Babylonian Map of the World

Babylonian Map of the World
Obverse
MaterialClay
SizeHeight: 12.2 cm (4.8 in)
Width: 8.2 cm (3.2 in)
Writingcuneiform
Createdafter 9th century BC
Period/cultureNeo-Babylonian
/ early Achaemenid period
PlaceSippar
Present locationBritish Museum, (BM 92687)

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 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 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.[3]

The tablet was excavated by Hormuzd Rassam at Sippar, Baghdad vilayet,[4] 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);[4] the text was first translated in 1889.[5] The tablet is usually thought to have originated in Borsippa.[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 journal Imago Mundi.[8]

  1. ^ Delnero, Paul. "A Land with No Borders: A New Interpretation of the Babylonian “Map of the World”." Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 4.1-2 (2017): 19-37
  2. ^ Wiggermann 1996, p. 208–209.
  3. ^ Lewy H., Lewy J., "The Origin of the Week and the Oldest West Asiatic Calendar", The Hebrew Union College Annual 17 (1943), 1—146.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference BM92687 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ F. E. Peiser ZA 4 (1889) 361-370. First publication of a photographic reproduction: C. Ball, Light from The East (1899), p. 23.
  6. ^ Horowitz, Wayne. 2011. Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography. 2nd ed. Mesopotamian Civilizations 8. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns
  7. ^ Finkel, Irving. 1995. "A Join to the Map of the World: A Notable Discovery". British Museum Magazine: The Journal of the British Museum Friends 23: 26–27
  8. ^ Smith, Catherine Delano, "Imago Mundi’s Logo the Babylonian Map of the World", Imago Mundi, vol. 48, pp. 209–11, 1996