SIG
unnutu

Akkadian verb

Last edited: 2023-09-18
Primary meaning to be faint
Literal translation to be faint
Variants
SIG unnutu
SIG.SIG unnutu
Edited by

to be faint verb of visual perception

KI EŠ.BAR GANBA | DU3.A.BI KA NU GI | A.RA2 NU SI.SA2 | mul2.BABBAR SIG.SIG-ma | d.ṣal-bat-a-nu KUR4-ma | d.SAG.UŠ KUR4-ma

‘Place of a decision on all trade, speech is not true, the way is not straight, (when) Jupiter is faint, and Mars is bright, and Saturn is bright.’

— VAT 7847+AO 6448 obv., row A: iii (Libra)

Genre: microzodiac text
Provenance: Uruk
Date: early 2nd cent BCE

Weidner, E., 1967. Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln. Wien: Hermann Böhlaus Nachf. 21

(5) KUR4-ma ŠEG3 u ILLU MAḪ un-nu-ut i-ṣu (...) (10) šum-ma UD-2O-KAM ina 6-šu2 ša2 u4-mu 5/6-u2 ša2 u4-mu TA UD-20-KAM (11) ma-a-du u3 i-ṣu SIG u3 KUR

‘(5) (If the planet) is bright: rain and heavy flood, (if) it is faint: few (rains and flood). (...) (10) If (Mercury appears) on the 20th day (it will rain) for a 6th of a day (or) 5/6th of a day. From the 20th day (11) many or few (rains and floods, whether Mercury) is faint or bright.’

— AO 6449 (TCL 6 19 = TU 19) obv. 5, 10-11

Genre: astrological weather prediction
Provenance: Uruk
Date: 226 BCE (12 V Seleucid Era 84)

Hunger, H. 1976. Astrologische Wettervorhersagen. Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie 66: 234–260


See also

TUR ṣeḫēruto be/become small

Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Schreiber, M. (2023). SIG (Lemma #764). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/764/

Chicago (Author-Date)
Schreiber, M. (2023). SIG (Lemma #764). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/764/

MLA (9th)
Schreiber, M. (2023). SIG (Lemma #764). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/764/

Harvard
Schreiber, M. (2023) SIG (Lemma #764), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/764/ (Accessed: December 1, 2025).

BibTeX
@misc{zodiac764,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2025-12-01]},
	author = {Schreiber, Marvin},
	year = {2023},
	title = {SIG ({Lemma} #764)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/764/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/764/},
}