Babylonian text missing for 1,000 years deciphered with AI
A team of experts in ancient literature has deciphered a Mesopotamain text that had been missing for over 1,000 years. Engraved on clay tablets, the Hymn in Babylon Describes the old megapular in “All His Majesty” and gives new information on the daily life of those who lived there. The text is detailed in a study published in the journal Iraq.
An old cultural center
Founded in Mesopotamia around 2,000 BCE, Babylon was once the largest city in the world. The ruins of Babylon are a UNESCO World Heritage site at around 52 miles outside the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. At its peak, the city was a cultural hub which inspired the written works which are still part of our world heritage today. A religious text called the ENUMA ELISH Or Babylonian epic of creation details the creation of the universe and the rise of Marduk, the chief god of the city. The Hammurabi code is one of the oldest surviving legal frameworks and includes the concept “innocent until its guilt”.
The Babylonian texts were mainly composed of an old writing system called cuniform on clay tablets. Most of these tablets only survived in tiny fragments. One of the objectives of a team from the University of Baghdad in Iraq and the University of Ludwig Maximilian in Munich in Germany was to decipher and preserve hundreds of cuneiform tablets included in the SIPPAR library. This collection of texts was discovered in the Shamash temple in the ancient town of Sippar, in Iraq. The legends also say that the hero of the Old Testament Noah hidden tablets in Sippar before climbing up his arch when the flood waters came.
[ Related: 6,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts linked to the dawn of writing. ]
“ Written by a Babylonian who wanted to rent his city ”
In the electronic platform of the Babylonian library, the co-author and Assyriologist of the Enrique Jiménez study digitizes all the cuneiform text fragments that have been discovered in the world. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), it brings together fragments that belong.
“Using our AI -supported platform, we have managed to identify 30 other manuscripts that belong to the rediscovered anthem – a process that would have already taken decades,” JimĂ©nez said in a press release.
With these additional texts, the team was able to completely decipher this old hymn of praise. In this document, they found new information on the Babylonian Urban Society and believe that Babylon’s anthem was very widespread.
“The anthem has been copied by children at school. It is unusual that a text as popular in its time is unknown to us before now,” said JimĂ©nez. The song of Triumph – or Paean – dates back to the beginning of the first millennium before Christ and is made up of 250 lines.
“He was written by a Babylonian who wanted to rent his city,” said JimĂ©nez. âThe author describes the buildings of the city, but also how the waters of the Euphrates bring spring and green the fields. It is all the more spectacular since surviving Mesopotamian literature is spared in its descriptions of natural phenomena. â
One of the new exciting discoveries includes new information about Babylonian women – many priestesses. Hymns also describe the inhabitants as respectful towards foreigners.
Read a passage
The lines below come from a newly discovered anthem, describing the river euphrates. The city was located on the banks at the time.
The Euphrates is his river – established by the wise Lord Nudimmud –
He turns off the Lea, saturated the Canibrake,
Gives off its waters in the lagoon and the sea,
Its fields are booming with herbs and flowers,
His meadows, in Brilliant Bloom, Sprout Barley,
Hence, gathered, the sheaves are stacked,
Herds and herds are on green pastures,
Wealth and splendor – which is suitable for humanity –
Are granted, multiplied and put back on stage.
Continuous progress could potentially lead to better translations of this former celebration of a big city.
More offers, reviews and purchasing guides
