Kahn mentions that the hole in the middle of the Babylonian map of the world was probably left by the scribes’ compass. However, the hole looks too deep and deliberate for that. The compass could have made a mark but such a deep mark would require a great deal of force and friction. The scribe only drew two circles using that centre point. Artistic geometers today speak of the symbolism of the compass’s central point (the pin)- the centre around which creation happens (like the arche in Greek philosophy). Perhaps it was no different for this scribe. Rather than being a mistake it may have been a deliberate act.
Kahn (1960 p 84f) writes that there is no good explanation for this hole except that it was left by a compass and D. J. Wiseman of the British Museum verified ‘the possibility that it represents the point where the compass pin was fixed.’