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

Quick Overview

Irving Finkel asserts that the development of cuneiform writing, which originated around 3500 BC in Mesopotamia, represents one of humanity's greatest intellectual achievements, evolving from simple pictographs to a complex syllabic system that lasted over three millennia, although he controversially believes earlier writing existed, possibly as early as 9000 BC at Göbekli Tepe.

Key Points: The oldest evidence of writing, characterized by simple pictographic messages where signs represented objects, dates to around 3500 BC among people between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The crucial step in writing development was realizing that pictures could represent sounds (phonetics), liberating the system from pictography to record actual language, grammar, and literature. Cuneiform, meaning wedge-shaped, was a complex, flexible writing system that lasted over three millennia, requiring scribes to learn both Sumerian (an isolate language) and Akkadian/Babylonian (a Semitic tongue). Finkel controversially suggests that writing likely existed long before 3500 BC, citing a stamp seal with hieroglyphic signs found at Göbekli Tepe, dated around 9000 BC, implying earlier trade communication necessitated writing. The decipherment of cuneiform was unlocked by the Behistun Inscription, a tri-lingual text featuring Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian, allowing scholars to use the known Old Persian to crack the Semitic Babylonian script. Finkel argues that modern translations often incorrectly use 'will die' or 'will get better' in omen and medical texts, whereas the subtle grammatical structure implies modal verbs like 'could die' or 'should get better,' reflecting philosophical nuance. The scribal class jealously guarded literacy, reserving it for elite professions like law, astronomy, and administration, which heavily contributed to the system's longevity due to inertia and institutional control.

Context: The conversation is an interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast between Lex and Irving Finkel, a distinguished scholar of ancient languages and curator at the British Museum for over 45 years, specializing in cuneiform, Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian culture. The discussion centers on the origins, evolution, and decipherment of cuneiform script, which encapsulates vast amounts of knowledge from ancient Mesopotamia, contrasting the known archaeological record with Finkel's controversial hypotheses about older writing systems.