact, we have already drawn attention to the fact that observation
of the roving bodies at the ecliptic requires simultaneous distinctiveness of exactly four special
points. Hence, four constellations should be used simultaneously to fix these distinctive points,
and the integrity of the constellations should be considered as the whole. In ancient times when
one epoch changed to another because of precession, an observer empirically determined a new
set of four constellations for the distinctive points of the ecliptic and also had the possibility to
propose new symbolisms which preserved an integrity of concept within the limits of the new
quartet.
The changing quartets are the direct result of precession and the four special points on the
ecliptic, no matter whether or not ancient observers comprehended the source of the difference
between their observations and those of their predecessors. Having no idea of the existence of
the laws of nature, they might consider that the difference between their observations and the
 176 A. A. Gurshtein

canon of their predecessors derived either from the inaccuracy of their predecessors' data or
from the will of the gods.
What follows will show that the analysis of Cancer's quartet for the epoch from 8,000 to
6,000 B.C. makes no sense from the point of view of its symbols while the analysis of the quartet
of Gemini provides important and self-consistent results.

5 T h e Quartet of Gemini
This quartet incorporated the distinctive points of the ecliptic approximately up to 4,000 B.C.
It is comprised of the four constellations of the ecliptic which include Gemini (the spring),
Virgo (the summer), Sagittarius (the autumn), and Pisces (the winter).
It is to be noted that these four constellations include Mmost all of the anthropomorphic
(manlike) constellations (three out of four). These four constellations could not claim the name
of the circle of animals (zodiakos kyklos) since it is a circle of human beings. In reconstruct-
ing the symbolic meaning of the names of this quarter's constellations, we refer to religious-
mythological topics of Indo-europeans, the research of which is contained in the monograph of
T.V.Gamkrelidze & V.V.Ivanov (20). The world of Indo-europeans allows us to give a correct
explanation of the symbolism of all the names of this quartet.
The Sun was the supreme God of the Indo-european pantheon. The widely spread cult of
the twins in the indo-european mythology goes back to the general Indo-european myth about
two heavenly twins - the children of the Solar God. This myth is revealed in all major ancient
Indo-european traditions. For example, in the epoch of Homer this myth is presented in the
form of a story about twins Dioskurs. However, twins are not always boys. T.V.Gamkrelidze
~z V.V.Ivanov write ~Various versions of the Indo-european twins cult have something common
in them - the notion of the twins' incest of a brother and a sister, from whom Mankind began"
(21). Gemini was called the Great Twins in the text mulAPIN. Incidentally, there are also a
number of native American myths of twins, who are identified as sons of the Sun (22).
As A.M.Zolotarev remarks, the twins-demiurges are the product of the most archaic variant
of the cosmogonic myth (23). The twins' myth should be evaluatated as a peculiar and most
ancient rough copy of the biblical legend of Adam and Eve.
It is the spring that is the natural beginning of every annual cycle; and Gemini, as the
source of new life in the mind of an Indo-european, could serve as an evident sign of the vernal
revival of Nature.
In the examination of the Indo-european pantheon it is reasonable to link the celestial Virgo
with the cult of Mother-woman that was widely spread in the Near and Middle East. Such an
approach is not accidental considering that the image of the woman - the source of fertility -
goes back to the matriarchy and is closely connected with traditions even in class societies. This
image is typical for the art ranging from the Paleolithic to the early agricultural societies: the
figures of naked, pregnant woman and woman giving birth (the symbolic of fertility) are widely
known thanks to the archaeological data . James Mellaart, the great specialist on Asia before
the Neolithic revolution, pointed to the finding of small cult woman statuettes practically in
every house during the diggings of Hacilar-6 (nearly 5,600 B.C.) (24). MeUaart considered that
the statuettes excavated by him in that area were designed for the performance of the rites
of the fertility cult. They lacked sexual symbolism, and their exterior was primarily aimed to
display pregnancy.
It is important to underline that Virgo in all the known ancient portrayals is represented
with an ear of grain in her hands; and i~ should be considered as duplicating the symbol of
fertility. Thus the choice of the Mother-goddess holding a spike, as the symbol of fertility, seems
to be correct within the frames of the Indo-european traditions. Evidently, it ~as Greece where
the heavenly chastity was honoured as the class society developed, and where the attributes of
 Zodiacal Constellations 177

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Fig 1 The Northern Helmsphere constellations after Eratosthenes. Reproduced from Schaubach's edition of the
Catasterlsml by Buhle, Leipzig 1801
178 A. A. Gurshtein

I-ENISPIt~:lfll"~l AUSTIV~E

Fig 2 The Southern Hermsphere constellations after Eratosthenes Reproduced from Schaubach's edition of the
Catasterlsm] by Buhle, Leipzig 1801
 Zodiacal ConsteUations 181

it served as an important decoration of ancient oriental temples and had left a firm memory in
the arts, establishing itself in the pages of the Old Testament under the name of the "Golden
Calf'.
The name of 'wild bull'- or taurus - goes back to the Indo-european root and is reconstructed
as *t(h)anro- . T.V.Gamkrelidze & V.V.Ivanov emphasise that "the similarity of this Indo-
european word with the general Semite *tawr-...testifies to the fact that these words are a
reflection of a certain migrational Near East term designed to distinguish this animal which
played a special cult role in the ancient cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean'(29).
Bulls were one of the first animals to be domesticated and were widely used in the economic-
transport activity before the domestication of horses. Bulls are also widely known as the most
important worship animals of the Near East culture of the 7-6 millennium B.C. thanks to the
materials found during archaeological excavations. Numerous Assyrian and Egyptian statues,
the legend of the Minotaur, the mountain name Tanr, the modern corrida, and finally the
attitude to cows as to sacred animals are the elements of the reflection of the Indo-european
cult of the Bull.
The spreading of the cult of the Bull all over the ancient East precludes determination of
the area where the possible authors of the name of Taurus constellation lived. However, the
correctness of this image symbol in connection with the vernal revival of Nature cannot be
challenged.
The role of lions in worship, as the symbol of supreme power, is also of Indo-european origin.
The echo of this role is reflected by such world-known monuments as the lions over the gate of
Mycenae and she-lions beside the throne in Pilos. The monuments of Mycenaean Greece repeat
the motives of the Hettic and Lubean imitative arts. A lion, as a sacred animal, is reflected in
the myth of Hercules, who kills the lion and puts its skin on. Thousands of years later the lion
still remains the most important heraldic sign.
Leo, as an indicator of the Sun's reaching the highest point of its ecliptical path, is an
appropriate symbol.
Work by Willy Hartner (1965), which turned out to be an important stimulus to start this
reconstruction, contains the analysis of the motif of the lion which tears a Bull, a motif regularly
met in ancient Eastern art starting from the Elamite seal (the 4th millennium B.C.) and going
on through Sumerian art up to late Persian miniatures. Hartner convincingly proves that the
plot of the fight of the lion with the bull was of sacred astronomical meaning and marked such
a calender event as the transition from spring to summer. Agreeing with Hartner we add that
the problem he raised is much greater: before they were taken from the sky Taurus and Leo,
together with the other symbols, were deliberately 'lifted' onto the sky as the signs of the four
special positions of the Sun on its annual path.
A scorpion is also a familiar symbol to us from ancient Egyptian and Babylonian sources(30).
It is also, it may be noted, repeatedly mentioned as an image in the Bible.
The presence of Scorpio in the point of the autumnal equinox is evident though. Sagittarius
~wounded" the Sun, which began its fall into the waters of the ocean; the same image belongs to
the stinging Scorpio, a night spider, which ends its existence after fulfilling its main physiological
function.
In this context Aquarius, at first glance, does not suit the Taurus quartet. However every-
thing that has been mentioned above, concerning the symbolic sense of Pisces, is applicable to
the symbolism of this constellation. In any case, Aquarius, like Pisces, is evidently connected
with the water element which embodies the winter withdrawal of the Sun to Hell - the lower
world.
Again it may be noted that the symbolism of the constellations of the Taurus quartet
cannot provide clues to the geographical area of their origin. However, there seems little doubt
of their direct connection with the ancient Eastern civilizations in the epoch of town growth
and relatively developed religious and worship mentality.
 182 A. A. Gurshtein

7 T h e q u a r t e t o f Aries.
After 2,000 B.C. the constellations of the Taurus quartet started losing their role as marks of
the distinctive points of the ecliptic. Just as in the previous case the new circumstances would
not have been found immediately, it seems certain that the transition to the quartet of Aries
continued for several centuries, until the descrepancy of the actual points of spring, summer,
autumn, and winter on the ecliptic to the old marks became evident. In its formal composition
the quartet of Aries is similar to the quartet of Cancer. However it differs from the latter by
the order of the constellation disposition and admits the interpretation of their names, which
was impossible in the case of the Cancer quartet.
The symbolism of the constellations of the Aries quartet matches the new cultural situation
of the Near East. The Old Testament's refrains against idols and cult-statues of Near-eastern
temples may be recalled. The victory of monotheism was immanent; apart from anthems and
exorcism, art images and parables had been widely spread in literature. In the context of these
innovations the decoding of the symbolism of the Aries quartet's constellations is not simply
sacral, but also (partially) literary and artistic. Only two images out of four can have some
connection with the Indo-european roots in this quartet: Aries and Capricornus.
The significance of Ram-Aries basically comes from the great economic role of domestic
sheep, which provided the Indo-europeans with wool. Alongside horses and cows, sheep belong
to the group of 3 main sacrificial animals dedicated to the gods. Just as a bull was always
located near a sacrificial cow, a ram always stood nearby a sheep. In the Babylonian written
evidence we will see that the name of the Ram is not of Babylonian origin but quite compatible
with the traditions of the Indo-europeans, Babylonians, and Egyptians.
The Goat's cult designation can be found in many ancient religions. In the mythology of
ancient Iceland the Goat is known as the animal harnessed into the Chariot of the god. "The
exclusive archaism of this image is proved by the similar evidence of some Indo-european tra-
ditions: the Baltic one, in which thunder-god Perkunas rides goats, the Slavonic, mythological
heroes which are on goat-back, and especially the ancient Indian one, in which goats appear as
means of transport used by gods...'(31).
The ritual mission of the goat-carrier is reflected in the Bible. The scapegoat liberates
religious people from the moral burden, carrying away on his back all their sins; this plot
undoubtedly has deep religious-mythological roots.
It should be noted that Capricornus is illustrated everywhere as a goat with a fish's tail. On
the famous circle Zodiac of Denderah this goat-fish is displayed with a man on his back. The
name Goat-fish according to written sources is of Sumerian origin. It means that Capricornus
is actually the direct heir of those water symbols used for the point of winter equinox both in
the quartet of Gemini and in the quartet of Taurus. Capricornus is the carrier of the souls of
the dead down to the Lower World.
Cancer as the symbol of summer, can allegorically mean the reversal of the Sun's motion
from the highest point of the ecliptic, as Libra implied; it is a good art image to portray the
autumnal equinox point.

8 T h e size c r i t e r i o n
The present 88 constellations were elaborated on the celestial sphere by using different features
and they have areas of different size ranging from about 1,300 square degrees (Hydra, Virgo,
Ursa Major) to some 70-80 square degrees (Crux, Equuleus, Sagitta). It is found that the
later constellations, elaborated, for instance, by Ioahann Hevelius, have areas which as a rule
are smaller than those of the ancient ones. This consideration is statistical in nature, and its
evident roots are based on the consequence that the components of any process become smaller
 ~diacal Constellations 179

the goddess were transformed: vestal Virgo appeared in the sky instead of a life-giving woman.
The autumnal constellation of the quartet under consideration is represented by Sagittarius -
centaur or simply hunter on a horse with a bow in his hands. As T.V.Gamkrelidze & V.V.Ivanov
note, the Indo-europeans distinguished horses as primarily domestic animals, the creatures that
were ritually the closest to people; this attitude was observed after thousands of years in the
ritual of the burying of Kings together with their wives and horses.
Sagittarius fully reflects the autumnal symbolism: it can be understood as a hunter who
shoots at the Sun which crosses the ecliptic and starts its descent into the lowest, hellish world.
Armed with a bow, Sagittarius is an archaic person because in that epoch bows were replaced
with more sophisticated types of weapons.
In winter the midday height of the Sun over the horizon is the lowest; the Sun appears to
linger over the threshold of the Lower World.
The direct connection of the solar movement with the Lower World was long ago followed
in detail with the help of rich ethnographic material by E.B.Tyler: "It is by the simplest poetic
adaptation of the Sun's daily life, typifying Man's life in drawing beauty, in mid-day glory, in
evening death, that mythic fancy even fixed the belief in the religions of the world, that the
land of Departed Souls lies in the Far West or the World Below. How deeply the myth of
the sunset has entered into the doctrine of men concerning a Future State, hog' the West and
the Under-World have became by mere imaginative analogy Religions of the Dead, how the
quaint day-dreams of savage poets may pass into honoured dogmas of classic sages and modern
divines,- all this crowd of details here cited from the wide range of culture stand to prove" (25).
The same problem is elucidated in numerous works by M.Eliade(26).
The Land of the Dead is situated in the West under the water boundary. Numerous Indo-
european rituals remind us of the fact that water was considered an element of the Lower World.
Possibly the waters of the Lower World at first had no anthropomorphic sign of their own and
because of this, fishes(Pisces), as primary symbol of the Lower World, could be used for that
purpose. In this way, the reconstruction of the symbolism of the 4 constellations which we call
the quartet of Gemini is simple, quite correct,and not difficult to fit within the frames of the
general Indo-european religious-mythological mentality.
The dualism of the Indo-europeans. T.V.Gamkrelidze & V.V.Ivanov emphasise that "the
dualism of the social organisation of the ancient Indo-european society.., greatly influences
the nature of the spiritual life of ancient Indo-europeans and determines the binary charac-
ter of religious and mythological mentality as well as some features of the model of the real
World" (27).
The fact that all of the four constellations of the quartet of Gemini are binary indeed is of
special importance for our research. The dualism of Gemini's symbol needs no explanation.
The mother-goddess as the symbol of fertility in fine arts, as we mentioned above, is doubled
by another symbol of fertility -the wheat ear. The duality of the symbol a horse and a rider is
indubitable as well. In addition, Sagittarius as a centaur appeared only in the antique world.
The picture on the babylonian boundary stone of the Kassite period (the second half of the
second millennium B.C.) shows a horse with a creature on its back having two heads, two tails,
and two wings; this symbol is double dual . Lastly, all of the known pictures of the Pisces
constellation always and everywhere consist of two and not one fish.
The fact that the majority of the ecliptic constellations having clearly expressed binary
symbols, turn out to be concentrated in the quartet of Gemini seems significant. Neither Cancer,
nor Leo, Scorpio, Aries, or Taurus could be transferred to the binary symbolism. Aquarius is
the only constellation possessing this probable dual nature in the quartet of Taurus. In the
ancient material he often carries two vessels in his hands. Libra and Capricornus (2 of the
4 constellations in the quartet of Aries), could be claimed to have a binary interpretation.
Libra is certainly characterised by two pans, though it is a single symbol of the Measure, while
Capricornus, which resembles a mermaid in the imitative material, is also a single creature; in
 180 A. A. Gurshtein

this sense it differs radically from the Babylonian version of Sagittarius having two heads and
two tails.
Thus the coincidence of the symbolism of the quartet of Gemini with the widespread Indo-
european myths, as well as the dualism principle, clearly displayed in this quartet, are the
indirect evidence that the 4 constellations belong to a single group. Howew'r, we have no
reason to insist categorically on the Indo-european origin of the examined symbolism, because
it is a universal one and its origin goes back far beyond the 6th millennium B.C.(28). So,
the question of who were the makers of the first constellations cannot be answered in this way
because the proposed reconstruction concerns only the dating of the constellations' development
and does not determine the area where their makers lived.
In what follows we shall give the grounds for the conclusion that the quartet of Gemini
were the first 4 constellations fixed at the ecliptic, which we now call the constellations of
the first generation. Note that if we try to examine the quartet of Cancer which precedes
those of Gemini as far as its epoch is concerned (Cancer, Libra, Capricornus and Aries) not
a single assertion that we made above (the integrity of the quartet's symbolism as a circle
of anthropomorphic gods, the correspondence to the social-cultural context of the epoch, the
connection of the symbols with the corresponding distinctive points of the ecliptic, the water
character of any ecliptic constellation in winter) would suit it.

6 T h e q u a r t e t o f Taurus.
At the turn of the 5th and the 4th millennia B.C. precession moved the 4 distinctive ecliptical
points beyond the limits of the 4 human constellations marking the circle of human beings.
Naturally, such a circumstance would not develop at once. Nevertheless, how would the ancient
observers react to it?
Undoubtedly the stability of traditions would not permit the obliteration of the 4 constella-
tions of the human beings' circle already in existence. But,it would have been necessary to map
out another 4 sectors of the ecliptic which included the real places of its 4 distinctive points.
Let us remember that not less than 1.5-2 millennia had passed since the epoch of establish-
ment of the 4 first generation ecliptical constellations. The economic and social-cultural living
conditions of the population of the ancient Orient had greatly changed. There had appeared
the stratum of priests which provided qualified control over the temples' economy, cult, and
ritual. New subjects of official arts had appeared that were connected with the idealogical re-
quirements being established. If it was enough earlier for people to have small mud statuettes of
anthropomorphic gods, now - with the development of urban culture - big gold, silver, or stone
statues were constructed, idols made quite often in the form of animals. It may be asserted
that the theme of idolatry was directly connected with the choice of the symbols, which proved
to change the symbolism of the human beings' circle.
However there are a number of questions concerning the details of the area where the
people lived who were involved in the solution of the problem to elaborate the new 4 ecliptical
constellations of the second generation. This area may be quite different from the Indo-european
homeland of the constellations of the first generation. In any event, the image structure of the
4 newly established symbol-constellations turned out to be quite different than the former ones.
The second generation of ecliptical constellations included Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.
The period during which they maa'ked out the 4 distinctive ecliptical points embraces the epoch
approximately from 4,000 to 2,000 B.C.
Within the frames of the known motifs of the Sumerian, Assyrian, and Egyptian creative
work, the new symbolism, as well as the symbolism of the quartet of Gemini, is decoded without
any difficulty.
For the run up to spring, as we see, the primary symbol of male fertility - the Bull-was used;
 Zodiacal Constellations 183

as the process develops.

As an example, the lands that belonged to the vassals of the Russian Tsars were boundless.
From then to the time of prerevolutionary Russia the allotments of private land grew much
smaller. The lands given to people in Moscow suburbs before the Second World War reached
1 hectare in size, while the garden lots nowadays do not exceed 6 hundred square metres.
This analogy is important. The first constellations, elaborated on the tabula rasa of the
celestial sphere, on average were greater than those placed later on, possibly on a sphere that
had been already filled with many other constellations. If this assertion is correct, there should
be a correlation between the sizes of the constellations and the time of their establishment on
the celestial sphere.
Let us suppose that the sizes of the most ancient constellations are on average greater than
those of constellations established later on. The principal parameter to characterise the size
of a constellation will be its area, though this parameter alone could lead us to error. Two
other parameters; the general length of the constellation (its maximum length projected to
the ecliptic), as well as the length of the constellation along the ecliptical line expressed in
the duration of the Sun's presence within that constellation can also be used. Because we can
assume that the position of the ecliptic among the stars has varied little in the past 10,000 years,
the above mentioned parameters do not depend on precession and should remain invariant with
the passage of time.
There is no need to determine to high precision the dimensions of the constellations, so that
the modern constellation boundaries may be used. It will be shown later that in comparison
with the ancient constellation boundaries (for example, those of Ptolemy) the errors in our
statistical results will be negligible.
The required data are given in Table 1.
The first column of the table includes the names of the Zodiacal constellations; the second
one gives the constellation area in square degrees; the third one gives the maximum length of
the constellations projected onto the ecliptic (in hours); the fourth one gives the duration of
the Sun's presence in the given constellation (in days)(32).
The Sun makes one full revolution of the ecliptic in approximately 365 days (column 4),
however a part of the ecliptic is located within the boundaries of Ophiuchus, which is not
included in the group of Zodiacal constellations. Because of this, Scorpio is illustrated by two
different figures. The sum of the lengths of the constellations, projected to the ecliptic, amounts
to more than 24 hours, because the constellations "intrude" on each other.
Table 1 confirms that on average, according to all parameters, all constellations of the
quartet of Gemini are really greater than the quartet of Taurus and the latter in their turn are
greater than the constellations of the quartet of Aries. The differences in all parameters are
much larger than errors due to uncertainties in boundaries(33). If we agree with the correctness
of the dimension criterion, it will provide a quite independent and singular acknowledgement
of the fact that the constellations of the Gemini quartet should be really attributed to the first
generation, the constellations of the Taurus quartet to the second one, and the constellations
of the Aries quartet to the third generation of the set of ecliptic constellations.

9 T h e B a b y l o n i a n cuneiform evidence.
It is known that some of the products of regular astronomical observations, such as the lunar
month and the seven-day week, had appeared in the paleolithic era well before the development
of writing. In the present work we try to find evidence that the establishment of Zodiacal con-
stellations also took place well before the development of writing, the lack of which prevented
the accumulation of the information concerning the earliest stages of history of the constella-
tions. Written sources alongside the archaeological, linguistical and ethnographical material do
 184 A. A. Gurshtein

show some signs of more ancient evidence, and in this connection can also be circumstantial
support of some points made in the present paper.
TABLE 1
Parameters

Names Area Maximum Lengths Duration of Sun '

presence in the
(square degrees) (hours) constellation (day

Quartet of Gemini(6000-4000 B.C.)

Gemini 514 2.4 30
Virgo 1,290 3.5 44
Sagittarius 867 2.7 34
Pisces 889 3.0 38
AVERAGE 890 2.9 36.5

Quartet of Taurus(4000-2000 B.C.)

Taurus 797 2.7 38
Leo 947 2.6 27
Scorpio 497 2.1 37 (21)
Aquarius 980 3.7 24
AVERAGE 805 2.8 31.5 (27.5)

Quartet of Aries(2000-1 B.C,)

Aries 441 1.7 25
Cancer 506 1.3 21
Libra 538 1.6 23
Capricornus 414 1.9 24
AVERAGE 475 1.6 23
The most ancient written evidence of regular astronomical activity is found in Babylonian
cuneiform texts, the earliest of which date as far back as the turn of the 2nd and the 1st mil-
lennia B.C. The number of astronomical texts discovered by archaeologists is now considerable.
Unfortunately, most of them have not yet been carefully read and are not used in scientific
research, so we are forced to wait for new materials in this sphere.
The publication by B.L.va~ der Waerden is dedicated to the problem of analysing the signs
of the Zodiac by investigations of ancient sources. He is also the author of the most complete
summary of current results achieved in this problem(34). The identification of the Babylonian
asterisms in comparison with the modern constellations is based on the star catalogue of the
famous astronomical text mulAPIN along with more ancient astronomical texts, known under
the general name of astrolabes. The text of mulAPIN is the encyclopedia of the Babylonians'
astronomical knowledge accumulated up to 700 B.C. (the date when the most ancient table
was made). However, the description of the visual conditions for the observations of plan-
ets and constellations in mulAPIN gives grounds for earlier dating of the epoch of practical
observations used in compiling this encyclopedia, van der Waerden dated the period of the
accumulation of information for mulAPIN first from 1400 to 900 B.C. At the same time, revi-
sion of the identification of a number of stars made by W.Papke (1978) influenced him to date
the mulAPIN's observation epoch as 2300 B.C.; van der Waerden (1984) is in agreement with
W.Papke's arguments(35).
Many constellations mentioned in the mulAPIN text are strongly identified with the current
ones, in some cases having the same names. If applied to our problem, it is best to consider the
 Zodiacal Constellotions 185

mulAPIN's special part, which states that the path of the Moon on the celestial sphere, also
used by the Sun and 5 planets, goes through the 18 houses of gods - the groups of stars. Here
is their complete list.
1) mulMUL, which corresponds to the Akkad word zappu (translated as the hair brush) =
the present Pleiades;
2) muIGUD.AN.NA, which means the bull of the god Anu =Taurus;
3) mulSIBA.ZI.AN.NA -the true shepherd of the god Anu =Orion;
4) muISHU.GI, which corresponds to the Akkad word shibu meaning an old man = Perseus;
5) mulGAM - sickle sword = Auriga;
6) mulMASH.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL - the great twins = Gemini;
7) muIAL.LUL - there is something to clear up = Cancer+the star called Procyon;
8) mulUR.GU.LA - a lion or a lioness = Leo;
9) mulAB.SIN-a furrow or, according to later decoding, a wheat ear of the goddess Shala =
Virgo;
10) mulZI-BA-NI-TUM - an Akkadian word for the scales = Libra;
11) m u I G I R . T A B - a scorpion = Scorpio;
12) mulPA.BIL.SAG - an archer or the mythical hero with two heads, armed with a bow =
Sagittarius;
13) mulSUHUR.MASH - a goat with a fish tail = Capricornus;
14) mulGU.LA - a giant ? = Aquarius;
15) m u l Z I B B A T I m e s h - fish tails = Pisces;
16) muISHIM.MAH - a great swallow = the southwestern part of Pisces + Pegasus;
17) mulA-NU-NI-TUM - the Akkadian goddess, known to the priests of the 3rd millennium
B.C. as A N U N I T = the north-eastern part of Pisces + the middle part of the constellation
Andromeda;
18) mulLU.HUN.GA - the Akkadian equivalent of agru, the hireling = Aries.
This list is primarily evidence that the main ecliptic constellations in that epoch had been
already elaborated though their number had not reached 12 yet. As van der Waerden notes,
the 12 signs - not constellations but exactly signs - had appeared for the first time in the
texts of the fifth century B.C. The names of the signs are the names of the corresponding
constellations; it is remarkable that the one and the same sign in this period is marked by the
names of several related constellations. Thus the sign of Taurus in this and future texts can
be named muIGUD.AN.NA - the bull of the sky god Anu, but it also could be named mulmul
- the Pleiades, or there could be used the Akkadian word mulis-li-e - a bull yoke. This is an
assertion of the fact, that ancient names of the nearest constellations were u:~ed to name the
signs. As follows from mulAPIN and more ancient documents, the list of ecliptic constellations
begins with Taurus, which strongly suggests the epoch of their first application - the epoch of
the Taurus quartet (4000 - 2000 B.C.)
In the m u l A P I N list our attention is drawn to the completely formed names of the quartet
of Gemini which we use up to now. The only peculiarity of this quartet is that some parts of
Pisces are included in two other constellations, listed above in #16 and #17. Comparing the
Greek names of the Zodiacal constellations with their Babylonian prototypes, van der Waerden
notes that the original sense of the name mulAB.SIN was a furrow, though in another place
of m u l A P I N it is asserted that mulAB.SIN is the wheat ear of the goddess Shala.(36). In the
picture of muIAB.SIN in the text AO 6448 there is an image of the goddess with a wheat ear
in her hands.
The sense of the name mulPA.BIL.SAG from the cuneiform texts is not clear though the
Greeks graphically displayed it as a centaur. However in this case our examination is supported
by the pictures on Babylonian boundary stones, where this constellation is presented in the
image of a mythological creature with a horse body and two heads, two tails and two wings.(37).
 186 A. A. Gurshtein

As pointed out above, this creature corresponds to a much greater degree to the ideas of Indo-
European dualism.
Thus, in accordance with mulAPIN the Gemini quartet in that epoch had already been com-
pletely formed, and we have no counterproof not to consider it coming from tht, ~;th millennium
B.C.
The Taurus quartet corresponds to the condition of the observation base of the mulAPIN
text's period and actually is represented in the text with only two peculiarities. First, beside
the bull of the sky god Anu = Taurus, there is mulMUL's group = Pleiades, which is specially
formulated for its specific exterior. Second, the meaning of the name of the constellation
mulGA.LA is not yet clear, though it is considered to be identical to the Greek Aquarius ( the
Water Carrier). However, on the Babylonian boundary stone this constellation, which is later
seen in Greece, is portrayed in the image of the god, pouring water from two vessels.(38).
The most interesting thing, however, is that, as could be expected from the epoch of mu-
1APIN's composition, the Aries quartet in that text is far from being formed. Instead of the
name of Aries there is the name man, a hireling, while the Ram(Aries) appears there only in
the Greek Zodiac, and the origin of this name is not yet sufficiently clear. The sense of the
idiogram mulAL.LUL of the text mulAPIN is also not clear (of the constellation which was on
the place of the Greek Cancer). It suggests that Cancer together with Aries has Greek and not
Babylonian origin.
It seems also that a metamorphosis happened to the Babylonian Balance, which was changed
by the Greeks for the Claw of the Scorpion, though some time later it was again called the
Balance. The Babylonian Goat-fish, as clearly proved by the picture on the boundary stone,
was the carrier of the dead to the Lower World. In the Greek Zodiac it turned out to be
Capricornus. So, as is clear from the mulAPIN text, the quartet of Aries was far from having
its present state. This quartet really belongs to the last (the third) generation of the Zodiacal
constellations and was formed only in the second half of the 1st millennium B.C. within the
frames of Greek tradition.

10 summary
The arguments discussed above about the proposed reconstruction of the origin and the evolu-
tion of Zodiacal constellations may be summmarised as follows.
The constellations of the ecliptic were elaborated and fixed stage by stage during five thou-
sand years. They were the product of the astronomical observations of the behaviour of the
ancient god - the Sun-father god. These constellations were heavenly houses - the space marks
to fix the celestial areas which included the vernal, summer, autumnal and winter points. To
fulfil this aim, not only bright but also faint stars were initially included into the constellations.
The names of the constellations were not connected with their exterior as happened thousands
of years later in ancient Greece; that symbolically reflected prevailing views on the cyclic de-
velopment of natural events in context with the religious-mythological ideas of 1he epochs that
were discussed above.
The first four constellations on the path of the Sun were elaborated in the middle of the
6th millennium B.C., possibly within the geographical area of the spread of the Indo-European
culture, though the last problem deserves special consideration. Even in that epoch the total
number of the constellations in the entire celestial sphere could be more than four. Due to
the fact that the stars of these constellations had been fixed when the celestial sphere was
empty and was not divided into other constellations, the dimensions of the first constellations
inevitably turned to be large.
The few ecliptical constellations of the first generation were given symbolic names connected
with the well-known ancient religions spread among Indo-europeans. The Great Twins became
 Zodiacal Constellations 187

the symbol of the vernal revival of Nature, - the Twins that were the mythical creators of the
human race. The Mother-goddess became the symbol of the Sun's reaching its highest point
in its celestial path in the summer, the Mother-goddess who was the symbol of fertility and
appeared in the paleolithic era. Statuettes of the Mother-goddess in ancient times could be
found in every house in the Near-East area; this goddess could be considered innocent only
in the context of the antique ideas of what perfection was. The two-headed archer, sitting on
the back of a horse, became the symbol of the fall of the "wounded" Sun. And finally, the
Fishes became the symbol of the Sun's presence in the water of the Lower World. All these
symbols are binary, which is typical of Indo-european culture. As seen, the exclusive usage of
the anthropomorphic gods led to the creation of some kind of a circle of human beings.
Because of the stability of traditions all four symbolic names have remained; the fertility
goddess was transformed into Virgo with an ear of grain in her hands, while the two-headed
archer became Sagittarius, the Centaur. Nevertheless, the given constellations of the first
generation still remain a set of the greatest, as far as their sizes are concerned, of constellations
in the ecliptic.
In the 4th-3rd millennia B.C., probably in Sumer, in a completely new social - cultural
atmosphere it was found that the anthromorphic symbols of the circle of human beings did
not reflect the real orbit of the Sun. Evidently, together with the remaining four ecliptical
constellations of the first generation it became necessary to elaborate (or to rename) another
four.
In that epoch, as supported by the archaeological material, monumental temples with cult
statues, among which an important role was played by the portrayals of sacred animals, had
been widely spread in the entire Near East instead of small ancient sacred worship places. This
peculiarity is traced through the further history of Egypt. The idols - stone, silver or gold
portrayals of animal-gods - were the evident protoimages of the celestial symbols of the new
epoch, though the specificity of the new symbols' meanings are identical to the old one.
The vernal renewal began to be symbolized by the Bull, which was the embodiment of the
male reproduction principle. The kingly symbol - the Lion - became the s~ga of the Sun's
reaching the highest point of its path. The beginning of the Sun's fall into the waters of the
World's ocean was marked by the sign of the Scorpion, which kills himself in the autumn.
Finally, the Water Carrier became the master of the waters of the Lower World where the Sun
withdrew for the winter period. The constellations of the second generation were in this way
distinguished as a circle of animals, in contrast to the circle of human beings. Only the Water
Carrier belongs here to the group of dual symbols, being a relict of the epoch now past; all new
names, connected with the animal world, are monosymbolic.
As in the first case, the making of the new constellations was not hampered at this time
by serious space restrictions, and that allowed the constellations extending into space in order
that the most distinctive stars be included. The average dimensions of these new constellations
are therefore not much smaller than the dimensions of the constellations of the first generation.
During the 2nd-lst millennia B.C., the Sumerians distinguished on the ecliptic more than
12 star groups - constellations, and it was only by the 5th century B.C. that their humber was
reduced to the number of lunar months in a year. The names of the ecliptic constellations of
the third generation, which we define as the Aries quartet, were finally elaborated within the
frames of ancient Greek traditions and are not so much astral-sacral as the past generations,
but rather artistic-allegorical.
The spring was symbolized by the Ram instead of by the Babylonian hire.ling; the Ram
was a sacred animal of the solar god of ancient Egypt and had deep Indo-european roots.
Cancer, moving backwards, became the symbol of the summer turn of the Sun at the ecliptic.
Greeks didn't like the name of the Balance, which did not suit the animal circle, and as in their
broadening of the neighbouring Scorpion for the autumnal point they initially chose the Claws
of the Scorpion as the required symbol. However, due to the stability of the tradition and the
oPVA-36:7-o
 188 A. A. Gurshtein

more suitable symbolism of the Balance, the Claws in the end were replaced by the Babylonian
name for the constellation - the Balance. Finally, for the third time the "water" symbol is used
in the case of the winter solstice, with the only peculiarity that the Babylonian mythological
Goat-fish with its Indo-european origin was renamed by the Greeks by Capricornus, and its
initial designation as the carrier of the souls of the dead into the Lower World was put in
shadow.
All four constellations of the third generation have the smallest dimensions, evidence that
they were marked out after the rest of the constellations. In addition, these constellations are
also characterised by faint stars.
This reconstruction thus makes it possible to date the epoch of the elaborating of the first
zodiacal constellations, to divide the constellations into three generations, to interpret the sense
of the symbolism in every generation and to explain the origin of the name Zodiac - a circle
of animals. The reconstruction reveals the existence of the "water" sector of the ecliptic - the
three constellations, possessing the "water" symbolism (Pisces, Aquarius and Capricornus),
which in succession were used to personify the winter solstice.

11 Acknowledgements
The author is sincerely grateful to his Russian and American colleagues Profs. Anthony Aveni
(Colgate University), I.M. Djakonov (Saint-Petersburg), Owen Gingerich (Harvard-Smithsonian
Centre for Astrophysics), V.V. Ivanov (Moscow), I.L. Kyzlasov (Moscow), Alexander Marshack
(Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University), and V.N. Toporov
(Moscow) for their participation in essential and very fruitful discussions. My special thanks
goes to Prof. Stephen McCluskey of West Virginia University for many profound and valuable
comments and to Dr. Wendell Mendell of NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston for his
preliminary editing of the English manuscript. Dr. G.E. Kurtik, the author's collaborator, who
considered the above reconstruction is not correct, nevertheless provided support through the
selective collection of sources as well as by means of critical discussions, in which Dr. M.Y.
Shevtchenko also participated. Our gratitude is given most sincerely to all of them.

12 N o t e s and References
1. See E.W. Maunder's publications "The Astronomy of the Bible", Hodder and Stoughton,
London, 1909 and "The Origin of the Constellations" Observatory, vol.36, 1913.
2. See A.C.D. Crommelin "The Ancient Constellation Figures", Splendour of the Heavens,
vol.2, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1923.
3. M.W. Ovenden "The Origin of the Constellations", The Philosophical Journal, vol.3, 1966,
# 1, pp.1-18.
4. A.E. Roy "The Origin of the Constellations", Vistas in Astronomy, vol.27, 1984, pp. 171-197.
5. W. Hartner "The Earliest History of the Constellations in the Near East and the Motif of
the Lion-Bull Combat", Journal for Near Eastern Studies, vol.24, 196.5, #1-2, pp. 1-16; see for
example p.2.
6. See, for example, D.R. Dicks "Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle", Thames and Hudson,
1970, p. 159 and further.
7. This book is available only in Russian: Yu.A. Karpenko "The Names of the Starry Sky",
Moscow, Nauka, 1981, see 31-32.
8. I acknowledge with thanks Owen Gingerich's help in discussing tile problem and pointing out
his short publication "Astronomical Scrapbook. The Origin of the Zodiac", Sky and Telescope,
vol.67, 1984, #3, pp.218-220; see p.220.
 Zodiacal Cons~eUations 189

9. B.L. van der Waerden's "History of the Zodiac" appears in Archiv fur Orientforschung,
Bd.16, 1953, pp.216-230; see also his "Science Awakening ii. The Birth of Astronomy", Leiden
& New York, 1974.
10. For a detailed discussion of the fourfold division in the mulAPIN text, see B.L. van der
Waerden's "Science Awakening ii', special item "Four astronomical seasons" in the chapter iii
for "The series mulAPIN" (pp.80-84).
11. B.L. van der Waerden, op. cit.
12. Prof. Stephen McCluskey pointed out to me a new book by Johannes Koch which deals
with the existence of faint stars in constellations, a subject that seems to reinforce this point
(private communication).
13. See, for example, the vast comments by C. Flammarion in his "Les Etoiles et les Curiosities
du Ciel" known to me in the Russian translation of 1899, pp.347- 348.
14. N.A. Morozov (in Russian) "Christ", Moscow-Leningrad, 1928, Book i "Celestial marks of
the Earth History of Mankind"; see p.24.
15. Edward B. Tylor, "Primitive culture", London, 1871; the 4th edition, revised, London,
1903, in two volumes; vol.1, p.357. Tylor took this example from Stanbridge in "Tr. Eth.
Soc.', vol.i, pp.301-3.
16. Op. cit., p.358.
17. See S. McCluskey, Gregory of Tours, Monastic timekeeping, and early Christian attitudes
to astronomy. ISIS, 81 (1990): 8-22.
18. For many comments of value see Yu. A. Karpenko, op. cit.,p.44 and others.
19. I.P. Weinberg "Man in the Culture of the Ancient Near East" (under the supervision of
I.M. Diakonov), Moscow, Nanka, 1986 (in Russian); see p.50.
20. I do not know of an English translation of the prominent Russian monograph by Thomas V.
Gamkrelidze and Vjacheslav V. Ivanov, "Indo-european and Indo- europeans. A reconstruction
and historicaltypological analysis of a protolanguage and a proto-culture", in two parts, Tbilisi,
1984.
21. Op. cit.,part 2, p.777.
22. I am very grateful to Stephen McCluskey who drew my attention to this point in Ray A.
Williamson, Living the Sky: the Cosmos of the American Indian (pp.63-65).
23. See A.M. Zolotarev "The tribal system and the primitive mythology" (in Russian), Moscow,
Nanka, 1984; for other details read also "The history of primitive society", vol.3: The Epoch
of the classes formation (Ed. by Y.V. Bromley), Moscow, Nanka, 1988. -568 p. (in Russian).
24. James Mellaart "Earliest civilisationsof the Neat" East", London, Thames and Hudson,
1965.
25. E.B. Tylor, op. cit.,vol.2, pp.48-49.
26. Read, for instance, M. Eliade "Le Mythe de L'eternal retour. Archetypes et repetition",
Paris, 1949.
27. T.V. Gamkrelidze and V.V. Ivanov, op. cit.,part 2, p.776.
28. See D.C. Heggie (editor) "Archaeoastronomy in the Old World", Cambridge University
Press, 1982, 280 pp; other useful information can be found in J.E. Wood's "Sun, Moon and
standing stones", Oxford University Press, 1978.
29. T.V. Gamkrelidze and V.V. Ivanov, op. cit.,part 2, p.519-520.
30. For details, see D. van Buren "The Scorpion in Mesopotamian Art and Religion", Archly
fur Orientforschung, Bd.12, 1937-39, as well as, by the same author, "Symbols of the Gods in
Mesopotamian Art" Roma, 1945. Many facts are in Luigi Aurigemma "Le Signe Zodiacal du
Scorpion", Mouton, Paris, La Haye, 1976.
31. T.V. Gamkrelidze and V.V. Ivanov, op. cit., part 2, p.586-587.
32. The data come from the Russian reference book by P.G. Kulikovsky, Moscow, Nauka, 1971.
33. We can have confidence that the results of the analysed data do not depend on the fact
that the boundaries of ecliptical constellations may have had considerable changes in the past.
 190 A. A. Gurshtein

Suppose that the boundary of any constellation changed by 10 ° ( a highly improbable occur-
fence). The area of the constellation will then increase or decrease by about 100-150 square
degrees. Averaged for quartets it will influence the deviation of the average area by some 25~35
square degrees, which is still insignificant. Even if we admit that some boundaries shift casually
within the limits o f / p r o 10 °, we see that the averaged areas of the quartets will change by
amounts too small compared with the discrepancies between the quartets mean areas (Table
1).
34. B.L. van der Waerden, op. cir.
35. See B.L. van der Waerden "Greek astronomical calendars, 1", Archive for history of exact
science, 1984, #2.
36. See B.L. van der Waerden "History of the Zodiac".
37. B.L. van der Waerden, op. cit.
38. B.L. van der Waerden in his "Science awakening ii" reprinted the pictures from the work
of Hinke.