Try GOLD - Free

BAD MOON RISING

Archaeology

|

January/February 2025

The British Museum houses around 130,000 clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia written in cuneiform script between 3200 B.C. and the first century A.D.

- JASON URBANUS

BAD MOON RISING

Since so few scholars can read the languages on the tablets-which include Akkadian, Sumerian, and Hittite-the overwhelming majority remain untranslated. Four newly deciphered tablets written in Old Babylonian, a form of Akkadian, have been found to contain the earliest known mention of omens related to lunar eclipses. These tablets, which likely come from Sippar, a Babylonian city in modern Iraq, were acquired by the museum more than a century ago and date to between 1900 and 1600 B.C.

Archaeology

This story is from the January/February 2025 edition of Archaeology.

Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.

Already a subscriber?

MORE STORIES FROM Archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology

LEGEND OF THE CRYSTAL BRAIN

When most people envision the victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, they think of the casts of their bodies made by pouring plaster into voids left by their decaying corpses. Yet not all the physical remains of those who perished in the cataclysm decayed. In one case, a remarkable transformation occurred—a man’s brain turned to glass.

time to read

3 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

Birds of a Feather

Intriguing rock art in the Four Corners reveals how the Basketmaker people drew inspiration from ducks 1,500 years ago

time to read

8 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

THE HOME OF THE WEATHER GOD

In northern Anatolia, archaeologists have discovered the source of Hittite royal power

time to read

13 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

SAINTS ALIVE

Since 2019, archaeologists have been excavating in Berlin's oldest square, known as the Molkenmarkt, or Whey Market.

time to read

1 min

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

SOLDIERS OF ILL FORTUNE

The Schmalkaldic War, which began in 1546 and lasted less than a year, pitted the forces of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V (reigned 1519-1556) against the Schmalkaldic League, a Protestant alliance formed by German principalities and cities within the empire.

time to read

1 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD CITY

Archaeologists are reconstructing the complicated 400-year history of Virginia's colonial capital

time to read

13 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

ITALY'S GARDEN OF MONSTERS

Why did a Renaissance duke fill his wooded park with gargantuan stone

time to read

10 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

In Search of Lost Pharaohs

Anubis Mountain conceals the tombs of an obscure Egyptian dynasty

time to read

3 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

Setting Sail for Valhalla

Vikings staged elaborate spectacles to usher their rulers into the afterlife

time to read

15 mins

July/August 2025

Archaeology

Archaeology

BOUND FOR HEAVEN

During excavations of a Byzantine monastery in 2017 just north of Jerusalem's Old City, a team led by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists Zubair 'Adawi and Kfir Arbiv discovered an unusual burial in a crypt beneath the altar of the complex's church.

time to read

1 mins

July/August 2025