Manu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Few spontaneous observations in support, all of
> which subject to target practice:
>
> 1) A good parallel development is the Temple of
> Jupiter in Damascus also built over a previous
> shrine dedicated to a storm god.

Make sense, but I did not know this. A link perhaps to get me up to speed?

> 2) The Epic of Gilgamesh, invented or not
> correctly translated or not, sounds like a walk
> down the ecliptic. G and E theme = Gemini. Humwawa
> theme = Taurus, Ut-Napishtim theme = Aquarius.
> Lion theme - Leo. The number seven specifically
> (as in seven spendors, seven mountains, etc, is
> the Pleiades theme. You're gonna laugh, but even
> Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarves (behind the seven
> mountain ranges) has an astronomic theme, intended
> or not: The change of the seasons from winter to
> spring and the harvest when the Pleiades rise and
> harvest time comes. Looking at the topographic
> map, there are at least five elevation ranges from
> the planes of Mesopotamia towards the Anti-Lebanon
> Range. I saw one version of the saga which
> mentions seven mountains, can't remember if that
> was from the Sumerian version of not.
> My Impression is that myths do not easily stand on
> their own feet in terms of analysis, but they can
> help support a leg from another discipline. I
> would not summarily dismiss all legends as fiction
> and so I have no problem that you are recruiting
> this story given other evidence with which it is
> consistent.

While the stories themselves may be mythical, or exaggerated, they speak of real places, even real people (at times), and geography. Anyone heard of Troy, perhaps? While there are many tales in the Bible that would fit this bill, these events take place in the real world which have been invaluable tool to archeology in our understanding, and finding, of the ancient world.

> 3) Giulo Magli ("ARCHAEOASTRONOMY AND THE
> CHRONOLOGY OF THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER AT BAALBEK
> ") used Archeoastronomy to date Baalbek. The long
> axis points to May First's sunrise which at the
> latitude of Baalbek is the time of the helical
> rising of the Pleiades, the "ear of Taurus" so to
> speak. This was the time of harvest. If this is
> correct, the temple was a fancy star clock to mark
> a date of agricultural importance and to appease
> the storm god who might wreak havoc with the
> crops.

This is what we are after Manu and the point of starting these threads in the first place. It takes a village.

Archaeoastronomy and the Chronology of the Temple of Jupiter


> 4) What I found curious is that Baalbek,
> supposedly a complex dedicated to the sun, is not
> pointing due east. It points to 75°30' while the
> temple in Damascus points to ~85° ( I got 84°
> 70').... The Zeus temple in Kanawat point close to
> north. None of these really make sense in terms of
> Roman mythology or the Julian calendar.

Would you say that the corners of these temples more aligned to a north/south axis than their sides to east/west?

> I can sort
> of see how Baalbek might be pointing to the
> sunrise on Easter, but I don't think that even the
> earliest Christians would have had input into the
> original foundation's lay-out and in any case, the
> foundation as per your citations are much much
> older.
>
> So the orientations of all these temples, if they
> originally were inspired by the sky, suggest an
> older, non-Roman origin.

Interesting.

> 5) At Kharga's Temple of Hibis, Five Hymns to Amun
> have a few telling lines which may apply here (ie
> Humwawa, Pleiades, alignment). Let me just quote a
> relevant segment from "Adoration of the Ram" by
> David Klotz":
>

Quote
Mysterious Ba, ram-headed with four faces
> on one neck, with 777 ears, with millions upon
> millions of eyes, with myriads of
> horns."

.
>
> If this is a description of a constellation, then
> Taurus is one candidate with the Pleiades
> fittingly representing an ear made up of seven
> stars [of which they imagined 777?]
>
> 6) As to 3500 B.C. Assuming there is something to
> the alignment to the Pleiades:
>
> Magli is dating the alignment to Herod but I am
> [url=https://cheopspyramid.com/wp-content/uploads/
> 2018/04/Pleiades.png]not so sure[/url]. I tried
> +100/-1500/-2500/-3500 (which is 100
> AD/1501/2501/3501 B.C) which moves the Julian date
> of a 75°30' sunrise from April 22 to May 17,
> while the Pleiades becomes clearly visible only
> for the last two dates, but this is a simulation
> of course. I think the best thing to do is to
> actually observe from Baalbek when the Pleiades
> would have appeared over the Anti-Lebanon Mountain
> range around the April to May time frame and then
> determine the date on which the sun rises such
> that its rays hit the temple axis in parallel.
> Then go back to the computer and use those
> altitude data to reconstruct a possible era of
> when the long axis of this complex was
> established, which of course says nothing about
> when people settled there first to live.
>
> 7) The Eruk Temple in Nippur. Once repaired by
> Isme-Dagan and made to smell like "Cedar". This
> temple also Enlil's house like the far away place
> of the Cedar Mountain in the story. I took a rough
> heading of the temple's long axis (of course this
> is not the original temple) and got 55° azimuth.
> Can't explain that yet, but it's not pointing due
> east either.
>
> 8) Enlil, my understanding means Lord Storm. As to
> the origin of the name Baalbek I found this:
> [url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25610200?read-no
> w=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A129c708bee9e18c387d22ab2a
> 7feb5f9&seq=14#page_scan_tab_contents]Richard C.
> Steiner[/url]
> Especially Toponym I sounds like a possible
> connection. El (mbk nrhm), Haddad, and Enlil all
> taurine deities? Is that the link?
>
>
> I'm just tossing things out which came to mind
> Thanos. There may only be few useful items in this
> list. My initial impression is that your are
> right: Baalbek's foundational lay-out is older
> than Augustus.

Very good. Thanks.