'Classic' Hymn Deciphered From Ancient Babylonian Library
While many of the ancient records remain, their fractured nature requires a painstaking effort in solving the world's hardest jigsaw puzzle.
Assyriologists Anmar Fadhil, from the University of Baghdad, and Enrique Jiménez, from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, have now found a 250-line hymn in praise of the ancient city by comparing text scattered across numerous fragments on tablets.
"It's a fascinating hymn that describes Babylon in all its majesty and gives insights into the lives of its inhabitants," Jiménez explains.
Related:
"It was written by a Babylonian who wanted to praise his city. The author describes the buildings in the city, but also how the waters of the Euphrates bring the spring and green the fields. This is all the more spectacular as surviving Mesopotamian literature is sparing in its descriptions of natural phenomena."
The hymn also reveals details about Babylonian women, of whom little else is known.
"The passage has great importance for understanding the roles played by the various classes of priestesses: ugbakkātu, nadâtu, and qašdātu," Fadhil and Jiménez write.
"The priestesses are particularly virtuous but, in contrast to the active role of men in protecting the helpless, the main virtue praised in women is devotion and discretion."
By digitizing Babylon's cuneiform text fragments, the team traced copies of the hymn across 20 tablets from the 7th to 2nd or 1st centuries BCE; a process that, according to Jiménez, previously would have taken decades.
This process even allowed them to piece together parts of the hymn that were missing from the first tablet.
"Using our AI-supported platform, we managed to identify 30 other manuscripts that belong to the rediscovered hymn," he says. "The hymn was copied by children at school. It's unusual that such a popular text in its day was unknown to us before now."
With the same hymn being found on so many clay tablets, the researchers think the hymn may be a 'classic', one students may have even committed to memory as part of their education.
Read a translated excerpt of the hymn below:
"The Euphrates is her river – established by wise lord Nudimmud – It quenches the lea, saturates the canebrake, Disgorges its waters into lagoon and sea, Its fields burgeon with herbs and flowers, Its meadows, in brilliant bloom, sprout barley, From which, gathered, sheaves are stacked, Herds and flocks lie on verdant pastures, Wealth and splendor – what befit mankind – Are bestowed, multiplied, and regally granted."
The research is published in Iraq.
Related News
Ancient Neanderthal 'Fat Factory' Reveals How Advanced They Really Were
US Teen Drivers Admit to Looking at Their Phones For 21% of Every Trip
Oldest Egyptian DNA Reveals Secrets of Elite Potter From Pyramid Era
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
17 hours ago
- CNN
Breakthrough discovery shows that moths listen to plants — and avoid the noisy ones
FacebookTweetLink When a plant is stressed, it doesn't keep quiet about it. You won't hear the plant's cry because it's in the ultrasonic range — too high-pitched for human ears — but, for decades, scientists have been using special devices to listen in. For the first time, a team of researchers in Israel has documented that insects can hear and interpret plants' acoustic distress signals. This finding builds upon the research group's prior work recording sounds that tomato and tobacco plants make when they are dehydrated, said lead study author Rya Seltzer, an entomologist and doctoral student in the department of zoology at Tel Aviv University in Israel. 'The prevailing hypothesis is that these sounds are produced as a result of changes in the plant's water balance within the xylem vessels,' the specialized plant cells that carry water and nutrients upward from the roots to the stem and leaves, Seltzer told CNN in an email. During periods of stress from lack of water, air bubbles form, expand and collapse in xylem tissues. This sequence of events produces vibrations, generating click-like sounds every few seconds that the researchers measured in the acoustic frequency range of about 20 to 100 kilohertz. They estimated these frequencies to be audible to insects at distances up to 16 feet (around 5 meters). (Sound waves at frequencies higher than 20 kilohertz are typically beyond the range of human hearing). The scientists wanted to know if these ultrasonic sounds were being picked up by insects, so they observed the Egyptian cotton leafworm moth (Spodoptera littoralis), which lays its eggs on plant leaves. The study team found these moths tended to avoid noisy, stressed tomato plants. Instead, the insects favored tomato plants that were quieter and therefore in better condition, with leaves that would provide a juicier meal for newly hatched larvae, according to a recent study published in the journal eLife. '(The research) reveals a surprising new way that animals can sense and respond to cues from the environment — in this case, insects picking up sounds from stressed plants,' Dr. Yali V. Zhang, an adjunct associate professor of physiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, said in an email. Zhang, who studies chemical communication between insects and plants at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, was not involved in the study. However, just because the moths hear and react to sounds from dehydrated plants doesn't mean that the plants and moths are holding a conversation, Seltzer said. 'It's important to clarify that we observed an interaction — not communication,' she added. 'It's crucial to understand that plants likely produce these sounds passively and are not actively trying to communicate with insects.' When the scientists presented female moths with a choice between a dried-out tomato plant and a fresh one, the moths flocked to the fresh plant to lay their eggs. But the team wanted to understand whether the sounds from the dehydrated plant were a factor in the moths' selection. The researchers built an arena consisting of two boxes. In one box, they played recordings of plants' distress sounds, while the other box was silent. In the experiment, moths gravitated to the noisy box, and scientists theorize that it's because the sounds suggested that they would find a living plant there. This preference vanished when the scientists deafened the moths, leading to the conclusion that moths were listening to the plants before they made their choices, the study authors wrote. In another experiment, the researchers again offered the female moths a selection of two tomato plants. This time, both plants were hydrated, but one was near a speaker playing ultrasonic stress sounds. The result: More of the moths picked the quieter plant. A third experiment tested whether the egg-laying females were influenced by other acoustic cues, such as those of male moths, who produce ultrasonic courtship clicks. It found that when male moths' calls were broadcast from one side of the arena, females 'showed no significant preference' as to where they lay their eggs, according to the study. Together, these experiments told the researchers that the moths were listening to and recognizing sounds made by plants — and that they were using that acoustic information to make decisions about those plants for their reproduction, Seltzer said. Insects have been capable of detecting ultrasonic sounds since at least the Eocene epoch (55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago). However, the researchers were surprised to see that the moths recognized the plants' ultrasonic signs of distress, Seltzer said. Even though female moths in the experiments had never laid eggs before — and therefore had no prior experience deciphering acoustic cues from plants — they not only recognized plant sounds, but preferred quieter plants for their first time egg-laying. 'It's a really cool and surprising discovery!' Zhang said. 'We've known for a long time that plants give off smells when they're in trouble, like when they're being eaten by bugs or are thirsty. These smells help attract helpful insects or scare away pests,' he said. 'What's new here is that sound may give extra information — like a warning signal — especially when there's no smell or the smell is hard to detect. ' Plant acoustics is an area of growing interest for scientists, and preliminary work suggests that sound-making is widespread, Seltzer said. Future research could investigate the use of acoustic monitoring to understand how stress affects plant health and could identify potential applications for agricultural pest control. 'I believe this is just the beginning of discoveries in this field,' Seltzer said. 'There are countless organisms that can hear in these frequencies, and potentially many more plant sounds we haven't discovered yet,' she added. 'This is definitely just the tip of the iceberg.' Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine. She is the author of 'Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind Control' (Hopkins Press). Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
A 100,000-year-old burial site in Israel is changing what we know about early humans
Israel Ancient Burial Site SHOHAM, Israel (AP) — Archaeologists believe they have found one of the oldest burial sites in the world at a cave in Israel, where the well-preserved remains of early humans dating back some 100,000 years were carefully arranged in pits. The findings at Tinshemet Cave in central Israel, published in an academic journal earlier this year, build on previous discoveries in northern Israel and add to a growing understanding of the origins of human burial. Of particular interest to archaeologists are objects found beside the remains that may have been used during ceremonies to honor the dead and could shed light on how our ancient ancestors thought about spirituality and the afterlife. 'This is an amazing revolutionary innovation for our species," said Yossi Zaidner, one of the directors of the Tinshemet excavation and a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "It's actually the first time we are starting to use this behavior.' Archaeologists working at Tinshemet since 2016 have discovered the remains of five early humans that date back to around 110,000 to 100,000 years ago, according to various technologies. The skeletons were discovered in pits and carefully arranged in a fetal position, which is known as a burial position, said Zaidner. Many were found with objects, such as basalt pebbles, animal remains or fragments of ochre, a reddish pigment made from iron-rich rocks. These objects, some sourced from hundreds of kilometers (miles) away, had no known practical use for daily life, so experts believe they were part of rituals meant to honor the dead. A window into early human burials Tinshemet Cave is a dark slash in central Israel's rolling hills filled with squeaking fruit bats. Inside and around the cave is an unassuming stone mound which Zaidner calls 'one of the three or four most important sites for study of human evolution and behavior during the Paleolithic time.' The Paleolithic era, also known as the Stone Age because of the onset of stone tools, lasted from as early as 3.3 million years ago until around 10,000 years ago. Tinshemet Cave is from the Middle Paleolithic era, roughly between 250,000 to 30,000 years ago. Some of the Tinshemet researchers' core findings were published in March in Nature Human Behavior. A key discovery were the remains of five early humans, including two full skeletons and three isolated skulls with other bones and teeth. Also of note were more than 500 differently sized fragments of red and orange ochre, a pigment created by heating iron-rich stones to a certain temperature — evidence that early humans had the means to create decorative objects. 'Here we see a really complex set of behaviors, not related to just food and surviving,' Zaidner said. Using hand chisels and delicate, pen-sized pneumatic drills that resemble dental tools, archaeologists will need many more years to excavate the site. The field work, which started in 2016, is usually done over the summer months. This year, a dozen archaeology undergraduate and graduate students fanned out across the site, painstakingly documenting and removing each fragment of tool, object or bone. At the entrance to the cave, the skull of one of the early humans is slowly emerging from the rock sediment; it will be years before it is fully excavated. Tinshemet is exceptionally important to archaeologists because the local climate preserved the bones, tools, and ornaments in good condition, unlike many other parts of the world where these items were lost to time, said Christian Tryon, a professor at the University of Connecticut and a research associate at the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institution, who was not involved in the study. The skeletons and objects were so well preserved because of ash from frequent fires, likely for rituals. This large amount of ash mixed with rainfall and Israel's acidic limestone, creating optimal conditions for perseveration. One skeleton was in such good condition archaeologists could see how the fingers were interwoven, hands clasped beneath the head. A window into a little-known period Tryon said the Tinshemet findings are bolstering earlier discoveries from two similar burial sites dating back to the same period in northern Israel — Skhul Cave and Qafzeh Cave. Skhul Cave was excavated almost 100 years ago, and Qafzeh Cave mostly around 50 years ago, when archaeological practices were more haphazard. 'There were so many uncertainties with those sites, but this is confirming it's a pattern we know, and they're really nailing down the dates,' Tryon said. Tinshemet has helped archaeologists conclude that burial practices started to become more widespread during this time, representing a shift in how early humans treated their dead. Some archaeologists believe intentional burials started earlier. In South Africa, the Homo naledi species – an ancient cousin of Homo sapiens – may have been intentionally placing their dead in caves as early as 200,000 years ago. But many archaeologists said the findings are controversial and there is not enough evidence to support the claim of intentional burials. A bridge between peoples In ancient times, Israel was a bridge between Neanderthals from Europe and Homo sapiens from Africa. Archaeologists have identified other subgroups of early humans in the area, and believe the groups interacted and may have interbred. Experts have been studying the two full skeletons brought from Tinshemet for years, but it's still unclear if they were Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, a hybrid population or another group altogether. The mix of subgroups created opportunities for different groups of early humans to exchange knowledge or express identity, said Zaidner. It's around this time that archaeologists first see examples of early jewelry or body painting, which could be ways early humans started outwardly belonging to a certain group, drawing boundaries between 'us' and 'them,' he said. Israel Hershkovitz, a physical anthropologist at Tel Aviv University and the co-director of the Tinshemet site, said the concept of cemeteries in prehistoric life is important because it symbolizes 'a kind of a territory.' He said that same kind of claim over land where ancestors are buried still echoes in the region. 'It's a kind of claim you make to the neighbors, saying 'this is my territory, this part of the land belongs to my father and my forefather' and so on and so on.'
Medscape
a day ago
- Medscape
A Puzzling Pneumothorax in a 36-Year-Old Woman
A 36-year-old woman with no significant medical history presented with recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax accompanied by acute chest pain and shortness of breath, an unusual occurrence, particularly in non-smokers without underlying lung disease. The case was reported by Farman H. Fatah, MD, and colleagues from the University of Sulaymaniyah, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. The Patient and Her History The patient presented to the emergency department with acute left-sided chest pain and shortness of breath. She had a history of asthma and right-sided spontaneous pneumothorax 7 years earlier, which was treated with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and pleurodesis. Her family history was notable for asthma on her mother's side and colonic cancer on her father's side. She denied any history of smoking or environmental exposures. On physical examination, breath sounds were markedly decreased over the left hemithorax. A chest x-ray was performed, revealing a left-sided apical pneumothorax characterised by a region of radiolucency with absent lung markings, indicating air accumulation in the pleural space. A pigtail catheter was inserted to relieve the pneumothorax. Despite appropriate pigtail placement and conservative management, the pneumothorax persisted. The patient was referred for surgical evaluation and underwent VATS with pleurodesis and wedge resection. Intraoperatively, a ruptured subpleural bleb in the left upper lobe was identified and excised. Histopathology of the resected tissue was non-specific and showed no malignancy. A chest CT was performed to investigate the underlying cause. Imaging revealed the site of the bleb rupture and multiple thin-walled cysts scattered throughout the lung parenchyma. Given the history of recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax, presence of bilateral pulmonary cysts, and family history of cancer, Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome (BHDS) was suspected. Findings and Diagnosis Genetic testing for mutations in the FLCN gene confirmed the diagnosis. The test included sequencing and deletion/duplication analyses of FLCN . A pathogenic mutation in FLCN , confirmed by molecular testing, established a diagnosis of BHDS. BDHS is a rare autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in the FLCN gene and is characterised by a clinical triad of pulmonary cysts with spontaneous pneumothorax, cutaneous fibrofolliculomas, and renal tumours. Although the estimated prevalence of BHDS is approximately two cases per million, its actual incidence is believed to be higher due to frequent underdiagnosis and highly variable clinical presentations, even among members of the same family. BHDS is often suspected in patients presenting with cystic lung lesions, a family history of related manifestations, recurrent pneumothorax, and characteristic dermatologic findings. A definitive diagnosis is established through genetic testing to confirm pathogenic variants in the FLCN gene. The patient had no known renal or dermatologic manifestations at the time of diagnosis of the disease. She continued to experience mild postoperative dyspnoea and chest discomfort but resumed her daily activities and returned to work. She was scheduled for routine follow-up, including pulmonary function testing and renal surveillance imaging, according to the BHDS management guidelines. Discussion Pulmonary manifestations are often the earliest and most prominent clinical features of BHDS, frequently preceding skin and renal findings. The syndrome is characterised by multiple bilateral pulmonary cysts that tend to be irregular, thin-walled, and predominantly located in the basal and subpleural regions of the lungs. These cysts predispose affected individuals to spontaneous pneumothorax, which can be the first and sometimes the only presenting symptom. One of the key challenges in diagnosing BHDS is its variable presentations. While the classical triad includes skin fibrofolliculomas, renal tumours, and pulmonary cysts, some individuals, like our patient, may present solely with pulmonary involvement. This phenotypic variability can lead to delayed or missed diagnoses, particularly when cutaneous or renal signs are absent or subtle. Approximately 41% of pulmonary cysts present with spontaneous pneumothorax, with a recurrence rate of 41%. The majority of patients (> 90%) develop multiple fibrofolliculomas, especially on the face and upper trunk, in the second or third decade of life, with dermatologic findings serving as the first clinical clue in 25%-50% of cases. Renal tumours are observed in nearly 30% of patients, at a mean age of 50 years. Although the estimated prevalence of BHDS is approximately two cases per million, its actual incidence is believed to be higher due to frequent underdiagnosis and highly variable clinical presentations, even among members of the same family. This highlights the importance of considering BHDS in the differential diagnosis of spontaneous pneumothorax, particularly when it is recurrent or associated with atypical cystic lung disease. Genetic confirmation through FLCN mutation testing is crucial not only to establish a definitive diagnosis but also to initiate appropriate long-term surveillance for potentially life-threatening renal malignancies. Surgical intervention, such as VATS pleurodesis, may be necessary when conservative approaches fail. This case underscores the importance of considering BHDS in patients presenting with recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax, particularly when bilateral pulmonary cysts are evident and no other clear aetiology is identified.
