Babylonian · c. 1700–1550 BCE (observations); copies from the 8th–7th centuries BCE

Venus Tablet of Ammiṣaduqa

Enūma Anu Enlil Tablet 63; British Museum K.160 and other copies

Not a retrograde text. It records 21 years of Venus's first and last visibility in the east and west, as lunar-calendar dates with the length of each period of invisibility, each paired with an omen. Venus's retrograde phase falls around inferior conjunction, inside one of those gaps, but the tablet says nothing about stations or backward motion.

Author: Anonymous (Babylonian)
Date: c. 1700–1550 BCE (observations); copies from the 8th–7th centuries BCE
Original language: Akkadian (Standard Babylonian)
Kind: Astrological
Planets: General · no planet named

On the shelf · Mesopotamia · 08−1800 → 2026

−1800−1500−1000−5001500100015002026

Span · c. 1700–1550 BCE (observations); copies from the 8th–7th centuries BCESame shelfThis source’s span

Editions

3 editions.

Year	Edition	©
1975	E. Reiner & D. Pingree, Babylonian Planetary Omens Part One: Enūma Anu Enlil Tablet 63: The Venus Tablet of Ammiṣaduqa (Malibu: Undena, 1975), Bibliotheca Mesopotamica 2	©
1928	S. Langdon, J. K. Fotheringham & C. Schoch, The Venus Tablets of Ammizaduga (London: Oxford University Press, 1928)	?
1912	F. X. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel, Ergänzungen (1912–13), where Kugler linked the 'Year of the Golden Throne' to Ammiṣaduqa's 8th year	PD

Read it

No digitised copy known.

No digitised copy known. The editions above are the way in.

Myths we don’t repeat

Checked, and left out.

Myth 01
Not the 'first record of Venus retrograde': the tablet records only when Venus appears and disappears.

References

Wikipedia, 'Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa'

Also on the Mesopotamia shelf

Date	Source	Planets	Kind
c. 652–61 BCE	Astronomical DiariesAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Observation	Me Ve Ma Ju Sa	Observation
c. 380–50 BCE	Babylonian planetary ephemeridesAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Math. astronomy	Me Ve Ma Ju Sa	Math. astronomy
c. 350–50 BCE	Jupiter 'trapezoid' procedure textsAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Math. astronomy	Ju	Math. astronomy
3rd–1st centuries BCE	Goal-Year TextsAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Observation	Me Ve Ma Ju Sa	Observation
c. 3rd–1st centuries BCE	Almanacs and Normal Star AlmanacsAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Math. astronomy	Ma Ju Sa	Math. astronomy
1889	Astronomisches aus BabylonJoseph Epping & Johann N. StrassmaierMath. astronomy	General	Math. astronomy