Researchers have succeeded in deciphering ancient Babylonian tablets that predict future disasters.
The 4,000-year-old artifacts were found in Iraq more than 100 years ago, but have only now been fully translated and linked to astronomical events.
The ancient Babylonians had a special interest in the universe, especially the moon, and associated lunar eclipses with natural disasters and historical events.
The newly deciphered tablets consist of 61 prophecies spread across four clay tablets, including an ominous warning that “a king will die” and “a nation will fall.”
A 4,000-year-old tablet written by the ancient Babylonians consists of 61 signs that may link past experiences to the alignment of planets, the moon and stars.
Although these tablets were added to the British Museum’s collection between 1892 and 1914, this discovery represents the first time that cuneiform has been fully translated and linked to astrological predictions and omens.
These prophecies predicted severe environmental disasters, including one that said: “In the spring a swarm of locusts will arise and strike the crops of my land. There will be a shortage of food.”
The study also spoke about revolutions on the ground, whether by foreign enemies or the weather.
One prediction read: “There will be rain and flood, and Adad will destroy the threshing floor.”
“There will be an attack by the Elamite army, the Guti army, on the land. It will destroy the land that revolts. The land will perish.”
Another omen added: “As for the land that revolts, the enemy will demolish the cities, the city walls, the walls of my city, the walls of our city.”
These tablets are believed to have come from Sippar – a city that flourished during the Babylonian Empire in what is now Iraq, and date to the Middle and Late Old Babylonian period from about 1894 to 1595 BC.
The researchers noted that ancient people may have relied on past experiences to determine which signs a lunar eclipse would herald, and this discovery makes these tablets “the oldest examples of a set of lunar eclipse signs yet discovered.”
The ancient Babylonians learned when to expect a lunar eclipse and often claimed it heralded the death of their race, performing rituals to save the current king from his alleged fate, the researchers said.
Researchers have been working to decipher cuneiform, one of the oldest known forms of writing, which means “wedge-shaped” because people used a reed stylus to create wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets.
These symbols could be used to write many languages of the ancient Near East including Sumerian, Akkadian, and Old Persian.
In Mesopotamia, the ancients associated eclipses with the death of their kings, which led them to study and predict them to protect their rulers.
People believed that “events in the sky were coded signs placed there by the gods as warnings about future prospects for those on Earth,” wrote Andrew George, a professor at the University of London, and his co-author Junko Taniguchi in the study.
“Those who advised the king would watch the night sky and match their observations with academic texts on celestial predictions.”
The tablets analyzed in the new study date to the Middle and Late Old Babylonian period from about 1894 to 1595 BCE and are “the oldest examples of sets of lunar eclipse signs yet discovered.”
The study revealed that the ancient Babylonians predicted omens using the time of night, date, shadow movement and duration of an eclipse – much like the way a “fortune teller” uses tarot cards to predict someone’s future.
The researchers said that one of the transmitted prophecies says: “If the eclipse disappears from its center all at once [and] Everything becomes clear at once: the king will die, and Elam, a region of Mesopotamia in central what is now Iran, will be destroyed.
Another omen predicted the fall of two other regions of Mesopotamia, Subartu and Akkad, which would happen if “the eclipse began in the south and then disappeared.”
The researchers said these signs could prompt people to take drastic action to protect their leader, noting that one said: “The famous king will die; his son, who was not nominated/appointed to the king, will seize the kingship/throne and there will be a war.”
“And the land shall become a waste, and its cities shall be desolate, and its land shall be diminished.”
However, researchers note that kings did not rely solely on eclipse omens. If someone predicted their death, they took extra steps to confirm whether or not tragedy would occur.
“If the prediction associated with a particular sign poses a threat, for example, ‘the king will die’, then a divine inquiry by way of premonition can be helpful.” [inspecting the entrails of animals] “The aim is to determine whether the king is in real danger,” the study said.
If the entrails confirmed the approach of disaster, the ancient Babylonians believed that by performing certain rituals, they could cancel the bad omen, and overcome the evil surrounding it.
The lunar signs usually predicted the death of the king and according to NASAThe Babylonians sometimes appointed “substitute kings… who bore the brunt of the gods’ wrath” to protect the true ruler from harm.
Although the deaths of some kings have not been conclusively linked to the omens mentioned in the tablets, one historical leader appears to have lived according to some of the omens.
“The king who has his fame will perish, and his son who was not appointed king will seize the throne, and there will be war,” said an omen. “The land will become uninhabited, his cities will become ruins, and his territory will shrink.”
In 1750 BC, King Hammurabi died at the age of 60, and although his predecessors ruled for another 155 years, his death marked the beginning of the slow decline of the Babylonian Empire.
“Some of the signs may have their origins in actual experience – noticing a portent followed by disaster,” George said. Life Sciences.
But he explained that most of the signs are likely to be related to eclipse events from a theoretical or imaginary point of view.
