A hymn lost for a millennium

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“Wealth and splendor – which is suitable for humanity –
Are granted, multiplied and royally granted. »»

YYeah just read the lines of a hymn lost in history during a millennium, praising the old metropolis of Babylon. This 250 -line text was recently rediscovered after the researchers reconstructed more than 30 fragments of clay tablets registered from the 7th century BC, they combined these cuneiform texts using artificial intelligence – a task which, according to them, would have taken decades otherwise, according to a study published in the latest installation IRAQ.

Babylon was created around 2000 BC, and it once was among the largest and richest cities in the world. Today, the ruins of Babylon are about 80 kilometers from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The remains, the writings and the Damren artefacts have long painted an image of Babylon with its peak – an animated and carefully arranged Mesopotamian city filled with large temples and an imposing structure which probably inspired the myth of the Tower of Babel.

Now, the hymn rediscovered – which has probably been widely disseminated and memorized by schoolchildren – displays new perspectives on ancient Babylonian culture. For example, the anthem provides a precious overview of the role of certain Babylonian women as a priestesses and their tasks, including damp dummies. And the anthem reveals that the Babylonians “respect the foreigners who live among them”, referring to the priests of other regions.

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The text also addresses the flora of the region, in particular by mentioning fields which “burgeon with herbs and flowers” and meadows which “in Brilliant Bloom, Sprout Barley”.

“It is all the more spectacular since the surviving Mesopotamian literature saves in its descriptions of natural phenomena,” said Enrique Study author Jiménez, researcher in Babylonian literature at the University of Ludwig Maximilian in Munich, in a press release.

Jiménez and his co -author Anmar A. Fadhil of the University of Baghdad currently operate AI to comb and assemble hundreds of Cuneiform tables from the Sippar library, located in what is now the province of Baghdad – to ensure that these old works are not lost over time.