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A major discovery in Iraq’s historic Babylon Governorate is a significant breakthrough in better understanding the evolution of the ancient city.
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There are parts of the excavation site that date back to the Sasanian Empire of the 3rd through 7th centuries, but a majority of the best-preserved parts of the site are remnants of the Old Babylonian era of over 3,000 years ago.
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In addition to physical structures remaining from the ancient civilization, there were plenty of individual artifacts discovered, including ancient seals and cuneiform tablets.
For most archaeologists, discovering a single ancient artifact is probably a thrilling experience. Finding three? A monumental moment. 10? A dream come true.
What about nearly 500?
Is there a feeling that can even capture the magnitude? To find out, you’d have to ask Quhtan Abbas Hassan Aboud, the lead on an archaeological excavation in Iraq’s Babylon Governorate. In mid-October, the team—working on a dig in the Al-Fayadiya district—discovered a major section of ancient Babylon that spans two periods of the city’s development. The find contained 478 artifacts from both periods, including ancient seals, cuneiform tablets, and more, according to Archaeology Magazine.
The team separated the discovery into two sections (A and B), according to a statement from the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. Section A covered about 6,000 square meters of the excavation site, and within it, archaeologists found remains that represented two distinct time periods. The top layer dates back to the Sasanian period, which stretched from 224 to 651 A.D. during the reign of the Sasanian Empire—one of the last pre-Islamic empires of Iran.
Unfortunately, because they’ve spent a millennium and a half much closer to the surface of the soil, the ruins of the empire suffered plenty of erosion and deterioration. So, while the discovery is key in tracing the history of ancient Babylon, it pales in comparison to what the archaeologists found underneath it.
The second layer of Section A was much more well-preserved and much, much older—experts traced it back to the Old Babylonian era, which stretched from 1894 to 1595 B.C.
However, the excitement around Section B far outshone that for either layer of the first section. Section B was notably larger than Section A, at about 9,000 square meters, and contained a massive bounty of Babylonian antiquities. The whole section dates back to the same era as the lower layer of Section A, and—in addition to the individual artifacts like pottery and cylindrical seals—Aboud’s crew was able to map out what they believed to be residential homes.
Two housing units that the archaeologists uncovered contained multiple, various-sized rooms that could have served as living spaces, work areas, or storage, providing significant insight into the living habits and conditions of Old Babylon’s common residents.
The smaller, individual pieces of history—the pottery, writing tablets, seals, and more—that were part of the discovery are just as important as the structures unearthed in the area. The cylindrical seals, for instance, were in pristine condition despite being over 3,000 years old. Once used to sign documents and denote ownership, seals were an important person item and were often ornately decorated. While they served a functional purpose, they also now serve as crucial pieces of the history of aesthetics and symbolism—not just in Babylon, but across ancient Mesopotamia and the rest of the world.
Just as important a find are the various cuneiform tablets. The logo-syllabic writing style is one of the earliest in civilized history, and translations of the ancient Babylonian tablets are essentially windows into the civilization’s commerce, government, and other facets of life. They provide a direct path to better understanding the ancient city.
But then again, so does the entire discovery. How lucky.
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