4,000-Year-Old Cuneiform Tablets Reveal Ancient Beliefs About Lunar Eclipses and Their Ominous Predictions

The British Museum has had records there for several decades that were only recently described, Live Science reports. Scientists have been able to translate 4,000 year old cuneiform tablets that were found more than a century ago in what is now Iraq. The records describe how certain lunar eclipses were seen as signs of death, destruction and plague.

The 4,000-year-old records are the oldest known examples of lunar eclipse omen compendia. This is what Andrew George, retired professor at the University of London, and independent researcher Junko Taniguchi say in an article published in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies. The authors of the charts used the time of night, the movement of shadows, and the date and duration of eclipses to predict what might happen.

One of the omens says if “eclipse he will cover from his place without delay [i] everything is clear at the same time: the king will die, the destruction of Elam.” Elam is a region in Mesopotamia, which is currently located in Iran. Before that, it was a state with a feudal structure, which was established around 2400 BC.For many years, Elam was one of the main powers of the ancient Middle East.

Another omen says that if “the eclipse begins in the south and suddenly becomes clear: the fall of Subart and Akkad”, also regions of Mesopotamia. Subartu was the northern part, and Akkad was formerly the capital of the Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon the Great, a ruler famous for the conquest of Sumerian city-states in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC from the records that say: ” Eclipse in the evening: means plague”.

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Andrew George told Live Science that some of the omens may have had their roots in real-life experiences — observing prophecies and subsequent disaster. However, most omens were probably set by a theoretical system combining eclipse characteristics with various predictions.

In Babylonia and other parts of Mesopotamia, it was believed that events in the sky could predict the future. The governors took advice from observing astronomers the night sky and compared their ideas with omen texts. If the prediction was a threat, such as “the king will die,” additional rituals, such as fortune telling from animals, were performed to determine whether the king was in danger.

If the results of the devotion showed danger, it was believed that appropriate rituals could dispel the bad omen, counteracting the evil forces behind it. Therefore, despite the bad omens, it was believed that the future could change.