KEEPERS OF THE SECRETS WAS CONVEYED TO MANKIND BY ASTRONOMER-PRIESTS.

They distinguished between the immovable stars and the wandering  planet, knew  the Sun's and Moon's movements,  and keep track of Time--the cycle of sacred days and festivals, the calendar. For memory sake, I remind you the natue which nurtures the civilized human life began the sacred days at dusk on the previous evening--a custom still retained in  the Black African hybrid Jewish people calendar. A text which outlined the duties of the Urigallu priests during the twelve day New Year festival in Babylon throws light not only on the origin of priestly retual later on, but also on the close connection  between celestial observations  and the festival's proceedings. I take you back to a time most people have no appreciation for,  but some will: The Babylonian New Year rituals evolved from the Sumerian AKITI ("On Earth Build Life") festival whose roots can be traced to the state visit  by Anu and his spouse Antu to Earth circa 3800 B.C., when (as the texts attest) the Zodiac was ruled by  the Bull of Heaven, the Age Taurus. We have suggested that it was then that Counted Time, the calendar of Nippur, was granted to Mankind. inevitably that entailed celestial observations  and thus led to the creation of a class of trained astronomer-priests. Several texts, some well preserved and some surviving only in frgments, describe the pomp  and circumstances of Anu's visit  to Uruk (the biblical Erech) and the ceremonies  which became  the rituals of the New Year festival in the ensuing millennia.