LONDON, ENGLAND—Four-thousand-year-old cuneiform tablets have been found to predict omens using the time of night, movement of shadows, and the date and duration of eclipses, according to a Live Science report. The four tablets, which were recently studied by Andrew George, an emeritus professor of the University of London, and independent researcher Junko Taniguchi, are thought to have come from the ancient city of Sippar, which is located in what is now Iraq. The artifacts have been held at the British Museum for more than 100 years. Babylonian kings had advisors who watched the night sky for warnings about the future, the researchers explained. “The origins of some of the omens may have lain in actual experience—observation of portent followed by catastrophe,” George said, although he acknowledged that many of the omens written in the texts were likely the result of a theoretical system. For example, one text predicted if “an eclipse becomes obscured from its center all at once [and] clear all at once: a king will die.” Another stated that an eclipse in the evening watch signifies pestilence. But, George and Taniguchi said, if conditions in the night sky led to a threatening prediction, additional inquiries could be made and rituals could be performed to annul the bad omen and change the future. For more on cuneiform tablets, go to "The World's Oldest Writing."
