An Introduction to The Babylonian Map of the World-the Oldest Known Map of the World
Briefly

from Open Culture6 months ago
If you look carefully, you will see that the flat surface of the clay has a double circle. Within the circle is cuneiform writing that describes the shape as the 'bitter river' that surrounds the known world: ancient Mesopotamia, or modern-day Iraq.
Open Culturehttps://www.openculture.com/2024/08/an-introduction-to-the-babylonian-map-of-the-world-the-oldest-known-map-of-the-world.html
Inside the circle lie representations of both the Euphrates River and the mighty city of Babylon; outside it lie a series of what scholars have determined were originally eight triangles.
Open Culturehttps://www.openculture.com/2024/08/an-introduction-to-the-babylonian-map-of-the-world-the-oldest-known-map-of-the-world.html
"Sometimes people say they are islands, sometimes people say they are districts, but in point of fact, they are almost certainly mountains, which stand far beyond the known world and represent, to the ancient Babylonians, places full of magic, and full of mystery."
Open Culturehttps://www.openculture.com/2024/08/an-introduction-to-the-babylonian-map-of-the-world-the-oldest-known-map-of-the-world.html
Coming up with a coherent explanation of the map itself hinged on the discovery, in the nineteen-nineties, of one of those triangles originally thought to have
Open Culturehttps://www.openculture.com/2024/08/an-introduction-to-the-babylonian-map-of-the-world-the-oldest-known-map-of-the-world.html
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#babylonian-map-of-the-world #ancient-cosmology #geography #ancient-history #mesopotamia
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