Researchers have finally figured out what some very old clay tablets(ancient babylonian tablets), found over 100 years ago in Iraq, say. These tablets are 4,000 years old and have special symbols called cuneiform on them. The cuneiform writing on these tablets has shown us how the ancient Babylonians saw signs of bad things to come, like the death of a king or a big sickness.
Image by: Trustees of the British Museum
How the Babylonians Predicted Evil Omens
The Babylonians lived a long time ago in what is now Iraq. They believed that when the moon eclipsed (when it was covered by the shadow of Earth), it was a sign from their gods. They thought these signs could tell them what might happen in the future.
One of the writings on the tablets says that if an eclipse covers the moon all at once, then a king might die, and a place called Elam (which is in modern Iran) could be destroyed. Another part of the tablets says that if an eclipse starts in the south and then goes away, two ancient places called Subartu and Akkad (regions in Mesopotamia) might fall. They also wrote that if an eclipse happened in the evening, it could mean a big sickness was coming.
How the Babylonians Interpreted Eclipses
Image by: NASA
The Babylonians didn’t just guess these things; they carefully watched the moon during these eclipses. They looked at how long the eclipse lasted, what time it happened, and how the shadows moved. Based on what they saw, they wrote down what they thought might happen.
The people who advised the king (like fortune tellers) would look at the night sky and compare what they saw with their old books full of celestial (sky) omens. If they thought something bad might happen, like a king dying, they would look inside an animal’s body (a practice called extispicy) to see if the signs matched what they saw in the sky.
The Role of Babylon in Ancient Times
Image by: Britannica
Babylon was a big city in a place called Mesopotamia, where modern-day Iraq is now. The Babylonians were very good at watching the sky. They even kept records of how planets like Mercury and Venus moved, as well as the sun and moon. By watching the sky so much, they eventually got pretty good at predicting things like lunar and solar eclipses.
If they saw a really bad omen, like a sign that the king might die, they would sometimes put a substitute king in place to protect the real king from danger. But once the danger passed, the substitute king would be killed.
These old clay tablets were found a long time ago and became part of the British Museum’s collection over 100 years ago. But it wasn’t until recently that scientists were able to fully translate and understand them. These tablets are thought to have come from an ancient Babylonian city called Sippar.
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