US EditionAI Reconstruction Yields Complete 2,000-Year-Old Babylonian Hymn
- Researchers from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Baghdad rediscovered and deciphered a Babylonian hymn missing for over a thousand years using AI technology.
- The rediscovery resulted from analyzing clay tablet fragments in the Sippar Library through an AI-supported platform that identified 30 related manuscripts, a process that formerly took decades.
- The 250-line hymn celebrates Babylon, highlighting its impressive architecture, the vital role of the Euphrates River in nourishing the land during spring, and detailing the functions of women as priestesses within the city.
- Jiménez noted that it is remarkable that a text once widely known in its time had remained undiscovered until recently, emphasizing the hymn’s valuable perspective on Babylon’s urban culture and its attitude of respect toward foreigners.
- Researchers utilizing AI technologies have made progress in deciphering Babylonian texts, enhancing knowledge of the ancient civilization and aiding preservation of its literary works, which are now recognized as part of UNESCO’s heritage.
44 Articles
44 Articles
A Hymn Lost for a Millennium
“Wealth and splendor—what befit mankind—Are bestowed, multiplied, and regally granted.” Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . You’ve just read the lines of a hymn lost to history for a millennium, praising the ancient metropolis of Babylon. This 250-line text was recently rediscovered after researchers pieced together more than 30 fragments of clay tablets inscribed as early as the seventh century B.C. They combined…
Lost Babylonian text rediscovered in Iraq after a thousand years
A Babylonian hymn which is more than 2,000 years old has been rediscovered after being lost for a thousand years. The text is a paean – a song or lyric poem expressing triumph or thanksgiving – and is described in a paper published in the Cambridge University Press journal Iraq. “It’s a fascinating hymn that describes Babylon in all its majesty and gives insights into the lives of its inhabitants, male and female,” says co-author Enrique Jiménez…
In collaboration with the University of Baghdad, Enrique Jiménez, professor of Literatures of the Old Middle East at the Institute of Asyriology of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, has succeeded in rewriting and translating the text of a hymn of Babylon lost for a thousand years, which offers an exceptional vision of what the life of the ancient Mesopotamian metropolis was like. The Babylonian texts were written in cuneiform writing on c…
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