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DISCUSSION
/by Bob Kobres ~ 1988/
PART B
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*Franz Xavier Kugler (1862-1929), a Jesuit priest who devoted much of
his life to the study of cuneiform astronomical texts, ultimately
reached the conclusion that most of these ancient tablets reflected
actual observations and were not, as many other philologists had
adduced, nonsensical.* Two years before his death, Kugler published a
book entitled "/Sybillinischer Sternkampfund Phaethon in
naturgeschichtlicher Beleuchtung/
/"/ (The Sybilline Battle of the
Stars and Phaethon Seen as Natural History). This work was one of a
series entitled "/Zeitgemassige Beitrage/" (Essays of Current Interest).
*Obviously Kugler felt his effort would affect contemporary society by
shedding new light on past cultures* (this illumination was, of course,
immediately reflected to the outer limits by the polished surface of the
gradualist paradigm). The Jesuit order is renowned for meticulous
scholarship. Kugler was not jumping completely outside the then dominant
research framework ;
he called this agent of destruction a sunlike-meteor that was for some
reason associated with the planet Venus. He placed this event around
1500 B.C. *The fact that Kugler chose the term sunlike-meteor rather
than comet is indicative of his desire to remain within bounds. Many
early historians had attributed widespread floods and conflagrations to
a huge comet (Typhon).* Recall that in 1927 comets were held to be
innocuous "flying sandbanks"; however, the theory that Coon Mountain
(Meteor Crater) in Arizona had been formed by a nickel/iron meteoroid
was gaining acceptance rapidly. [For a general review of Kugler's work
see "/Astronomical Theory and Historical Data/" (Part Two) by L.C.
Stecchini in /The Velikovsky Affair/ (1966).]
*Some scholars who delved into ancient astro-myths were less concerned
with conventional research boundaries. **Immanual Velikovsky*
* is by far the best known example of radical departure.*
Velikovsky was an diligent researcher (his work is still valuable in
this respect), but he made one major error in his underlying premise. He
assumed continuity of nouns or more precisely he thought philologists
had correctly identified the various ancient names for planets. *Where
Kugler (whose various works are referenced by Velikovsky) saw a
sunlike-meteor in association with Venus, Velikovsky saw "Comet Venus."*
Both researchers fell victim to what this author calls the"bibbu
boo-boo." *There is considerable reason to suspect that the majority of
our planet's namesakes were comets--**probably of the Encke family*
*.*
[Thus far three large objects are identified with this family: Comet
Encke itself and the asteroids Hephestos and 1982 TA. We may find more.
All of these would have been visually impressive several thousand years
ago as they all would have been comets. Many researchers now believe
that most Earth-orbit-crossing asteroids are remnants of comets; the
distinction between such objects is not as firm as it once was. Comet
Encke's coma is fast waning--in fifty years it may be asteroid Encke.]
For instance, we can read from W.M. O'Neil (1975):
"The word planet comes from the Greek planetes, the wanderers; these
seven celestial bodies moved among the fixed stars. *The Babylonians
had a more picturesque name **/bibbu/**, the wild sheep,* as these
bodies broke through the fixed formation in which the tame sheep
crossed the sky."
To call into question Greek continuity of planet identity we can refer
to A.B.Cook (1914):
"Aristotle in his work On the Universe draws up a list, which gives
both the earlier and the later names arranged in the Greek order:
Planet Earlier Name Later Name
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Saturn Phainon (the 'Shining') Kronos.
Iupiter Phaethon (the 'Brilliant') Zeus.
Mars Pyroeis (the 'Fiery') Herakles or Ares.
Mercury Stilbon (the 'Gleaming') Hermes or Apollon.
Venus Phosphoros (the 'Light-bringer') Aphrodite or Hera."
[Cook spent over forty years studying Zeus. His work Zeus is a gold mine
of data on beliefs and customs associated with this sky god.]
*The earlier names are rather flamboyant for planets, Are they not? The
mythology associated with the later names and the earlier name for Zeus
certainly describes the break-up of a comet with an orbit that crossed
Earth's better than the monotonous behavior of planets. As for the
**/bibbu/**s, we go to J. K. Bjorkman (1973):*
"We move now to a discussion of a word which probably refers to
comets, /bibbu/. As the material in CAD B 217a to 219 makes clear,
bibbu has a variety of astromantic and non-astromantic meanings.
There is a lengthy omen text, the 56th tablet of Enuma Anu Enlil,
which deals with various features of the /bibbu/, and some of these
seem to describe comets. For example:
(Largement 1957, 239 line 12b) If a /bibbu/ continues one day, two
days in the sky and does not disappear: (CAD B 218b) If three or
four /bibbu/s rise one after the other at sunrise
The latter text might refer to a comet which has broken up into
three or four comets under the stress of the sun's gravitational
pull; however, this is an unusual occurrence. There are many more
references to /bibbu/, but in them the translations "unspecified
planet" or "meteor" could be proposed with equal or greater logic
than "comet." "
*These cuneiform tablets which Kugler so diligently studied may yet be
our clearest window to an obscure past. They are unearthed
documents--not handed down tales. Bjorkman's article is illustrative of
the potential for research in this area. It also shows well causes for
difficulty in understanding these texts. Bjorkman herself states in
preface that " . . .without having read parts of Middlehurst and Kuiper
(1963) [**/The Moon, Meteorites and Comets/**], I would not have
adequately understood the ancient description of a comet as a star with
a tail and a beak." *
Some enticing lines given by her are:
If a fireball (coming from) a planet is seen:
If a fireball (coming from) Mars is seen:
If a fireball (coming from) the Old-Man star is seen:
If a fireball moves across the Wagon-Star and stands
(if Venus) rises very high and constantly has a red glow,
(explanation) constantly (SAG.US = kunnu) a red fireball moves across,
variant: at its zenith(?) it is altogether red-hued
/Sallummu/ is a key word in these lines. Bjorkman believes fireball or
meteor is indicated by this term. /Mishu/ or /meshu/ is another
astronomical word which Bjorkman renders as meteor and/or train of such.
It seems likely to this investigator that the term could also be applied
to a bright comet tail. The word has also been rendered as aufleuchten
(flash or flaring) and as glow. Comments from later scribes often appear
within copies of older texts--ostensibly for clarification. The
following lines used by Bjorkman to illustrate the use of mishu contain
considerable commentary--perhaps this scribe was having trouble
interpreting the older text being copied. *The reader should note how
easily premise alters meaning when interpreting ancient works. Were
these lines inspired by meteors or comets?*
TEXT: [If] in the sky a meteor (/mishu/) which (is) like a . .
.rises heliacally(?), (and) its train (/mishu/) appears in the east:
famine will be in the land;
COM: its copy: . . . = /husu/, it twinkles like /husu./
TEXT: If in the sky a meteor (train) from a planet
(/Mustabarrumutanu/) appears: destruction of cattle will occur in
the land.
COM: /sallummu/ = /mesih/ of a star, the same is the /zimu/ of a
star. A planet (/Mustabarrumutanu/) is shining brightly.
TEXT: [If] in the sky a meteor train which is like the meteor train
from the /Nasru/-star, = from the KUR.MUSEN-star, appears from east
to west: famine will be in the land.
COM: This means: the /Nasru/-star produced (a meteor train) from the
top; these look alike to him.
TEXT: If in the sky a meteor train occurs from east to west (and)
north to south (and) stands out (?) like a cross: the king of that
land will die, and famine will seize (it).
COM: (This means) two stars flashed.
*In terms of the present discussion, the last line of text is most
interesting. Could it not be read: If in the sky a comet tail appears
from east to west and north to south and stands out like a cross?* We
know from modern observation that comets can produce jets of gas which
radiate outward. We have learned from a 2,500 year old Chinese comet
atlas that records of
a comet appearing as a cross on more than one occasion were in
existence. Furthermore, sky borne crosses begin to appear in the art of
a variety of cultures (including the one which produced the above text)
all over the world at least 5000 years ago. And lastly, the lines quoted
above are taken from an omen text devoted to Ishtar
(generally labeled as Venus)
which has for one of its symbols a four pointed cross within a circle.
*The cross, however, is only one aspect of a rotating, jetting comet.
Such an object can appear to be quite a **different animal*
* when viewed from
another angle.* To appear as a cross the comet's rotational axis must be
closely aligned with the observers line of sight. The Sun's "wind" will
also play a part, making the cross less or more symmetrical depending
upon how closely Earth, Sun and comet are aligned with one another.
Naturally, a short period comet will be observed more often away from
such optimum conditions. It is in these aspects that we may find the
origin of the many bazaar creatures and things our ancestors depicted as
gods. Viewed perpendicular to spin, a jetting comet could appear as a
bird, a fly, a four-legged animal, a horned animal's head, a fish, etc.
What came to the viewer's mind would depend largely on how the object
was oriented with respect to the horizon. If we add to this the
likelihood that the main comet had a host of lesser offspring clustered
about, the variations of form become almost endless. Also, a comet is
not obligated to produce a certain number of jets; though shape of
nucleus may predispose it to a certain number of flares, the number of
appendages could vary from none to too many to discern. Though the
drawings provided are fanciful, they serve to illustrate the point.
*Another ubiquitous and enigmatic symbol our ancestors left for us to
ponder is the concentric circle motif. These drawings, often carved in
stone, are probably not renderings of drug enhanced phosphenes,
originally they quite likely depicted the night sky as it appeared
during a certain period of the year.*
[For an overview on the subject of rock art, see "Theory and Practice in
the Study of Rock Art" by C.W. Meighan in Messages From The Past (UCLA
Inst. of Archaeology. Monograph XX 1981) edited by Meighan. Also, in
this volume is a paper ("Two Rock Art Sites in Calaveras County,
California" by W. Wilbert) discussing the potential influence of
phosphenes on such art.]
Astronomer Fred Whipple calculates that the night time Taurids have been
with us for 5,000 years. It now takes Earth about three months
(mid-September to mid-December) to traverse this band of debris. The
night-time Taurids branch into two radiants. One branch appears to
radiate from near the Pleiades star cluster and peaks around November 3
to 5; the other seems to spray from close to the Hyades and is most
active from November 10 to 13. Earlier in its history, as the progenitor
of comet Encke was creating it, this debris ring had to have been more
dense. As Earth passed through the mess, it no doubt collected a
considerable amount of dust. The night time Taurids are known for
frequent bolide activity. *Large, vaporizing meteoroids (bolides) in an
atmosphere loaded with comet dust will produce unusual visual effects.*
Refraction, reflection, and possibly secondary emission come into play
as a sizable object splashes into an aerosol laden atmosphere
compressing molecules of gas against motes of dust in its bow-shock wave
until--BOOM --the object
vaporizes, illuminating the multiple layers of compression separated gas
and debris. From the ground this might look as if a god threw a pebble
in the sky-pond.
[There are similar visual phenomena associated with comets which may
also be represented in petroglyphs, such as comets with multiple halos
or a pronounced spiral. These are distinguishable from the plain
concentric circle or spiral carvings in that they have tails and in the
way they are placed.]
Quite likely a large sector of the sky would be filled with such
phenomena. Though the intensity would vary from year to year our
ancestors, no doubt, expected a rather disconcerting light show on an
annual basis--perhaps many of them did take drugs in anticipation of the
event. Actually, an appeal of phosphene hypothesis is that such
geometric visions occur naturally due to rubbing the eyes, light
deprivation, etc. *The rationale is that primitive people would notice
these visions more readily than we moderns with our artificial lights
and CRTs and that they would attach great significance to such
apparitions. This type of gradualist reasoning demonstrates flaws common
to much conjecture on our past; such speculation ignores the potential
influence of exceptional events.* For instance, why would a people who
had for thousands of years, produced beautifully detailed scenes of the
natural world switch rather suddenly all over the globe to "abstract
designs" and drawings of warfare? This recognized alteration seems to
coincide with the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. The change of climate
is commonly given as sufficient reason for this alteration of art.
Later, between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, spirals and concentric circles
begin to appear. Again this seems to have been a global phenomena. Did
everybody suddenly notice phosphenes? Maybe there was a neolithic Tim
Leary . . . *Much the same can be said of conjecture regarding "solstice
festivals"--would our ancestors actually fear that the Sun would not
return? How many thousands of years had it been observed to do so?
Eclipses also are common occurrences--only when the Sun and Moon become
darkened at the wrong time do you get jumpy and go after He and Ho.*
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