Archaeologists have used artificial intelligence to decode 4,000-year-old texts written on ancient Babylonian cuneiform tablets that predicted doom.
The newly discovered text, published in the journal Journal of Cuneiform Studies, shows that the ancient Babylonians believed that eclipses were not just celestial events, but dire omens foretelling death and destruction.
This text is the earliest archaeological record of eclipse omens and shows how ancient astrologers analyzed celestial phenomena to predict disasters that threatened Mesopotamian civilization.
One of these tablets says that ‘eclipse in the morning hour’ means ‘end of dynasty’.
An astrologer’s prediction said that if the solar eclipse is hidden from its center and cleared at the same time, a king will die, Elam (the southwestern part of present-day Iran) will be destroyed. .
Another prediction stated that an eclipse in the evening hour indicates an epidemic. If the eclipse is reversed, nothing will be left, there will be floods everywhere.
