Researchers finally solve puzzle of oldest known map of the world
The cuneiform tablet from the 6th century BC shows an aerial view map of Mesopotamia — roughly modern-day Iraq — and what the Babylon ians believed lay beyond the known world at the time.The tablet has several paragraphs of the cuneiform on its backside and above the map diagram describing the creation of the Earth and what its writer believed existed beyond it.Dr. Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum, called the tablet “the oldest map of the world in the world.
Inside the bitter river, small circles and rectangles represent different cities and tribes in Mesopotamia including Babylon and another rectangle represents the Euphrates river. The Babylonian scribe also mapped out what they believed existed outside their world, including mythical creatures and lands as well as a reference to a well-known story today — essentially the Babylonian version of the biblical story of Noah’s ark.
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Babylonian Map of the World: The oldest known map of the ancient worldJennifer Nalewicki is a Salt Lake City-based journalist whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics and more. She covers several science topics from planet Earth to paleontology and archaeology to health and culture. Prior to freelancing, Jennifer held an Editor role at Time Inc.
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