When you purchase through links on our web site , we may gain an affiliate charge . Here ’s how it works .
Name : Babylonian Map of the World ( " Imago Mundi " in Latin )
What it is : A clay tablet inscribed with the oldest have it off map of the ancient world
The map depicts how Babylonians perceived the world thousands of years ago.
Where it is from : Abu Habba ( Sippar ) , an ancient Babylonian urban center in what is now Iraq
When it was made : Approximately the sixth century B.C.
refer : Ancient Egyptian head cones : inscrutable headdress that could be related to sensuality and fertility ritual
What it tells us about the past :
This tablet , which depicts how Babylonians perceived the world thousands of years ago , is pepper with details that volunteer perceptivity into an earlier time . For example , the ancient domain is point as a queer disk , which is gird by a ring of weewee called the Bitter River . At the world ’s center sits the Euphrates River and the ancient Mesopotamian city ofBabylon . Labels write in cuneiform , an ancient text , take down each location on the mapping , agree toThe British Museum .
Interestingly , cartographers may have used some creative permit . For representative , " Babylon " is marked on only one end of the Euphrates , even though it use up both banks for most of its history .
— Bison Licking Insect Bite : A 14,000 - class - previous natural pattern carved from a arm
— Arthur ’s Stone : A 5,700 - yr - quondam monument in England tie in to the legend of King Arthur
— Buddhas of Bamiyan : The prodigious twin statues that stood sentinel over Afghanistan until the Taliban ruin them
Above the function is a closure of text describe the creation of the Earth by Marduk , the chief god of Babylonia . The description gens more than a dozen animals — including a mountain Capricorn the Goat , social lion , leopard , hyena and wolf — as well as several notable rulers , such as Utnapishtim , a king who come through anepic inundation .
On the back of the map is more text describing eight outlying realm , know as nagu , each with a short description .
The tablet , which measures 4.8 inch tall by 3.2 inch wide ( 12.2 by 8.2 centimeter ) , is part of The British Museum ’s permanent ingathering .
' If it was a man , we would say that ’s a warrior ’s grave ' : Weapon - filled burial are escape from up what we know about char ’s role in Viking society
' It was deliberately cover ' : golden hoard of virtually 600 coin found in Czech Republic may date to World War II
The constant surveillance of modern living could decline our brain subprogram in ways we do n’t fully sympathize , disturb study propose
