Babylonian world map: The oldest known map of the ancient world

The Babylonian Map of the World, also known as the Imago Mundi or Mappa Mundi, is a clay tablet from Babylon featuring a schematic representation of the world, accompanied by two inscriptions in the Akkadian language. It dates back to no earlier than the 9th century BC, with scholars suggesting a more likely date in the late 8th or 7th century BC. The tablet provides a partial, fragmented description and is recognized as the oldest known map of the world. Since its discovery, there has been ongoing debate regarding both its overall interpretation and its specific details. A similar topographical depiction, VAT 12772, dates from about two millennia earlier.

The Babylonian map is centered around the Euphrates River, which flows from the north (top) to the south (bottom). Its mouth is labeled as “swamp” and “outflow.” The city of Babylon appears on the Euphrates in the northern part of the map, while Susa, the capital of Elam, is depicted to the south. Urartu is shown to the northeast, and Habban, the Kassite capital, is inaccurately placed to the northwest. The map portrays Mesopotamia encircled by a “bitter river” or Ocean, and beyond this, seven or eight foreign regions are represented as triangular sections, possibly envisioned as mountains.

The tablet was excavated by Hormuzd Rassam at Sippar, near modern Baghdad, about 60 km north of Babylon on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Acquired by the British Museum in 1882 (BM 92687), the text was first translated in 1889. The map is generally believed to have originated in Borsippa. In 1995, a new fragment of the tablet was discovered, featuring part of the uppermost triangle.

The map

The map is circular, with two concentric boundary circles. Cuneiform script identifies locations both within the circular map and in a few regions beyond. The two circles symbolize a body of water labeled idmaratum, meaning “bitter river” or the salt sea. Babylon is located just north of the center, while parallel lines at the bottom likely represent the southern marshes. A curved line extending from the north-northeast seems to depict the Zagros Mountains.

Inside the outer boundary, there are seven small interior circles, which are thought to represent seven cities. Beyond the water circle, seven or eight triangular sections, known as “regions” (nagu), are labeled. Descriptions for five of these regions have survived.

Front side

The text above the map (11 lines) seems to describe part of the creation of the world by Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, who parted the primeval Ocean (the goddess Tiamat) and thus created Land and Sea. Of the Sea it says:

the ruine[d] gods which he (Marduk) set[tled] inside the Sea […] are present; the viper, the great sea-serpent inside.

Next, on Land, a series of two mythical creatures (“the Anzu-bird, and scorpi[on-man]”) and at least fifteen land animals are mentioned, “beasts which Marduk created on top of the res[tl]ess Sea” (i.e. on the land, visualized as a kind of giant raft floating in the Sea), among them mountain goat, gazelle, lion, wolf, monkey and female-monkey, ostrich, cat, and chameleon. With the exception of the cat, all these animals were typical of faraway lands.

The last two lines of the text refer to three legendary heroes: [U]tnapištim (the hero of the Flood), Sargon (ruler of Akkad), and Nur-[D]agan the King of Buršaḫa[nda] (opponent of Sargon).

Back side

The back side (29 lines) seems to be a description of (at least) eight nagu. After an introduction, possibly explaining how to identify the first nagu, the next seven nagu are each introduced by the clause “To the n-th region [nagu], where you travel 7 leagues” (the distance of 7 leagues seems to indicate the width of the Ocean, rather than the distance between subsequent nagu).

A short description is given for each of the eight nagu, but those of the first, second, and sixth are too damaged to read. The fifth nagu has the longest description, but this too is damaged and uncomprehensible. The seventh nagu is more clear:

… where cattle equipped with horns [are …] they run fast and reach […]

The third nagu may be a barren desert, impassable even for birds:

A winged [bi]rd cannot safely comp[lete its journey]

In the fourth nagu objects are found of remarkable dimensions:

[…] are thick as a parsiktum-measure, 20 fingers […]

The eighth nagu may refer to a supposed heavenly gate in the east where the Sun enters as it rises in the morning.

[… the p]lace where […] dawns at its entrance.

Concluding, the description then states that the map is a bird’s eye description:

of the Four Quadrants of the entire [world?] […] which no one can compre[hend] [i.e., the nagu extend infinitely far]

The last two lines apparently recorded the name of the scribe who wrote the tablet:

[…] copied from its old exemplar and colla[ted …] the son of Iṣṣuru [the descend]ant of Ea-bēl-il[ī].

Later influence: T and O map

Carlo Zaccagnini has argued that the design of the Babylonian map of the world may have lived on in the T and O maps of the European Middle Ages.

A T and O map, also referred to as an O-T or T-O map (from the Latin orbis terrarum, meaning “circle of the lands,” featuring a T within an O), is an early representation of world geography. This map type was first outlined by the 7th-century scholar Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) in his work De Natura Rerum and later expanded in his Etymologiae (c. 625). It is also known as an Isidoran map.

A later manuscript incorporated the names of Noah’s sons (Sem, Iafeth, and Cham) to represent the three continents (see Biblical terminology for race). An expanded version with greater detail is the Beatus map, created by Beatus of Liébana, an 8th-century Spanish monk, in the prologue to his Commentary on the Apocalypse.

Isidore’s description

De Natura Rerum, Chapter XLVIII, 2 (translation):

So the earth may be divided into three sides (trifarie), of which one part is Europe, another Asia, and the third is called Africa. Europe is divided from Africa by a sea from the end of the ocean and the Pillars of Hercules. And Asia is divided from Libya with Egypt by the Nile… Moreover, Asia – as the most blessed Augustine said – runs from the southeast to the north … Thus we see the earth is divided into two to comprise, on the one hand, Europe and Africa, and on the other only Asia.^[2]

Etymologiae, chapter 14, de terra et partibus:

Latin: Orbis a rotunditate circuli dictus, quia sicut rota est […] Undique enim Oceanus circumfluens eius in circulo ambit fines. Divisus est autem trifarie: e quibus una pars Asia, altera Europa, tertia Africa nuncupatur.

Etymologiae, chapter 14, de terra et partibus (translation):

The [inhabited] mass of solid land is called round after the roundness of a circle, because it is like a wheel […] Because of this, the Ocean flowing around it is contained in a circular limit, and it is divided in three parts, one part being called Asia, the second Europe, and the third Africa.

History and description

Spherical Earth concept

Although Isidore mentioned in Etymologiae that the Earth was “round,” the term’s meaning has been debated, with some scholars suggesting he may have been referring to a disc-shaped Earth. However, other works by Isidore clarify that he believed the Earth to be spherical. In fact, the concept of a spherical Earth had been widely accepted among scholars since at least the time of Aristotle, who described a frigid climate at the poles, a torrid zone near the equator, and a habitable temperate zone in between.

The T and O map depicts only half of the spherical Earth, likely serving as a practical projection of the known northern temperate region. It was widely believed at the time that no one could traverse the torrid equatorial zone to reach the mysterious southern lands, known as the antipodes.

Boundaries, center and orientation

In the T and O map, the “T” represents the Mediterranean, the Nile, and the Don (formerly known as the Tanais), which divide the three continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa. The “O” denotes the surrounding ocean. Jerusalem was typically placed at the center of the map, symbolizing the navel of the world, or umbilicus mundi. Asia was often shown as being twice the size of the other continents combined.

Given that the Sun rises in the east, Paradise (the Garden of Eden) was commonly located in Asia, which was positioned at the top of the map.

Additional details

This qualitative and conceptual medieval cartography could produce both highly detailed and simple maps. The earliest versions typically included only a few cities and major bodies of water, always marking the four sacred rivers of the Holy Land.

In addition to these maps, practical tools for travelers included the itinerarium, which listed towns sequentially between two points, and the periplus, which detailed harbors and landmarks along a seacoast.

• See also: Ancient Egypt’s largest astronomical observatory discovered.

Later maps in the T-and-O format began to include more rivers and cities from both Eastern and Western Europe, as well as features encountered during the Crusades. These maps were also embellished with decorative illustrations. Important cities were often depicted with sketches of fortifications and towers, and the empty spaces were filled with mythical creatures.