The cuneiform tablet from the 6th century BC shows an aerial view map of Mesopotamia — roughly modern-day Iraq — and what the Babylonians believed lay beyond the known world at the time.

The map depicts Mesopotamia at the center, surrounded by two rings symbolizing water. In this "world," the people inhabiting Mesopotamia—what is now Iraq and part of Syria—believed.

Researchers have uncovered a vast and well-preserved network of ancient irrigation canals in the Eridu region of southern ...