Archaeology & History

Mystery behind 4,000-year-old 'tablets of doom' has been solved

By T.K. Randall
August 14, 2024 ·  6 comments

One of the newly translated tablets. Image Credit: Trustees of the British Museum The tablets, which had remained a mystery since their discovery 100 years ago, date back to around 1,200 BC and originate from the Babylonian city of Sippar in what is now modern day Iraq.

It wasn't until researchers were able to use artificial intelligence to decipher the text on the tablets that a proper translation could finally be obtained.

As it turns out, the tablets contain portents of doom based on celestial observations and are the oldest known records of lunar eclipse omens concerning the fate of ancient Mesopotamia.

"If an eclipse becomes obscured from its center all at once and clear all at once: a king will die, destruction of Elam," one of the predictions reads."An eclipse in the evening watch signifies pestilence. If an eclipse is the wrong way around, nothing will be spared, the deluge will occur everywhere."

What's interesting is how the people of the time interpreted celestial events such as lunar eclipses quite negatively, associating them with the coming of major disasters.

"Babylonian astrology was an academic branch of divination founded on the belief that events in the sky were coded signs placed there by the gods as warnings about the future prospects of those on Earth," the study authors wrote.

"Astrological observation was part of an elaborate method of protecting the king and regulating his behaviour in conformity with the wishes of the gods."

Source: Independent | Comments (6)

Tags: Babylonian