'A king will die': 4,000-year-old lunar eclipse omen tablets finally deciphered

Scholars have finally deciphered 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets found more than 100 years ago in what is now Iraq. The tablets describe how some lunar eclipses are omens of death, destruction and pestilence.

The four clay tablets "represent the oldest examples of compendia of lunar-eclipse omens yet discovered" Andrew George, an emeritus professor of Babylonian at the University of London, and Junko Taniguchi, an independent researcher, wrote in a paper published recently in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies. (Lunar eclipses occur when the moon falls into Earth's shadow.)

The authors of the tablets used the time of night, movement of shadows and the date and duration of eclipses to predict omens.

For example, one omen says that if "an eclipse becomes obscured from its center all at once [and] clear all at once: a king will die, destruction of Elam." Elam was an area in Mesopotamia centered in what is now Iran. Another omen says that if "an eclipse begins in the south and then clears: downfall of Subartu and Akkad,"which were both regions of Mesopotamia at the time. Yet another omen reads: "An eclipse in the evening watch: it signifies pestilence."

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It's possible that ancient astrologers used past experiences to help determine what omens the eclipses portended.

"The origins of some of the omens may have lain in actual experience — observation of portent followed by catastrophe," George told Live Science in an email. However most omens were likely determined through a theoretical system that linked eclipse characteristics to various omens, he noted.