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See also: partition of the stellar expanse into areas characterized by specified stars can be traced back to a very remote antiquity
.
It is believed that the ultimate origin of the See also: constellation figures and names is to be found in the corresponding systems in vogue among the See also: primitive civilizations of the See also: Euphrates valley—the Sumerians, Accadians and Babylonians; that these were carried westward into See also: ancient See also: Greece by the Phoenicians, and to the lands of See also: Asia Minor by the See also: Hittites, and that Hellenic culture in its turn introduced them into See also: Arabia, See also: Persia and See also: India
.
From the earliest tines the See also: star-See also: groups known as constellations, the smaller groups (parts of constellations) known as asterisms, and also individual stars, have received names connoting some meteorological phenomena, or symbolizing religious or mythological beliefs
.
At one See also: time it was held that the constellation names and myths were of See also: Greek origin; this view has now been disproved, and an examination of the Hellenic myths associated with the stars and star-groups in the See also: light of the records revealed by the decipherment of Euphratean cuneiforms leads to the conclusion that in many, if not all, cases the Greek myth has a Euphratean, parallel, and so renders it probable that the Greek constellation See also: system and the cognate legends are primarily of Semitic or even pre-Semitic origin
.
The origin and development of the grouping of the stars into constellations is more a See also: matter of archaeological than of astro nomical See also: interest
.
It demands a careful study of the myths and religious thought of primitive peoples; and the tracing of the names from one language to another belongs to See also: comparative See also: philology
.
The Sumerians and Accadians, the non-Semitic inhabitants of the Euphrates valley See also: prior to the Babylonians, described the stars collectively as a " heavenly See also: flock "; the See also: sun was the " old See also: sheep "; the seven See also: planets were the " old-sheep stars"; the whole of the stars had certain " shepherds, " and Sibzianna (which, according to See also: Sayce and Bosanquet, is the See also: modern See also: Arcturus, the brightest star in the See also: northern sky) was the " star of the shepherds of the heavenly herds." ; The Accadians bequeathed their system to the Babylonians, and cuneiform tablets and cylinders, boundary stones, and Euphratean See also: art generally, point to the existence of a well-defined system of star names in their early See also: history
.
From a detailed study of such records, in their nature of rather speculative value, R
.
See also: Brown, junr
.
(Primitive Constellations, 1899) has compiled a Euphratean planisphere, which he regards as the
See also: mother of all others
.
The tablets examined range in date from 3000-500 B.C., and hence the system must be anterior to the earlier date
.
Of See also: great importance is the Creation See also: Legend, a cuneiform compiled from older records during the reign of See also: Assur-bani-See also: pal, c
.
65o s.e., in which there occurs a passage interpretable as pointing to the acceptance of 36 constellations: 12 northern, 12 zodiacal and 12 See also: southern
.
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