The Tablet is owned by British Museum
5,500-YEAR-OLD SUMERIAN STAR MAP OF ANCIENT NINEVEH AND THE OBSERVATION OF KÖFELS’ IMPACT EVENT
tablet
- Object Type
- tablet
- Museum number
- K.8538
- Title
- Series: Series: Library of Ashurbanipal
- Description
- Fragment of a circular clay tablet with depictions of constellations (planisphere). Neo-Assyrian. The reverse is uninscribed. Section of a sphere or instrument for astrological calculations. The flat side is inscribed with mathematical figures and descrip
- Cultures/periods
- Neo-Assyrian
- Excavator/field collector
- Excavated by: Sir Austen Henry Layard (et al)
- Findspot
- Excavated/Findspot: KouyunjikAsia: Middle East: Iraq: Iraq, North: Kouyunjik
- Materials
- clay
- Dimensions
- Diameter: Diameter: 14.10 centimetres (maximum) (maximum)
- Thickness: Thickness: 3.20 centimetres
- Inscriptions
- Inscription type: inscription
- Inscription language: Babylonian
- Inscription script: cuneiform
- Inscription subject
- literary
- Curator's comments
- For comment on the interpretation of the text and identification of the constellations see Koch 1989. Celestial planisphere; in this stylised map the sky has been divided into eight sections. It represents the night sky of 3-4 January 650 BC over Nineveh. The rectangular shape at the top has been identified as the constellation known today as Gemini and the stars contained with an oval shape are the Pleiades. The two triangles in the lower right mark the bright stars of Pegasus.
- Bibliographic references
- Bezold 1893a / Catalogue of the cuneiform tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum
- King, CT 33 / Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum (pl. 10)
- Koch 1989 / Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels (pp. 56-113)
- Lippincott 1999 / The Story of Time (p.40, cat.029)
- CDLI / Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (P397674)
- Location
- On display (G55/dc8) (G55/dc8)
- Exhibition history
- Exhibited:
2009-2010 Oct 25-Jan 24, Germany, Oldenburg, Landesmuseum fur Natur und Mensch, 'Ex Oriente Lux?'
2009 March 12-August 30, Italy, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 'Galileo: Images of the Universe from Antiquity to the Telescope'
1999 1 Dec-2000 24 Sep, London, The Queen’s House, The Story of Time - Condition
- Heavily restored with plaster.
- Associated names
- Associated with: Ashurbanipal
- Department
- Middle East
- Registration number
- K.8538
Köfels impact event
Style over substance
Pseudoscience
Popular pseudosciences Random examples The Köfels landslide was a huge mountain rockslide (a Sturzstrom) that occurred in the Austrian Alps about 9800 years ago near the village of Köfels. Some of its features mystified geologists for quite some time. One hypothesis was that it had been caused by an asteroid impact — a Köfels impact event — but more recent research has rejected the idea. This didn't stop a pair of British engineers from publishing a book that claims that a) it was an asteroid impact, b) it inspired a lot of myths, and c) it was recorded on an ancient Sumerian clay tablet.
The paper adds https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331178226_THE_SUMERIAN_K8538_TABLET_THE_GREAT_METEOR_IMPACT_DEVASTATING_MESOPOTAMIA_-_A_2019_TRANSLATION_ADDENDUM
translation knowledge to our 2014 paper: “The Sumerian K8538 tablet, the great meteor impact devastating Mesopotamia”. We present an improved, detailed fixing of the meteor impact day and impact hour, according to data provided on the tablet. A sky map for Northern Taurids meteor showers shows the comet flight path in the sky. Other useful information is given concerning climatic change, following the meteor impact, the meteor impact aftermath and new details for the relation of the cosmic impact to the Christian Bible, in particularly to Genesis and Apocalypse. The meteor impact occurred at 10:56 am, on September 22, 2193 BC, after the meteor emerged at 5:34 am at dawn and after a flight time of 5 hours 22 minutes. These numbers can clearly be deduced out of observation data entries in the tablet’s pictographic records and in comparison to LOD (length-of-day tables) for the corresponding Mesopotamian latitude. The K8538 tablet is property of the British Museum. Unfortunately, the museum is staunched in its opinion that this tablet represents the Babylonian sky as a so-called “planisphere”. This opinion is based on an interpretation, which we, for the first time, analyze in comprehensive detail, item by item, in this paper. Result: The planispheric concept of the Babylonian sky on this tablet is a hoax: Not one single correct argument proves alleged recorded planispheric constellations on the tablet, except one, already found by L. W. King, over 100 years ago, back in 1912. As translated in our 2014 K8538 paper, the tablet has never been a planisphere, but is a pictographic “cartoon” story, probably the first recorded cartoon of the world, consisting of a sequence of 8 subsequent pictures, to be turned while reading, to advance the story. All 8 pictures exclusively show observations, recorded measurements and specific details of flight and impact of this disastrous meteor, which destroyed the nearby Akkadian capital in Mesopotamia. Because Southern Iraq in the impact area was swamp and marshland until recently, an exploration of the discovered impact crater, Umm-al-Binni, was impossible. For the first time, it is feasible from 2019 on, and a first crater inspection will soon be conducted. Due to missing explorations of the impact crater, Near-East historians, until now, did not recognize the historical cosmic impact event, but we may expect that this will change in the near future.
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