Assyrian eclipse

The Assyrian eclipse, also known as the Bur-Sagale eclipse, is a solar eclipse recorded in Assyrian eponym lists, most likely dating the ninth year of the reign of king Ashur-dan III. The eclipse is identified with the one that occurred on 15 June 763 BC (proleptic Julian calendar).

The entry is short and reads:

"[year of] Bur-Sagale of Guzana. Revolt in the city of Assur. In the month Simanu an eclipse of the sun took place."

The phrase used — shamash ("the sun") akallu ("bent", "twisted", "crooked", "distorted", "obscured") — has been interpreted as a reference to a solar eclipse since the first decipherment of cuneiform in the mid 19th century. The name Bur-Sagale (also rendered Bur-Saggile, Pur-Sagale or Par-Sagale) is the name of the limmu official in the eponymous year.

In 1867, Henry Rawlinson identified near-total eclipse of 15 June 763 BC as the most likely candidate (the month Simanu corresponding to the May/June lunation),^[1] visible in northern Assyria just before noon. This date has been widely accepted ever since; the identification is also substantiated by other astronomical observations from the same period.^[2]

This record is one of the crucial pieces of evidence providing an absolute chronology of the Ancient Near East for the Assyrian period.

Some identify it also as the biblical eclipse alluded to by the prophet Amos (Amos 8: 9).

References

^ Rawlinson, Henry Creswicke, "The Assyrian Canon Verified by the Record of a Solar Eclipse, B.C. 763", The Athenaeum: Journal of Literature, Science and the Fine Arts, nr. 2064, 660-661 [18 May 1867].[1]
^ Hermann Hunger, "Zur Datierung der neuassyrischen Eponymenliste," Altorientalische Forschungen, Vol. 35:2, 2008, pp. 323-325. An English translation is available on the web: [2]