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.)
