Death of a King and Other Prophesies of Doom Deciphered on Cuneiform Tablet

It was more than a century ago that some extraordinarily rare cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia dating to the second millennium BC were discovered during an archaeological expedition in Iraq. Now, after decades of determined effort, scholars have finally been able to fully decipher the written text that appears on the faces of these amazing artifacts. It seems the tablets are inscribed with prophecies of doom related to lunar eclipses, which were seen by some ancient cultures as omens indicating that catastrophic events bringing mass death and destruction might be just around the corner.

There were four clay tablets recovered in Iraq in total, on which all of the writing was well-preserved and legible. They were written in an ancient Babylonian language, however, which made them extremely difficult to translate in their entirety. But a pair of academics with expertise in ancient languages and cultures were recently able to completely crack the code, revealing the true meaning of the cuneiform messages for the first time ever.

The whole tablet. (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

Scholars Crack the Code

In a paper just published in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Andrew George, an emeritus professor of Babylonian at the University of London, and Junko Taniguchi, an independent researcher with extensive knowledge of ancient Babylonian culture, introduce the results of their intensive study of these previously impenetrable tablets.

“As products of the middle and late Old Babylonian periods they represent the oldest examples of compendia of lunar-eclipse omens yet discovered and thus provide important new information about celestial divination among the peoples of southern Mesopotamia in the early second millennium BCE,” they wrote. “They are all found to bear witness to a single text, which organizes the omens of lunar eclipse by time of night, movement of shadow, duration, and date.”

Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth’s shadow blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon’s surface, causing our satellite to darken considerably (although it will still remain visible to some extent). Lunar eclipses can be total but partial eclipses are far more common. On average lunar eclipses will occur twice each year, which makes them a regular and predictable event.

A lunar eclipse.( Neil Saunders/CC BY-NC-ND)

Babylonian Omens from the Sky

The freshly decoded omens reveal some fascinating information about the fears and concerns that preoccupied ancient Mesopotamian cultures, in the context of predictions of impending doom and gloom for certain regions, individuals, or states.

For example, one of the omens claims that if “an eclipse becomes obscured from its center all at once [and] clear all at once: a king will die, destruction of Elam.” Another warns that if “an eclipse begins in the south and then clears: downfall of Subartu and Akkad.”

The omens also dealt with catastrophes of a more generalized nature. One asserts that “an eclipse in the evening watch … signifies pestilence,” referring to a deadly epidemic that could sweep across borders and rampage every nation in the region.

The fact that these omens were recorded for posterity on cuneiform tablets shows how seriously they were taken in ancient Babylonia and in Mesopotamian society. To some extent, they would have been based on actual events.

 “The origins of some of the omens may have lain in actual experience — observation of portent followed by catastrophe,” Andrew George told Live Science.

In other words, the ancient astrologers who created them likely relied on historical events to predict future ones, working on the assumption that reality was cyclical and that the astrological signs linked with past wars, famines, political assassinations, and epidemics were somehow the cause of such occurrences.

As knowledge of these types of events and associated developments in the sky accumulated over time, the ancient astrologers might have detected patterns that they could use to connect specific elements of eclipses with certain types of catastrophes. They might have concluded that total eclipses most likely meant major wars, for example, or that eclipses that were over quickly signaled an increased likelihood of crop failures. This would have ultimately led to a proliferation of terrifying prophecies, as more and more patterns emerged from this intensive and dedicated study.

According to Andrew George, the four cuneiform tablets most likely came from the city of Sippar, which was located in the territory of modern-day Iraq. The Babylonian Empire emerged early in the second millennium BC, and it had a powerful presence in this region at the time when the tablets were written.

The tablets were transferred to the British Museum between 1892 and 1914, which made them available to academics seeking to decode them. But these experts were only partially successful, and only a few limited translations have been completed and published up to this time.

The Kings of Mesopotamia Listened to their Astrologers

Like many ancient cultures, the peoples of Babylonia and Mesopotamia were intensely focused on celestial events. These occurrences were incorporated into metaphysical and spiritual belief systems, and they were linked to the rise and fall of civilizations and the changing fortunes of powerful leaders within those civilizations.

Ancient peoples believed that “events in the sky were coded signs placed there by the gods as warnings about the future prospects of those on earth,” George and Taniguchi wrote in their journal article. “Those who advised the king kept watch on the night sky and would match their observations with the academic corpus of celestial-omen texts.”

While they likely took alleged bad omens seriously, the kings of Mesopotamian states wouldn’t have greeted them with a defeatist attitude.

“If the prediction associated with a given omen was threatening, for example, ‘a king will die,’ then an oracular enquiry by extispicy [inspecting the entrails of animals] was conducted to determine whether the king was in real danger,” George and Taniguchi explained.

If these additional procedures verified the coming of troublesome developments, rituals would have then been performed, designed to appease the gods and counteract the forces of evil that were targeting a king of his people for destruction.

It is difficult to determine which history-making decisions made by leaders of empires that existed thousands of years ago might have been influenced by astrology, divination, or other magical practices. But the knowledge that at least some were confirms the importance of the study of ancient metaphysical belief systems, which were a fundamental element that determined the way ancient societies functioned.

Top image: One of the cuneiform tablets the researchers deciphered. Source: © The Trustees of the British Museum

By Nathan Falde