What's Shown On This MESOPOTAMIAN Map?

The oldest known map of the world was carved onto a tablet in Mesopotamia around 3,000 years ago. Annotated in Akkadian in the cunieform script, the obverse contains geographic references and the reverse is about mythological regions featuring monsters and other characters. In this video I discuss this amazing artefact, along with the discovery of a large Neolithic agricultural complex in Morocco and the identification of more than 300 more geoglyphs on the Nazca Pampa plateau in southern Peru.

#ancienthistory #Neolithic #RealArchaeology

✨ IN THIS EPISODE

00:00 Introduction
01:08 Babylonian tablet depicting a map of the world discussed on Curator’s Corner
05:20 Archaeologists discover evidence for the oldest farming society in Morocco
08:56 Hundreds more glyphs have been discovered in Peru

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✨ REFERENCES

Broodbank C, Lucarini G, Bokbot Y, et al. (2024). Oued Beht, Morocco: a complex early farming society in north-west Africa and its implications for western Mediterranean interaction during later prehistory. Antiquity. Published online 1-20. doi:10.15184/aqy.2024.101

Sakai, M., Sakurai, A., Lu, S., Olano, J., Albrecht, C.M., Hamann, H.F. and Freitag, M., 2024. AI-accelerated Nazca survey nearly doubles the number of known figurative geoglyphs and sheds light on their purpose. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(40), p.e2407652121.

✨ PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

Photographs and diagrams related to Oued Beht, credit: Broodbank, C., et al. in the paper referenced above.

Photographs and diagrams related to the Nazca geoglyphs, credit: Sakai, M., et al. in the paper referenced above.

Photographs of the Babylonian tablet, credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum
Nazca bird geoglyph, credit: Diego Delso
Nazca linear geoglyph, credit: Diego Delso

[JonnoPlays]

You do a great job on your content. Keep up the good work.

[aidanmacdougall]

Bitter river is a lovely term for sea water😊 shame the Nazca AI project refuse to use an alien category! 😡 great video, as always. Thanks 🙏 👍

[barrywalser]

The Mesopotamian map is fascinating. I’m one of those map aficionado. Thanks Laura! I really enjoy these updates.

[vulpesvulpes]

This marks a trend of re-examining items from museums. Additionally, only about 10% of the items in any one museum are on display. Which means gaining access to the stored items IF you even know of their existence. Finally there are artefacts “split” between different museums. Some of whom can be parochial about “their” stuff.

Recently it came to light that the serpent bound in Ohio once had a Stella at one end. This was finally located at a museum half the state away. Negotiations continue to get the Stella returned and placed in situ.

As to old maps. Many typically depict a flat earth. And these typically show a river surrounding the lateral extent of the flat surface. Sometimes a cliff appears. Reflecting the human need to set a definitive boundary.

What I have always found odd is that old charts always reference even older maps as a source for their work. Occasionally, features beyond the knowledge of the makers appears. Such as a detailed rendering of Antarctica long before we deem it “discovered”.

Old maps with their subtilise will drive you crazy.

[hotzenplotz]

You giveth and You taketh oh Algorithm!
But may You always have a kind eye on this channel, as I love to peek into the age where history fades into mythology.
Thank You for Your work!

[tinkerstrade]

Of course we like what you do. Most of us hit the 👍before we even start watching the video, because we know your high standards.
Thank you for the video. Interesting and informative. I see that "map", and think of future exploration, and how our maps of the stars have changed just in my lifetime. (I was born when schools still taught that the Milky Way was the only real Galactic Structure.)
How "sophisticated" the owner of this stone map must have felt, as he thought himself holding all the world in the palm of his hand, never knowing there was so much more beyond the Bitter River. (Is the Kuiper Belt our Bitter River?)

[pwhitewick]

Brilliant, i watched that video and mad notes too!

[andrewblackard]

Great presentation. Laura, I think there is a lot of lost prehistory in Morocco that will prove fascinating. I read that the oldest mass grave site in Africa was found in Morocco and dates to 15kya. DNA analysis showed an affinity with the contemporaneous Natufian culture way over in Israel-Jordan! So there was some connection long, long before the Phoenicians.
source: Science 15 Mar 2018

[ajkaajka]

I've seen that Curator's Corner episode. I love Dr Irving Finkel, he is very knowledgeable and funny.

About 3 months ago I stopped receiving notifications from your channel. I thought maybe holidays, then I thought something happened to you and you stopped. So I came to your channel only to find that you are ok and still uploading, I am still subscribed but somehow Youtube took off the notifications.... strange... Anyway, they are back on and I have to watch everything I have missed 😁

[VINCE-ppes]

hmm... a thought has accurred to me .... has the farming people of maracco is there any signs that they had similar culture to those when the sahara was green?

[lynnmitzy]

❤ thank you Laura. I got no notice for this ❤🥀

[floydriebe]

weeelll, dammit!! missed the premiere!!!😡 again!!! can't seem to catch a break...waa, waa, waa😭 oh well, such is life....mine, anyway😢 sure glad the video doesn't disappear afterwards😊

hokay, i have read a fair bit of the history of place! at least three major civilisations held sway over it at different times. however, they all seem to have embraced the Sumerian flood myth...it is also where the biblical flood myth came from; just altered a wee bit to fit in with the Jewish traditions. sssooo, there is usually a kernel of truth in most mythological stories, which leads one to believe it is true of the flood. some theories say it was a localized flood of the Euphrates or Tigris rivers, being as how the Sumerian empire was located along the lower reaches of that floodplain. i favor the idea that it was the flooding of the Mediterranean basin even before the Sumerians, in deeper antiquity. stories become altered easily when passed in oral traditions. details, such as names and deeds, are usually connected to the mind of the teller, therefore revealing the probable mind-set of his/her society. blah, blah, for going on so😏 this is one of my favorite subjects, early, if not first, civilizations and their beliefs. ok, ok, i'm done i'll make the next count on it, tho😅

B'bye, for now, luv😘 great info, as always👍

[aidanmacdougall]

Ahh, so the world is flat! Told you 😂🤣😂

[cynthiarowley]

Near the site called remains of Atlantis?

[gregoryrollins]

Do you mean the oldest known map of the flat earth? No... yes, the babylonians believed in a flat earth. That's babylons flat earth map. Imago mundi...do you think marduk just plain lied or was wrong cause he didn't know what he was talking about? 🤔
Peace

[JorgeStolfi]

Please consider splitting each video into one separate video per topic. What is the point of putting several topics in one video?
If you prefer to make multi-topic videos, at least list *all* the topics in the cover image. (And please remove that highly misleading views counter.)