#487 – Irving Finkel: Deciphering Secrets of Ancient Civilizations & Flood Myths
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Irving Finkel, a cuneiform scholar and longtime curator at the British Museum, takes listeners on a fascinating journey through ancient Mesopotamian civilization and the development of writing. (09:53) The conversation explores how cuneiform script emerged around 3500 BC as the world's first writing system, evolving from pictographic symbols to a sophisticated method of encoding sound that lasted for nearly three millennia.
• Main themes include the revolutionary invention of written language, ancient flood narratives predating Noah's Ark, the decipherment of cuneiform tablets, and insights into daily life in ancient Mesopotamia
Speakers
Irving Finkel
Irving Finkel is a scholar of ancient languages and a longtime curator at the British Museum for over forty-five years. He specializes in reading and interpreting cuneiform inscriptions, including tablets from Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian contexts. He became widely known for studying a tablet with a Mesopotamian flood story that predates the biblical Noah narrative, which he presented in his book "The Ark Before Noah" and in a documentary that involved building a circular ark based on the tablet's technical instructions.
Lex Fridman
Lex Fridman is the host of the Lex Fridman Podcast, known for conducting in-depth conversations with experts across various fields including science, technology, and history.
Key Takeaways
The Revolutionary Nature of Encoding Sound in Writing
The genius breakthrough in human civilization wasn't simply drawing pictures to represent objects, but the realization that symbols could represent sounds. (20:23) Finkel argues this phonetic leap was so profound that it seems unlikely ancient peoples would have started with the more limited pictographic approach first. This innovation allowed scribes to record any language they heard, even if they couldn't understand it, making cuneiform incredibly flexible for its time. The system's sophistication enabled complex literary works, legal documents, and scientific treatises that have survived millennia.
Ancient Peoples Were Intellectually Equivalent to Modern Humans
Finkel emphasizes that ancient Mesopotamians weren't "less advanced" mentally than contemporary humans - they were "probably indistinguishable from what we are." (25:59) He points to the extraordinary architectural achievements at sites like Göbekli Tepe (9,000 BC) as evidence that complex organization, planning, and likely writing systems existed much earlier than conventionally believed. The quality of cave paintings and sophisticated urban planning demonstrate that intellectual capability hasn't fundamentally changed over millennia.
The Mesopotamian Flood Narrative Preceded Biblical Accounts by Over 1,000 Years
Finkel's decoding of the "Ark Tablet" from 1700 BC revealed detailed instructions for building a circular ark to survive a great flood, predating the biblical Noah story significantly. (80:29) The tablet contained precise technical specifications, including materials and construction methods. This discovery established the literary dependence of later flood narratives on earlier Mesopotamian sources, suggesting these stories evolved from actual catastrophic events that became embedded in collective memory across cultures.
Cuneiform's Longevity Stemmed from Systematic Control and Elite Preservation
The writing system lasted nearly three millennia because early scholars created rigorous lexicographic standards and jealously guarded literacy among a small scribal class. (14:32) This exclusive system meant that those who could read and write commanded significant power, creating strong incentives to maintain the status quo. The systematic organization of signs and meanings, preserved in what became comprehensive dictionaries, allowed the script to remain remarkably stable across vast spans of time and geography.
Translation Requires Understanding Cultural Context Beyond Literal Meaning
Finkel reveals that ancient Mesopotamian texts about omens and medicine couldn't literally mean "if X, then Y will happen" because no diviner would risk their life making absolute predictions. (59:32) Instead, these texts must have implied modal possibilities - "could happen," "might happen," "should happen." This insight transforms our understanding of thousands of ancient texts and demonstrates how translation requires deep cultural and practical understanding, not just linguistic knowledge.
Statistics & Facts
- Cuneiform writing lasted for well over three millennia, probably closer to four millennia, making it one of the most successful writing systems in human history. (13:59) Finkel emphasizes this extraordinary longevity demonstrates the system's effectiveness and the rigorous preservation efforts of ancient scholars.
- The British Museum houses approximately 130,000 cuneiform tablets in its collection, representing just a fraction of the millions that likely remain buried and undiscovered. (127:11) This vast collection provides unprecedented insight into ancient Mesopotamian civilization across multiple millennia.
- The earliest evidence of cuneiform writing dates to around 3500 BC in Mesopotamia, though Finkel argues the actual origins of writing likely predate this by an unknown but potentially significant period. (09:57) He suggests archaeological evidence only captures a snapshot rather than the true beginning of written communication.
