Daniel's 70 weeks (part 7) BM32234 tablet - It was Artaxerxes I, not Xerxes I, who was killed by his son!

This is the transcript for my Youtube video with the same title.

This is part seven of my video series about Daniel 9’s seventy weeks prophecy. The death of Xerxes I was dated by historians on the 14th of Av, 465 BC which corresponds to August 2 Julian calendar or July 28 Gregorian calendar of that year. This was based on scholars’ interpretation of the astronomical tablet BM32234 which reports a lunar eclipse on the third month of Sivan in the same year a king supposedly named Xerxes was killed by his son on the 14th of the fifth month of Av. This eclipse was dated by historians on June 5, 465 BC, Julian calendar. And here is what the tablet has to say regarding this eclipse:

At 18° … 40° onset, maximal phase and clearing. The garment of the sky was there. In the area of the 4 rear stars of Sagittarius it was eclipsed.

The tablet mentioned 18° along with some unreadable text. The scholars who interpreted this astronomical observation did not or could not explain this part of the tablet. Now the globe is divided into 360° longitude and 24 hours or 1440 minutes time zones, so that there are 4 minute time zones per degree of longitude.   

Scholars explain that the “40° onset, maximal phase, and clearing” mentioned in the tablet refers to the entire duration of the eclipse from beginning to end which is equivalent to 160 minutes duration using the 4 minutes per degree conversion factor I just mentioned. Now compare this to the 184 minutes partial eclipse duration that happened on June 6, 465 BC  according to the NASA Catalog of Lunar Eclipses. Obviously, the actual duration of this eclipse is 24 minutes longer than what the tablet observed. But according to these scholars the June 6, 465 BC partial lunar eclipse which had an umbral duration of 184 minutes, was observed by the astronomer for only 40° or 160 minutes before it was covered by “the garment of the sky”. These scholars claim that the expression “garment of the sky” refers to clouds. 

However I beg to disagree, because a subsequent observation on Month VIII, the 14th, says “13° [or 52 minutes] after sunset, the moon came out of a cloud”. In other words, the same ancient astronomer used plain language when talking about clouds in the sky instead of referring to clouds as “garments” of the sky.

In my humble opinion, the garment of the sky refers to the horizon instead, which covers the eclipsed Moon like a garment as soon as its entire diameter sets below the horizon. And 40° or 160 minutes refers to the observable duration of the eclipse from onset until moonset. 

In the first video of this series I said that planetary movements are cyclical and their exact relative positions can be repeated over a period of time. And this means astronomical positions which scholars believe happened in the reign of one king can repeat itself in the reign of another king. And errors in dating can happen in this case if the tablet either does not mention the name of the king or the name of the king is unreadable.

But didn’t the tablet mention Xerxes as the name of the king? Actually, no it did not. What the tablet actually said was “Xerxes his son killed him”, but the translators hyphenated it as “Xerxes - his son killed him” to make it look like Xerxes was killed by his unnamed son. In my opinion, the statement should be read as is, in other words the unnamed king was killed by his son named Xerxes! And in fact, Xerxes I was not murdered by his son, it was Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the Persian court, who assassinated Xerxes I with the help of a eunuch, Aspamitres. And according to Aristotle (in Politics 5.1311b), after Artaxerxes I (Xerxes I’s immediate successor) discovered the murder, he killed Artabanus and his sons. 

Now a lunar eclipse similar to the one that occurred on June 5, 465 BC happened 46 years later, and specifically on June 8, 419 BC, which when observed and described also matches what BM32234 said about the eclipsed Moon being observed at the area of the 4 rear stars of Sagittarius. And in my revised interpretation and dating of this tablet, the unnamed king who died was Artaxerxes I, which according to BM32234 was killed by his son Xerxes II who was also his immediate successor. 

In part 6 of this video series titled “Redating the historical eclipses during Xerxes the Great's reign”, I said Artaxerxes I first sat on his throne on Kislev 18, 462 BC which corresponds to December 1 Julian calendar or November 26 Gregorian calendar of that year. However, his regnal year started counting on the first day of the first month of the following year which was Nisan 1, 461 BC. Now according to the historian Ctesias, Artaxerxes I’s reign lasted 42 years, which means his reign ended in 419 BC. This is why In my opinion the June 8, 419 BC lunar eclipse was the eclipse described in BM32234 and that the unnamed king was Artaxerxes I, whose assassin was his son and immediate successor Xerxes II. So where was Artaxerxes the Great when this astronomical observation was made? This is what the tablet has to say regarding this lunar eclipse:

At 18° … 40° onset, maximal phase and clearing. The garment of the sky was there. In the area of the 4 rear stars of Sagittarius it was eclipsed.

Using Stellarium and setting the Algorithm of delta T to JPL Horizons, and the location at 37° 15' 17.4" N, 58° 19' 5.4" E, and the date to June 7, 419 BC (or -418 in astronomical year numbering) at 22:10:54 UTC, one can see that the penumbral eclipse started exactly 40° or 160 minutes before Moonset, just as the tablet says. 

It had a maximum eclipse magnitude of 52.3% which occurred 15.5° or 62 minutes before Moonset. 

I believe the unreadable part of the tablet which says “At 18°” was meant to say “At 18° (or 72 minutes) before Moonset, maximal phase”. The tablet observation for when the maximal phase occurred was 10 minutes earlier than what Stellarium calculated for this eclipse. However Stellarium defines Moonset as when the lower half of the Moon is below the horizon instead of its entire diameter. Allowing an additional 3 minutes for the upper half of the Moon to set below the horizon, we get only a 7 minutes difference between what the tablet says against what Stellarium calculates.

A penumbral lunar eclipse takes place when the Moon moves through the faint, outer part of the Earth's shadow, the penumbra. This type of eclipse is not as dramatic as other types of lunar eclipses and is often mistaken for a regular Full Moon. Because Earth’s penumbral shadow is light, it can be hard to spot as it moves across the face of the Moon. The best time to try and catch it is around maximum eclipse, when one edge of the Moon may appear slightly darker than the other. And if the BM32234 

tablet was indeed describing a penumbral eclipse, it is imperative that the time when the maximum eclipse was observed should be noted. Also, since penumbral eclipses are very hard to observe, a seven minutes error by an ancient astronomer is easy to understand.

37° 15' 17.40" N, 58° 19' 5.40" E, the observational site for the eclipse, is located in a region called Hyrcania. According to Ctesias, Artaxerxes I appointed his illegitimate son Ochus as satrap of Hyrcania in 425 BC  (Ochus later assumed the throne as Darius II). Historians believe Artaxerxes I died in 424 BC, so it means this appointment happened one year before Artaxerxes I died. 

Also according to Ctesias, Artaxerxes I’s reign lasted 42 years. But, there are many tablets that say Ochus or Darius II ascended the throne in the 41st year of Artaxerxes I.The only way to explain this is that Artaxerxes I made Ochus his coregent the year before he died and on the same year he made Ochus satrap of Hyrcania. 

Xerxes II, the immediate successor of Artaxerxes I was the only legitimate son of Artaxerxes I and Damaspia, and is known to have served as crown prince. For unknown reasons, Artaxerxes I must have disowned Xerxes II if Artaxerxes I made his illegitimate son Ochus as his coregent instead. However, the fact that Xerxes II became the immediate successor of Artaxerxes I instead of Ochus, meant that this succession was illegal, and according to tablet BM32234, this was due to Xerxes II murdering his father Artaxerxes I. Xerxes II reigned for only forty-five days as he was assassinated in the same year by his half-brother Sogdianus (another illegitimate son of Artaxerxes I), who in turn was murdered by Darius II or Ochus six months later. 

So what was Artaxerxes I doing in Hyrcania during a penumbral eclipse just two months before he was assassinated? This question can be answered by knowing where exactly Artaxerxes I died, or was murdered by his son Xerxes II. In Thucydides The History of the Peloponnesian War, Chapter XIII we read that Artaxerxes I sent his ambassador Artaphernes to Sparta, an enemy state of the Athenians. Artaxerxes I wanted the Spartans to send envoys to him so they can speak to him in person.  Unfortunately Artaphernes was arrested by the Athenians on his way but was later freed and “sent back to Ephesus”, together with envoys who heard there of the death of King Artaxerxes. It is very clear from this account that the news of Artaxerxes I’s death came from Ephesus. 

Because Artaxerxes I was embarking on a long voyage to Ephesus, two months before arriving there, he first met with his coregent Ochus aka Darius II, most likely to give Ochus full control of the Persian empire while he was away. This angered Xerxes II, formerly the crown prince of Artaxerxes I, who then murdered his own father in Ephesus, while they were far from the Persian heartland.