ŠU.SI
ubānu

Akkadian noun

Last edited: 2024-11-03
Primary meaning finger
Literal translation finger
Variants
ŠU.SI ubānu
SI ubānu
u ubānu
Edited by
finger unit of celestial position

for distance to ecliptic or measure of eclipse magnitude

⸢ana⸣ tar-ṣa 1 ŠU.SI ḪAB-rat ḫe-pi-ti 1.⸢38.24⸣ [GAR-an]

‘Opposite 1 finger of the "broken disk" [you put down] 1,38;24 (barleycorns).’

— BM 34079 (BMAPT No. 65) obv. 20'

Genre: mathematical astronomy: procedure text
Provenance: Babylon
Date: ca. 350-50 BCE

Ossendrijver, M. 2012. Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy: Procedure Texts. New York: Springer. 426-427

a-na 1 DANNA 8 u NIM u SIG

‘For 1 bēru it (Jupiter) ascends and descends 8 fingers.’

— BM 37266 (BMAPT No. 47) obv. 4

Genre: mathematical astronomy: procedure text
Provenance: Babylon
Date: ca. 350-250 BCE

Ossendrijver, M. 2012. Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy: Procedure Texts. New York: Springer. 334

finger unit of length
Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Ossendrijver, M. (2024). ŠU.SI (Lemma #249). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/249/
Chicago (Author-Date)
Ossendrijver, M. (2024). ŠU.SI (Lemma #249). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/249/
MLA (9th)
Ossendrijver, M. (2024). ŠU.SI (Lemma #249). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/249/
Harvard
Ossendrijver, M. (2024) ŠU.SI (Lemma #249), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/249/ (Accessed: February 2, 2026).
BibTeX 
@misc{zodiac249,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2026-02-02]},
	author = {Ossendrijver, Mathieu},
	year = {2024},
	title = {Š{U}.{SI} ({Lemma} #249)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/249/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/249/},
}