Researchers cracked the code in deciphering an ancient Babylonian tablet, which is believed to be the oldest map known in the world.
The map is called the Imago Mundi, which means “Image of the World,” and it was made around 2,600 to 2,900 years ago. Almost 150 years after its discovery, the map is yielding new insights into the religious practices and beliefs of the ancient civilization that created it. The tablet is composed of pieces of cuneiform text surrounding a circular map. The text on the map describes the Babylonian story of the world’s creation.
The map shows the ancient layout of Mesopotamia, which translates to “between the rivers,” a region of the Middle East where the first agricultural societies are believed to have begun. The map also confirms the ancient Babylonian creation myth, describing Marduk, their God of Creation, and other mythological monsters and creatures, such as Anzu, a deity with the head of a lion and the body of a bird.
At the time the tablet was created, the Babylonian Empire was at its peak and making huge strides in mathematics, science, culture, and architecture. Researchers deciphering other cuneiform tablets in 2016 found that they were already using geometry at that time to track the movements of the planet Jupiter.
The Imago Mundi was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1882 while the renowned archaeologist was excavating the site of the ancient Babylonian city of Sippar, in what is today Iraq. After the discovery, the tablet stayed in a box until it was rediscovered 29 years ago in Iraq and researchers began to decipher it. The map is now in London at the British Museum.
The map shows Mesopotamia depicted inside of two circles, which contain writing labeling the circles as the “bitter river,” matching the belief that primordial waters surrounded the known world, according to Dr. Irving Finkel of the British Museum, and that Mesopotamia was the center of the earth. The Euphrates River, which runs from North to South through Mesopotamia, is also depicted as stemming from the primordial waters.
The map also labels cities and tribes living in the region, including Urartu, Der, and Assyria. What Finkel believes are mountains are also depicted on the map, which he said encapsulates “the whole of the known world” that the ancient Babylonians lived in, and provided “tremendous insight” to researchers about their way of thinking.
