Deciphering Secrets of Ancient Civilizations, Noah's Ark, and Flood Myths ¦ Lex Fridman Podcast #487

*OUTLINE:*
0:00 - Introduction
0:58 - Origins of human language
7:04 - Cuneiform
14:17 - Controversial theory about Göbekli Tepe
25:29 - How to write and speak Cuneiform
30:48 - Primitive human language
32:31 - Development of writing systems
33:25 - Decipherment of Cuneiform
45:57 - Limits of language
50:56 - Art of translation
56:06 - Gods
1:01:31 - Ghosts
1:11:19 - Ancient flood stories
1:21:26 - Noah's Ark
1:32:49 - The Royal Game of Ur
1:45:48 - British Museum
1:53:13 - Evolution of human civilization
Irving Finkel is a scholar of ancient languages and a longtime curator at the British Museum, renowned for his expertise in Mesopotamian history and cuneiform writing. 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.
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