The world’s oldest map, drawn on a clay tablet from around 3,000 years ago, has been deciphered by scientists who discovered the location of Noah’s Ark.
A Babylonian artifact called the Imago Mundi contained a circular diagram that contained a writing system that used wedge-shaped symbols to describe the early creation of the world.
Researchers at the British Museum deciphered the tablet last month and announced that deeper analysis revealed references to the Bible in ancient languages.
On the back of the tablet there is a description of what the traveler will see on his journey, part of which reads: “Seven leagues must be passed…” [to] You can see something thick like a Parsiktu vessel. ”
The word “parsictu” also appears on other ancient Babylonian tablets to describe the size of ships needed to survive the Flood.
The researchers looked at a manual that mentions a path to Urartu, where an ancient Mesopotamian poem claims a man and his family landed in an ark to save their lives.
Here’s what’s depicted on the Babylonian tablets:
“It shows that the stories were the same, and of course that one led to the other, but it also shows that from a Babylonian point of view this was natural. If you “If you’re going on this journey, you’ll be looking at the remains of this historic ship,” said British Museum curator Dr. Irving Finkel.
Mesopotamia is located at the bottom center of the map, surrounded by a circle representing the “Bitter River” that is believed to encircle the entire world.
The tablet has been damaged, but researchers say it once had eight triangles drawn on it, representing a mountain that matches the description on the back.
“Number 4 says, ‘You have to travel seven leagues to get to number 4,'” Dr. Finkel said in a YouTube video.
He said the passage shows how travelers will eventually reach the giant ship.
“This Parsictu measurement is jarring to Assyriologists, and in fact it is the only time anything else is known from a cuneiform tablet, and this is a rather interesting cuneiform tablet. ,” Dr. Finkel added.
“Because it is, in theory, a Babylonian version of the description of the ark built by Noah,” he said.
(Information provided by agency)
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