The Assyrian eclipse, also known as the Bur-Sagale eclipse, is a solar eclipse recorded in Assyrian eponym lists that most likely dates to the tenth year of the reign of king Ashur-dan III. The eclipse is identified with the one that occurred on 15 June 763 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar. [1]
The entry from Assyrian records is short and reads:
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 the near-total eclipse of 15 June 763 BC as the most likely candidate (the month Simanu corresponding to the May/June lunation), [2] 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. [3]
This record is one of the crucial pieces of evidence that anchor the absolute chronology of the ancient Near East for the Assyrian period.
The Bur-Sagale eclipse occurred over the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh in the middle of the reign of Jeroboam II, who ruled Israel from 786 to 746 B.C. According to 2 Kings 14:25, the prophet Jonah lived and prophesied in Jeroboam's reign. The biblical scholar Donald Wiseman has speculated that the eclipse took place around when Jonah arrived in Nineveh and urged the people to repent, otherwise the city would be destroyed. This would explain the dramatic repentance of the people of Nineveh as described in the Book of Jonah. Ancient cultures, including Assyria, viewed eclipses as omens of imminent destruction, and the empire was in chaos at this time, struggling with revolts, famines and two separate outbreaks of plague. [4] [5] [6]
This eclipse is also mentioned by the prophet Amos. Amos was also preaching during the reign of Jeroboam II and refers to the eclipse in Amos 5:8 & 8:5,9. [7] In these passages Amos uses the eclipse as a prophecy of doom, and exhorts Judeans to repentance.
The Book of Nahum is the seventh book of the 12 minor prophets of the Hebrew Bible. It is attributed to the prophet Nahum, and was probably written in Jerusalem in the 7th century BC.
Jeroboam II was the son and successor of Jehoash and the thirteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years in the eighth century BC. His reign was contemporary with those of Amaziah and Uzziah, kings of Judah.
Nineveh, also known in early modern times as Kouyunjik, was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the largest city in the world for several decades. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country's Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it.
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Ashur-dan III was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 773 BC to his death in 755 BC. Ashur-dan was a son of Adad-nirari III and succeeded his brother Shalmaneser IV as king. He ruled during a period of Assyrian decline from which few sources survive. As such his reign, other than broad political developments, is poorly known. At this time, the Assyrian officials were becoming increasingly powerful relative to the king and at the same time, Assyria's enemies were growing more dangerous. Ashur-dan's reign was a particularly difficult one as he was faced with two outbreaks of plague and five of his eighteen years as king were devoted to putting down revolts.
Adad-nīrārī III was a King of Assyria from 811 to 783 BC. Note that this assumes that the longer version of the Assyrian Eponym List, which has an additional eponym for Adad-nīrārī III, is the correct one. For the shorter eponym list the ascension year would be 810 BC.
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The eclipse of Thales was a solar eclipse that was, according to ancient Greek historian Herodotus, accurately predicted by the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus. If Herodotus' account is accurate, this eclipse is the earliest recorded as being known in advance of its occurrence. Many historians believe that the predicted eclipse was the solar eclipse of 28 May 585 BC. How exactly Thales predicted the eclipse remains uncertain; some scholars assert the eclipse was never predicted at all. Others have argued for different dates, but only the eclipse of May 585 BC matches the conditions of visibility necessary to explain the historical event.
In the history of Assyria, the eponym dating system was a calendar system for Assyria, for a period of over one thousand years. Every year was associated with the name, an eponym, of the Limmu, the official who led that year's New Year festival.
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In Syriac Christianity, the Fast of Nineveh is a three-day fast starting the third Monday before Clean Monday from Sunday Midnight to Wednesday noon, during which participants usually abstain from all dairy foods and meat products. However, some observe the fast more rigorously and abstain from food and drink altogether from Sunday midnight to Wednesday after Holy Qurbana, which is celebrated before noon.
