A team of experts in ancient literature decipher a text by Mesopotameine, which has been missing over 1000 years. Shaped like clay tablets, Anthem to Babylon He describes the ancient metropolism in “All His Majesty” and gives new views on the daily life of those who resided there. The text is detailed in a study published in the magazine IraqS
The Clinform tablet with the newly discovered hymn. Credit: LMU/Anmar A. Fadhil, Department of Archeology, University of Baghdad, with the permission of the Iraqi Museum and the State Council of Antiques and Heritage.
Ancient cultural center
Founded in Mesopotamia around 2000 BC, Babylon was once the largest city in the world. Babylon’s ruins are the subject of UNESCO World Heritage Site about 52 miles outside the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. In the height, the city was a cultural center that inspired written works, which are still part of our global heritage. A religious text called Enuma elish or Babylonian Epic of Creation Details of the creation of the universe and the rise of Marduk, the chief god of the city. The Hamurabi Code is one of the oldest surviving legal framework and includes the concept of “innocent to proven guilty.”
The Babylonian texts are made up mainly of an ancient writing system called Cuniform of clay tablets. Most of these tablets have survived only in small fragments. One of the goals of a team at the University of Baghdad in Iraq and the University of Maximilian in Munich Ludwig is to decipher and keep hundreds of wedge tablets included in the library in Sipar. This collection of texts was revealed in the temple of Shamash in the ancient city of Sipar, Iraq. Legends also say that the Old Testament Hero Noah hidden tablets in Sipar before climbing the ark when water waters came.
[ Related: 6,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts linked to the dawn of writing. ]
“Written by Babylonian who wanted to praise his city”
In the Electronic Babylonian Library Platform, co -author and assistant Enrique Jimez digitizes all cuneiform text fragments that have been found worldwide. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), it brings together fragments that belong together.
“Using our AI-durable platform, we were able to identify 30 other manuscripts that belong to the rediscovered hymn process, which would have previously taken decades,” Jimenes said in a statement.
With these additional texts, the team was able to completely decipher this ancient anthem of praise. In it, they found a new idea of the Babylonian urban society and believe that Babylon’s anthem is very widespread.
“The anthem is copied by children to school. It is unusual that such a popular text during his day has been unknown to us so far,” Himenenes said. The song of triumph – or Paean – probability dates back to the first millennium ahead of Christ and is made up of 250 lines.
“It is written by Babylon, who wanted to praise his city,” said Jimenez. “The author describes the buildings in the city, but also how the Euphrates waters bring spring and the green fields. This is even more spectacular, since the surviving Mesopotamian literature spares in its descriptions of natural phenomena.”
One of the exciting new discoveries includes new information about Babylonian women – many priests. The anthems also describe residents as respectful to foreigners.
Read a passage
The lines below are from the newly opened anthem describing the Euphrates River. At that time, the city was on the river shores.
The ephra is its river – established by wise Lord Nudimud –
It quenches lea, saturates canebraza,
Uttering his waters in Lagoon and the sea,
Its fields grow with herbs and flowers,
His meadows, in brilliant flowering, barley Sprout,
Of which, assembled bundles,
Herds and herds lie on green pastures,
Wealth and splendor – what is welcoming humanity –
Are served, multiplied and royal.
Prolonged progress can potentially lead to better translations of this ancient holiday of a great city.