Deciphering Secrets of Ancient Civilizations, Noah's Ark, and Flood Myths | Lex Fridman Podcast #487
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Irving Finkel is a scholar of ancient languages, curator at the British Museum for over 45 years, world expert on cuneiform script and ancient languages like Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian. Expert on ancient board games, Mesopotamia magic, medicine, literature, and culture.
First attempts at writing around middle of fourth millennium, ~3500 BC, in Middle East between Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Mesopotamians used clay as writing support. Basis of writing: agreed system of symbols where one person makes a sign on a surface, another sees it and knows the sound it represents, like a gramophone record.
Oldest evidence ~3500 BC, but unlikely the actual start. Began with simple pictographic messages: foot is foot, leg is leg, barley is barley. Gradually added numerals, then realized pictures could represent sounds (e.g., picture of foot means sound of word for foot). This liberated from pictographs to recording language, grammar, proverbs, literature.
Fluent scribes could write Sumerian or Babylonian, or any other language by sound, including funny Bronze Age languages written by ear. Examples of scribes recording dictation they couldn't understand, but others could read.
Cuneiform system: complex, bewildering-looking, beautiful, flexible, lasted over 3-4 millennia. Alphabet more useful but took long to displace it.
Signs proliferated; one person realized uncontrolled growth would lead to nonsense. Invented lexicography early third millennium BC: systematic lists of things made of wood, reeds, colors, countries, gods, etc., to standardize and retrieve signs, and teach them. This rigor streamlined the system, lasting ~3 millennia. Scholars in Babylon (3rd-2nd century BC, time of Alexander) could read early tablets.
Cuneiform means wedge-shaped (cuneus in Latin). Discovered ~1840-1850 in excavations in Iraq (Assyrian and Babylonian cities). Clay tablets endure in ground. Used for letters, business, contracts, kings' campaign accounts, literature, history, magic, medicine.
Hundreds of thousands in museums, millions awaiting excavation.
Cuneiform one of greatest inventions in human history; genius in encoding sound (pictographs intuitive, sound revolutionary).
First tablets pictographic, limited, no grammar. Then signs meant both image and sound. Assyriology view: pictures first, then sound. Finkel finds this hard to believe—why start with least flexible system? Hunch: misleading archaeology; long prior pictographic communication for trade/wars among non-shared languages (e.g., merchants draw 3 sheep).
Sumerian pictographs end of long pictographic period; then adapted to write language. Highly controversial.
Sumerian agglutinative: root like du (to go) + prefixes (E, Mu, Ba) + suffixes for grammar (e.g., passive/active). Frequent sounds like Mu, Ba, E suggest phonetic start possible.
Possible older tablets. Gobekli Tepe (Turkey, ~9000 BC): round green stone like Egyptian scarab (arched back, flat bottom) with hieroglyphic signs—a stamp seal for impressions on clay/sealing. Ratifies contracts/building. Implies organized society needing writing (complex architecture like ziggurats requires planning).
Old theory: writing from complex Sumer cities ~3000 BC. But Gobekli Tepe (7000 years earlier) has vast sites, impossible without organization/writing. Pictographic writing for trade (universal like no-smoking sign). People not stupid; merchants traded metals/precious stones from Anatolia.
Really controversial: writing system at Gobekli Tepe. Seal infers writing (Sherlock Holmes: infer Niagara Falls from raindrop). Possible perishable materials (flat leaves); Indus Valley seals imply writing on palm leaf (inertia resists change).
Cuneiform tablets a raindrop vs. waterfall of history. Can read Akkadian, Babylonian, Sumerian fluently, but skewed view.
Ur III Period (~2100-2000 BC): thousands of small account tablets from 2-3 cities (tithes, like Inland Revenue bureaucracy). From ~2 storage rooms, not whole culture/history/beliefs.
Libraries rare; Nineveh (Ashurbanipal's library, 1850s discovery): scholar-king collected all knowledge. Found scattered, broken, burnt tablets. Not whole library—Babylonians/Elamites conquered, took valuable tablets home (same language/system); remnants are duplicates/dropped items. Common sense, though controversial.
Cuneiform writes in syllables (no isolated consonants). With 4 vowels, signs like Ab, Ba, Ib, Bi, Ub, Bu, Eb, Be cluster around consonants.
Cuneiform is basically syllabic writing. To write 'museum' in Babylonian, write syllable 'mu', sign 'Z', sign 'um', then squash together mentally. Signs give clues to meaning. At university studying cuneiform, learn all signs and values; multiple signs per syllable from Sumerian words differentiated by tone (e.g., 'Ba' with rising or lowering tone), so sign lists have 'Ba' number one (common), 'Ba' two, 'Ba' three.
Assyriology requires two languages: Sumerian (prefixes/suffixes added, isolate, unrelated to any known language) and Babylonian (Semitic, related to Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Ethiopic, Syriac). Decipherment used Semitic dictionaries for Babylonian words, nouns, roots. Sumerian is a 'bewitching thing'—no language family; languages don't exist in vacuum but in families (e.g., Indo-European: Spanish, Italian, Latin, Hittite, French, Germanic, Slavonic). Sumerian recorded ~3000 BC just in time; related languages (e.g., in China, Russia, Asia) gone forever.
Stimulating to imagine Neanderthals/early Homo sapiens had language; 800,000 years Neanderthal rural life in Europe (Ice Age, communal child-rearing) required speech with same apparatus as humans. Brain responds to communication stimulus. Hunting example: calling 'Legs' to name hunter distinguishes ego/self. Cutting hand proves consciousness of self/entity/life threat; they expressed with sounds, names, labels (rhino, skin, babies). Ideas drive brain like fertility.
Written language emerges in urban environments with many people, rival institutions, king/government. Gobekli Tepe not nomads visiting 3 months/year; required planning (stone sourcing, ground plans, thickness/height calculations)—not like gorillas.
When first tablets/bricks/inscriptions appeared, no one could read despite knowing it was writing. Comparable to Rosetta Stone: Bisutun inscription by King Darius (Elamite, Babylonian, Old Persian trilingual). Old Persian (archaic, still alive 19th century) in simple cuneiform deciphered first (names like Darayawush). Columns same length; repeated passages ('I am Darius the great king, king of the world... son of... grandson of...'). Key to cuneiform. Babylonian recognized as Semitic; first word 'river' (Naharu Akkadian, نهر Arabic/Aramaic). Used Arabic/Hebrew dictionaries for context fits. Elamite harder but largely done. Romantic: Henry Rawlinson (British officer) climbed mountain with kid, made squeezes thousands of feet up.
Rawlinson ('Father of Assyriology') doesn't deserve full credit—'Stepfather'; his first book almost entirely wrong. Edward Hincks (clergyman, Northern Ireland, Killyleagh, 5 daughters) genius; tried beating Champollion on hieroglyphs, hit dead end, switched to cuneiform, cracked it. Realized signs multivalent (multiple sounds/meanings by context). Not a walk in park; takes ~5 years (Lex: 4 years compliment).
Example: sign for 'hot' (brazier inside enclosure); also other meanings—context decides. No gaps between words; read by mentally trying values (e.g., 'ba-ab' forms syllable structure). Variables restricted; learn corpus, compositions, values to master. Beautiful.
Abnormal upbringing: wanted Egyptology 3 years pre-university, read Gardiner grammar. At University of Birmingham, Rundle Clark (Egyptologist) died after one lesson. Professor suggested cuneiform with Professor Lambert (Sherlock Holmes-like: aesthetic, bony, sarcastic, cruel) temporarily. Lambert resented teaching (cut research time). After 1-2 lessons, knew it was life's work. Learned basic signs list, then started reading.
Inertia. Scribes (temple clerks, king's writers) held power over illiterate public; reserved knowledge, philosophy. Scribal schools cliquey (like Oxford/Cambridge rivals); no interest in universal literacy—anathema.
Tablets reflect intellectual class output (Oxford/Cambridge equivalent). Scribal school: learn Sumerian/Akkadian fully. Struggling boys did low-level work (contracts, letters, marriage docs, witnesses). Medium-level: everyday. Talented: literary professions (medicine, law, king/priesthood, architecture—load bearing/brick measurements, army logistics/stores/animals). Top: astronomy (not just astrology), theoretical grammar (Sumerian-Akkadian relations, parts of speech), learned commentaries on word meanings.
'The limits of our language is the limits of our world.' Babylonian rivals Arabic/English in vocabulary richness/subtlety; fully-fledged literary language.
Huge scholarly literature as omens (events imply futures; sky/street/lizard on breakfast: 'queen will die'—thousands of lines 'If this, then that'). Wrong: diviners say 'could/might die' to avoid blame/responsibility, trigger rituals/magic to defer. Never A=B, but could/might/ought/should. Diviner philosopher: tells king what he wants/needs to hear subtly (violin concerto). Medical texts same: doctors say 'should get better' not 'will'.
Akkadian lacks grammatical modal verbs (could, might, should, ought); impossible for sophisticated language—perhaps vowel drawing. Translating 'will' as 'might' changes texts entirely; colleagues don't self-appraise folly.
Translation: no precise word equates; best approximation (sometimes misleading). Learn Akkadian word + English gloss (e.g., 'divide' has 10 English nuances).
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (started 1920s, A-Z Babylonian; table-length, massive; National Endowment for Humanities, decades work; world's best Assyriologists). Rivals electric guitar as America's greatest achievements. Contextual nuances (proverbs vs. letters). Modal conundrum unresolved.
Modern work: reading (not decipherment). Exciting on digs (new tablets); sight-read letters, interpret damage, technical vocabulary. Calculate missing via context; dictionary invaluable.
Most of the world's best Assyriologists collaborated on the State Archives of Assyria project, ensuring extraordinary quality of translation and understanding. Examples include love letters, such as one from a man to a woman describing her as "very beautiful and your lips are like radishes and your ears like walruses." There's also a 4th century BC street drama in Babylon featuring actors portraying Marduk having an affair with another goddess, making his wife Sarpanitum jealous. They fight in the street, hurling insults like "slop bucket." It starts with Sarpanitum in the room hearing Marduk in bed with the other goddess on the roof. This captures eternal human issues like love, heartbreak, and jealousy, even among deities modeled on human beings. Deities express human behaviors on a grandiose scale.
Mesopotamians had a large pantheon with top gods Anu, Enlil, and Ea, plus hundreds of others. Small villages had ancient local gods integrated into a theological system like a phone book, with lesser gods assigned jobs in the households of major gods. Major gods concerned themselves with the ruler and country's fate; others handled illness, the dead, and specialties, each with temples. Newborn babies were placed under the tutelage of a god, often familial or royal. People grew up believing special gods looked after them but viewed gods as human-like—forgetful, uninterested, or on holiday—requiring sacrifices and bribes to prompt action. Gods were practical, unpredictable, great when present but not always. This mirrors modern people turning to gods during illness or disaster, not constant religious awe. Individual religious response fluctuates with need, not spontaneous. Christianity in the US is declining, with few truly devout; consequences for humanity unknown.
Religion is an ancient technology providing tools to contend with suffering, pain, loss, heartbreak—looking to the sky in conversation with the divine. In Mesopotamia, it was potent due to no skyscrapers in Iraq; sleeping on roofs under star-filled skies without lights or smog made gods feel immediate and real, not artificial. People took gods and ghosts for granted, nudging them with offerings as part of the system, without doubting existence.
Ghosts were spirits of those dying peacefully, descending to the netherworld. Bodies were buried quickly, as in Islam and Judaism today, with courtyard burials and holes for pouring fluids and food as symbolic offerings. This lessens mortality's impact, though everyone knows death comes; relationships have a finite clause. Grief is infantile since death is expected; the pain is knowing it ends, making moments precious. Religion helps contend with this.
Monotheistic religions brought evil by fostering dogmatism: "I'm right, you're wrong," leading to inquisitions and stamping out others. Polytheism with specialized gods allowed individuality without prejudice—racial or religious—unlike modern issues. Temples in Kolkata resemble Mesopotamian ones.
Written in cuneiform, one of the earliest works of literature, best known from 12 tablets in the Assyrian library at Nineveh. Gilgamesh was a real king of Uruk, living on in stories like Alexander. Oral tales from his time were written in Sumerian or Babylonian around 1800 BC, woven into a 12-tablet Homeric epic on humanity, immortality, man versus gods, with exciting adventures. Even the sophisticated Nineveh version shows oral roots: phrases like "Gilgamesh opened his mouth to speak and addressed his friend Enkidu" echo live narration frozen in text.
Stories stretch back to fireside narratives around fires after dark, fostering tales of humans like Gilgamesh, gods, or natural phenomena like the Milky Way as a god's chariot. Strong creative principle in early Homo sapiens evident in unsurpassable cave paintings of running antelopes, suggesting artistic geniuses traveling between sites. Stories taught youth about floods, fire-making, wheel invention, famous battles, heroic hunters wrestling bears—grist for narrators. As sophistication grew, morals emerged naturally.
Ark Tablet: 1700 BC Babylonian clay tablet (8x3 inches), part of early flood story predating Biblical Noah by 1000+ years. Identified in British Museum from visitor's objects. Gods decide to wipe out noisy Mesopotamian population for disturbing sleep, opting for flood after other methods. God Ea (number three in triumvirate) warns Atra-Hasis to build a boat: gives blueprint, shape, materials. Boat is round (giant coracle, like river boats that never sink), carrying male/female animals, Atra-Hasis, wife, three sons. Parallels Genesis and Gilgamesh flood.
In 1872, George Smith discovered Nineveh tablet paralleling Gilgamesh/Bible: flood, boat rests on mountain, hero Utnapishtim releases birds three times (third doesn't return, signaling dry land). Establishes literary dependence; Hebrew Bible (7th-6th century BC) draws from Mesopotamian sources ~same era as Nineveh version. No floods in Jerusalem, but Mesopotamia had river floods—plausible basis, likely real tsunami drowning most, survivors in boats, memory persisting.
Mesopotamians feared uncontrollable water; rainbow as promise no repeat flood. Event ~5000-10,000 years before tablet, passed grandfather-to-grandson as bogeyman tale. Judeans exiled to Babylon post-temple destruction (Nebuchadnezzar) lived three generations, intermarrying risk averted by charter-history (Bible) explaining plight. Borrowed Babylonian creation/flood, recast noise as sin for vengeful God. Flood narrative: urgent ticking clock (build ark in days/weeks), one man saves world—irresistible, from Utnapishtim to Noah to Hollywood.
Built 1/3 scale replica coracle; learned it's literary moral narrative from real boat survivors, not literal giant ark built. Flood myths worldwide partly from missionaries teaching innocents.
Stories of floods are told to innocent children sitting on benches, moving into consciousness, getting recycled repeatedly. Spontaneous ideas also arise independently, as great rivers like in China flood. George Smith was shocked reading a tablet from Nineveh, long before the one discovered later, about releasing three birds one after the other, the clincher linking it to Noah's story. This made many clergymen miserable.
Definitive literary proof connects the stories. The ark discovery spans 1,000 years, with the flood story told many times, used as a threat like "Do your homework or the flood is gonna come." In Mesopotamian society, people referred to time before the flood and after, like "before the war." A king list records kings from the beginning, including pre-flood kings with names and regnal years of thousands.
Graham Hancock discusses the Younger Dryas hypothesis around 10,000 BC, an asteroid hitting Earth, melting ice sheets, creating a flood in North America—a cataclysmic global event whose memory civilizations carried. Probability assigned: negligible, as it's a literary matter not predicated on a global flood. Mesopotamian story stems from a disastrous local flood, nothing global touching America, China, or Birmingham. Drilled cores exist, but not of interest; it's a literary device of great potency—irresistible, as everyone identifies with urgency to build a boat or sink.
In the Atrahasis text from 1700 BC, Atrahasis wasn't a king, sailor, or boat builder. God Enki gives him blueprint details: shape, measurements, materials. Wouldn't choose a boat-building company; instead instructs a non-expert, like a taxi driver—classic hero's journey of great myths.
One-third replica built by three specialists in reconstructing medieval Arab boats, using tablet instructions as blueprint. Built in a small lagoon in Kerala, unbelievably wonderful. Wooden ribs, woven stuffing, covered in bitumen for waterproofing. Computer-calculated maximum size for stability. Pushed on rollers into water. Maiden voyage had leaks from subpar Indian bitumen (Iraqi unavailable due to carcinogenic concerns). Water bailing was a feature, not a bug—authentic, as no rowing boat lacks bottom water. Could've gone to ports. Documentary film in various languages included skeptics; annoying as no rebuttal allowed. Iraqi critic claimed lots of little coracles tied together—wrong, as he couldn't read the texts.
Proportions accurate; scaled up coracle materials (for two people, sheep, goats) to fit narrative. Oral storytellers adapted for river people using coracles: "biggest coracle you've ever seen," then detailed materials to satisfy audiences, memorized for performances. On cusp of oral to literary literature, molded in talking environment—had to be authentic to connect.
Flood myth not really about noise. Before flood, gods hadn't created death. Noise euphemism for too many animals and people—needed reduction. Post-flood, create barren women, infertile men, princesses without children, non-reproducing figures. Sophisticated Malthusian philosophical position.
Royal Game of Ur: board of 20 squares in idiosyncratic form. Discovered in 1920s by Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur in royal Sumerian graves (2600 BC), with dice and pieces—popular, taken to afterlife. Boards found across Middle East: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Crete, from 2600 BC to end of first millennium. Lasted nearly 3,000 years, like chess or backgammon—world conquerors.
Bronze/Iron Age: no TV, kids with pull-alongs, adults with board games embedded in culture. Spread across known world without written rules or shared language—merchants in bars played, took it home. Shape: 4x3 block, bridge of two, 3x2 end; post-2000 BC, rearranged to 12 central squares + four each side at one end. Race game: dice move pieces from corner, turn, up middle, off end. Rosettes: safe squares or extra throws; possible blocking, doubling.
Mix of probability (dice, lucky/unlucky squares) and strategy, like grownup backgammon vs. pure chance (Snakes and Ladders) or pure strategy (chess). Widespread idiosyncratic shape shows it was very good, fitting wide appetites.
Many ideas on play; discovered tablet in British Museum from 2nd century BC (2,300 years later) with piece names, throws—derived from early game. Reconstructed rules workable; now played worldwide, including Iraq cafes, internet. Fair, quick (best of three), balanced chance/strategy.
At Getty talk, 20 commercial copies; taught rules in 3 minutes. Provokes passion: "I hate you! I'm never playing again," near-escapes, happy couples calling lawyers. Games part of human nature: rivalry sublimated safely; "time pass" for hot days (India term)—grandmothers with kids under trees. Doesn't matter who wins, endless play, graceful, stimulating without overpowering.
Gambling likely late, post-money. School tablet quotes "Oh my astragal, woe is me" from gambler's lament genre—knucklebone dice bets (sacks, rooms). Men/women played differently; harem games for women on hot afternoons, no stakes. Rules tablet couched in bar setting: wins of food, drink, women.
British Museum magical, unique: celebrates mankind's achievements from beginning, human struggle and triumphs, not just art museum—narrative in objects, including horribles. Serves two horizons: whole world equally (no favoring cultures/religions), human species narrative, overlaps, learning. Collects, preserves scientifically.
Serves unborn generations—sacred task, shouldn't face carping. Lighthouse amid darkness, ignorance, skepticism. Place to discuss truth, beauty, elegance, intelligence without affront. Assesses religions objectively, relationships, impacts—major factor in human history, what without it (not lacking law/morality/sensitivity).
None of compassion, consideration, or love depends on religion; those are the important things. The British Museum is a special place because no other museum has the same task. The Louvre is a museum of art focused on design, color, and shape. The Met is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, prioritizing art. The British Museum is not an art museum, local museum, or specialized like a history of the bicycle museum. It provides a comprehensive picture of the world. If Martians arrived in the Great Court and demanded a fast overview of Earth, touring the museum would give them a sane picture (excluding Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," already sent into space). The British Museum's task covers the entirety of human history as a store of artifacts—raindrops from which to reconstruct the waterfall.
It's not valid to criticize that most items are not on exhibition; the museum stockpiles for future examination. Contemporary objects can be analyzed from current perspectives, but time shifts their significance, revealing precedents and modern parallels. The benefit of distance, storage, and contemplation is inestimable.
What wisdom did ancient peoples have that modern humans have lost? Ancient people are often seen as lesser or primitive, but they were basically the same—if dressed in modern clothes, you wouldn't distinguish them on a bus. Ancients knew a lot about astronomy, measuring stars and making calculations; Greeks visiting Babylon were impressed and recorded it.
Ancients were spared modern clutter like the electronic universe, which reduces human vitality like an addictive drug (e.g., casual use leading to heroin addiction). People rarely traveled unless merchants or soldiers; most lived and died in their village, knowing little of the outside world. They didn't follow typed precepts for better life—they lied, esteemed truth, fell in love, committed adultery and murder. The ancient world allowed more natural human behavior than modern artificial city life, where crammed urbanites prioritize non-essential principles.
Example of modern degradation: short mobile clips from programs that destroy language. Children worldwide can't articulate, spell, or communicate clearly using English, the best literary language ever created. They use slang like "I went" or "I should have gone" to mean "speak," grammatically indefinable. If Sumerian "to go" meant "to speak," understanding would collapse. Even ancients had slang, dialects, and sailor speech not always written down (e.g., Cambridge/Oxford formal vs. pub/bar talk), but it wouldn't include emojis.
English is exquisite: a barrister can make a precise case with no wiggle room. Conversation should be the same. The full Oxford English Dictionary (OED) volumes are thick; scanning columns, you turn pages before finding a familiar word—English is unimaginably rich. Growing up reading literature built vocabulary; conversation like "Do you want more tea?" doesn't teach new words—reading and listening to proper material does. Vocabulary defines thought quality.
It's a pity that wonderful languages' use is inhibited. Think like the British Museum: ephemeral trends fade; in 100-200 years, focus will be on grand ideas like Einstein's curvature of space-time, 20th-century ideologies (Communism, Nazism), rockets, Moon landings, Mars ambitions—not emojis. Cuneiform survives as what stands the test of time. Language, properly used, is a crucial human tool.
British Museum holds about 130,000 cuneiform tablets. Most beautiful or smile-worthy: few jokes, but one Babylonian: a fly or mosquito lands on an elephant's back and asks, "Am I too heavy for you?" Not pub-worthy.
Irving likes Tom Lehrer. On a US lecture tour, visited town of Dr. Wernher von Braun (ran American rocket industry): "Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department, says Wernher von Braun." Irving's dad recorded Lehrer on reel-to-reel; learned by heart. Stayed with Harvard Sumerologist whose wife knew Lehrer from math department parties—he played piano.
Lehrer's wit captures human complexity: biting humor with sadness. Paradox: his songs on bombs and international trouble remain unchanged, like Dr. Strangelove. Invitation: visit museum to see confounded tablets, Chicago Dictionary, and grammar book.
The limits of my language means the limits of my world. — Ludwig Wittgenstein
Irving Finkel is a remarkable human; honor to talk.
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