Researchershave finallydeciphered4,000-year-old tabletsfound more than 100 years ago in modern-day Iraq.
The clay tablets have cuneiform inscriptions (wedge-shaped characters used in ancient writing systems) that“represent theoldest examples of compendia oflunar-eclipse omensyet discovered,” wrote Andrew George and Junko Taniguchi, the authors of the studypublished in theJournal of Cuneiform Studies.
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Image credits:Trustees of the British Museum
One omen on thetabletsreads that if “an eclipse becomes obscured from its center all at once [and] clear all at once: a king will die, destruction of Elam.” Elam was an ancient civilization in southwestern Iran, approximately equivalent to the modern region of Khuzestan.
Another omen says that if “an eclipse begins in the south and then clears: downfall of Subartu and Akkad,” two regions of Mesopotamia, the latter of whichwas the capital of the Akkadian Empire, the leading political force in the region during a period of 150 yearsin the last third of the 3rd millennium BC.
The tablet’s inscriptions also mention: “An eclipse in the evening watch: it signifies pestilence.”
Ancient astrologers likely based their interpretations of celestial events on past experiences.
Image credits:NASA
However, George notes that most omens were determined through a theoretical system that linked eclipse characteristics to different events.
“Those who advised the king kept watch on the night sky and would match their observations with the academic corpus of celestial-omen texts,” the authors wrote.
Kings analyzed other elements to form their beliefs on what the future would look like.
Image credits:Britannica
Sometimes, substitute kings would be appointed to protect the king from God’s wrath once an evil omen was observed. The substitute king was killed when this happened.You May LikeJack The Ripper’s Identity Revealed After 130 Years Thanks To DNA TestingLei RV"It Will Cause Casualties": Scientist Addresses The City-Leveling Asteroid Threat For 2032Lei RV8 Times Hollywood Tweaked History And Thought We Wouldn’t NoticeLei RV
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