sitqulu / šitqulū (in conjunction; balanced)

Definition

Sitqulu (also šitqulū; Akkadian stative of šaqālu "to weigh, be balanced," logogram LÁL) is the MUL.APIN technical phrase rendered "in conjunction" in modern editions. Hunger and Pingree gloss the term as the Moon being in conjunction with a fixed star or constellation — with the Pleiades on 1 Nisannu of the ideal calendar, and with the Stars on 15 Araḫsamnu. Hunger and Steele preserve the Akkadian semantic range (the general sense is being equally balanced), but in MUL.APIN's astronomical contexts the meaning is most likely that Moon and Stars were at the same celestial longitude.

In Tradition

Hunger-Pingree and Hunger-Steele concur in reading sitqulu / šitqulū as the conjunction-marker of MUL.APIN's Pleiaden-Schaltregel — the technical observational check the intercalation scheme uses. Hunger and Steele reject Koch (1997)'s alternative reading of "equal duration of visibility before setting" as implausible: the balance-of-longitudes / conjunction reading remains the consensus.

In Practice

For the reader of MUL.APIN's second intercalation scheme (II A 1 - ii 20), sitqulu names the observational check that drives the intercalation decision. The Moon-and-Stars sitqulu phenomenon is scheduled for 1 Nisannu in the ideal calendar; when the Sun's longitude is ca. 345°, the Moon's ca. 357°, and in −1000 the Pleiades' ca. 18°; the order of setting was Sun, Hired Man, Moon, Pleiades. If the same sequence occurs only on 3 Nisannu of the real calendar, a month must be intercalated so the vernal equinox falls in mid-Nisannu. The second sitqulu-phenomenon — Moon and Stars in conjunction on 15 Araḫsamnu ideal — operates the same way: if it falls a month later (on 15 Kislīmu real), intercalation is required. The logogram LÁL covers a second usage Hunger and Steele record: the Sun and Moon being "balanced" on opposite horizons at sunrise or sunset, and a supplemental remark added to distance-measurements between celestial bodies. The phrase is diagnostic of the Old Babylonian intercalation discipline MUL.APIN codifies.

Historical Origin

Attested in MUL.APIN II A 1 - ii 20 (the Pleiaden-Schaltregel; ~1000 BCE composition with Neo-Assyrian transmission) and in supplemental MUL.APIN observational notes. Modern critical treatments: Hermann Hunger & David Pingree, *Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia* (Brill 1999), pp. 96-97; Hermann Hunger & John Steele, *The Babylonian Astronomical Compendium MUL.APIN* (Routledge 2019), p. 331.

Further Reading

• Hermann Hunger & David Pingree, Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia
• Hermann Hunger & John Steele, The Babylonian Astronomical Compendium MUL.APIN