and astrology were very interconnected. When creating the calendar for the next month or year, it was important to keep in mind where important festivals and other religious activities would fall. It seems that four nearby, surrounding countries contributed to each twelve-month calendar year: Elam, Amurru, Subartu, and Akkad. The months were divided into groups of three, alternating by four, evenly split among the four lands. The first, fifth, and ninth months belonged to Akkad, the second, sixth, and tenth belonged to Elam, the third, seventh, and eleventh belonged to Amurru, and the fourth, eighth, and twelfth belonged to Subartu. Days of each month follows the same pattern, beginning with one for Akkad, two for Elam, three for Amurru, four for Subartu, five for Akkad, and so on. As calendars were often created by priests, months that would come with rather unfavorable events were limited, especially prioritizing against eclipses and new moons; this practice also carried over into scheduling the days of each month. The moon was rather important to Mesopotamian peoples, and often it was what they based their calendar on. Lunar omens were among the most commonplace and, most often, they were based on eclipses rather than simple visibility. Deities of Mesopotamia were associated with certain times, days, and months. In more mythological belief, at the end of each day, the sun god, Shamash, retired to "the lap of heaven" to rest. Limits of early knowledge Astrology in its earliest stage was marked by limitations: General nature The first limitation was that the movements and position of the heavenly bodies point to such occurrences as are of public import and affect the general welfare. The individual's interests are not in any way involved, and we must descend many centuries and pass beyond the confines of Babylonia and Assyria before we reach that phase which in medieval and modern astrology is almost exclusively dwelt upon—the individual horoscope. In Babylonia and Assyria the cult centred largely and indeed almost exclusively in the public welfare and the person of the king, because upon his well-being and favour with the gods the fortunes of the country were dependent, in accordance with the ancient conception of kingship. Astronomical expertise The second limitation was that the astronomical knowledge presupposed and accompanying early Babylonian astrology was, though essentially of an empirical character, limited and flawed. The theory of the ecliptic as representing the course of