SUMERIAN-BABYLONIAN ASTROLABE TABLET ancient replica

Reproduction of a British Museum Sumerian star map or planisphere recovered from the 650 BC underground library of King Assurbanipal in Nineveh, Iraq in the late 19th century. Although Assyrian-Babylonian in origin, computer analysis has matched it with the Mesopotamian sky of 3300 BC suggesting it could be an Assyrian copy of a more ancient Sumerian tablet.

The tablet is an "Astrolabe," the earliest known astronomical instrument. It consists of a segmented, disk-shaped star chart with marked units of angle measure inscribed upon the rim. Unfortunately considerable parts of the planisphere on this tablet are missing (approximately 40%), damage which dates to the sacking of Nineveh. The reverse of the tablet is not inscribed. Still under study by modern scholars, the planisphere provides extraordinary proof for the existence of Sumerian astronomy ... and a very sophisticated astronomy at that.

The eight sectors include constellations depicted in addition to being written, along with star names and their attendant symbols. The intact sections display cuneiform text naming particular stars and constellations, as well as points and diagrams, including arrows, triangles, intersecting lines and an ellipse, which comprise schematic drawings of six stars and constellations.

The constellations depicted in each sector are drawn as dots representing stars, connected by lines. Constellation figures are identifiable in the six undamaged sectors. The stars and constellations shown are identified as:

 (Thanks to Australian cosmology scholar Gary Thompson for technical details. Gary believes the tablet to be Babylonian rather than Sumerian in origin.)

ASTEROID IMPACT THEORY 

SHADES OF SODOM & GOMORRAH

In 2008 two authors, Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell published a book about the tablet called "A Sumerian Observation of the Kofels' Impact Event." Raising a storm in archaeological circles, they re-translated the cuneiform text and assert the tablet is far more than a standard Astrolabe and records an ancient asteroid strike, the Kofels' Impact, which traveled across the Middle East and struck Austria sometime around 3100 BC. The researchers believe it to be the same event which rained molten rock, fire and ash upon the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
  

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