Babylonian Map of the World

The Babylonian Map of the World (also Imago Mundi or Mappa mundi) 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 (with a late 8th or 7th century BC date being more likely), 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 (top) to the south (bottom), 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 (incorrectly) 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 (BM 92687); 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

Babylonian Map of the World. The more vertical lines indicate the banks of Euphrates, where the Anuna worked, Gods of the Athra-Hasis Flood epic. The small circles show citys as Uruk and the triangles mountains at the world's edge, including Ararat, on which 'Noah' Atra-Hasis stranded. The belt symbolises the goodess salt sea serpent Tiamat surrounding earth since its creation. She, the cosmic Abzu and the Flood are probably sources of Leviathan, a human-consuming cosmic sea monster.

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" (nagu). The descriptions for five of them have survived.

Accompanying texts

Front side

The text above the map (11 lines) seems to describe part of the creation of the world by Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, who parted the primeval salt Ocean (the goddess Tiamat) and thus created Land and Sea. Of the Sea it says:

Next, on Land, a series of two mythical creatures ("the Anzu-bird, and scorpi[on-man]") and at least fifteen land animals are mentioned, "beasts which Marduk created on top of the res[tl]ess Sea" (i.e. on the land, visualized as a kind of giant raft floating in the 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: [U]tnapištim (the hero of the Flood as described in Gilgamesh's epic), Sargon (ruler of Akkad), and Nur-[D]agan the King of Buršaḫa[nda] (opponent of Sargon).

Back side

The back side (29 lines) seems to be a description of (at least) 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 [nagu], where you travel 7 leagues" (the distance of 7 leagues seems to indicate the width of the Ocean, rather than the distance between subsequent nagu).

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.[1]

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:

Later influence

Carlo Zaccagnini has argued that the design of the Babylonian map of the world may have lived on in the T and O maps of the European Middle Ages.

References

Sources

Wiggermann, Frans (1996). "Scenes From The Shadow Side". In Vogelzang, M.E.; Vanstiphout, H.L.J. (eds.). Mesopotamian Poetic Language: Sumerian and Akkadian. Styx Publications. pp. 207–230.

External links

Gallery

Map of the World from Sippar, Iraq. 6th century BCE. British Museum
Map of the World from Sippar, Iraq, 6th century BCE. British Museum
Map of the World from Sippar, Iraq, 6th century BCE. The British Museum