It is frequently stated that the beginning of the Babylonian calendar month, at the new moon, was determined on the basis of a combination of new moon sighting and new moon prediction.1 This assumption is plausible but vague, and has never been properly substantiated. The purpose of this article is to establish, through detailed analysis of the evidence in the Astronomical Diaries, the extent to which observation and prediction would have been used for the determination of the Babylonian month. A similar analysis will then be applied to earlier, astrological sources. This will reveal a significant change in the way the month was determined from the neo-Assyrian to the Achaemenid and later periods, and the role that astronomy may have played in the development of this critical aspect of the Babylonian calendar.
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