Researchers have now decoded a Babylonian tablet, which is thought to be the oldest map of the world. It was created between 2,600 and 2,900 years ago. The Imago Mundi (tablet) provided the ...

It was likely crafted between 2,600 to 2,900 years ago, a time when the Neo-Babylonian Empire was leading the world in architecture, culture, mathematics, and early forays into science.

The "oldest map of the world in the world" on a Babylonian clay tablet was deciphered to reveal a surprisingly familiar story, according to the British Museum's Irving Finkel.

The Babylonian Map of the World, c. 510-c. 500 BC. Found in the collection of British Museum. Artist: Assyrian Art. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) ...

In 587 B.C., the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II laid siege to Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and made Judah a province of his empire.

In the sixth century B.C.E., the Neo-Babylonian Empire was in a nostalgic groove. Its king, Nabonidus, led by example: he venerated the customs of the Sumerian ancestors who had ruled some 1,500 ...