Reconstructing 4Q208–4Q209 as an Astronomical Artefact

Nowhere in the ancient Mesopotamian and Mediterranean worlds have as many variant and different calendars been found as at Qumran. The diversity within the 364-day Hebrew calendar corpus is a continuing subject of research. Here, the focus is on two proposed Aramaic zodiac calendars: 4Q318 (4QZodiac Calendar and 4QBrontologion, registered as 4QZodiology and Brontology) and 4Q208–4Q209 (4QAstronomical Enoch a-b ). It is argued that these texts are related and that by adopting this model it should be possible to place some of the hitherto unplaced fragments from 4Q209.