- The Venus Tablet is a Cuneiform Tablet made in the 7th century BCE, recording astronomical observations of the planet Venus that were made around the 17th century BCE.
- It forms part of the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (c. 650 BCE), which consists of 30,000 clay tablets in written in Cuneiform Akkadian, and Assyrian, which includes the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Description
- The Venus Tablet is tablet number 63, and part of a group of around 70 Tablets, describing Babylonian Astrology known as the Enuma anu enlil.
- The original Tablet recorded the Heliacal Rising and Heliacal setting of Venus over a 21 year period during the 17th century BCE.
- The Venus Tablet is a 7th century BCE copy.
Location
- There are several copies of the Venus Tablet from this period, one of which is in the British Museum in London.
Nineveh