Thanks to artificial intelligence, scientists have successfully read 4,000-year-old Babylonian tablets. The authors of these ancient texts believed that movements in the sky foretold impending disasters.
What was considered an unsolvable mystery for generations can now be cracked by artificial intelligence. Clay tablets written in cuneiform puzzled historians for over a hundred years. Until AI managed to recognize patterns in the damaged and incomplete texts.
The scholarly study was published in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies. The researchers focused on tablets from the city of Sippar. Dating shows they were made between the 19th and 16th centuries BC. Today, you can find these artifacts stored in the British Museum in London, according to Smithsonian Mag.
Ancient Babylonians believed the sky could predict the future. They meticulously recorded full moons and eclipses, giving them major significance. What we see as natural phenomena today were seen as signs of divine intervention in their world.
On clay tablets, Babylonians noted warnings about various disasters: from military defeats and epidemics to locust swarms and the death of a ruler. These predictions were based on the observation of stars, planets, and especially lunar eclipses.
Among the inscriptions, warnings like “A swarm of locusts will attack the land,” “A great army will fall,” and “The king will die.” appeared. Experts suggest Babylonian dynasties used such predictions to blame their failures on the gods.
