Babylonian Map of the World
The Babylonian Map of the World is a Babylonian clay tablet with a schematic world map and two inscriptions written in the Akkadian language. Dated to no earlier than the 9th century BC, it includes a brief and partially lost textual description. The tablet describes the oldest known depiction of the then known world. Ever since its discovery there has been controversy on its general interpretation and specific features. Another pictorial fragment, VAT 12772, presents a similar topography from roughly two millennia earlier.
The map is centered on the Euphrates, flowing from the north to the south, with its mouth labelled "swamp" and "outflow". The city of Babylon is shown on the Euphrates, in the northern half of the map. Susa, the capital of Elam, is shown to the south, Urartu to the northeast, and Habban, the capital of the Kassites, is shown to the northwest. Mesopotamia is surrounded by a circular "bitter river" or Ocean, and seven or eight foreign regions are depicted as triangular sections beyond the Ocean, perhaps imagined as mountains.
The tablet was excavated by Hormuzd Rassam at Sippar, Baghdad vilayet, some 60 km north of Babylon on the east bank of the Euphrates River. It was acquired by the British Museum in 1882 ; the text was first translated in 1889. The tablet is usually thought to have originated in Borsippa. In 1995, a new section of the tablet was discovered, at the point of the upper-most triangle.
The map is used as the logo of the academic journal Imago Mundi.
Description of the tablet
The tablet consists of three parts: the world map, a text above it, and a text on the reverse side. It is not clear whether all three parts should be read as a single document. Systematic differences between the texts suggest that the tablet may have been compiled from three separate documents.The map
The map is circular with two boundary circles. Cuneiform script labels all locations inside the circular map, as well as a few regions outside. The two circles represent a body of water labelled idmaratum "bitter river", the salt sea.Babylon is marked north of center; parallel lines at the bottom seem to represent the southern marshes, and a curved line coming from the north-northeast appear to represent the Zagros Mountains.
There are seven small interior circles within the perimeter of the circle, appearing to represent seven cities.
Seven or eight triangular sections outside the water circle represent named "regions".
The descriptions for five of them have survived.
| 1. "Mountain" 2. "City" 3. Urartu 4. Assyria 5. Der (Sumer) 6. ? 7. Swamp 8. Susa 9. Canal/"outflow" 10. Bit Yakin 11. "City" | 12. Habban 13. Babylon, divided by Euphrates 14 - 17. Ocean 19 - 22. outer "regions" : 18. "Great Wall, 6 leagues in between, where the Sun is not seen". - The "Great Wall" may be a mountain ridge, the "6 leagues in between" probably refer to the width of the Ocean. 19. "nagu, 6 leagues in between" 20. "u ''gu ..." 22. "nagu'', 8 leagues in between" 23. No description. 24, 25. No description. |
Accompanying texts
Front side
The text above the map seems to describe part of the [creation of the world by Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, who parted the primeval salt Ocean and thus created Land and Sea. Of the Sea it says:Next, on Land, a series of two mythical creatures and at least fifteen land animals are mentioned, "beasts which Marduk created on top of the resess Sea", among them mountain goat, gazelle, lion, wolf, monkey and female-monkey, ostrich, cat, and chameleon. With the exception of the cat, all these animals were typical of faraway lands.
The last two lines of the text refer to three legendary heroes: Utnapishtim|tnapištim, Sargon, and Nur-agan the King of Purushanda|Buršaḫa.
Back side
The back side seems to be a description of eight nagu. After an introduction, possibly explaining how to identify the first nagu, the next seven nagu are each introduced by the clause "To the n-th region, where you travel 7 leagues".A short description is given for each of the eight nagu, but those of the first, second, and sixth are too damaged to read. The fifth nagu has the longest description, but this too is damaged and indecipherable. The seventh nagu is more clear:
The third nagu may be a barren desert, impassable even for birds:
In the fourth nagu objects are found of remarkable dimensions:
Irving Finkel assumes that the bird mentioned could be a reference to the author of the map, namely a man who, thanks to his geographical knowledge, was able to imagine the entire known world from a bird's-eye view, as if in flight. He also notes that the parsiktum-measure is known in Babylonian literature exclusively as a specification for Utnapishtim's ark, suggesting that this nagu marks the legendary resting place of this ark. Further, the nagu is a mountain-like triangle close to the Urartu region inside the Bitter River, perhaps equivalent to Mount Ararat, the Biblical resting place of Noah's ark.
The eighth nagu may refer to a supposed heavenly gate in the east where the Sun enters as it rises in the morning.
Concluding, the description then states that the map is a bird's eye description:
The last two lines apparently recorded the name of the scribe who wrote the tablet: