Ancient Babylon Comes Alive: Full Text of 1000-Year-Old Hymn Finally Recovered

An extraordinary literary work, lost for nearly a thousand years, has been discovered and fully deciphered by an international team of scholars from Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) and the University of Baghdad. Their findings have been published in the journal Iraq, and the newly decoded text will become part of the global electronic library of cuneiform texts.

The Hymn that Celebrates Ancient Babylon

This ancient hymn glorifies Babylon-the largest city of ancient Mesopotamia and the cultural capital of the ancient world. Written in cuneiform on clay tablets, the text partially survived in the famed library of Sippar, which, according to legend, was saved from the flood by Noah himself.

Technology Meets Antiquity: Piecing Together the Past

By leveraging the Electronic Babylonian Library platform and artificial intelligence technologies, the researchers matched fragments from 30 different tablets, reconstructing the complete hymn. This remarkable achievement marks the first time in history that the entire 250-line text-previously considered lost-has been read in full.

Unique Insights into Babylonian Life and Nature

The hymn is especially valuable to scholars because it not only describes the cityscape, nature, and architecture of Babylon but also offers rare insights into the lives of its inhabitants, both men and women. Notably, the text mentions female religious roles previously unknown from other sources. Moreover, it contains rare Mesopotamian literary depictions of natural phenomena such as the spring flooding of the Euphrates River and the blossoming of the fields.