The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

170 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
Besides this, each year is covered by two lines in the text, one for
the last appearance of the planet and the other for its first, the total
number of lines covering the fourteen years, therefore, being
twenty-eight. With this framework there is no problem in restoring
the year numbers that are damaged.
Most of the positions given for Saturn at its first or last appearance
are legible. 32 The entry for year eight, which is almost wholly
preserved, is quoted here as an example:
Year 8, month 6, day 5, behind the Furrow (α+ Virginis), last
appearance.
[Year 8], month 7, day 5, ‘between’ the Furrow (α+ Virginis)
and the Balance (Libra), first appearance. 33
What is the implication of this astronomical tablet for the
chronology of the Neo-Babylonian era?
As noted, Saturn has a revolution of 29.5 years, which also
means that the planet moves through the whole ecliptic in this
period.
But for the planet to be seen again at a specific point (close to a
certain fixed star, for example) of the ecliptic at the same time of the
year, we have to wait for 59 solar years (2 x 29.5). This interval,
actually, is much longer in the Babylonian lunar calendar. As C. B.
F. Walker explains:
A complete cycle of Saturn phenomena in relation to the stars
takes 59 years. But when that cycle has to be fitted to the lunar
calendar of 29 or 30 days then identical cycles recur at intervals of
rather more than 17 centuries. Thus there is no difficulty in
determining the date of the present text. 34
In other words, the absolute chronology of Kandalanu’s reign is
definitely fixed by the Saturn tablet, because the pattern of
positions described in the text and fixed to specific dates in the
Babylonian lunar calendar is not repeated again in more than seventeen
centuries! The first fourteen years of his reign mentioned in the
document are thus fixed to 647–634 B.C.E. As Kandalanu’s total
reign may chronologically be counted as twenty-two years
32 In three cases the dates given for the first or last appearance are followed by the
comment “not observed”, the reason in two cases being said to be clouds; and in
another case it is said to have been “computed” (for the same reason). As
suggested by Walker, “in these cases the date of theoretical first or last visibility
was deduced from the planet’s position when first or last actually seen.” —Ibid.,
pp. 64, 65, 74.
33 Ibid., p. 65.
34 1bid., p. 63.