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The Lion Horoscope, at the West Terrace of the Nemrud, is the oldest known horoscope in the world. It depicts a constellation which will not be seen for the forthcoming 25,000 years.
The animation at the next page shows the sky as if you yourself were present at the West Terrace on top of the Nemrud on the 14th of July 109 B.C. Please, enjoy it!
The Lion Horoscope is a is a stone slab measuring 1.75 x 2.40 metres with a thickness of 0.47 metres. It shows a lion marching to the right. It is the Lion Horoscope.
The body of the lion is covered with 19 stars. Each star has 8 pointed rays. Apart from a small difference the positions of the 19 stars represent the constellation of Lion as described in the Ephemeris of Eratosthenes.
The lion wears under his neck a sickle, symbol for the new Moon. Above that dish the star Regulus radiates. Regulus has been associated with the king throughout history of mankind. It was named Regulus by Copernicus after the earlier "Rex", equivalent to the "Basileos" of Ptolemeus. In ancient Akkadia known as "Amil-gal-ur" King-of-the-celestial-sphere. In Babylonia as "Sharu" the King. In ancient Persia as "Miyan" the Centre, leader of the four royal stars.
Above the lions back are three stars depicted with sixteen points instead of eight. These are not stars but planets. From left to right they are Mars, Mercury and Jupiter. Above them you can read their Greek names:
The Lion Horoscope is a frozen picture of the positions of the heavenly bodies at a certain moment at a certain date. But what date ?
Jupiter needs about 12 years to pass the ecliptica, Mars 2 years and Mercury 1 year. The moon passes the ecliptic in 1 month. So the slow planets Jupiter and Mars give the year, Mercury the month and the moon gives the day.
First the years were selected in which Jupiter was in the constellation of Lion as depicted at the stone slab. From these years those were selected in which Mars was also moving through this part of the ecliptica. And the same for Mercury.
The second selection criterium was the sequence of these planets, being Mars-Mercury-Jupiter according to the Lion Horoscope. As a result the constellation of the 14th of July 109 B.C. was selected.
Normally Mercury can not be seen with the naked eye most of the time. However, on this particular day Mercury had reached almost its maximum distance from the Sun and was therefore good visible.
The time lapse between sunset and descending of the moon was about 17 minutes. If the moon-Regulus conjunction was visible from top of the mountain, it was only very short : Just before the descending of the moon at 19h37 Local Real Time. In the minutes before the complete constellation as depicted on the Lion Horoscope was in place.
This particular phenomenon makes it possible to determine not only the date but also the time of the constellation, being 19h35 Local Real Time. So, the Lion Horoscope indicates not only the date of that particular constellation but even the exact hour!
This as amazing as it would have been to the scientist Puchstein who wrote : "Such a relief can only depict very roughly the positions of the celestial bodies....."
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