[August 6, 2024] As a 13-year-old, I drew my first map of my new town, Little Rock, Arkansas. Comparatively, the city of LR was huge, with large streets, tall buildings, and many people going somewhere. The map was not to scale or in an accurate perspective. My map showed the streets I walked when going to school, to the playground, and to the general store. It was crude yet accurately showed a mental map of what I needed to know to get where I was going.
I’m also reminded of a humorous piece of artwork I purchased in New York City showing the “Big Apple” from the view of their NYC residents. You can see many Main Street names and an outer ring of other landmarks, but the states outside New York are squished into tiny, insignificant blobs. The idea is that other places are supposedly less important than New York City, and their contributions pale beside the city.
Maps communicate what we need to know. Even the latest GPS maps leave out information on things not needed for the traveler. However, maps can also give us an idea of where we are in the world relative to our needs and tell us what is necessary to live appropriately.
I was intrigued by British Museum curator Dr. Irving Finkel’s lectures on ancient Mesopotamian culture. In one lecture, he tells us of “the oldest known map of the world, in the world.” He shows us an ancient clay tablet with a small map on one side, along with cuneiform writing. I will paraphrase. He describes it this way:
“If you look carefully, you will see a double circle containing cuneiform writing in it, translated to mean ‘The Bitter River.’ This water was known to surround the known world. Inside the circle, we have interesting things. There is a great river that runs north to south, which is the Euphrates River. This river is straddled by a long oblong, which is obviously the city of Babylon. This is important because the Babylonians had an idea about their limits.”
Dr. Finkel describes this as the entire whole world where people lived, flourished, and died. But there is much more to this map. On close inspection, three triangles emanate from the double circle, which are remote lands. Because of damage to the tablet, it could be interpreted that originally there were eight triangles. For Babylonians, these are places that represent lands that are magical and mysterious, and cuneiform describes flightless birds, trees with jewels, a land of darkness, etc.
Dr. Jordan Peterson wrote an informative book titled “Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief” (1999) where he discusses how people from many cultures and eras created myths and stories with similar structures. I believe that Peterson is saying that the scientific view of the world is not how people mostly experience reality. But, people see reality through patterns of simplified social constructs. This he calls a “map.” Thus, the title of his book.
All this is very interesting, and I will continue to explore these ideas. In the meantime, I recommend Dr. Peterson’s and Curator Dr. Finkel’s lectures and books.
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Please read my books:
I’ve been following Dr. Finkel at the British Museum now for many years and I can and do respect his opinions. But if you listen to his lectures, you will be enthralled by his wit and knowledge. Thank you, Dr. Finkel.
A list of books that Dr. Finkel has published can be found at this link on Book Finder:
https://www.bookfinder.com/author/irving-finkel/?msclkid=361b3073f8dc1778b0c956c0a1b8a93b
AMAZIN’
Yes, Greg NH, indeed an amazing piece of ancient information. Cuneiform writing is the oldest writing that we know of. And there are thousands of samples throughout Mesopotamia which is mostly the modern country of Iraq I wonder if Gen. Satterfield ran across any of them in his travels. Great article and very informative. I do like these kinds of articles that jump into the ideas of those who lived more than 3000 years ago and what they did to show us today their view of the world. Note how Gen. S. ties this piece of clay tablet map to his drawings when he was a kid. In both cases, they were trying to get a visualization of their environment. That is what humans do.
Gen. Satterfield, an amazing piece today. I had no idea. Maybe because I’m no ‘scientist’ but one thing I will say, and that is that this article helps restore my faith – just a tiny bit – in scientists knowing that not all of them are corrupted by the woke virus. Great that you showed us Dr. Irving Finkel.
I noticed that Gen. Satterfield also referenced Dr. Peterson’s book “Maps of Meaning.” This book was written about 25 years ago, and I’ve had a copy now for a decade or so and read it cover to cover. I do recommend the book but be aware the book is not always easy to read. But the ideas put forward by Dr. P. are more than interesting but can help you understand yourself and others.
Drew, well said.
The Babylonian map of the world is the oldest map of the world, in the world. Written and inscribed on clay in Mesopotamia around 2,900-years-ago, it is, like so many cuneiform tablets, incomplete. However, Irving Finkel and a particularly gifted student of his – Edith Horsley – managed to locate a missing piece of the map, slot it back into the cuneiform tablet, and from there set us all on journey through the somewhat mythical landscape of Mesopotamia to find the final resting place of the ark. And yes we mean that ark, as in Noah’s ark. Although in the earlier Mesopotamian version of the flood story, the ark is built by Ziusudra.
https://iroon.com/irtn/vlog/52034/the-babylonian-map-of-the-world-with-irving-finkel/
Interesting how humans map the world around them.
“If you look carefully, you will see a double circle containing cuneiform writing in it, translated to mean ‘The Bitter River.’ This water was known to surround the known world. Inside the circle, we have interesting things. There is a great river that runs north to south, which is the Euphrates River. This river is straddled by a long oblong, which is obviously the city of Babylon. This is important because the Babylonians had an idea about their limits.” – Dr. Irving Finkel, from the British Museum. This guy looks exactly like you would expect him to look.
Thanks Cat for the update from X (formerly Twitter). Amazing what we humans can do if given the support. My brother became a professor of geology and he studies everything that you can imagine and maps is one of his interests. Obviously, there is a connection there. I’ll forward him this article to see what he thinks. And, also ask him if he knows this Dr. Irving Finkel fellow.
Good educational article, right Ken? Yep. This is what I love about Gen. Satterfield, such a large swath of articles on everything from high science to a kid trying to fish.
Good comments guys!!!
Wow, very interesting. Sadly, I don’t have the time to explore this but I understand that when we see something we can trace it out into graphic form to help us remember it. Well done.
Hmmmmmmmm, some interesting ideas here. Like Army Vet (below) noted, I am going to have to think about this for a while. But I will be getting a copy of Dr. Peterson’s book “Maps of Meaning” and putting it on my high priority reading list.
Yeah, me too. But I will also recommend that a better start is to get a copy of Gen. Satterfield’s “55 Rules for a Good Life” first and read that.
https://www.amazon.com/55-Rules-Good-Life-Responsibility/dp/1737915529/
Lou, thanks for also recommending this book but anything that Gen. Satterfield writes about is somethinhg I’m going to read.
As soon as I get home from work today, I’ll be going onto YouTube (yuck but I will anyway) but just to see Dr. Irving Finkel’s lectures. Also, thanks for bringing this idea up about “maps” of how we “see” the world. If I remember correctly, Gen. Satterfield, at one time you posted a “spider” diagram of your connections that helped you be a better combat engineer while in Iraq. Hey, sir, thanks for pushing this idea on me. Now, I have to THINK. 👀👀👀👀
Army Vet, good to hear from you again. And, you’re welcome!
You got that right. Dr. Finkel is da man. Exactly what you would expect.