Historical Maps 
Old Map of Iraq (the World at the time)
Compilated and extracted from the British Museum by Dhia Younis [May 18, 08]
Item Details:
Height: 12.200 cm
Width: 8.200 cm
ME 92687
Room 55: Mesopotamia
Babylonian, about 700-500 BC
Probably from Sippar, southern Iraq.
Description: This tablet contains both a cuneiform inscription and a unique map of the Mesopotamian world. Babylon is shown in the centre (the rectangle in the top half of the circle), and Assyria, Elam and other places are also named. The central area is ringed by a circular waterway labeled 'Salt-Sea'. The outer rim of the sea is surrounded by what were probably originally eight regions, each indicated by a triangle, labeled 'Region' or 'Island', and marked with the distance in between. The cuneiform text describes these regions, and it seems that strange and mythical beasts as well as great heroes lived there, that being said the text is far from complete.
The regions are shown as triangles since that was how apparently it was visualized that they first would look when approached by water. The map is sometimes taken as a serious example of ancient geography, and although the places are shown in their approximately correct positions, the apparent purpose of the map is to explain the Babylonian view of the mythological world. Other authors opine more of a practical aim of this map and comment that Babylon is the rectangle intersected by two vertical lines representing the Euphrates River. Small circles stand for surrounding kingdoms, and an ocean encircles the world. Link
References on British Museum Website
- I.L. Finkel, 'A join to the Map of the World: a notable discovery', British Museum Magazine: the-5 (Winter 1995), pp. 26-27
- W. Horowitz, Mesopotamian cosmic geography (Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns, 1998)
- Finkel, I., The Hero King Gilgamesh (London, The British Museum Press, 1998)
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