PAUL SIEVEKING catalogues the latest finds, including a stone phallus and a silver phalera
RECORDING AN ASTEROID IMPACT
An ancient clay tablet recovered by Sir Henry Layard in 1851 from the underground library of King Ashurbanipal in Kuyunjik (ancient Nineveh), Iraq, is known as “the Planisphere” and designated No K8538 in the British Museum collection. An ancient Sumerian astronomer etched on the surface details of a massive object, visible in space, as it smashed through Earth’s atmosphere.
The tablet features intricate drawings of constellations and their names. Experts had been unable to understand exactly what the tablet conveyed; but that changed with the appearance of computer programs that could help simulate trajectories and reconstruct the night sky thousands of years ago. The Sumerian astronomer recorded the events he observed on 29 June 3123 BC. While 50 per cent of the clay tablet refers to the position of the planets and weather conditions, like cloud cover,
