Irving Finkel on Cuneiform, Flood Myths and Ancient Life
The origins and survival of writing
From pictures to recorded language
Irving Finkel describes the oldest known evidence for writing as dating to around 3500 BC in Mesopotamia, while stressing that this does not tell us when writing first began. Early signs represented objects and numbers; later, signs could also represent sounds, allowing scribes to record words, grammar and literature. Cuneiform developed into a flexible system that could be used to write Sumerian, Babylonian and other languages by sound.
Finkel questions the usual account that pictographic writing necessarily came first. He suggests that pictures may have served communication between people who spoke different languages, before Mesopotamians adapted them to record spoken language. He also argues that early standard lists of signs and words helped control their growth and made the system teachable and durable.
Older evidence and the limits of the archaeological record
Finkel proposes that a carved stone seal from Göbekli Tepe, which he dates to about 9000 BC, may be evidence of writing or a system of signs used to authenticate something. He presents this as a controversial interpretation, not an established finding. More broadly, he cautions that surviving tablets and seals are only fragments of past written life: materials that did not survive, and records not yet excavated, may leave the evidence we have badly skewed.
He applies this caution to the tablets found at Nineveh. The remains of the library associated with Ashurbanipal, he argues, may not represent the whole collection: the Babylonians who conquered Assyria could have carried away much of its knowledge, leaving broken pieces and duplicates behind.
“we don't have to decipher anymore. We can read Akkadian or Babylonian and Sumerian pretty well fluently.” — Irving Finkel
Reading and interpreting cuneiform
How the script was deciphered and learned
Finkel explains that cuneiform generally records syllables, with signs that can have several sound values and meanings. Reading requires learning those values and using context; the signs also run together without spaces between words. Babylonian is a Semitic language related to languages including Hebrew and Arabic, while Sumerian is not known to belong to another language family.
He recounts how the trilingual inscription of Darius at Behistun helped scholars decipher cuneiform: the Old Persian text could be read, and repeated passages and names provided a way into Babylonian and Elamite. Finkel disputes Henry Rawlinson’s reputation as the principal decipherer and credits Edward Hinks with important insight into how signs could carry multiple values. Finkel also tells how he came to study cuneiform at university after initially intending to study Egyptology.
Scribes, language and translation
Finkel says that literacy was concentrated among scribes, who held roles in administration, temples, law, medicine, scholarship and other fields. He describes a range of training and work, from practical writing to learned disciplines such as astronomy and grammar. He argues that Babylonian had rich expressive resources, and that translators should not assume a direct one-to-one match between an ancient word and its English equivalent.
Discussing omen and medical texts, he suggests that translations using categorical “will” may miss shades of possibility or uncertainty in the original. He describes translation as interpretation shaped by context, genre and damaged or technical text, and points to the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary as a major collaborative resource.
Literature, religion and stories
Everyday writing and the gods
Finkel gives examples of ancient writing beyond administration, including love letters and a comic dramatic scene involving the gods Marduk and Sarpanitum. He describes Mesopotamian religion as a pantheon with major and local gods, temples and family associations. People could make offerings to gods they regarded as powerful but unpredictable; he says that gods and ghosts were generally taken for granted rather than treated as matters of doubt.
He contrasts this with his view that monotheistic religions can encourage claims that one religion is right and others wrong. The conversation also considers religious belief as a human response to suffering, death and need.
Gilgamesh and oral storytelling
Finkel describes the Epic of Gilgamesh as a long work assembled from earlier stories, first told orally and later written in Sumerian or Babylonian. Its repeated phrases introducing speakers may preserve traces of oral performance. He connects storytelling to people gathering after dark, and to the imaginative traditions behind stories about heroes, gods and events. He also discusses how stories can carry lessons, intentionally or otherwise.
Mesopotamian flood narratives
Finkel recounts identifying a tablet containing an early flood narrative about Atrahasis. In the story, the gods decide to destroy people, and a god warns Atrahasis to build a large round boat, a coracle, to preserve life. Finkel compares this account with the flood story in Gilgamesh and the biblical story of Noah, and argues that the later texts are linked to Mesopotamian traditions. He suggests that a severe regional flood may lie behind the tradition, while rejecting a global flood explanation.
He discusses the possibility that Judeans in exile in Babylonia adapted Babylonian ideas for their own purposes. He also explains how he and a team built a one-third-scale coracle using the tablet’s instructions, and discusses what the experiment suggested about the boat’s construction. In his reading, the story’s account of noisy people reflects population pressure, and the ending’s measures to limit reproduction gives the narrative a further social dimension.
Games and museums
The Royal Game of Ur
Finkel describes the Royal Game of Ur, known from boards, dice and pieces found at Ur and elsewhere across the Middle East and surrounding regions. He reconstructs it as a race game combining chance and strategy, using a later Babylonian tablet that records information about the pieces and throws. He says the game has been revived and is played today, and recounts how it prompted competitive reactions when he taught people the rules.
He also discusses games as a way to pass time and channel rivalry, as well as evidence for gambling and different social settings in which games were played.
The British Museum and what survives
Finkel presents the British Museum as an institution concerned with the story of humanity through objects, across cultures and for future generations. He argues that storing objects for later study matters because their meaning can change with historical distance, and that a collection can support interpretations beyond what is currently on display.
Modern life, language and humour
Ancient people and contemporary technology
Finkel argues that ancient people were not fundamentally different from people today, while acknowledging that they lacked some modern scientific knowledge. He criticizes reliance on electronic devices as potentially restrictive and worries that short clips and limited reading may weaken people’s ability to use language precisely. He emphasizes the breadth of English vocabulary and the role of reading in developing it, while the conversation considers how language shapes thought and what survives the passage of time.
Jokes and closing conversation
Near the close, Finkel recalls an ancient joke involving a fly or mosquito on an elephant and talks with Lex about the songs and wit of Tom Lehrer. They finish by reflecting on the lasting relevance of humour and human concerns, and Finkel invites Lex to visit him at the museum.