The Babylonian Map of the World with Irving Finkel | Curator’s Corner S9 Ep5
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum, discusses a remarkable clay tablet replica, which is the oldest known map of the world. The map, dating back to 6th century BC Mesopotamia, depicts the region now known as Iraq, including the Euphrates River and the city of Babylon. It also features mythical lands beyond known boundaries, described with fantastical elements such as a great wall and a tree with jeweled fruit. A volunteer, Edith Horsley, discovered a missing fragment that fit perfectly into the map, revealing details about the 'Great Wall' and linking the map to the Babylonian Ark, akin to the Biblical story of Noah's Ark. The video highlights the importance of archaeological discoveries in enhancing our understanding of ancient civilizations.
Takeaways
- 🗺️ The British Museum holds objects of all sizes, including the oldest known map of the world from ancient Mesopotamia.
- 📝 The tablet is a replica of a fragile clay tablet that contains significant cuneiform writing and depicts early world creation stories.
- 🌍 The map shows ancient Mesopotamia, with the Euphrates River and the city of Babylon depicted inside a double ring representing the 'Bitter River' that surrounded the known world.
- 🗻 Triangular shapes outside the double ring are believed to represent distant mountains or mysterious, magical lands.
- 🔍 Archaeologists recently discovered a missing piece of the tablet, thanks to volunteer Edith Horsley, who identified a fragment that completed the map's missing triangle.
- 🧭 The triangles are linked to descriptions of far-off places, including magical lands, such as a place where the sun is never seen and trees bear jewels instead of fruit.
- 📜 The tablet also provides a connection to the Babylonian flood myth, with references to a ship as thick as a 'parsiktu vessel,' possibly alluding to the Babylonian Ark similar to Noah's Ark.
- 🏔️ One triangle describes a massive wall, 'The Great Wall,' which is 840 cubits tall and associated with mythical lands beyond the known world.
- ⏳ Matching the newly discovered fragment to the rest of the tablet helped clarify several other sections and aligned the descriptions with the map's layout.
- 🦅 The tablet's scribe remains unidentified, but the father's name 'Iṣṣuru' means 'bird,' leading Irving Finkel to suggest the map provides a bird's-eye view of the known world.
Q & A
What is the significance of the clay tablet discussed in the script?
-The clay tablet is significant because it is the oldest known map of the world, dating back to Ancient Mesopotamia. It provides a depiction of the world as understood by the Babylonians in the 6th century BC, including a representation of Mesopotamia, the Euphrates river, and the city of Babylon.
Why is the clay tablet replica used instead of the original in the presentation?
-The replica is used because the original clay tablet is delicate and constantly on exhibition. Handling the original for demonstration purposes would be irresponsible due to its fragility and value.
What does the double circle drawn on the clay represent?
-The double circle represents the 'Bitter River', which was believed to surround the known world. The area inside the double ring is Ancient Mesopotamia itself.
How does the map depict the city of Babylon in relation to the Euphrates river?
-The map shows a great river, the Euphrates, running from north to south, and it is straddled by a long oblong shape, which represents the city of Babylon.
What are the triangles in the outer ring of the map thought to represent?
-The triangles in the outer ring are thought to represent mountains, and they are associated with remote lands beyond the known world, full of magic and mystery according to Babylonian cosmology and theology.
What was the discovery made by Edith Horsley regarding the clay tablet?
-Edith Horsley discovered a missing fragment of the map that fit perfectly into the existing tablet, providing new insights into the map's descriptions and the locations of mythical places.
What does the term 'parsiktu-vessel' refer to in the context of the tablet?
-In the context of the tablet, 'parsiktu-vessel' refers to a measurement of thickness, which is used to describe the ribs of the Babylonian Ark, similar to the Ark in the Bible, which came to rest on a mountain.
How does the discovery of the missing fragment affect the understanding of the map?
-The discovery of the missing fragment allows for a clearer understanding of the map by matching three triangles in a row with their corresponding descriptions, which was previously difficult with isolated triangles.
What is the significance of the name 'Iṣṣuru' mentioned in the script?
-The name 'Iṣṣuru', meaning 'bird' in Babylonian, is significant as it suggests that the map might be a 'bird's-eye view' of the world, reflecting the perspective of the scribe's family, possibly named after this view.
How does the script describe the process of matching the fragment to the tablet?
-The script describes the process as a meticulous and exciting journey of discovery. Edith Horsley initially identified the fragment, and Irving Finkel confirmed its fit to the tablet using a photograph and later the original tablet itself.
What is the importance of the Babylonian Ark's description in relation to the map?
-The description of the Babylonian Ark is important as it provides a tangible link between the mythical narrative and a physical location on the map, suggesting that the Ark's remains could be found on a specific mountain, paralleling the Biblical story of Noah's Ark landing on Mount Ararat.
Outlines
🌍 The Oldest Map of the World in Clay
Irving Finkel, a curator at The British Museum, introduces a replica of an ancient clay tablet, which is the oldest known map of the world. The original, too delicate for display, dates back to the Mesopotamian era. The map is inscribed with cuneiform writing, indicating it represents Ancient Mesopotamia, including the Euphrates River and the city of Babylon. The map also features a 'Bitter River' surrounding the known world and triangles symbolizing mountains beyond the known world, filled with mythical elements. Despite its damaged condition, the map provides a snapshot of the Babylonians' geographical and cosmological understanding from around the 6th century BC.
🔍 Piecing Together the Ancient Map Mystery
The video delves into the historical challenge of matching the map's triangles with their corresponding descriptions. Edith Horsley, a volunteer and cuneiform enthusiast, discovers a missing piece of the map in the museum's collection. This fragment, once part of the larger map, contains a triangle with the description of 'The Great Wall,' which is identified through a process of elimination and logical matching. The discovery allows for a clearer understanding of the map's layout and the mythical elements it represents, including a place where the sun was never seen and a tree with jeweled fruit.
🚣♂️ The Quest for the Babylonian Ark
The narrative continues with the deciphering of the map's descriptions, leading to the identification of a location associated with the Babylonian Ark, similar to the Biblical story of Noah's Ark. The map indicates a journey across the 'Bitter River' to a mountain where the Ark's remains can be found. This mountain is named 'Urartu,' which corresponds to 'Ararat' in the Bible, suggesting a cultural link between the Babylonian and Hebrew narratives. The discovery not only provides a geographical context for the ancient story but also highlights the map's significance in understanding ancient Mesopotamian beliefs and traditions.
🕵️♂️ The Scribe and the Bird's-Eye View
In the final part, the focus shifts to the map's creator, whose name is lost but whose father was named 'Iṣṣuru,' meaning 'bird' in Babylonian. This unique name leads to the interpretation of the map as a 'bird's-eye view' of the world, reflecting the scribe's family legacy and providing a personal touch to the artifact. The video concludes by emphasizing the importance of such discoveries in enriching our understanding of Mesopotamian culture and the power of combining fragments of knowledge to unlock new historical insights.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cuneiform
💡Clay Tablet
💡Mesopotamia
💡Euphrates River
💡Babylon
💡Creation Story
💡Persian Gulf
💡Archaeological Excavation
💡Colophon
💡Ark
💡Urartu
Highlights
Irving Finkel introduces a replica of an ancient clay tablet, emphasizing the fragility of the original.
The clay tablet is revealed to be the oldest known map of the world, with significant damage but still containing valuable information.
The map features a double ring representing the 'Bitter River' surrounding Ancient Mesopotamia, indicating the known world's limits.
The Euphrates River and the city of Babylon are clearly depicted within the map, showing the importance of these geographical features.
Triangles on the map's outer ring symbolize mountains and remote lands, rich with myth and mystery for the Babylonians.
A missing piece of the map is discovered in the British Museum's collection, potentially linking descriptions to specific triangles on the map.
Edith Horsley, a volunteer, plays a crucial role in identifying the missing piece, contributing to the map's understanding.
The discovery of the missing piece allows for a clearer interpretation of the map's descriptions and the world beyond Mesopotamia.
One of the triangles is identified as 'The Great Wall', with a description providing dimensions and a journey to reach it.
The map's descriptions include fantastical elements like a tree with jeweled fruit and giant birds that can't fly.
The map's connection to the Babylonian Ark and the mountain 'Urartu' is explored, drawing parallels to the Biblical story of Noah's Ark.
The scribe's name is lost, but the father's name, 'Iṣṣuru' meaning 'bird', suggests a bird's-eye view of the world, adding a personal touch to the map.
The map's significance lies not in its cartographical accuracy but in the insights it provides into Mesopotamian thinking and cosmology.
The map represents a triumph of archaeological拼接, where a small, seemingly insignificant fragment can unlock new understanding.
The video concludes with an invitation to explore more cuneiform-related content and a teaser for the next episode of Curator's Corner.
Transcripts
In The British Museum, we have objects of all sizes.
Some pinheads, and some gigantic, and everything in between.
And once in a while, one of the very smallest things
turns out to have information in it
which is totally unexpected.
My name is Irving Finkel
and I’m a curator in The British Museum in the Middle East Department
and welcome to my corner.
Curator's Corner with Irving Finkel So what we have here
is a clay tablet.
As a matter of fact, it is not a real clay tablet
it is a replica
because the real clay tablet has to be on exhibition all the time
and also it's very delicate
we couldn't wave it around in front of the screen
and say "look at this, look at that"
that would be terribly irresponsible.
So but we can use this
replica
for demonstration purposes with impunity.
The ancient Mesopotamians
Sumerians, Babylonians, all those people
they wrote on clay, that was their natural activity
and clay tablets which have impressions of writing on
are pretty good, they're pretty stable
you can handle them
you can't play football with them
but they're pretty reliable
but what happens in antiquity
is there are wars, and buildings collapse
and fires, and disasters
and people die and they go away
and other people come and trample on things
and when archaeologists find them
it is not often that an ancient inscription on a piece of clay
comes to light in perfect condition.
So this tablet
you can easily see that it isn't complete
there's stuff missing here there's stuff missing there
and it also looks like elephants
have danced a polka over the surface
because many of the signs are damaged or squashed
But nevertheless, this piece of cuneiform inscription
is a remarkable thing.
This is the oldest map of the world!
...in the world.
It has two sides, this is the front or 'obverse'
and this is the back or the 'reverse'
and the reverse consists of lots of lines of cuneiform
in different ruled sections.
So it's full of information, even though it's a bit damaged.
But the other side is the remarkable thing.
Firstly there's some lines of cuneiform
ruled across very firmly at the top
and this is about the early creation of the world
and how animals were put in the sea and in different parts of the universe
it's a kind of brief summary of creation
which has nothing to do with the map
because there's a clear border between that and this
and it's this which is so exciting
because if you look carefully you will see that the flat surface of the clay
has a double circle drawn in the surface of the clay.
Now the double ring is very important
because it has cuneiform writing in it
which says it's the "Bitter River"
and this water was deemed to surround the known world
because the area inside the double ring...
is Ancient Mesopotamia itself.
Now this word 'Mesopotamia' is the Ancient Greek word
for what is modern Iraq.
So inside the drawing of this circle
we have very interesting things.
There is a great river that runs from north to south
which is the Euphrates river.
and the river is straddled
by a long oblong which is obviously
the city of Babylon.
So this is a very important ring of water
because it meant for the Babylonians, they had a sort of idea
of the limits of their world where they lived
in about the 6th century BC
with these important rivers which brough life and food to them
waterways for transport
all the way down to the Persian Gulf it was kind of depicted in small
and if you look carefully at the picture you will see
that in the surface of the known world there are these rings drawn
with little bits of cuneiform inside those
and those tell you the name of the city which it represents or sometimes the tribe.
So you have, encapsulated in this circular diagram
the whole of the known world in which people lived, flourished and died.
However...
there's more to this map than that
because if you look at the outer ring
you will see that going off at different angles are triangles
sometimes people say they are islands
sometimes people say they are districts
but in point of fact they are almost certainly mountains
because the idea is that if you go across the water
you see these jutted, pointed things, above the horizon
which are remote lands far beyond the limits of the known world
which go out in different directions from the perimeter of existence
and they are, for the Babylonians... places full of magic, and full of mystery.
Now when you look at the diagram, sort of geometrically
it is evident there were originally eight of them.
And we can be sure of this, partly by calculation of what makes sense
and also, on the other side, the inscription which I showed you before
tells you what is on each of those triangles.
There was a place where the sun was never seen
there was a tree that had jewels instead of fruit
and there were giant birds that couldn't fly
all those sorts of things
there were traditional stories associated with each of these districts
recorded together with the diagram to show where they were.
Well, of course probably nobody ever went there
we're talking about the imaginative world
of cosmology, of theology, of tradition, of inherited ideas...
But the thing is this
up until quite recently, we didn't know which description on one side
went with which triangle on the front.
And this is an irksome matter because we know there's supposed to be eight
but there was nowhere near eight on there
so we had to work out which place
the three which we could read clearly matched up with the descriptions on the back
and it wasn't really possible.
And then something happened
one of those missing triangles
came to light in the collection.
Now, in the 19th century
when tablets were excavated
they were very careful to bring back everything.
So, a big lump of clay
any small bits lying around it
any small bits not lying around it
anything they could find with writing on was carefully, carefully excavated.
And sometimes the very small pieces
which we couldn't join to anything were put in special trays
for the long-term future when it might be possible to see what we could do about them.
Now what happened, was this...
Once upon a time...
There was a lady called Edith Horsley.
And Edith Horsley loved cuneiform stuff
and she came to classes that I used to teach after work
once a week to learn about cuneiform
and she was very very enthusiastic about it
and very attentive, and a good student.
And when the class came to an end after several months
she said she wanted to do something more...
For as long as anyone can remember, this has been a map with a central piece missing
but from today, no longer.
Nicholas Glass reports on an unexpected moment of archaeological excitement in The British Museum.
The British Museum has boxes of tablet fragments, but it's only in the last two months or so
when Edith Horsley was first invited to work at the museum
that they began trying to sort things out.
Well even as a child I was intrigued by the signs that are used in cuneiform.
but it wasn't until I attended Irving Finkel's lectures that I became an addict.
As a volunteer, Edith comes in just once a week
she was asked to keep an eye out for any piece with a geographical or astronomical image on it.
I saw this quite small piece with this triangle on it,
and the signs inside
and I thought it was probably a map.
So I put it in the little section where I put the pieces that I think are of special interest
'cause Dr. Finkel can't go through all of these trays obviously.
So I put those aside and he became quite excited when he saw it.
She put aside a little pile of half a dozen pieces that didn't look like everything else
and I went through them one by one
and she said "look, this one's got some lines on it"
and as soon as I saw it I knew it must belong to this tablet
because as I say, it's such an unusual thing.
It's actually rather funny because the map wasn't in
its normal place it was downstairs on exhibition
and so I got out an old photograph of it
and the photograph was at a different scale
so when I put the fragment on the photograph I was sure that it must
belong but I couldn't quite see where it would fit
and it was only the following morning that I
took the fragment downstairs to the exhibition where it's on public view
and by looking at the original tablet I
could see straight away that it fitted perfectly in the hole.
And it did.
And as a matter of fact, when I put it in experimentally in the gallery in front of Edith
we couldn't get it out again afterwards, it was such a snug fit
and it had to go down to conservation to be dealt with properly and glued in position.
So, having opened a bottle of bubbly and danced around in the gallery
the time came to think very seriously about what this meant.
Because the tablet is very famous
it's often reproduced in all sorts of different encyclopedias
and books about ancient ideas, and histories of maps of course
and it's quite a famous object, and to make a join to that was an extraordinary thing.
But then there was the question of what did it tell us...
Against one of the diagonals, there was in cuneiform, the expression "The Great Wall"
I'm going to read you what the scribe tells us about this triangle.
"To the fifth, to which you must travel seven leagues"
that means you have to row across the bitter river
for seven leagues before you can land at the foot of the mountain
"The Great Wall, its height is 840 cubits
its trees up to 120 cubits.
by day you can't see in front of yourself, by night, lying on . . ."
it's still broken
"then you must go another seven leagues in the sand and you must. . ."
There's always dot dot dots, because nothing is perfectly preserved
but the important thing is, we now know which of the triangles
goes with the description of this gigantic wall.
As a result of Edith's discovery, we've got three of these triangles in a row
and that is a great boon, because you can imagine
if you have isolated triangles, trying to match them to the description on the back
it's very difficult to get anywhere seriously and reliably.
But when you've got three in a row
all you have to do is find three descriptions in a row and it stands to reason
that you'll be able to somehow match them up
and that is what we did.
And the discovery was very clear once you realised
that the counting was anti-clockwise, and not clockwise.
So, number four says "To the fourth, to which you must travel seven leagues"
because it's like a kind of fairytale, everybody knows it's always the same introduction
so each time you have to travel seven leagues across the water.
Then it gets a bit broken,
then it says you see something which "are as thick as a parsiktu-vessel"
This parsiktu measurement, is something to an Assyriologist which makes their ears prick
and the fact is it's only once otherwise known from cuneiform tablets
and it's rather an interesting cuneiform tablet too.
Because it is the description of the Ark
which was built, theoretically, in about 1800BC
by the Babylonian version of Noah
and in this account, the details are given
and the God says "you have to do this, this and this"
and then the Babylonian Noah says "I did this,
this and this. I've done it! And I made these structures as thick parsiktu vessel"
he says out of his own mouth, in the original story.
So this word 'parsiktu' is like a kind of
[RINGING NOISE] noise
it immediately locks into this thing on the map.
Immediately, and incontrovertibly.
So what it means, speaking plainly here
if I may speak plainly here
is that if you went up this mountain all the way
with your sandwiches, and breaking regularly for
[INHALES]
lungfuls of fresh air
eventually you would see against the night sky, or the dark sky of the outer universe
silhouetted, the ribs, the ribs made of wood
as thick as a parsiktu vessel
of the wreck of the Babylonian Ark
which, like the one in the Bible, came to rest on a mountain.
And if you come down the mountain, and cross over the water back to the homeland
the first place you come to is called 'Urartu', it's drawn on the map.
Now, the interesting thing about that is that in the Bible
Noah, in his Ark, landed on a mountain where the name is 'Ararat'
and 'Ararat' is the Hebrew equivalent of the Assyrian 'Urartu'.
That's quite a meaty thing, quite an interesting thing to think about.
Because it shows that the story was the same, and of course that one led to the other
but also, that from the Babylonian point of view, this was a matter of fact thing.
That if you did go on this journey
you would see the remnants of this historic boat
which saved all the life of the world for the long-term future,
from which we of course profit today
still there, in the crags, against the dark sky.
So what does this actually mean to us?
Well, lets imagine that we can borrow a time machine and go back to Ancient Mesopotamia
I've always thought this was a good idea, we'll have a party, we'll all go together.
And when we get there somebody might say "Any idea where the Ark is?"
and I'll go "We have the map! Here it is! and in fact it's THERE! That's where it is."
And what we have to do is get in our rowing boat, off we go
and we will see it for ourselves.
So although it is a map which would not encourage you perhaps
And what we have to do is get in our rowing boat, off we go, and we will see it for ourselves.
So although this is a map which would not encourage you perhaps
to moat across Iraq today in a land rover
when it comes to operating beyond the limits of the known world,
into the world of imagination, it’s indispensable.
So, for the first time we can pronounce with authority, that if we were an ancient
Babylonian we would know where to go to see the remains of that wonderful boat.
But then there’s the actual question of who wove it together?
Well it’s often the case with cuneiform tablets that at the bottom of the reverse
there’s a bit that tells you the name of the scribe, what’s called the colophon.
And unfortunately, the scribe’s name is broken. There’s no trace of it left.
But, his father’s name is there. Because in Babylonia,
they always said, "Mr. So-and-So, son of Mr. So-and-So." And the dad
was called Iṣṣuru. Now ‘Iṣṣuru’ is the Babylonian word for ‘bird’.
Now this is rather an interesting thing, because we know all about peoples names in Mesopotamia.
They usually meant something intelligible like ‘Servant of Such and Such a God’,
or ‘She’s Beautiful Beyond Compare’ – no one is called
Bird. There’s no other case of a person called Bird, it’s not a very good name!
So what does that mean?
You look at this for the first time in the museum case, which I hope you will now do,
and peer through and make out the details, you would think “Ah! I see,
it’s a sort of birds-eye view of the world!” Well I think that’s what it is. It’s a Birdy
Birdy family, and this is a birds-eye view of the known world and what lies beyond it.
So that gives it a special kind of warmth of understanding. Because its failings as
it were from a cartographical point of view are irrelevant,
it is not what they’re interested in.
And it’s given us a tremendous insight into many aspects of Mesopotamian thinking,
it’s also a triumphant demonstration of what happens when you have a very small
totally uninformative and useless fragment of dead boring writing that no one can
understand and you join it onto something in the collection which is much bigger
and a whole new adventure begins all over again! Hey you! Cuneiform nerd! Do you want some more
cuneiform? Of course you do. Below is a playlist full of all the videos we’ve
ever made concerning cuneiform, and you can see in the top left corner right now
a preview of the next episode of Curator’s Corner, which also covers cuneiform.
We are going to the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu in southern Iraq, where Sebastien Rey will
talk you through two bricks that were found in the same building. That’s pretty normal,
buildings are made of bricks. The weird thing is, is that these bricks were made
1500 years apart from each other, but were in the same building. Also, crazy thing,
Sebastien’s excavated both of these bricks, but one of those bricks has been excavated
twice previously. And the first time it was excavated was 2300 years ago!
Archaeology is weird.
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