Babylonian Map of the World
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What is the Babylonian Map of the World?
The Babylonian Map of the World is a clay tablet created between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, and is the oldest known map of the world. Discovered in 1882 and translated in 1889, the tablet depicts both known and unknown regions of ancient Mesopotamia.
The map depicts the world as a disk surrounded by a circle labeled the "Bitter River," which represents the salt sea or ocean. The Euphrates River is represented by two lines running through the middle of the disk. Babylon is shown as a large bar that cuts across the Euphrates, which emphasizes the city's importance. Other features include circles that likely represent cities or districts, the Zagros Mountains, and regions such as Assyria, Der, and Elam.
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Where and when was the Babylonian Map of the World made?
The Babylonian Map of the World is a depiction of the ancient Mesopotamian world on a clay tablet. It was created between the late 8th and 6th centuries BCE. The British Museum acquired the tablet in 1882 and translated it in 1889. The map is accompanied by two cuneiform texts that provide insight into Babylonian cosmology. The map is the earliest known map of the ancient world. It depicts both known and unknown regions. The tablet shows the Earth as a disk surrounded by water, with Babylon as its center.
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What material was used to make the Babylonian Map of the World?
The Babylonian Map of the World, the oldest known map of the world, is depicted on a clay tablet. This tablet, created between the late 8th and 6th centuries BCE, was acquired by the British Museum in 1882 and translated in 1889.
The 4.8-by-3.2-inch tablet illustrates the world as known to ancient Mesopotamians within a disk surrounded by an outer circle labeled the "Bitter River," representing the salt sea or ocean. The city of Babylon is prominently featured, suggesting its importance to the map's creator. Accompanying cuneiform texts offer insights into Babylonian cosmology, though the tablet's damaged surface makes full decipherment challenging.
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What places are shown on the Babylonian Map of the World?
The Babylonian Map of the World, created between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, is the oldest known map of the world. The map depicts the world as known to ancient Mesopotamians within a disk, surrounded by a circle labeled the "Bitter River," representing the salt sea or ocean.
The Euphrates River is represented by two lines running from north to south, with Babylon depicted as a large horizontal bar. The map also shows the Zagros Mountains, along with the regions of Assyria, Der, and Elam (represented by its capital, Susa). Additionally, the map features Bit-Yakin, Urartu, and Habban. Beyond the Bitter River are regions or islands, with one northeastern region labeled "great wall," where "Shamash [the sun] is not seen".
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How does the Babylonian Map of the World help us understand how ancient Babylonians viewed their world?
The Babylonian Map of the World, a clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia created between the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, is the oldest known map of the world. The map depicts the world as known to the ancient Mesopotamians, with Babylon prominently at the center, suggesting its importance to the map's creator.
The tablet shows the known world within a disk surrounded by the "Bitter River," representing the salt sea or ocean. The map also depicts other geographical areas, such as Assyria, Urartu, and Elam. Beyond the Bitter River are regions that may be mythological or real areas beyond the Mesopotamian world. The map provides insights into Babylonian cosmology, though damage to the tablet makes full decipherment difficult.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Babylonian Map of the World, clay tablet produced between the late 8th and 6th centuries bce that depicts the oldest known map of the ancient world. Acquired by the British Museum in 1882 and translated in 1889, this tablet depicts a map of known and unknown regions of the ancient Mesopotamian world. Two cuneiform texts accompany the map, one above the map and the other on the reverse of the tablet. These give insight into Babylonian cosmology, though damage to the tablet’s surface makes it impossible for scholars to decipher it fully.
The tablet
The tablet measures 4.8 by 3.2 inches (12.2 by 8.2 cm) and is quite delicate. A piece of it broke off and was lost while the tablet was on loan to another institution. The tablet was found in a box with other objects from Hormuzd Rassam’s 1881 excavation at Tell Abū Ḥabba (ancient Sippar; roughly 25 miles [40 km] southwest of modern Baghdad), indicating that it was likely found at that site. However, it is possible that this tablet was mistakenly put in that box and that it originated in Borsippa, an ancient city located about 70 miles (115 km) south of Baghdad. This interpretation is based on the fact that an ancestor of the scribe who created the text on the reverse of the tablet was named Ea-bēl-ilī, which is the same name as a scribe in Borsippa known from other texts. An additional fragment of the tablet was found and reattached to the tablet in 1995.
Geography of the known world
The tablet depicts the world known to those in ancient Mesopotamia within a disk, which is surrounded by an outer circle. The area between these two concentric circles is labeled the “Bitter River,” meaning the salt sea or ocean. Two lines run through the middle of the disk, representing the Euphrates River. It flows from the north (top of the map) to the south (bottom of the map) and terminates where the map reads “swamp” and “outflow” in a rectangle below the river.
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In the upper half of the disk the city of Babylon is depicted as a large horizontal bar that cuts across the Euphrates. The prominent place of Babylon suggests that the city was of importance in the mind of the map’s creator. Its placement also shows that Babylon straddled the river at this point in its history. The space inside the curved line above Babylon is labeled “mountain” and likely represents the Zagros Mountains, which would have been visible from the city. The smaller circles within the disk appear to be seven cities or districts. Two regions in Mesopotamia are identified by name: Assyria and Der. The nearby territory of Elam, represented by the name of its capital, Susa, appears to the south.
The map labels three other geographical areas within the disk. Bit-Yakin marks the territory of an Aramaean tribal group located above the “outflow” of the Euphrates. The independent kingdom of Urartu is placed to the north of Assyria. The homeland of a Kassite tribal group, called Habban, is incorrectly placed to the northwest of Babylon.
Beyond the outer circle, or Bitter River, of the map are five triangular regions, though the layout of the map and the inscription on the back of the tablet suggest that there were originally eight. Each of these is labeled nagû (Akkadian: “region” or “island”) inside the triangle. Next to each triangle, where legible, is the phrase “6 bēru [Akkadian: a measurement of distance of more than 6 miles, or 10 km] in between,” indicating a distance of several dozen miles between regions. The northeastern region is the exception to this rule: it is labeled “great wall” and the inscription outside the triangle reads, “where Shamash [the sun] is not seen.” This may refer to the fact that the sun never passes through the north as it rises in the east and sets in the west, or it may refer to legendary journeys undertaken by the heroes Gilgamesh and Sargon to lands of perpetual darkness. The regions beyond the Bitter River are regarded by some scholars as mythological regions and by others as real areas beyond the world known to the Mesopotamians.
Cosmology of the map
The text above the map discusses Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, and a variety of natural and supernatural creatures that he either defeated or made. These include “ruined gods” as well as a serpent, a dragon or sea serpent, a lion, a wolf, a stag, and others, all created by Marduk. The term “ruined gods” may refer to statues that fell into a state of disrepair or to creatures of Tiamat whom Marduk defeats in the epic Enuma elish. The gods appear to be in the underworld or underwater regions.
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The text also lists three kings: Utnapishtim, Sargon, and Nur-Dagan. Of the three, Sargon, king of Akkad (c. 2334–2279 bce), is the only one who was certainly a historical figure. He created an empire that brought regions outside Babylonia under Akkadian control, and, in one legend, he battled Nur-Dagan, the possibly nonhistorical king of Purush-handa, a kingdom in central Anatolia. Utnapishtim is a Noah-like figure who survived a mythological great flood.
The reverse side of the tablet once described the eight nagû in further detail, though now only five of these descriptions remain. The inscription is damaged to the point that the surviving descriptions are largely unintelligible. The inscription ends with the scribe who wrote the text stating that it was copied from an older version. It is unclear whether this final note refers only to the inscription on the reverse or to the tablet as a whole.