MA2.GUR8

Authors: Gennady E. Kurtik, Euin Choung Kim, David Hilder, Susanne M Hoffmann, Wayne Horowitz, Jan Safford, Youla Azkarrula

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Neo-Assyrian Ship,Wall Panel from Nineveh (British Museum: BM 124774,a; online)

ancient versus modern Quffah (CC BY Ensar Adıgüzel: both images CC0)

^mulMA₂.GUR₈ (𒀯𒈣𒋽) = makurru,'the Barge' is a Mesopotamian asterism that is shaped like a river-barge in the area of Sagittarius and Corona Australis in the southern part of the Mesopotamian sky. Its shape can be verified by depictions of such barges in artwork, which show that both the prow and the bow of the barge might be pointed upwards at both ends, or decorated with a figurehead at the prow (at least in early times). The term is also used in astronomy for the gibbous Moon (CAD M_I 142).

Concordance, Etymology, History

MÁ.GUR₈ = makurru “The Barge”. ^mulMÁ.GUR₈ u ^mulSUḪUR.MÁŠ (Ea line 15left)

Var. designations:

• 1) = ^mulMakurru "Barge, Ship, Vessel"; constellation or star in Sagittarius or Sacerdotal (Sagittarius or Ara) [Gössmann 254];
• 2) epithet of the lunar deity Nanna [Steinkeller 2016, 620-621; Laursen 2021].

Sources and Identifications

Sources	Identifications
MUL.APIN. List of the stars of Ea (nos. 14, 15): mulMA2.GUR8 u mulSUḪUR. MAŠ2ku6 "River Barge and Goat-Fish" (I ii 34) [MA, 39].	Babylonian constellations River Barge and Goat-Fish interpreted by Jessica Gullberg for Stellarium (CC BY).
List of stars V R, 46, 1:38. mulma2.gur8 mulsuḫur.maš2 = dNabû(pa) u dTaš-me-tu4 "Ship (and) Goat-Fish = Nabû and Tashmetu" [HBA, 52:38; Wee 2016, 162-3].
GU text. (Q)  mul [ša2 maš]-˹a-ti˺ ˹kimin˺ murub4 mulza.ba4.ba4 šu šumēlû(2,30) mulpa.bil2.sag ša2 ina ugu / ban u [mulm]a2.gur8 gu "The Star of Gemini (ziqpu IV: β Her) or the middle of Zababa (ν Oph), the left hand of Pabilsag, which is on the bow (δ Sag), and the River-Barge (ε Sag), the rope" [Pingree-Walker 1988, BM 78161:27-28; Hunger-Pingree 1999, 93]; (S) mulpa.bil.sag ˹ša2˺ ina ugu ma2.˹gur8˺  "(Asterism) Pabilsag, which is over the River-Barge" [Pingree-Walker 1988, BM 78161:30-31], see also (Kurtik u31) UZ3 (𒍚, Akkadian Enzu).	GU Q GU R + S GU (Q) = GU XVII GU R+S = GU XVIII+GU XIX

Transformation

ancient Eridu, artist impression (CC0, Original image by Таис Гило, public domain).

Based on very early sources that pre-date MUL.APIN, Crossen (2015) argues that ^mulMA₂.GUR₈ originally, around 2000 BCE, was a huge constellation. According to him, it was a huge river boat in which the god Pabilsang (and perhaps some priests) sailed the Euphrates for ritual processions. At that time, the stars that are seen as the goat-head of Capricornus would have been the figurehead at the prow of this ship.

In contrast, the circular zodiac in Dendera from Ptolemaic Era (1st century BCE) that displays the Babylonian zodiac constellations (while the rest of the uranography is mixed with Egyptian and Greek figures): there, the Boat is only a small barge beneath the front legs of Sagittarius, not even extending to his rear legs. (cf. Egyptian constellation Wia, The Boat)

For MUL.APIN, which dates around or short before 1000 BCE, we painted the god Pabilsang (Sagittarius) standing in the boat, which is meant as a compromise between these two extremes (much bigger around 2000 BCE, much smaller around 50 BCE).

• 
  MA₂.GUR₈ as huge, long river boat with figurehead in Sumer ~2300 BCE (Crossen 2015): CC BY SMH.
• 
  MA₂.GUR₈ as long river boat in MUL.APIN ~1100 BCE (Gullberg et al. 2022): CC BY SMH.
• 
  MA₂.GUR₈ as small river boat, quffah, in Dendera 50 BCE CC BY SMH.
• 
  MA₂.GUR₈ - animater version of these three constellation versions (CC BY SMH)

Original Images of Boats/ Ships

cf. Laursen 2021 for sea-faring ships suggestive of the shape of the waxing Moon.

Dilmun Boat shaped votive bowls for the Moon-god Nanna?

• 
  Gypsum Relief of Gardens of Nineveh, North Palace, Nineveh, Iraq
• 
  Rieten boot relief nineveh palace
• 
  ancient versus modern Quffah (CC BY Ensar Adıgüzel: both images CC0)
• Error creating thumbnail:
  Quffa Baghdad 1914 (CC0)
• Error creating thumbnail:
  Guffa on the Tigris, Baghdad, 1932

Additional

Deity.

         The boat-deity or ship was among the sacred attributes of many gods [Salonen-Opificius 1969; Tallqvist 1938, 360; Kurtik 1998, 34-35]. Festivals dedicated to them were already celebrated in the epoch of the III dynasty of Ur [Sallaberger I, 216-219]. To which exact deity the River-Barge constellation refers to, from the list of MUL.APIN, remains unclear.

Symbol.

         The River Barge. Numerous depictions of this type of vessel are present on seals, reliefs, and in pottery from the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE and later [Salonen-Opificius 1969; Kurtik 1998, 34-37; Kurtik 2023]. The outlines and the figure of the Ship constellation is not known.

Previous Identifications.

according to [Koch 1992, 59:27-28] in the GU-text: mul [ša₂ maš]-˹a-ti˺ — β Her, murub₄ ^mulZa-ba₄-ba₄ — η Oph, šu šumēlû(2,30) ^mulpa.bil₂.sag ša₂ ina ugu ban — θ Oph and [^mulm]a₂.gur₈ — θ Arae.

         = α, β Capricorni [Gössmann 254].

         = ε Sagittarii [MA, 138; Pingree-Walker 1988, 321, Q4; Hunger-Pingree 1999, 271].

         = θ Arae [Koch 1992, 59].

Historical Dictionaries

Kurtik (2022, m01)

Gössmann (1950)

1) = mulMakurru «Корабль, Судно»; созвездие или звезда в Стрельце или Жертвеннике (Sagittarius или Ara) [Gössmann 1950, 254]; 2) эпитет лунного божества Нанна [Steinkeller 2016, 620‒621]. I. Источники. MUL.APIN. Список звезд Эа (№ 14, 15): mulMA2.GUR8 u mulSUḪUR. MAŠ2ku6 «Корабль и Коза-Рыба» (I ii 34) [MA, 39]. Список звезд V R, 46, 1:38. mulma2.gur8 mulsuḫur.maš2 = dNabû(pa) u dTaš-me-tu4 «Корабль (и) Коза-рыба = Набу и Ташмету» [HBA, 52:38; Wee 2016, 162–3]. GU-текст. (Q) mul [ša2 maš]-˹a-ti˺ ˹kimin˺ murub4 mulza.ba4.ba4 šu šumēlû(2,30) mulpa.bil2.sag ša2 ina ugu / ban u [mulm]a2.gur8 gu «Звезда Близнецов (ziqpu IV:  β Her) или середина Забабы (ν Oph), левая рука Пабилсага, которая на луке (δ Sag), и Корабль (ε Sag) ― веревка» [Pingree–Walker 1988, BM 78161:27–28; Hunger-Pingree 1999, 93]; согласно [Koch 1992, 59:27–28], mul [ša2 maš]-˹a-ti˺ — β Her, murub4 mulZa-ba4-ba4 — η Oph, šu šumēlû(2,30) mulpa.bil2.sag ša2 ina ugu ban — θ Oph и [mulm]a2.gur8 — θ Arae. (S) mulpa.bil.sag ˹ša2˺ ina ugu ma2.˹gur8˺ «(Звезда) Пабилсага, которая над Кораблем» [Pingree–Walker 1988, BM 78161:30–31], см. также u31UZ3. II. Божество. Лодка-божество или корабль входили в число священных атрибутов многих богов [Salonen–Opificius 1969; Tallqvist 1938, 360; Куртик 1998, 34–35]. Посвященные им праздники отмечались уже в эпоху III династии Ура [Sallaberger I, 216–219]. К какому именно божеству относится созвездие Корабль из списка MUL.APIN, остается невыясненным. Возможно, это корабль Энки, название которого присутствует в старовавилонском списке (см. m02), однако никаких твердых доказательств не существует. III. Символ. Корабль или лодка. Многочисленные изображения священной лодки представлены на печатях, рельефах и в керамике второй половины III тыс. до н.э. и более поздних [Salonen–Opificius 1969; Куртик 1998, 34–37; Куртик 2023]. Неизвестно, какие очертания имела фигура созвездия Корабль. IV. Отождествление. = α, β Capricorni [Gössmann 1950, 254]. = ε Sagittarii [MA, 138; Pingree–Walker 1988, 321, Q4; Hunger-Pingree 1999, 271]. = θ Arae [Koch 1992, 59].

Example

References

• Kurtik's references