| Babylonian Map of the World | |
|---|---|
 Obverse | |
| Material | Clay |
| Size |
|
| Writing | cuneiform |
| Created | after 9th century BC |
| Period/culture | Neo-Babylonian / earlyAchaemenid period |
| Place | Sippar |
| Present location | British Museum, (BM 92687) |
TheBabylonian Map of the World (alsoImago Mundi orMappa mundi) is aBabylonianclay tablet with a schematic world map and two inscriptions written in theAkkadian 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 tabletdescribes the oldest known depiction of thethen known world. Ever since its discovery there has been controversy on its general interpretation and specific features.[1] Another pictorial fragment, VAT 12772, presents a similar topography from roughly two millennia earlier.[2]
The map is centered on theEuphrates, flowing from the north (top) to the south (bottom), with its mouth labelled "swamp" and "outflow". The city ofBabylon is shown on the Euphrates, in the northern half of the map.Susa, the capital ofElam, is shown to the south,Urartu to the northeast, and Habban, the capital of theKassites, 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.[3][verification needed]
The tablet was excavated byHormuzd Rassam atSippar,Baghdad vilayet,[4] some 60 km north of Babylon on the east bank of theEuphrates River. It was acquired by theBritish Museum in 1882 (BM 92687);[4] the text was first translated in 1889.[5] The tablet is usually thought to have originated inBorsippa.[6] In 1995, a new section of the tablet was discovered, at the point of the upper-most triangle.[7]
The map is used as the logo of the academic journalImago Mundi.[8]
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.[9]
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 labelledidmaratum "bitter river", the salt sea.Babylon is marked north of center; parallel lines at the bottom seem to represent thesouthern marshes, and a curved line coming from the north-northeast appear to represent theZagros Mountains.[11][12][13][14][15]
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.[4]
 | 1. "Mountain" (Akkadian:šá-du-ú) 2. "City" (Akkadian:uru) | 12. Habban (Akkadian:ha-ab-ban) (aKassite land and city) 13.Babylon (Akkadian:tin.tirki), divided byEuphrates |
The text above the map[17] (11 lines) seems to describe part of the creation of the world byMarduk, the patron god of Babylon, who parted the primeval salt Ocean (the goddessTiamat) and thus created Land and Sea. Of the Sea it says:
the ruine[d] gods which he (Marduk) set[tled] inside the Sea [...] are present; the viper, the great sea-serpent inside.
Next, on Land, a series of two mythical creatures ("theAnzu-bird, andscorpi[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 ofBuršaḫa[nda] (opponent of Sargon).[18]
The back side[19] (29 lines) seems to be a description of (at least) eightnagu. After an introduction, possibly explaining how to identify the firstnagu, the next sevennagu are each introduced by the clause "To then-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 subsequentnagu).[20]
A short description is given for each of the eightnagu, but those of the first, second, and sixth are too damaged to read. The fifthnagu has the longest description, but this too is damaged and indecipherable. The seventh nagu is more clear:
... where cattle equipped with horns [are ...] they run fast and reach [...]
The thirdnagu may be a barren desert, impassable even for birds:
A winged [bi]rd cannot safely comp[lete its journey]
In the fourthnagu objects are found of remarkable dimensions:
[...] are thick as aparsiktum-measure, 20 fingers [...]
Irving Finkel assumes that thebird 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.[21] He also notes that theparsiktum-measure is known in Babylonian literature exclusively as a specification forUtnapishtim's ark, suggesting that thisnagu marks the legendary resting place of this ark. Further, thenagu is a mountain-like triangle close to the Urartu region inside the Bitter River, perhaps equivalent toMount Ararat, the Biblical resting place ofNoah's ark.[1][bare URL]
The eighthnagu may refer to a supposed heavenly gate in the east where the Sun enters as it rises in the morning.
[... the p]lace where [...] dawns at its entrance.
Concluding, the description then states that the map is a bird's eye description:
of the Four Quadrants of the entire [world?] [...] which no one can compre[hend] [i.e., thenagu extend infinitely far]
The last two lines apparently recorded the name of the scribe who wrote the tablet:
[...] copied from its old exemplar and colla[ted ...] the son of Iṣṣuru [the descend]ant of Ea-bēl-il[ī].
Carlo Zaccagnini has argued that the design of the Babylonian map of the world may have lived on in theT and O maps of the European Middle Ages.[22]
