#487 – Irving Finkel: Deciphering Secrets of Ancient Civilizations & Flood Myths

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Irving Finkel argues that cuneiform was humanity’s first great information system: a flexible, syllabic script that enabled law, literature, medicine, religion, and administration for millennia. He challenges standard views on its origins, ties the flood story to Mesopotamian literary tradition, and emphasizes how translation, context, and surviving archives shape our understanding of the ancient world.

Main Topics: Origins and nature of writing (Priority: 5/5): Finkel explains how Mesopotamian writing emerged around 3500 BC from pictographs into a sound-based system, stressing that the key breakthrough was encoding speech rather than just objects. Cuneiform as a durable intellectual technology (Priority: 5/5): He describes cuneiform as a standardized, lexicographic system that lasted over 3,000 years and carried administration, scholarship, literature, and ritual across cultures and languages. Controversial theories about earlier writing (Priority: 4/5): Finkel argues that writing may predate the Mesopotamian tablets we have, citing seals and possible impressions from sites like Göbekli Tepe and suggesting perishable writing materials were likely used earlier. Decipherment and translation as detective work (Priority: 5/5): He walks through the decipherment of cuneiform via the Behistun inscription and explains that translation requires contextual judgment, not one-to-one word equivalence. Flood myths and the Ark tablet (Priority: 5/5): Finkel recounts his identification of an early flood tablet (Atrahasis tradition), its parallels with Gilgamesh and Genesis, and his view that the story reflects Mesopotamian lived experience rather than global catastrophe. Ancient games, especially the Royal Game of Ur (Priority: 4/5): He explains how he reconstructed the rules of the Royal Game of Ur from boards, dice, and a late rules tablet, highlighting the balance of chance and strategy in ancient play. British Museum and the preservation of human history (Priority: 4/5): Finkel frames the British Museum as a storehouse of human achievement for present and future generations, arguing that its purpose is to preserve and interpret artifacts as part of humanity’s long narrative.

Key Arguments: Writing likely began as a practical communicative system among Mesopotamians, but the oldest surviving evidence only dates to around 3500 BC; the true origin may be much earlier. The crucial invention was not drawing pictures, but using signs to represent sounds, which allowed grammar, literature, and abstract thought to be recorded. Cuneiform’s longevity came from deliberate standardization and lexicography; early scholars systematized signs so the script could be taught and preserved. Assyriology may underestimate how much material is lost; surviving tablets are only a tiny sample of what once existed, and archaeological context skews interpretation. The Behistun trilingual inscription was essential to deciphering cuneiform, with Old Persian acting like a Rosetta Stone that unlocked Babylonian and Elamite. Translation is never exact; verbs like modal forms (could/might/should) often require inferential reading rather than direct grammatical mapping. The flood narrative is best understood as a Mesopotamian literary and cultural tradition rooted in local flood experience, not as evidence for a worldwide flood or a single global catastrophe. The Royal Game of Ur was reconstructed by combining archaeology, a late-period rules tablet, and game logic, showing that ancient games spread widely without written instruction. The British Museum should be understood as a long-term civilization archive, not just an art museum, preserving material for future interpretation and comparison.

Data Points: Earliest evidence for writing: around 3500 BC - Finkel dates the oldest evidence for writing to the middle of the fourth millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. Duration of cuneiform use: well over 3,000 years, probably closer to 4,000 - He emphasizes the extraordinary longevity of the cuneiform system. British Museum cuneiform holdings: about 130,000 tablets - Finkel notes the museum’s large cuneiform collection. Behistun inscription languages: 3 languages - Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian were carved together on the Behistun inscription. Ark tablet date: 1700 BC - The flood tablet he decoded dates to roughly 1700 BCE. Ark replica scale: one-third the size - He describes building a one-third-scale replica of the boat from the tablet’s instructions. Royal Game of Ur board date: about 2600 BC - He places the earliest known Ur boards in the royal graves at Ur around 2600 BCE. Rules tablet date: late second century BC - A late tablet in the British Museum contained names of pieces and rule clues for the game. Scribal school learning time: about 4–5 years - Finkel says becoming competent in cuneiform takes roughly five years. Flood narrative tablet size: about 8 inches by 3 inches - He describes the Ark/Atrahasis tablet’s physical size.

Pivotal Quotes: "the essence of writing: that there's an agreed system of symbols that A can use and B can then play back" — Irving Finkel: His definition of writing during the discussion of how script first emerged. "it is theoretically possible to infer the Niagara Falls from a rain" — Irving Finkel: He uses Sherlock Holmes as an analogy for how scholars infer large historical systems from fragmentary evidence. "the limits of our language means the limits of our world" — Ludwig Wittgenstein: Closing epigraph read by the host to summarize the episode’s theme.

Implications: The episode shows how ancient scripts still shape how history is reconstructed: through fragmentary evidence, careful translation, and skepticism about received narratives. It also argues for museums, philology, and long-term preservation as essential to understanding civilization.