In a collaboration between Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and the University of Baghdad, an ancient Babylonian hymn dating back over two millennia has been rediscovered and fully deciphered, reports Archaeology News.
The findings, published in the journal Iraq, shed new light on Mesopotamian urban life, cultic ritual, and nature's impact on ancient literature.
Led by Professor Enrique Jiménez of LMU's Institute of Assyriology, the researchers discovered the centuries-lost Hymn to Babylon, a 250-line poetic work in praise of the city in its grandeur. Working with artificial intelligence through the Electronic Babylonian Literature platform, Jiménez and his team matched thirty additional fragments of manuscripts to the partially preserved text. "With our AI-supported platform, we were able to identify thirty additional manuscripts that belong to the rediscovered hymn — a process that would have taken decades in the past," Jiménez said.
Composed in the early first millennium BCE, the hymn was widely circulated in the ancient world, as evidenced by the many surviving copies. "The hymn was copied by children in school. It's remarkable that such a popular text remained unknown until now," Jiménez said.
The hymn was found composed in cuneiform script on clay tablets, it was uncovered in the renowned Sippar Library collection. According to legend, Noah had allegedly hidden this library before the biblical flood. In the larger effort of digitisation and preservation of cuneiform texts globally, rediscovery is a major achievement in both Mesopotamian studies and digital humanities.
The Hymn to Babylon is a literary paean that exalts the city's architecture, social cohesion, and the life-giving power of the Euphrates River. A vivid excerpt reads:
"The Euphrates is her river—established by wise lord Nudimmud—
It quenches the lea, saturates the canebrake,
Disgorges its waters into lagoon and sea…
Herds and flocks lie on verdant pastures,
Wealth and splendour—what befit mankind—
Are bestowed, multiplied, and regally granted."
The most striking thing about this hymn, Jiménez asserts, is the rare portrayal of natural phenomena—something found to a great extent to be absent in other works of surviving Mesopotamian literature. "That is spectacular because only a few descriptions of nature from Mesopotamia have survived," Jiménez said.
Even more revolutionary are the passages that describe the role of Babylonian women, specifically as priestesses. No earlier literature has been so vivid in describing their religious and social duties. The hymn also refers to a cosmopolitan and respectful society in which the citizens are courteous to foreigners.
Babylon, the world's largest city of ancient times and a cultural powerhouse founded around 2000 BCE, lies approximately 85 kilometres south of Baghdad. Its archaeological site is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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