NIM u SIG (lunar latitude)

Definition

NIM u SIG (Sumerian "high and low"; Akkadian elû u šaplû) is the technical lexical pair of the Babylonian mathematical-astronomy ephemerides and the Late-Babylonian horoscopes for lunar latitude — the Moon's angular distance above or below the ecliptic. NIM names positive latitude (north of the ecliptic / "above"); SIG names negative latitude (south of the ecliptic / "below"). The terminology is paired with the dynamic-state markers LAL and U of the procedure-text ephemerides to encode the four possible Moon-to-node states: increasing positive, decreasing positive, increasing negative, decreasing negative latitude. The nodal zone itself is named MURUB4 ("middle"; Akkadian qablītu).

In Tradition

Rochberg, with Hunger-Pingree concurring, treats NIM u SIG as the System-A lunar-latitude lexicon of the Late-Babylonian mathematical-astronomy ephemerides — the technical pair that, in Column E of the System B lunar ephemerides, encodes the empirical latitude excursions the lunar theory must track for eclipse prediction. The same lexicon recurs in the rare horoscope-genre lunar-latitude statements: only the Uruk horoscopes (Texts 10 and 16 of Rochberg's edition) carry latitude statements at all, supplying the cross-genre evidence that the horoscope-construction practice drew directly on the mathematical-astronomy parameter scheme.

In Practice

For the reader of a Late-Babylonian horoscope or ephemeris, NIM u SIG signals the lunar-latitude statement. In Text 10 (horoscope of Aristocrates) the Moon "sets its face from the middle (MURUB4 = qablītu nodal zone) toward positive latitude (NIM)" — a statement Rochberg pairs with an omen-citation ("If the moon sets its face from the middle toward positive latitude, prosperity and greatness"), one of the rare horoscope/nativity-omen interweavings. Text 16 (also from Uruk) supplies the four-state inventory: increasing or decreasing positive latitude, increasing or decreasing negative latitude, with the dynamic-state encoded by LAL ("decreases") and U ("increases") of the ephemerides. The Babylon horoscopes (Texts 1-9) omit lunar latitude altogether — confirming Rochberg's reading that latitude statements are specifically a Uruk-school practice. Across procedure texts + ephemerides the NIM-SIG pair is the empirical input to System A Column E and System B Column N — the parameter the eclipse-prediction machinery requires to determine whether a syzygy falls within the nodal-zone eclipse window.

Historical Origin

Attested across the Seleucid-period ACT lunar Procedure Texts and Ephemerides from Babylon and Uruk (c. 250-50 BCE) and in the Late-Babylonian horoscope corpus of the same period — specifically Texts 10 and 16 (both from Uruk) of Rochberg's edition. Modern critical treatments: Francesca Rochberg, *Babylonian Horoscopes* (American Philosophical Society 1998), Text 10 commentary p. 84 and Text 16 commentary pp. 101-103.

Further Reading

• Francesca Rochberg, Babylonian Horoscopes