sossos

sossos

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek σῶσσος (sôssos), from Akkadian šūš 'sixty'.

Noun

sossos (plural sossoi)

1. (historical, Babylon) a quantity of 60, such as a period of 60 years.
   • Jöran Friberg (February 1984) "Numbers and Measures in the Earliest Written Records." Scientific American, volume 250, number 2, page 110.

     There in about 340 B.C. the founder of a school of astrology, a Babylonian named Berossos, wrote a history of his homeland. In it he told his Greek readers that the numbers sossos (60), neros (600) and saros (3,600) occupied a special place in Babylonian arithmetic and astronomy.

   • Gerald P. Verbrugghe & John Moore Wickersham (2001) Berossos and Manetho, Introduced and Translated: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. University of Michigan Press.

     Berossos used in his accounts saroi, neroi, and sossoi. A saros is a unit of time that consists of 3,600 years, a neros of 600 years, and a sossos of 60 years

   • The Six Days of Creation, Appendix 3: The Sumerian King List — post-diluvian Section (§§589–590)

     The more correct way to state the regnal figures is by saroi, neroi and sossoi, decades and units, as in the original. [...] En-me-nuna ruled for 1 neros 1 sossos <3 years 4 months 21 days>

See also

• saros
• neros