A Historian Thinks He Finally Solved The Mystery Of The Symbols On This Ancient Temple
A strange set of symbols was found on temples in an ancient city that was built around 2,700 years ago.
Until recently, no one knew what the symbols represented. But now, a historian thinks he has solved the mystery and figured out the meaning of the symbols.
The temples were in Dūr-Šarrukīn, which served as the capital city of an ancient Mesopotamian civilization called Assyria for a short time.
The city was constructed during the rule of King Sargon II. He reigned over the Assyrian empire from 721 B.C. until his death in 704 B.C. After his death, his son took the throne and relocated the capital.
A century later, Dūr-Šarrukīn was abandoned when the empire fell. The ancient city is located in what is now Khorsabad, a village in northern Iraq.
The symbols from the temples at Dūr-Šarrukīn were made of glazed brick and consisted of five images arranged in a specific order—a lion, a bird, a bull, a fig tree, and a plow.
The bird is thought to be a raven, crow, eagle, or hawk. Sometimes, the sequence appeared in a shortened version, such as lion, tree, and plow.
Experts have long suspected that there was some sort of meaning behind the symbols, but they have been unable to interpret the symbols for around a century.
Martin Worthington, a historian from the Trinity College Dublin, believes he has cracked the code. He specializes in the languages and civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia.
kmiragaya – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
According to Worthington’s theory, the images represent constellations associated with certain ancient Mesopotamian gods while also standing for Assyrian words that “spell out” Sargon’s name when read out aloud.
The purpose of the symbols was to keep the memory of the king’s name alive and to link him with the gods Anu and Enlil.
“The effect of the five symbols was to place Sargon’s name in the heavens for all eternity—a clever way to make the king’s name immortal. And, of course, the idea of bombastic individuals writing their name on buildings is not unique to ancient Assyria,” Worthington said.
His hypothesis is just another in a long list of various interpretations of the symbols, but there is strong evidence to support his idea.
For instance, his explanation works for both the long and short versions of the sequence of symbols. To him, it seems too accurate to be merely coincidental.
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