Babylonian star catalogues

[2] A connection to the star symbology of Kassite kudurru border stones has also been claimed, but whether such kudurrus really represented constellations and astronomical information aside from the use of the symbols remains unclear.

The second formal compendium of stars in Babylonian astronomy is the MUL.APIN, a pair of tablets named for their incipit, corresponding to the first constellation of the year, MULAPIN "The Plough", identified with Triangulum plus Gamma Andromedae.

The Babylonian star catalogues entered Greek astronomy in the 4th century BC, via Eudoxus of Cnidus and others.

Among the most ancient constellations are those that marked the four cardinal points of the year in the Middle Bronze Age, i.e.

All constellations of the Iron Age 12-sign zodiac are present among them, most of them with names that clearly identify them, while some reached Greek astronomy with altered names; thus "Furrow" became Virgo, "Pabilsag" Sagittarius, "Great One" Aquarius, "Swallow Tail" Pisces and "Farm Worker" was reinterpreted as Aries.

In Greek astronomy, he became represented as simply a single vase from which a stream poured down to Piscis Austrinus.

The northern fish and part of Andromeda represented the goddess Anunitum, the "Lady of the Heaven".

It is unclear how the "Farm Worker" of the MUL.APIN became Aries "The Ram" of Greek tradition, possibly by a pun or misunderstanding.

[5][6] Somewhere around the 5th century BCE, Babylonian astronomical texts began to describe the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets in terms of 12 equally-spaced signs, each one associated with a zodiacal constellation, each divided into 30 degrees (uš).