The Winds in the world of the Ancient Mesopotamian Civilizations
The ancient Mesopotamian civilizations (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia), reaching back to before 3000 B.C., did not develop or possess the notion of the “cardinal” astronomical directions—N, E, S, and W—until the relatively late date of about 700 B.C., in contrast to the Greek and Hebrew civilizations of antiquity. Instead, orientation was determined by the directions of four principal winds, namely, the “regular wind,” the “mountain wind,” the “cloud wind,” and the “Amorite wind.” In terms of our notation, these could be described as, respectively, a NW, a NE, a SE, and a SW wind or as winds from the northwesterly, the northeasterly, etc., quarters. Even astronomical features were indicated (mainly before 700 B.C.) in terms of the directions of the principal winds. In the Assyro-Babylonian language the same word designated a principal wind and the direction from which that wind blows. Judging by inscriptions and other finds of archaeological excavations, the most prominent wind was the “regular win...