A newly spotlighted artifact from ancient Mesopotamia is offering a rare window into how one of the world’s earliest civilizations imagined the Earth. Known as the Imago Mundi, this Babylonian ...

The map shows Mesopotamia surrounded by a double ring — which the ancient scribe labeled the “bitter river,” a river that created the borders around the Babylonians’ known world.

Researchers are shedding light on an ancient Babylonian tablet known as the oldest map of the world. The map was likely created around 2,600 years ago and offers a glimpse into the past.