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

Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and expert in ancient languages, explains how cuneiform writing works and how scholars decipher it. They cover the origins of human language, the art of translation, and gods and ghosts in Mesopotamian texts. It's a wide-ranging talk that also gets into flood stories predating the biblical account, the Royal Game of Ur, and the evolution of human civilization.