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The Babylonian Map of the World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Wayne Horowitz
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Extract

The Late Babylonian tablet BM 92687 preserves a unique Babylonian birds-eye-view sketch of the Earth's surface. The sketch, commonly called “The Babylonian Map of the World” or “Mappa Mundi”, occupies the lower half of the obverse while the remainder of the obverse and entire reverse préserve related textual information. The tablet was first published almost a century ago by F. E. Peiser in ZA 4 (1889), 361–370, and has since attracted a great deal of attention. In 1906, R. C. Thompson re-copied the tablet as CT 22, 48. This second copy served as the basis for later studies by E. F. Weidner in BoSt 6 (1922), 85–93 and E. Unger in Unger, Babylon, 254–8 (1931). Unfortunately, neither the early copy by Peiser, nor CT 22, 48, is completely reliable. The two copies disagree on a number of points, and a new collation of the tablet revealed a number of errors. For instance, Peiser drew two nagû at the bottom of the map which are omitted in CT 22, 48, and both copyists read the label in the lowest oval inside the circle (no. 8) sideways! Thus a new copy and edition of the text is warranted although a few signs may have disappeared over time. (Copy: see Fig. 2 p. 152; photographs, Plate X).

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 50 , 1988 , pp. 147 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1988

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References

1 This article is based on a chapter that appears in an unpublished Birmingham University Ph.D. thesis entitled Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography that was prepared under the supervision of Professor W. G. Lambert. I would like to thank Professor Lambert for his advice and support during the preparation of the thesis, and Professor A. Shaffer who graciously assisted with the preparation of both the original thesis chapter, and this article. The copies of BM 92687 are published by permission of the British Museum.

2 For photographs of the obverse only see Beek, , Bildatlas, 75Google Scholar; Unger, E., Antiquity 9, 312–13Google Scholar; Ancient Cosmologies, pl. 15; No photograph of the reverse has previously been published. Note also RIA 6, 466–7Google Scholar with bibliography; CT 22, p. 12Google Scholar; Glassner, J. J., Akkadica 40, 20Google Scholar; Meissner, B., Babylonien und Assyrien II, 378–9Google Scholar; Oppenheim, A. in Dictionary of Scientific Bibliography 15, 637–8Google Scholar; North, R., A History of Biblical Map Making, 17–22Google Scholar; Smith, S., Early History of Assyria, 85–6Google Scholar.

3 The reading girtablullû for gir.tab.lú.ùlulu is suggested by the loan-word lullû from Sumerian lú.ùlu (see CAD L, 242). There are no phonetic writings of the word, to confirm this reading, or girtablilu as proposed in AHw, 29.

4 For pagû and pagītu as male and female monkeys see Hh XIV 118–9Google Scholar: ugu.dul.bi = pa-gu-ú, munusugu.dul.bi = pa-gi-ti (MSL VIII/2, 16Google Scholar).

5 The map of Nippur is also published in C. S. Fisher, Excavations at Nippur, pl. 1. For other maps and plans see RIA 6, 464–467Google Scholar. Note also JCS 16, 81Google Scholar; JNES 21, 80Google Scholar; RA 4, plates following p. 84 n. 63–74; RA 12, 49Google Scholar; Unger, , Babylon, 254 no. 5Google Scholar; Studio Pohl 11, passim; TIM 9, 104Google Scholar.

6 For drawings of rivers and canals note for example the Map of Nippur, (FTS, 274)Google Scholar; CT 22, 49Google Scholar; HSS 10, no. 1; KAV, 25; and JNES 21, 80Google Scholar.

7 RlA 4, 147Google Scholar; Brinkman, , PKB, 317, and 121, 200, 232,248, 251, 256, 259Google Scholar.

8 For other examples of nagû in Neo-Assyrian inscriptions see CAD N1, 121–2, nagû A 1.

9 Oppenheim, A. L., in Dictionary of Scientific Bibliography 15, 655 n. 36Google Scholar, connects this sense of nagû with an Aramaic cognate nagwān.

10 Note also the distant Assyrian nagû of Lydia in Streck, Asb., 20: 95 and 166: 13, which is said to be nēberti tâmti, “across the sea”.

11 H., and Lewy, J., in HUCA 17, 12–13Google Scholar, argue that the nagû on the World Map are mountains rising out of the sea that are drawn from a frontal view, rather than regions in the sea that are drawn from a birds-eye view.

12 This interpretation is suggested by C. B. F. Walker in a short British Museum leaflet.

13 For the anzû as winged-horses in first millennium materials note KAR, 307: 25Google Scholar, where horses hitched to a chariot are mystically identified with anzû; and AfO 19, 107: 21Google Scholar, where the “anzu-star” is identified with the “Horse-star”.

14 In the third millennium, at least, the apsasû (Sumerian áb.za.za) is a real animal that was imported to Mesopotamia from afar (Cooper, , Curse of Akkad, 50: 21)Google Scholar, and is probably to be identified with the Indian water-buffalo (see Boehmer, R. M., ZA 64, 11–13Google Scholar) or the Indian zebu-bull. First-millennium apsasû. on the other hand, are mythological composite creatures which are often represented in palace reliefs (see CADA 2, 193–4).

15 Note for example, AKA, 146: 16–147: 17Google Scholar; Borger, Esarh., 61 15–18, 87 rev. 4; Rost, , Tigl., III 76: 29Google Scholar; TCL 3, 58: 379Google Scholar; and see Barnett, R. D., Assyrian Palace Reliefs 9, 33–4Google Scholar for drawings of elephants and monkeys. Note also 5R 33, iv 50–3, for relief drawings of the bašmu, kusarikku, and girtablullû in Babylon during the Kassite Dynasty.

16 Note for example AKA, 89: 5–90: 6, 141: 19–25, 201: 41-203: 46Google Scholar; KAH, 84: 126–7Google Scholar; and Wiseman, D.J., Iraq 14, 34: 97–100Google Scholar.

17 For additional literary examples of the beings listed in obv. 5′-8′ note the anzû in Lugalbanda and the various recensions of The Anzu Myth (see HKL III, 62Google Scholar; Hallo, W. and Moran, W. in JCS 31, 65–115Google Scholar); the girtablullû that live by Mašu, Mt. in Gilg. IX, iiGoogle Scholar; and the hyena, panther, red-deer, lion, and ibex that are included among the būlu nammašše ṣēri, “herd animals of the steppe”, in Gilg. VIII (see Gurney, O. R., JCS 8, 94: 9–11Google Scholar).

18 For similar phrases see AKA 270, 49Google Scholar; Streck, Asb., 72: 10, 204: 11–12, 31–2; TCL 3, 16: 98; Weidner, E. F., AfO 6, 82: 30Google Scholar.

19 A now outdated edition of this epic with the title “Gilgamesh and The Land of the Living” was published by Kramer, S. N. in JCS 1, 3–46Google Scholar. For the Cedar Mountain in this work see p. 12 and 18. A new edition is being prepared by A. Shaffer (see JAOS 103, 307, n. 1Google Scholar).

20 The identification of the fifth nagû as a region of noteworthy trees was suggested to me by A. Shaffer.

21 Note also the seven mountains that Gilgamesh crosses in Gilgamesh and The Cedar Forest (JCS 1, 12: 62Google Scholar) and the seven mountains that Lugalbanda crosses in Lugalb., 122: 344Google Scholar.

22 In numerous Akkadian and Sumerian texts, the Moon, Sun, Venus, and the stars are said to pass through heavenly gates. As these astronomical bodies rise or appear in the sky, they are said to enter the heavens through gates. Conversely, as they set or disappear, they leave the heavens through gates. Note for example the abulli ša šamê rapšūti, “gate of the vast heavens”, in a Prayer to the Gods of the Night (OECT 6, pl. XII 10–14); the si.gar.an.na = šigar šamê, “bolt of heaven”, in a bilingual hymn (SBH 53, rev. 42–3); and an ikribu-prayer to Sin, where the Moon-god enters the door of heaven as he appears in the sky (Langdon, S., RA 12, 190: 3Google Scholar).

23 The alteration of a and ha in opening syllables also occurs in the words annû/hannû and ammu/hammu.

24 The last word, if it is a noun, may be restored šam-[šá-tu], “sun-[disk]”, with the translation “where the sun-disk dawns at its entrance”. For šamšatu in astronomical contexts, see AHw, 1158 2.

25 In AfO 25, 57Google Scholar, A. K. Grayson proposes that The Sargon Geography was either first composed or largely re-edited during the reign of Sargon II of Assyria. This is supported by the appearance of the place-names Munna and Karzina in lines 50, 57, as these places are not known before the first millennium.