According to a video recently released by the British Museum, the “world’s oldest map” on a 3,000-year-old Babylonian clay tablet has been deciphered. The clay tablet-shaped plaque, determined to date back to the 6th century BC, shows a detailed map of Mesopotamia. According to the map, which covers the territory of today’s Iraq, the Babylonians believed that the known world at the time consisted of Mesopotamia. The video in question, which tells the story of the ancient clay tablet, states that the map entered the British Museum’s inventory in 1882. According to the documentary, the museum purchased the work from intermediaries. However, until the cuneiform writings on the tablet, which were determined to be missing, were deciphered by linguists, what the map said remained a mystery.
‘BITTER RIVER’ SURROUNDINGS
The world map of the Babylonian period is seen as an important source in terms of understanding the approaches of ancient civilizations to the world. According to the British Museum’s publication, the tablet in question contains a diagram that is understood to be a map, as well as several paragraphs of cuneiform script explaining the creation of the world and what lies beyond the world in terms of the belief system of the period. The British Museum official says the following about the ancient map:The map shows Mesopotamia, which the ancient scribe called the ‘bitter river’, surrounded by a double ring. The river formed the boundary of the known Babylonian world. Within the bitter river, small circles and rectangles represent various Mesopotamian cities and tribes, including Babylon, while another rectangle represents the Euphrates River.“
THERE IS NOAH’S ARK TOO
“There is more to this map,” says Dr. Irving Finkel, curator and cuneiform expert at the British Museum. “As we move beyond the known world into fantasy, this inscription becomes essential. The Babylonian tablet writer mapped what he believed lay beyond his world. The map featured mythical creatures and lands, as well as a familiar story from ancient history: the Babylonian version of the biblical account of Noah’s Ark.“
IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE BIBLE NARRATIVE
Dr. Irving Finkel provides the following information about the Noah’s Ark legend: “The ancient Babylonians believed that Utnapishtim built a giant ship in 1800 B.C. At God’s command, the ship landed on a mountain across the Bitter River. Interestingly, that was the same mountain where Noah’s Ark landed in the biblical narrative. That’s very interesting. Because it shows that the story is the same, and of course one thing leads to another. We should note that the ancient world had their own version of the story, according to which the flood occurred during the reign of Deucalion in Phthia in Thessaly. Zeus decided to destroy all corrupt humankind. The only exceptions were to be the righteous king Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha.”
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