According to Prof. Sayce[148] there is distinct evidence of a change of thought with regard to Anu in Babylonia—there certainly were great changes of thought in Egypt with regard to Anubis. Observations of stars near the pole of the ecliptic appear to have been utilised before they were taken as representing either the superior or inferior powers—before, in fact, the Anubis or Set stage quá Egypt was reached. After this had been accomplished there was still another advance, in which Anu assigns places to sun, moon, and evening star, and symbolises the forces of nature.
There is evidence, though unfortunately it is very meagre, that the temple worship was very similar in the two countries.
In the ceremonials in the temples the statues of the gods in boats or arks were always carried in procession.[149] The same rectangular arrangement of temples which held in Egypt, held also in Babylonia, and this perhaps may be the reason why Bīl seems so often to refer to the sun, whereas it was the name given to the combined worship. Sometimes, on the other hand, the worship of the stars is distinctly referred to as taking place in a solar temple. Thus at Marduk's temple, E-Sagili, we are told that "two hours after nightfall the priest must come and take of the waters of the river; must enter into the presence of Bīl, and putting on a stole in the presence of Bīl must say this prayer," etc.[150] The temple, then, will probably have been oriented to the north. Night prayers in a sun-temple afford pretty good indications of a mixed cult.
The evidence, then, seems conclusive that by the time of the founding of the temple at Annu a knowledge of the stars near the pole of the equator, and of the importance of observing them, was common to N. Egypt and to the region N.E. of it. Whether the worship of Set was introduced into Egypt from this region, or whether there was a common origin, must for the present, then, remain undetermined.
The Equinoctial School—The Worship of the Spring-Sun.
The East and West orientation, as we have seen, is chiefly remarkable at the pyramids of Gîzeh and the associated temples, but it is not confined to them.
The argument in favour of these structures being the work of intruders is that a perfectly new astronomical idea comes in, one not represented at Annu and quite out of place in Egypt, with the solstitial rising river, as the autumnal equinox was at Eridu, with the river rising at the spring equinox.
We are justified from what is known regarding the rise of the Nile as dominating and defining the commencement of the Egyptian year at the solstice, in concluding that other ancient peoples placed under like conditions would act in the same way; and if these conditions were such that spring would mean sowing-time and autumn harvest-time, their year would begin at an equinox.
Now what the valley of the Nile was to Egypt those of the Tigris and the Euphrates were to the Babylonian empire. Like the Nile, these valleys were subject to annual inundations, and their fertility depended, as in Egypt, upon the manner in which the irrigation was looked after.
But unlike the Nile, the commencement of the inundation of these rivers took place near the vernal equinox; hence the year, we may assume, began then, and, reasoning by analogy, the worship in all probability was equinoctial.