Astronomical Tables and Ephemerides relevant for Ancient Near Eastern Studies

The following references have often been used for calculating or verifying luni-solar and planetary positions in the distant past.

Most of the earlier references listed above have now become obsolete with the availability of modern astronomical software and online ephemeris generators.

Modern Astronomical Software and Online Ephemeris Generators

Modern astronomical software for calculating the celestial positions of the Sun, the Moon and the planets (excluding Pluto) at distant epochs is usually based on the long-term ephemeris DE406/LE406 (valid from 23 February –3000 to 6 May +3000) developed by the JPL Solar System Dynamics Group of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology). The full-precision version of this ephemeris is available online at:

The above online ephemeris generators provide precise co-ordinates of the Sun, the Moon and the planets but they are not very useful for determining their visibility or their relative configurations, nor do they provide stellar co-ordinates. To calculate the heliacal phenomena of the planets and the fixed star, the following website is more useful.

The naked-eye configurations of the solar system bodies and the constellations can be investigated conveniently with the following online planetarium programs:

Both online planetarium programs are based on the luni-solar and planetary algorithms in Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, 2nd ed. (Willmann-Bell, Richmond, 1998), which are accurate enough for most historical purposes.

Lunar Phases, Lunar Eclipses & Solar Eclipses

The dates and times (in UT) of the lunar phases and the basic characteristics of solar and lunar eclipses from –1999 to +3000 (solar eclipses to +4000) have been calculated by Fred Espenak (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) and can be accessed from his Eclipse Home Page:

Fred Espenak’s web site also provides global maps of solar eclipse paths from 2000 BCE to 3000 CE in 20-year intervals:

Tables listing the first visibility of the lunar crescent from Babylon and Nineveh compiled by Uroš Anderlič and Maria G. Firneis are available at:

The following free software can be used for calculating the local circumstances of solar eclipses in more detail:

A Note on Using Modern Astronomical Software

Modern astronomical software is based on Universal Time, i.e. mean time measured relative to the Greenwich meridian, or to a time zone offset from it by an integral number of hours. Time measurements in the Ancient Near East were invariably based on local solar time, measured from the time of sunrise or sunset.

To convert Universal Time (or local Zone Time) to local solar time, determine the time of sunrise (or sunset). The difference with 0h 00m indicates the correction that has to applied to convert to local solar time.

The longitudes and latitudes of some notable localities in the Ancient Near East:

Location Longitude Latitude     Location Longitude Latitude  
Alexandria 29º 57' E. 31º 11' N. Google Maps   Nimrud (Kalhu) 36º 06' E. 43º 20' N. Google Maps
Aššur 35º 27.58' E. 43º 15.66' N. Google Maps   Nineveh 43º 07' E. 36º 22' N. Google Maps
Babylon 44º 25.25' E. 32º 32.18' N. Google Maps   Ugarit 35º 46.99' E. 35º 36.10' N. Google Maps
Jerusalem 35º 14' E. 31º 46' N. Google Maps   Uruk 45º 38.22' E. 31º 19.54' N. Google Maps

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