at a glance Babylonian world mapfew people recognise it for what it is. But few like the curators in the British Museum’s Middle East department. Irving FinkelHis wealth of knowledge (and ability to share it compellingly) has made him a popular viewer on the organization’s YouTube channel. Curator’s Corner video aboveSo he gives us an up-close look at a Babylonian world map — a fragment of a clay tablet from the 8th or 7th century BCE that he and other experts have determined contains part of the world’s oldest surviving map.
“If you look closely, you can see a double circle on a flat surface of clay,” Finkel says. Within the circle is cuneiform writing that describes the shape as a “bitter river” that encircles the known world, either ancient Mesopotamia or modern-day Iraq.
Within the circle are both the Euphrates River and the mighty city of Babylon, while on the outside is a series of what scholars have determined were originally eight triangles, “some say an island, others a district, but in fact almost certainly a mountain”, rising “far beyond the known world” and representing to the ancient Babylonians “a place full of magic and mystery”.
Coming up with a coherent explanation for the map itself required the discovery, in the 1990s, of one of the triangles originally thought to be lost. This was the fervor of Edith Horsley, a student in Finkel’s night classes in cuneiform but a non-specialist. She had set aside a particularly interesting piece of clay while working as a weekly volunteer at the British Museum. Finkel saw it and immediately knew which artifact it belonged to. After the piece was reattached, a lot more was learned. Notably, the map marked the distant location of a beached (or rather, piled) ark built by a “Babylonian Noah.” The search continues This was about 9,000 years later.
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Based in Seoul, Colin MaOnershall Writing and broadcastingHe has written papers on cities, languages, and cultures, and his projects include the Substack newsletter. Books about cities And books A city without a state: Walking through 21st-century Los Angeles. Follow us on Twitter CollinhamOnershall or Facebook.
